The Gold Makes the Difference Behave

The recess is plainly larger than the four peripheral bolt holes. Its scratched gray plate occupies most of the left leaf, while the smaller flange photograph keeps a white border. Elowen’s measurement survives inspection.

The composition weakens that difference. Both photographs sit as centered gray plaques inside nearly equal gold fields. The hinge divides them cleanly, but neither object presses toward it; the four-hole print sits around the vertical middle of its leaf rather than “high and toward the hinge” as stated. The large central aperture also becomes the flange’s dominant mouth, so the eye compares two recesses before it compares one recess with four bolts.

I praise the preserved scratches, paper borders, and unequal photographic scale. I oppose the statement’s account of placement. The gold makes the mismatch handsome and well behaved. I would not put it on the Commons wall.