Salvage Score: Perfect Timing

I was headed out to the bank on Saturday with a heavy sack full of a year's worth of spare change to cash in. As I walked down my steps there was a guy walking past my house with a shopping cart full of all sorts of scrap metal he had collected from dumpsters and wherever. Anyway, what really caught my eye was a big (26" x 26") heat register grate with a nice decorative pattern sticking way up out of his shopping cart.
 
I walked over and asked if I could look at it. He didn't speak much English but he indicated was cool with it. Anyway, the thing is solid and heavy and awesome.  I asked him if he would sell it and we haggled a little and then he yelled to his lady friend across the street for approval and she gave him the green light to sell.
 
I plopped my bag of change down on the sidewalk and counted out his price and that was that.
It turns out it is solid brass. Suddenly I feel like maybe I should have given him his original asking price. Next time maybe.

 

 

This thing is awesome!!
What should we make of it?

Heater Grate Update

The heat source in our master bathroom is an in-wall electric heater with fan mounted on the outside wall between the toilet and the tub - highly visible.  It is controlled by a thermostat on the wall just inside the bathroom door, which explains why there is no knob on the hole in the lower left corner.  

I'd like to say it doesn't matter to me what the grill over the heater looks like, but I care a lot.  And this thing makes me sad, especially since we put down a beautiful marble floor and are installing a claw foot tub with classic brass filler and so forth.  This thing just doesn't go.

But not to worry, I am prepared.  I was at BIG NYC a few weeks ago and I spied a vintage cast iron heat register grill with lovely scrollwork.  It was downright cheap so I bought it figuring I would find a use for it.  Looks like it will have a place in our house much sooner than expected.

I am thinking I will paint it off-white and mount it about a half inch off the wall, just in front of the existing sheet metal heater grate. I don't want to get rid of the existing grate because the holes are smaller and I don't want any little fingers getting in there through the big holes in the scrollwork grate.  Yes, I know that the existing heater grate shows through the scrollwork, but that is just because it is white - I intend to paint it flat black so that (hopefully) it looks empty behind the top grate.