OK

[jwgh]

Clearly my last poll was a little controversial. So let's try this again. These things:





[Poll #1024913]

(You can click on the pictures to see larger versions, although the level of detail still isn't that great -- sorry.)

Comments

[jwgh]

Incidentally, this whole thing reminds me of the Ellen Raskin book Figgs & Phantoms.

[doctroid.livejournal.com]

What I've heard, repeatedly, is that the pineapple was a symbol of welcome in colonial and early Federal America (and maybe elsewhere). I have not until this day heard of anyone claiming this is wrong and that the symbol was a pine cone.

However, on the question of what those things are supposed to be in your two particular photos, I will take a position of agnosticism. If forced to the wall I'd guess they're both pineapples (especially the second), but who knows? Maybe the arch designer really really liked pine cones.

[saucypunk.livejournal.com]

when I first moved to Providence, I was told the one on Federal Hill was a pineapple, but I've always maintained it looks a lot more like a pinecone.

[stumpsforhands.livejournal.com]

Speaking for myself, I'm not claiming that a pineapple was or is not a symbol of welcome in colonial America or otherwise. What I am claiming is that a pine cone is an Italian symbol of prosperity, and that it is the pigna that adorns that arch, which greets those who enter Providence's little-Italy neighborhood, Federal Hill.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I think it's tricky because pigna (pinecone in Italian) and piña (pineapple in Spanish) are pronounced the same way. But the thing in the arch does not resemble a pineapple because a pineapple has a rounded bottom, not a pointy bottom.

Who's to say

[notr.livejournal.com]

they didn't chop the leaves off the top, leave the ones on the bottom, and hang it upside-down like any normal fruit that grows down from the stem?

I have to confess I don't recognize this as even a vaguely familiar motif, and I never heard of that preposterous pineapple cupola before.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

A pineapple does not have a pointy top, either.

[plorkwort.livejournal.com]

I was very pleased when I finally found a copy at a used book store about a year ago, but I was disappointed to find that rereading it didn't have the same peculiar effect as it had the first time.