This New England

-- Photo and caption by WILLIAM MORGAN

Masquerading as a garden ornament in Glocester, R.I., this stainless-steel beauty might be mistaken for a futuristic ruffed grouse in the attack mode. Or perhaps a small space ship -- Jules Verne adventurers dropped from the sky.

Closer inspection reveals that this is a 1950s-era milker, the model called The Surge, manufactured by the Babson Brothers Co., of Chicago. And found at the endless antiques-cum-jumble sale at Brimfield, Mass.

A minor advance in the dairy business becomes a handsome object of industrial design, then a cast-off piece of equipment, and then a sculptural found object.

{Robert Whitcomb note: Read Brimfield Rush, by my former colleague Bob Wyss, about the crazy antiques business in that little Bay State hill town.}

 Tags  Babson Brothers Bob Wyss Brimfield Brimfield Rush Mass. The Surge William Morgan

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