The Spell

The Spell, Illuminated Seahorse Sculpture

“The Spell” is an illuminated sculpture, and can be displayed either lit or unlit (there is a switch to the rear). Mr Seahorse lives inside his little shell. The shell is a 1920’s metal lightshade, which I was a footlight shade to a stage. This stands in an antique brass Victorian lamp base. Inside the shell, stands Mr. Seahorse, and there is a tiny bulb below him that sits on a bakelite base, which was originally the front of a vintage 1930’s light switch. The bulb is battery operated, and be accessed for changing from the underside of the sculpture base. This base is a timeworn upturned wooden box base from circa 1900, and it houses all the electrics. The little front porthole frame is the lid of an antique watchmaker’s glass fronted tin. The words inside are typed on to a vintage card parcel label, via a Corona Special Typewriter from 1910, and read “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever”, which is a wonderful quote by esteemed Oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. The backbone of Mr Seahorse himself is an antique brass drawing compass. His belly is a vintage watch body c. early 1900’s, and his tail consists of an old clock key, and the crown is part of a vintage brooch, now used as a fin. The bottom curl part of his tail is the ring edge of another vintage watch face. His face is part original compass, and part vintage thimble. The nose is a tiny steel case tube, and the end of the nose is an antique pocket watch winder. His eye is a vintage clock spring, with a tiny glass bead to the centre, and a vintage steel pin head as it’s centre. The gill behind the thimble head is the back of a vintage clip on earring. He appears to float in the shell (as any Seahorse should indeed float), as he is secured via two little metal struts to his back, which feed through the shell, and are anchored with vintage brass clock key centres to the rear of the sculpture.