Our last visit while in Ohio was to the Warther Museum. It is an amazing place and I recommend a visit if you are in the area. It showcases the talents of the late Mooney Warther, an amazing craftsman who, though he only had a 2nd grade education, reproduced steam engine trains in such detail and beauty that train engineers cannot find a flaw and the Smithsonian has declared them priceless. He didn't sell his train carvings, but made a living by making knives. We have a set and love them, Curt's mom has had a set since her wedding and loves them too. They are the best.
On the grounds they have some trains, which we had some fun with.
Throughout his life, Mooney had a great admiration for Abraham Lincoln. Here he reproduced the presidential funeral train. The following picture shows a detail, Lincoln in his coffin inside.
Another trademark of Warther's was his pliers he carved out of a single piece of wood.
See that piece of wood in the lower left corner of the previous picture, well after over 30,000 cuts that one piece of wood turned into this "pliers tree". Absolutely unbelievable.
These carvings are out of ivory and various hardwoods, a lot of that being ebony. What you can't see in these pictures is that the parts actually move!
I have many many more pictures from this experience that I'm going to have to send my Dad, while going through the museum I just knew how much he would love it and wished he could see it too.
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1 comment:
wow! That's really interesting!
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