1912 · Vanadium Steel Bone Plates · Work 1043 of 1,871
The instrument room of a hospital in Pittsburgh on a hazy summer morning, through a tall window the orange haze and chimneys of steel works, on a white enamelled iron table a small open case twenty-five centimetres long in black grained leather, lined with violet velvet, plain from edge to edge, in it nine narrow steel bone plates, tarnished dark with a bluish sheen, each with a waisted outline and two to eight round holes, beside them cream ivory plates, two smooth straps and three set with rows of short ivory pins, a brass clip, a screwdriver, a glass-fronted instrument cabinet behind, two hands in white cotton gloves lifting one steel plate.