Mockingbird Hill Cottage

This Victorian framed print is now mine as the result of a winning auction bid. As always, there is a little story behind the find. When I was a little girl, my grandmother had a old print very much like this one. It hung over the bed I slept in when I visited. It showed children on the edge of a cliff and a Guardian Angel kept them from harm. I loved it and spent many hours looking at it when I was a kid. I’ve looked for one like it off and on for years. There are many different Guardian Angel prints and there are companies that carry reprints of them, but for some reason I never ordered one – perhaps I was looking for an original, I don’t know.

So we now come to the other night where we were previewing items in the auction and, lo and behold, there it was. Now, I am not absolutely sure this is the exact same scene, but if it isn’t, it is awfully close. I was determined to bid on it. This was a long auction on a sweltering, humid night – I was there with my co-workers at the shop. Wouldn’t you know it, at the exact time I left the building to get something from the car, it came up for auction. Luckily, my friend bid for me and it is now at home on my wall. I also got two small tables – a bedside table for the guest room, and a turquoise painted table for the den.

This framed print is quite large – larger than it looks in this photo – and I wasn’t entirely crazy about the frame. I also wasn’t sure what my husband would think of it. Interestingly enough, he likes the print, but is crazy about the frame. He persuaded me to hang it at the bottom of our staircase (at midnight!) and it looks fabulous, especially when the light from the skylight hits it. He’s right – the whole thing has a graphic appeal – almost sculptural.

The best thing? I think of my Grandma every time I look at it.