several historically important and museum-quality artifacts acquired in a single day

i've been aggressively acquiring architectural artifacts and industrial furniture for most of march, while i patiently await to begin work on two important salvages beginning this spring. i was fortunate and pleasantly surprised that a decent number of important artifacts essentially fell into my lap the other saturday, making for exciting and fruitful assemblage that merited its own post.

featured artifacts culled from the daily listings populating the website are included in the weekly newsletter, but i've decided to devote special attention to the following historically important and museum quality artifacts bundled together in this post.

six remarkable objects were obtained last saturday, beginning with a rare unearthed chicago wolf point miller pontiled bottle and ending late at night in the lobby of our hotel were i managed to secure an extraordinary 19th century locksmith storefront trade sign.

between these purchases, i managed to acquire three "sullivanesque" exterior slip glaze terra cotta exterior school building facade panels designed by george grant elmslie and executed by modeler fritz albert, who worked for the midland terra cotta company, chicago, il.

the final piece that was purchased along with the terra cotta was a finely executed copper-plated cast iron elevator frieze panel salvaged from the chicago stock exchange building before it was demolished in 1972. the intricately designed c. 1894 fragment was designed by notable chicago architect louis h. sullivan of the firm adler and sullivan. the single-sided panel was fabricated by the winslow brothers foundry, chicago, il., who went on to fabricate nearly all of sullivan's ornamental ironwork.

it might sound a little surprising to some, but the dreaded "reference only" status will only be applied to the mid-19th century wolf point bottle. the other artifacts are available for sale on the urban remains website.