SOLD Shut Open Open, Curious and Beautiful 19th Century Lead Weighted Sign barrel and much of the tail

and much of the tail is lost

In original baby blue and cream paint

with the fantastically sculptural hair perhaps suggesting the latter

and wood panel back

This one I found in New Hampshire (almost into Vermont)

SOLD Shut Open Open, Curious and Beautiful 19th Century Lead Weighted Sign barrel and much of the tailA bit of a mystery, at least to me, but to my eye a wonderful and evocative one and the inked lettering spelling out Shut Open Open just makes me swoon. At first look it seemed perhaps to be a shop sign, indicating open or closed hours, but with a heavy lead weight covering almost the entirety of the back, and an eye hook at top, it must have pulled up or down, perhaps functioning as a gate or door weight, with the shut not referring to closed hours