Carvings on exterior of victorian era home

[JStone]

Since there is a wealth of architecural knowledge here on the forum, I thought I would ask.

Does anyone know what these symbols mean or where they come from? [[my apologies for the grainy picture)

Thanks

[rb336]

Just a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were pictographic representations of the business the person who built it was involved in

[Parkguy]

In the time from say 1860 to 1910 or so, carved medallions like that were popular and common in buildings, and you could see the same kind of thing printed in books or attached to furniture. They were usually generally allegorical without being too specific: prosperity as a person with a horn of plenty or holding a shock of wheat, a woman pouring water from a vessel symbolizing wisdom or spirituality, etc. They very well may have chosen designs that fit the owner of the house, as rb336 said.

[gazhekwe]

The middle one looks like a G, can't tell about the others. Could it be a monagram?

[downtown_racine]

Picture quality to low to even begin to guess what the symbols represent.

[Jimaz]

Is there an address? Maybe someone could get a better photo through Google Maps or in person.

[n7hn]

that pic is aweful, but If i squint pretty hard Id guess its art nouveau lettering. 1890"s, sorry for the quality of my picture, lol

[JStone]

Thanks for the replies so far. I will try and get a closeup today and post. There are a couple more on the side as well. The carvings above almost look alien. The house is believed to be built in 1876.

[n7hn]

Take a camera other than that "Brownie" you been using.

[JStone]

Finally a high-res pic. Weird huh?

[Jimaz]

Much better! This will be really interesting if someone can find meaning in those symbols.

[n7hn]

YAY, great pic, but now no idea.......

[Jimaz]

I cropped the image and squared it up and entered it into Google Images but it just came back with some unrelated Chinese symbols.

It doesn't look like 1876 or any other year with a "1" as the first digit.

Does the house not have a four-digit address? Could it be the address of the house?

Any Masons reading this thread? LOL!

[jcole]

The first two look vaguely like Hopi or another Pueblo tribe drawings.

[n7hn]

I agree and was just looking at styles of "the America's" cuz has that look to it. Stylized animals and such. Also It may be that some of the relief work is missing and also that there may have been additional painted details on the orig that have been lost over time.

[gazhekwe]

It looks Euro, not New World to me, based on the curly shoe thing and the truncated fleur de lys. Heraldry symbols maybe?

[Parkguy]

The second and third characters look like "r" and "t" so it could be a word. "ORTO" perhaps. That's "garden" in Italian, according to Google. It does look like parts of the design are missing.

[Neilr]

I have a reprinted edition of Palliser's New Cottage Homes [[1887).

It's a pattern book of house plans, line drawings, and numerous pages of details such as this one:

In my quick look through, I did not see your exact details. That type of ornamentation could have been ordered and applied by the builder or fashioned by a local carpenter or craftsman.

[JStone]

Wow! Fascinating stuff guys. I like the ORTO theory the best so far. I agree with Gazhekwe that it's Euro, although the carvings above look sort of native American Indian.

[jcole]

If it were ORTO wouldn't the first and last pictographs be the same? Maybe it's ARTS or ARTO?

[theklep]

Since there is a wealth of architecural knowledge here on the forum, I thought I would ask.

Does anyone know what these symbols mean or where they come from? [[my apologies for the grainy picture)

Thanks

If this is the house on Canfield it's the only one I've seen

[beachboy]

If it were ORTO wouldn't the first and last pictographs be the same? Maybe it's ARTS or ARTO?

Hmmm .. some of the Victorians were into esoterica:

http://www.h-e-r-m-e-s.org/Esotericism.htm

Maybe the fourth symbol that looks like a spiral is an
esoteric symbol? Spiral of life?



If so, then you could have A R T {spiral}

And the ancients liked spirals:



Just a guess...

[Brock7]

Old city directories might provide some clue if you have an address and/or cross streets.