-Crystal Bank- still bank c. 1910 - 1925

Here's this -Crystal Bank- still bank, by the Arcade Manufacturing Company. It's diminutive, the size of a clenched fist! I’m thinking about the labor, the repetitive industrial labor it took to produce these functional objects. It's made of glass and metal, but the metal is what gets me—the tarnished, golden-brown patina that time has painted onto its surface. It has its own distinct language, you know? It whispers stories of touch, of countless coins dropped in. That metal framework, like a gilded birdcage, suggests something precious held within. And maybe it is! Not just money, but hope, aspiration, a future built one penny at a time. I imagine someone, a child maybe, clutching this little bank, feeling its weight, its promise. Thinking of a kid saving up for candy...or maybe for something bigger. Who knows? It’s kind of beautiful that objects like this hold so much unspoken narrative.