Featured Is This Antique Unsigned Marble Bust A Grave Marker Or A Regular Decorative Art Work?

Many years ago I won this on Goodwill's auction site. I had always thought it was some unsigned marble bust that some unknown artist never bothered signing. I always wondered why an artist would not bother to sign their art work? Then last summer I was visiting a historical Long Island cemetery to put on Youtube and I saw a marble bust in a similar style on top of one of the older graves from the 1800's.

I was always curious why the lady had such a sad expression with her hand leaning up on her forehead, making her look like she was upset or crying about something.

I bought it because I always wanted a large antique marble bust and couldn't afford one because some of them could be very expensive. I won this one for $20. It weighs at least 50-70 pounds. When I won it on Goodwill they had to ship it to me. Shipping was much cheaper back then and it only cost me $58 to have it shipped to my house all the way from the West Coast. I can only imagine how expensive shipping something like this would be now.

Does anyone know if this is a grave marker or some kind of cemetery art?

It would be just my luck that I would be stupid enough to buy an antique grave marker or part of a tombstone thinking it was a regular artwork.

If it is, I will be creeped out because it has been sitting on the ledge of my fireplace for all these years, lol. Jokingly, I already told my family I want it on my grave when I kick the bucket, lol. I think I bought my own grave marker ahead of time unknowingly.

 

u may be on to something............

 

Oh noooooo! Lol. I guess I should change my user name to GraveYardLady now . It figures I would buy a friggin' tombstone thinking it was antique home decor, lol.

 

it's beautiful, though....

 

Thanks. I wonder how Goodwill got a headstone? Someone probably robbed a grave and donated it to them, lol.

 

maybe , never used in the 1st place.......

 

The rock next to it is very nice

 

Oh my gosh, I thought it was Marilyn Monroe.

 

Yes, she is a Victorian grave lady...white marble...likely made by one of the many wonderful Italian carvers who came here years ago for that industry. I'd put a little bottle of Advil or Bayer aspirin beside her - call her the "headache lady" if you wish. Lovely.

 

In my experience, carrara marbles that have been exposed to the elements (rain) for any length of time show degradation on top surfaces. How is this one?

 

DOESN'T matter!!!! She's GORGEOUS!!!! GOOD EYE!!!!

 

It's beautifully done -- even if for a grave, you selected something beautiful that you like. So keep enjoying!

 

Looks never used, +she's a beauty! Thanks for showing us!

 

This brings back memories of how my father always impugned a sculpture my mother bought as looking like it came off a grave. He was not completely wrong. A small child holding a rather limp looking bird to her is an appropriate image for a child's grave.



This fifth century BC stele was on the grave of a little girl:



However, by pure chance, learned a few years ago that my mother's, now my, sculpture is a reduced version of Francis Chantrey's life size statue of Lady Louisa Jane Russell, who did not die as a child.

When it was revealed in the television series Boardwalk Empire that the main character had lost a child, the headstone shown for the grave had this image:



Bertel Thorvaldsen's Night, companion piece to his Day, not a funerary image at all.

So, not all art that looks suitable for a grave monument originated for that purpose & there are other reasons for a female figure to look weary or sad. In this case, because I think I see ivy trailing round, I would tell people that this is Ariadne after Theseus abandons her on the island of Naxos & stick to that story until I found a better one. I like her very much too.

 

I really like it!

 

Not entirely sure this is a grave marker. Some of the carving is too delicate to withstand weather for very long. If it was, perhaps it was meant for inside a crypt.

 

nice rock sorry i don't know about it . i have the same style doll that is in the background do you know anything about it ? i posted it here in another post awhile ago .

 

Thanks! That rock caused me a lot of grief a few years ago. It is a giant Apophyllite, Heulandite and Stilbite on chalcedony mineral specimen. They go for $3,000-$6,000 in this size and I won it on ebay for only $60 from a major mineral dealer. The mineral dealer was from a fancy 5th Avenue gem gallery in NYC called Astro Gallery. The dealer failed to put a reserve on it and for some lucky reason I won it for a really cheap price. At that price, I was afraid that they were going to cancel the sale.

Here are some other mineral specimens they sell that are similar in type as the one they sold me (mine weighs 29 pounds)!:

Here are tiny versions of mine they are selling:
https://astrogallery.com/collections/chalcedony

When you read what FedEx did to me below you will now know why I fought FedEx to get my mineral specimen delivered, lol...

I was so excited about receiving it and was afraid something bad would happen to it because it was so valuable. They shipped it out via FedEx and I watched the tracking number like a hawk. Two days after winning it, when I checked the tracking number, it said "Delivered". I was home all day and did not get it. I was really upset and called FedEx and they accused me of lying about not receiving it. They told me they would give my ebay seller the insurance payout for only $60 minus the $25 in shipping that I paid for it. I said "No, I want my rock". They wouldn't admit that they mis-delivered it to someone else and I was hung up on by their rude customer service rep.

The next day, I went to my local FedEx hub and put on my best Karen "I want to see your manager" persona, lol. A manager there did some investigating and found out the FedEx driver mistakenly delivered my rock to a Bridal Shop by accident.

The Bridal shop got my rock instead of $15,000 worth of Vera Wang wedding dresses and was holding it hostage. The owner of the bridal shop refused to give FedEx my package back unless they got their missing wedding gowns and refused to hand it over. God only knows where those dresses ended up. I called the police and FedEx sent a security guard to the bridal shop and the police and the security guard forced them to hand over my package. They told the owner of the bridal shop he would be arrested if he didn't give them my mineral specimen and was ready to haul him away in handcuffs. I found out Fedex was never able to locate his Vera Wang wedding dresses. Fedex sucks!

I got my rock and it sits on my fireplace as a reminder for me to be wary of trusting FedEx, lol.

 

Hi @lloyd249 You have a homemade kit doll that was made to look like an antique German low-brow china head doll. The molds used for these dolls were from the original dolls made in the late 1890's to early 1920's. Sometimes they even had the original impressed marks on the back of the shoulders and these type of dolls confuse people. A lot of people think these are antique originals. Hobbyists used to buy the parts including the head, the body pattern, the arms and legs and paint them and put them together as a craft. It was popular to do this in the 50's-70's. The person who made it, made a pretty organza style dress for it too.

Yours looks like it may have been made in the 1950's-1960's. It's a nicely made doll.