Industrial style bookends shoe shape

When I saw these two metal pieces (cast iron it seems to me), heavy, raw, a little rusty, I fell in love with it! I did not yet know what I would do with them, what would be their future usefulness, but I needed them! They look like abstract sculptures! In reality, these are forms once used by shoemakers to make shoes, form leather, a testimony of a forgotten craft trade, but which returns to the front of the stage thanks to the attraction of handmade, "made in france" and especially the search for meaning in professional activity. Very quickly the idea of exposing them to sight was imposed! And given their weight and very good stability, offering them for use as bookends was the ideal way to highlight them! But we can also imagine them as a paperweight on a desk, or as an object of art that questions in a showcase. And they have another advantage, which is that you can put them in several different ways, and each time you have a different "impression". I brushed them to remove the dirt accumulated over the past 80 or 100 years, then I switched to anti-rust (rustol) which stops the corrosion process while keeping the industrial appearance, and finally colorless varnish. These forms therefore have a certain patina, and the spots and marks of their age and use. They measure 15 cm high, 14 cm wide, 18 cm deep. Each weighs about 2.4 kg.

Ref. : EJYZAJ3P