When I first saw the tin pieces in the furniture room at the auction house, I thought of the seed pods from the 1956 sci-fi movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” There were two of them, upright, oval in shape, their tops squared off in small sections separated by gashes.
Someone – either a professional or amateur artist – had curved and shaped corrugated tin into a form that resembled oversized flower buds or seed pods. They were about 3 feet tall or so with a hollow interior and tin bottom. The tin had likely been reclaimed from some old building or barn because it was beat-up, mottled and rusted.
What were they? What did the maker have in mind in welding these pieces together? Were they merely decorative or functional?
I wondered if there might be an answer on the web, so I Googled and came across steel and copper seed pods and flower buds in beautiful form and color made by a British sculptor named Peter M Clark. He had displayed these garden sculptures in various outdoor exhibitions. Sculptor Jeff Thomson of New Zealand uses reclaimed corrugated tin in much the same way as the maker of the auction piece but even more creatively (life-size kangaroo, elephant, giraffe, horses).
Even though I could not definitely figure out the pieces at auction, they inspired one auction-goer to leave an absentee bid on them. I understood why. Even though their purpose was elusive, they were a good-looking pair of whatever they were.
Could they have been used as planters, umbrella stands? What do you think they were made for?
