| The carving in this bottle shows off a talented artist. A cross forms the central supports. Attached to the cross is a chip-carved heart, and an anchor with three links of whimsey chair leans against the heart. On he heart are two beautifully carved birds. The bird is the Holy Spirit and stands for Faith; the anchor stands for Hope, and the heart signifies Charity. These symbols are favorites in Christian art.
The stopper is a whittled ball-in-cage, also in the chip-carved style often called "tramp art."
The maker of this bottle made at least two other Faith-Hope-Charity bottles (one of which is on this website), and I believe he made the two bottles with the gold figures of Jesus on the cross because of the similarity of the carved birds. Click on the birds below to see these bottles; the nearly identical crucifix bottle does not have a bird.
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