Decorative architectural element shaped like an acanthus leaf

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

Decorative architectural element shaped like an acanthus leaf from a building in Charleston, South Carolina erected in 1751. The base of the element is a wooden rectangle, with a mounting post at the bottom, constructed from four pieces of wood and held together with nails. The mounting post is trapezoidal in shape and extends from the bottom of the base. It has a hole through its center. The Old Slave Mart Museum catalog number, [R363], is handwritten upside down in black ink over a small rectangular patch of white painted at the top right corner of the base. The body of the element is carved from a single piece of wood. Its decorative surface is a layer of plaster covered in neutrals tones and grays washes. The leaf has a thick bifurcated stem at the base that converges into a narrower single stem at the middle.

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