-Skyscraper- still bank 1910

This little “Skyscraper-still bank” was manufactured by the A.C. Williams Company. It's a tiny monument to capitalism, literally a place to store your earnings, built like a building. I love the idea of a bank in the shape of a skyscraper. I imagine the creators thinking about how to visualize economic aspirations, how they could turn dreams of wealth into something you could hold in your hand. And they made this scaled-down model, this miniature world of finance, so enticing. Look closely at the surface. The silver paint is worn away in places revealing the material underneath. Each window is a little square of possibility. The gold top suggests that this structure, like the real thing, stands for something valuable and aspirational. Someone decided to take an architectural form and reimagine it as a tool. This feels related to the approach of sculptors like Tony Smith, who transformed ordinary objects into monumental forms, inviting viewers to think differently about the objects that surround us. It makes you wonder what kind of structures we might build to house our values today.