Old Wooden Bookends with 1853 Madison Square Hippodrome Engravings diamond pattern a complete set of numbers

a complete set of numbers

clearly somewhere on the water

there may be some pieces missing

that was the end of that

Not for everyone I’m sure

Old Wooden Bookends with 1853 Madison Square Hippodrome Engravings diamond pattern a complete set of numbersFound the other day in New Hampshire, I thing these are interesting, and quite beautiful, too. The scallop shaped bookends feature 1853 engravings (one exterior one interior) of the Hippodrome on Madison Square (known as Franconi's Hippodrome), which appear to have been trimmed from the original prints, mounted to wood and varnished over, looking now very much like the surfaces of early lacquered snuff boxes. Franconi's Hippodrome opened May 2, 1853