22 February 2012

This post has been cancelled


So to speak.  I originally posted the image above as a contest to guess what it is:
It's certainly a representation of a skull.  For what purpose?  A functional item, or an objet d'art?  If it's art, of what era/style?  Jewelry - from when?  Toy/game - which one?  European, American, Asian, Incan?  Your grade will be based 1/3 on era (century), 1/3 on geography (continent) and 1/3 on use/purpose.

Answer tomorrow, with source credits.
But it turned out to be too easy.  Ponder the photo for a moment to see what you would have guessed, then look beneath the fold for the answer...

The first correct answer arrived within about ten minutes, from ChiMusicGuy:
"Lead postage "cancel" stamp. U.S. (North American), 19th century. On exhibit at the Smithsonian. Way cooler than today's rubber stamps, but also more toxic." 
The Smithsonian correctly describes this as a "fancy cancel" handstamp.  You can see some nice examples at this philatelic retail site (you will also notice that such cancels can render otherwise unremarkable stamps rather pricey).

I had thought that most fancy cancel handstamps were made of cork; this one was apparently crafted of lead.  From the looks of it, it originally was a skull and crossbones, though the latter seem to have been smooshed underneath by repeated use.

An example of a more conventional handstamp is this one, recovered from the sunken USS Oklahoma.

p.s. - I intentionally mislabelled the url of the photo with the words "dungeons dragons figure" in an effort to mislead those who would "cheat" by mousing over the image.  Didn't work. 

11 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. Absolutely correct. Deleted so as not to spoil the fun. Will give credit for correct guess in tomorrow's update.

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  2. Google reverse image search made that way too easy...

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    1. Sigh...

      I had done a TinEye reverse image search with 0 hits, and thought I might pull this off. Hard to do in the computer era.

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    2. Mercyless Google! A nice add-on on my Firefox...

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    3. I've now added it to mine. Thanks, Roger.

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  3. Either a benevolent owl or a malevolent skull.

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  4. interesting how the dried ink residue in the eye sockets make them look iridescent, like they've had a piece of mother-of-pearl or something similar inset. like those ancient human skulls from central and south america with the inlaid shell, turquoise, etc.

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  5. Well, my "Pre-Columbian South American stamp" guess was at least 1/3 right!

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  6. Death penalty seal?

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  7. The respectful contributions of the grateful readers of Poemas del Río Wang to the possible (and alternative) solutions: http://riowang.blogspot.com/2012/02/guess-what-this-is.html

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