-Bank of Commerce- safe still bank c. 1904

This "Bank of Commerce" safe still bank was made by Kenton Hardware Manufacturing Co. sometime between 1890 and 1950. It's a small object, but densely packed with information. Look at its silver color and the way it seems worn in places, with a matte finish. It gives it a ghostly quality, like a memory or an old photograph, and this feels important, because aren't banks supposed to be about the future? I'm thinking about how the making of this piece was really a process, a kind of experiment, and how the tool marks, like the way the edges are cast, create a texture which tell the story of its making. There's a figure on the front who appears to be turning the mechanism to open the safe and who is seated above an anchor. Perhaps that's a reference to security, or wealth? It's almost like the anchor is holding the whole piece down, or suggesting it is a kind of symbolic tomb. There's an early 20th century feeling here, and it brings to mind the work of Joseph Cornell, who also made these surreal sculptural objects.