Still Life--Vintage Horse and Donkeyshoe Artifacts

Black and white still life. Found in mining country around my house, long since abandoned and left to grow back to its natural state. I suspect these were loose shoes from the mules, horses and donkeys used by the mining companies in the 1890s and 1900s to haul downed trees, loads of iron ore, and the beginnings of early digging machinery up and down the Appalachian mountainsides. They were likely just tossed after coming off the hooves of the animals, then years later run-off pushed them down into the valley and hollows... where they could easily by found by me. I have two more of these, both "pony-sized", but those are being used as bird-feeder decorations. The surface they're sitting on is a vintage sewing machine table re-purposed into an end table for storing books and art supplies and, once, an aquarium.