Featured Cast Iron Eagle Head Wall Hanging

Any thoughts?
Thanks

 

For sure 21st C., and likely a Chinese product. I can tell that without asking the size but tell the nice folks here the size anyway.

 

About 13 1/2" long. Chinese you say. Don't they usually have "Taiwan" marks on the back or some came with paper labels?
21th century because ....?

 

Gut feel is all, could have been made somewhere else but most of the cast iron deco junk comes from China. Dating is uncertain too, just my best guess. Same item exactly could have been made 75 years earlier but would not have been made in China. I don't think it would be worth a cent more if it was older, unless it could be tied to a collectible maker.

 

Your eagle could have been inspired by the this Phila Eagles logo which was adopted in 1996. Well maybe and maybe not, but if I wanted to sell it I'd list it online somewhere and call it a Phila Eagles eagle, close enough, and put it under a sports category. No one could prove it isn't related to the football team somehow.

 

I took op's word on "cast iron" but it looks way too thin to be cast iron, more likely is stamped sheet metal.

 

I don't know anything about it, but it does look cast to me.

 

In my opinion, the eagle has nothing to do with Phila Eagles logo.
The metal is indeed thin but can't tell for sure if cast iron or stamped sheet. The surface appears to be gritty, don't know the reason.

 

Sorry, Kard. This time I can't even offer a hint. But thanks for the size. Finished off my first thought - a bottle opener.
I was saved by a nice guy in not having to look up Philly's eagle. That was a long shot second thought. Prototype?
I do think someone slathered paint on it, and mean slathered. It's really flaking off.
You've had a lot of nice stuff here. IMHO, this one isn't worth keeping.
But do have a great 2016.

 

Moreother, on what do you base your conclusion that the item is cast iron?

 

At first I thought it was made in a mold but now not that sure. The curved beak and feathers seems like been worked with tools. So, I don't know. Maybe it is pounded wrought iron.

 

to me, it looks hand made and the jaw cut out using a torch...

 

Looks like we'll have to move on without the benefit of Moreother's metallurgical rationale.

I think it'd be nice to know whether it is cast iron or sheet steel but that determination does not necessarily have any influence on the desirability or value of the item. Both materials and processes have been used since way before an item styled like this would have been made. I'm happy to share why I think it is stamped/pressed sheet steel.

Photos are excellent btw, if they weren't I'd have trouble deciding.

1. Photo of hang-hole shows metal displaced in a malleable way, "squished" around the exit side of the hole. Soft steel can do that; cast iron can't, it cracks or shatters.

2. Metal is quite thin, appears less than 1/16 inch. Sheet steel of this thickness and much thinner is easy to press into the eagle shape with only two dies and a medium-size hydraulic press. Cast iron isn't normally cast as thin as the eagle's surface and if cast, the back side wouldn't usually be such an exact replica of the front, in fact would usually be relatively flat or have only a very general replica of the display side, usually with a very rough surface finish.

3. Fact that back side is an exact mirror replica of the display side and both sides have the same surface finish, more or less, points to being formed between two press-die halves in an hydraulic press.

4. If you measure the thickness of steel in this item with a large micrometer caliper or equivalent, at any point away from the edges where it has been worked, the measurements will be extremely close. With cast iron they'd vary greatly from point to point.

 

Thanks for the lecture.
So, I guess it has to be a commercial product? Otherwise, it won't worth the effort to make a die just for one example. I assume the die has to be a cast iron or so?

 

By the way, while on metal topics what is your opinion on the production process of this
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/brass-bowl.7090/

 

It was turned on a lathe at some point.

 

The texture of the surface doesn't look like stamped metal to me, but that might just be the paint.

 

me neither....

 

Ok, if not stamped nor cast, what it is? The sheet was cut and hammered by hand?