The angels were reclining. Their big plastic bodies were lying on a row of sofas at the auction house as they awaited their fate.
Their bodies were in contorted shapes – their heads tilted too far back, one knee set at an angle, their bodices bent back in a curve that made me wince.
Each of the gold-painted angels or cherubs held a short horn in its hand, and its head was tilted upward ready to blow into it.
These were not tiny angels you’d sit on a table or on the mantle. They were huge: the auction house put their dimensions as height: 23.25″, width: 45″ and depth: 20.5,” which seemed out of whack to me. The angels had ring hooks on their backs so they could be hung from a ceiling. Their legs and arms also could be screwed off or adjusted.
I found them fascinating. I had never seen anything like them at auction before. I was browsing in the room with upscale furniture and other items when I came across them on the sofa, their colors as bright as sun-lit snow. They were so imposing that I – and I’m sure everyone else who saw them – had to stop and take them in.
Angels represent our connection to a higher being and these hanging from a ceiling or wall would likely make us feel even closer.
But how would you use hanging angels in your décor at home? Would they work better in a church? Someone apparently thought they could find a place for them. The quartet sold for $1,200.
A contorted angel waiting to be sold.
