1930s Ford Bulb and Fuse Kit Tin Turned First Aid Box patented and numbers written in pencil

and numbers written in pencil on the back inside cover

solid cast iron with a finish that reads like gold at the top of each tier

and there is a small tear just to the right of the girl's red hair

and bear paw prints along the bottom leading the eye along

the legible one features a poem in the tiniest of handwritten cursive (I had to shoot under magnification to read it) as follows: “Not fawned by winds / Of a summer parterre / When gales are but sighs / Of an evening air / Our delicate

1930s Ford Bulb and Fuse Kit Tin Turned First Aid Box patented and numbers written in pencilI love this tin, which originally housed an emergency bulb and fuse kit, but which someone long ago I assume filled with emergency first aid supplies, painting red crosses on three sides and stringing wire through punched holes in the bottom such that it could be mounted somewhere. To my eye, those fat red crosses against the blue are pretty gorgeous, all the better for the Ford logo right underneath. Necessity is so often the mother of beauty I do