Monday 19 September 2011

Doorstop

67. Victorian cast iron doorstop,
 Woodcutter and his dog.

My father brought this doorstop as a present for our last house where it propped open the sturdy front door so that the children could run in and out to and from the garden.
The doorstop was a good choice of subject matter because we had two copses of trees and cutting wood was a fairly regular occupation. There were a few fine old oak trees, which remained untouched, but quite a number of ash, and these we felled for fuel and also for safety reasons. They had self sown and were too close together, growing tall in their competition for light. I did the roping, to be sure that the tree would fall where intended, and Peter did the cutting.
There is an old saying that wood warms you three times; once in the felling, twice in the stacking and finally when you burn it. Don't I know it!

4 comments:

  1. The sort of object one tends to take for granted, but can mean so much. Very nice; so much better than a rubber wedge, or whatever.

    'What's that?'

    'No idea; it's always been there'.

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  2. I agree with Cro, anyone can use a brick, this piece must be reckoned with. Love the wood cutting saying.

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  3. If you took it onto the Antiques Road Show, you could say you have been using it as a doorstop for years without realising what it truly was!

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  4. I had never heard that saying about wood before, I stacked a big pile on Sunday so am starting to feel the benefit!

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