SOLD Most Tender and Poignant 19th Century Hand-cut Iron July 4 Stencil vintage snapshop Clearly it is an ink

Clearly it is an ink bowl at right

who wrote his name many times all over it--and very much all over this particular page

very much part of the Cedar Tavern circle (de Kooning

which is a bit brittle

SOLD Most Tender and Poignant 19th Century Hand-cut Iron July 4 Stencil vintage snapshop Clearly it is an inkA humble thing but this is truly one of my favorite finds ever. The combination of the very old and weathered iron and the loss lack of a center to the "U" (and absence of a Y, too) and that freehand cut 4 floating above, off on its own, feels exactly right compositionally, symbolically, metaphorically, etc or representing Independence Day. Singularly and tenderly constructed, improvisational feeling but emphatic, eroding but enduring. For me this one