Tipp City Finds 2

The Iron Dog Salvage & Antiques in Tipp City, Ohio, has awesome stuff! Rough wood and factory iron in all shapes and sizes are displayed for sale. I found a mythic eagle that I could not pass up!

Bronze Eagle from Lane & Bodley Sawmill

The moment I saw the eagle, I knew what it was, even though I had never seen another 3-D one. I had seen a 2-D one: in an old-time illustration. People who know me know that I love reading about and studying the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, especially with reference to America’s agricultural heritage. Well, the eagle appeared in illustrations advertising sawmills sold by Lane & Bodley of Cincinnati, Ohio, shortly after the Civil War. The bronze birds came to roost as ornaments atop the saws.

Cut Showing Bronze Eagle Atop Lane & Bodley Sawmill

My guess is that Lane & Bodley did not pour the cast eagles but obtained them from the famous Miles Greenwood Foundry just up the street in Cincinnati. After all, the Greenwood plant had a giant eagle casting on the roof! In the mid-1800s, American bronze casting was in its infancy, particularly for purposes of ornamenting objects such as sawmills. The 1870s witnessed a burgeoning number of bronze objects cast in sand.

Detail of Eagle in Cut (Above)

The Lane & Bodley eagle appears to have been cast in coarse sand and was made in two sections bolted together. In recent times, someone has replaced the original bolts and has brazed over the ends that protrude through the back of the bird; otherwise, the eagle is original and in great condition for its age.

As the national bird, the eagle lends a patriotic look to Lane & Bodley sawmills. I like the way the artist captured the eagle in a natural pose that suggests alighting shortly after flight just before the wings fold. The bird’s stance could also imitate that of an adult eagle feeding hatchlings, even as sawmills feed sawyers’ families. Whatever the artist had in mind, the Lane & Bodley eagle does not conform to the symbolic configurations of many bronze eagles made in the century and a half since it was poured.   

Coffee Shops 6 (Last Installment in This Series)

Heather’s Coffee and Café in Springboro, Ohio, serves a great latte. Owner Heather Sukola’s motto is “where friends become family.” Without exception, staff members have welcomed me with genuine smiles every time I have walked through the door. Heather’s slogan sets a high standard, and her shop lives up to it.

Latte to Go at Heather's Coffee and Café

In Springboro, Ohio

In Springboro’s historic district, the house features lovely woodwork, warm patinas, and homey feelings. Each room has exactly the right number of tables. The café is not only a hangout for morning coffee but also a destination for light lunch. In the evening, Heather’s is transformed into a party place. Throughout the year, Heather’s hosts live music and offers wine and beer. Such celebrations (for celebrations they truly are) are held in the spacious backyard patio with its tents and umbrellas. The café sponsors numerous other events, as well.

Heather’s Coffee and Café in Springboro’s

Charming Historic District

Recently, I swung by Heather’s to order a latte. Parking was not a problem on the quiet street. Sure enough, the moment I walked through the door, two baristas greeted me with friendly smiles! I was only second in line and soon had my hot coffee in hand. The weather was warm for this time of year, so I chose a table on the patio. Such joy to sip a delicious latte in the fresh air with cardinals flitting among the branches of a nearby tree! Golden leaves of autumn glowed here and there where a breezy shower the night before had affixed them. Even though I had gone alone on this occasion, I felt I was in the company of others. I could easily imagine the conversations that had flowed between friends who had sat where I was sitting earlier that morning and who would arrive there later that day. After all, few pastimes are more fulfilling than getting together for coffee at a pleasant café. I felt snugly content, much as a kitten might feel when lapping a splash of cream from a saucer. Gradually, the idea stole over me that I could be sitting within a Christmas card scene with the bright red birds, the light green shrubbery, the shiny black tables, and the bright white cream floating atop my cup of coffee.

My camera could not capture all the blissful elements I just mentioned. As the saying goes, “You would have to have been there.” … and I hope you will be, as Heather’s is worth many a visit!

    

Good Morning, Springboro! Crows in a Field of Wheat (Last Installment in This Series)

My original watercolor painting of crows in a field of wheat stubble is an unintended homage to Vincent van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows (1890). As I was standing alongside the road and admiring the rich orange of the mowed stalks of wheat, crows flew in to feast on fallen grain. Two landed and eyed me suspiciously while the others rose and fell like umbrellas in the sky. I was not consciously thinking about Vincent’s work, but, synchronistically, I completed my small composition on the 14th of July, only a few days after Vincent finished his. Naturally, he and I were drawn to paint crows and wheat because most wheat in Europe and the United States since the nineteenth century has been harvested beginning in early July.

Crows in a Field of Wheat

Original Watercolor Painting by Robert T. Rhode

I have written extensively about threshing wheat. In my book entitled The Harvest Story: Recollections of Old-Time Threshermen (Purdue University Press, 2001), I describe “shocks of bronze-colored wheat stretching across the golden fields of summer.” I explain that, by the late 1800s, wheat threshing had assumed a position of towering importance in many areas of the United States. Eventually, wheat was crowned king of cash crops throughout much of North America. Wheat made Kansas and neighboring states the world’s breadbasket. In the time of my grandfather and father in Indiana, farmers formed threshing rings to go from farm to farm helping one another with machines to separate the grains of wheat from the stalks on which the grains had grown. In those days, children thought of “thrashin’” as “Christmas in July”! Families collaborated in the labor of the harvest and sat down to noonday dinners of epic proportions. Most rural folks who experienced wheat threshing considered the event so positive as to be among their favorite memories.

When I exhibited my Case steam engine at the Will County show in Illinois for several years, I had the opportunity to help load bundles, or sheaves, of wheat in the late afternoons. Even though the work was hot and chaff stuck to my neck, I look back on the work as about the most fun I have ever had! The slanting rays of the evening sun made the entire field golden. It felt good to use my pitchfork to lift the bundles high up to where the bundle loader, standing atop the sheaves that we were piling on the wagon, could reach the bundles of those of us who were handing them up; he snagged them with his pitchfork and positioned them where he wanted them. The task of bringing in the sheaves had real meaning, and I thoroughly enjoyed working with my friends amid the wheat stubble.

Probably the crows were having just as much fun this July. They appeared to be happy as they dined on wheat that the present-day combine had missed.        

If you would like to purchase one of the paintings in this series, send me a message through my website at roberttrhode.org or via Facebook. Each work of art measures 5″ by 7″ and consists of Cotman Water Colours by Winsor & Newton on acid-free Montval watercolor paper.