I had seen the alligator bookends on the auction-house website the day before. But by the time I arrived for the sale the next day, they had slipped my mind.
Until I was making my way through the furniture room, rounded a corner and saw the two of them reclining on a white brocade camelback sofa. Their heads were enormous, their tongues were thick and pink, and their bite appeared fearsome. I didn’t recall them looking so big on the auction website.
They were not animals prepared by a taxidermist; they looked to be more plaster than real flesh and appeared to be specially made. If they were used as bookends, the books would have to be gigantic, because these bookends were no wimps.
Googling, I found a number of alligator bookends, but they were less intimidating. Those were gentle types – most gold and silver-plated – that could gracefully stabilize books on a tabletop.
But not these. Would you like to have them on your bookcase?
