'Medical Donation- still bank c. 1925

This ‘Medical Donation-still bank’ of unknown date, by an anonymous artist, is made of metal. The object’s form immediately strikes us with its octagonal structure, mimicking a medicine bottle, yet rendered in the rigid, industrial material of metal. The verticality of the piece, emphasized by its two-tone color scheme, is bisected by a paper label. The cool green at the top contrasts with the warm brown below. This formal division highlights the text, urging donations for those 'Sick and Suffering in Heathen Lands'. Here, the formal and the ideological intersect. The bank's design plays on the semiotics of illness and cure, using its shape and the label to evoke empathy and prompt charitable giving. The materiality of the metal bank, usually associated with industry and commerce, is here repurposed for humanitarian ends, creating a tension between the material world and moral imperatives. It functions not just as a container for coins but as a potent symbol of social responsibility, prompting ongoing interpretation of its form and function within cultural discourse.