Carved item picked up at estate sale - 1 of 2

No idea what this was, but it's fabulous. Looks like it was a fancy top to an open doorway? My son was coming back from Sturbridge today and stopped at an estate sale. There were multiple pieces, but they were being sold individually and he got the last two or he'd have bought them all. This is 6' long and 17" at the widest point. Poppies are carved and painted. The face is carved and painted. The background is, I think, called chip carved? We can't decide if she's supposed to be Native American or Egyptian revival. The top and bottom of the piece are also chip carved as if they were meant to be seen. Any information gladly accepted. He got this and the second piece for $30. This is going up in his living room.

 

Nice Bev, I wonder if it was some type of cornice board?

 

It's just funny that both the top and bottom are finished. They are certainly lovely.

 

My son thinks there was a stone or something inset in her headband because there's a depression.

 

One side of a "canopy" bed?

 

ya, i like bed frame too...

 

This looks like pyrography.
I'd date it to the early 1900s.

Did your son say the other pieces would have fit together to form a unit?
Like for a booth set up maybe?

 

He didn't see the other pieces - they were already sold. I can't believe the person running the sale didn't put them all together. Isn't 7' wide a bit much for a headboard? Plus, there are areas on each end that look like they were covered by something. Side pieces to a canopy might be it, but then why is the bottom finished???

 

A pelmet perhaps? High Art Nouveau anyhow.

 

This looks like it framed something, possibly windows as owned said. but they would only be about 2' wide.



I'm thinking more for a photo booth, ticket booth, carnie booth, church fair, parade float.

 

Whatever it is, it's gorgeous! I love poppies.

 

Since one of the symbolic meanings of Poppies is rest/rejuvenation, I stick to my canopy bed theory.

Ditto.
Well not so much the blooms themselves, but what you can extract from them.................breakfast, lunch & dinner..............

 

i agree with the poppies. Stylistically like the drawings in the original Wizard of Oz books which would be the right timeframe, so possibly it's Dorothy, but i rather think Princess Ozma, who wasn't in the first few of Baum's series.

 

Bev, that is glorious. I am sure you will find a good place for it!

 

Very pretty...my first thought was window valance...BWDIK !

 

Very nice out of the suggestions I go for window valance or part of a parade float,

Red poppy are known has corn poppy and was seen has a bountiful harvest of corn when they appeared


The Greeks have a legend that explains how the poppy came to be called the Corn Poppy. The poppy was created by the god of sleep, Somnus. You see Ceres, the goddess of grain, was having a hard time falling asleep. She was exhausted from searching for her lost daughter; still she couldn't fall asleep and had no energy to help the corn grow. Somnus cooked up a concoction and got her to take it, soon she was sleeping like a baby. Rested and relaxed Ceres could then turn her attention to the corn which began to grow. Ever since that time the people believed that poppies growing around cornfields ensure a bountiful harvest. And so was born the Corn Rose, or as we call it today the Corn Poppy

https://www.google.co.uk/url?
sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://botanical.com/site/column_rita/flanders.html&ved=0ahUKEwjC7PXF1oHQAhVlD8AKHVM4BhEQFgh6MAg&usg=AFQjCNHf-awZfnmDBX57l319ZYg5osRZQQ&sig2=NhHXdtOKJmii5i4RX2a1wg

Do you live in a area for growing corn ,if so maybe the festival float fits in with a harvest festival,

And the women could represent spring or the Greek goddess mentioned in the link ,

 

Thank you for that informative link. My father was a WWII vet, and on Memorial Day would purchase the paper poppies, which I do now, in his memory. Now I know where the custom came from. Thank you.