I’ve been incredibly busy with important end-of-summer projects:

• Vacation.
• Recovering from vacation.
• Shoving books into my head as fast as I can.

However, I’m never too busy to look on Craigslist for a new, unwieldy object of desire that I cannot live without.

I’m not even sure what that’s a drawing of.  But I’ll be needing it.

Paul was working in the basement.  I opened the door and yelled  — ARE YOU DOWN THERE?  From directly under the steps he said — no.

I guess he could sense his project had just come to a premature halt.

The photo on Craigslist in no way reflected how badly rusted it was. Or how the paint was terrible. Or how it was kind of broken.  Or how it was utterly awesome.

Paul was not immediately sold on the awesomeness.  However?  That is why he married me… To spare himself the indignity of failing to acquire this.

If you’re interested in the provenance, it’s after the jump.

The urn comes apart into four pieces.  The bottom of the base is stamped on two sides: “Adams and Storrie Makers.” And then below that, “Phila.”  Adams and Storrie were Philadelphia iron merchants who made, among other things, Victorian garden urns, benches, garden statuary, and iron cemetery markers.

When I Googled them, the only helpful reference was a blog run by a woman who explores the history of Philadelphia-area cemeteries.  I’ll paraphrase her for my use here, but her site is an interesting place to visit.  She’s done a lot of research on Philadelphia’s past, and she has amazing photos of antique stone and marble statues.

“William Adams was born in 1833 in New Jersey.  By 1870, he lived in Philadelphia with his second wife.  North Philadelphia was considered a fashionable address for those with “new money” earned from manufacturing success.

Adams had originally partnered with a man named Storrie in the 1880’s-1890’s to start the Adams and Storrie Iron Foundry. He later separated from Storrie and incorporated the William Adams Foundry Company in 1903.”  -Source