Gilman’s Alien Metal Figure
The alien metal figure in The Dreams in the Witch House is the ornament Walter Gilman breaks from a balustrade during an apparent journey to a city under three suns. Its later appearance in his bed, examination by others and preservation in Miskatonic’s museum make it unusually durable evidence of his experiences.
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Discovery on the terrace
Gilman reaches a high terrace above an immense city illuminated by three differently colored suns. A delicately worked metal balustrade carries a sequence of small figures. When he becomes dizzy looking down, he grasps one for support and accidentally breaks it from the rail.
He continues holding it as Keziah Mason and Brown Jenkin approach with three living beings corresponding to its shape. His loss of consciousness interrupts the scene, leaving him with no ordinary account of how he returns to his room.
The ornament is therefore an architectural object before it becomes a piece of evidence. The story does not call it a magical amulet or say that Gilman takes it as part of a deliberate theft or ritual.
Shape, size and material
The figure is about four and a half inches high, with a maximum spread of approximately two and a half inches. A ridged barrel-like center carries radiating appendages, while structures at the top and bottom support five tapering arms arranged in star-like patterns.
Under ordinary electric light its metal appears iridescent gray with green veins. The broken attachment point is visible, and the object cannot stand upright by itself when placed on Gilman’s table.
The morphology resembles the star-headed beings associated with the Elder Things elsewhere in Lovecraft’s fiction. Within this particular scene, however, the city and its inhabitants remain unnamed. The artifact does not establish a specific planetary origin simply by resembling another described form.
The return to the lodging-house
Mrs. Dombrowski finds the object in Gilman’s bed while making the room and places it on the table. She assumes that it belongs among the student’s other unusual possessions. Her testimony gives it a presence independent of his recollection of the dream.
Gilman initially tries to preserve an ordinary explanation. Perhaps he took it somewhere while sleepwalking, and the sight of it supplied material for the dream. He cannot remember any local museum where he has seen such a thing.
The correspondence is unusually exact: the shape and broken point match the ornament on the balustrade. This makes the object a stronger challenge to his explanation than a vague feeling or uncorroborated image.
Investigation and museum custody
Gilman and Frank Elwood show the figure to scholars and museums, saying that it was found in a public rubbish bin. The account conceals its apparent origin while allowing them to ask about its materials and manufacture.
Professor Ellery analyzes a small detached arm. The story reports platinum, iron and tellurium mixed with at least three apparent elements that the investigators cannot identify or fit into their expected periodic scheme. This is an invented scientific finding within the narrative, not a real chemical analysis of an existing object.
The figure is subsequently exhibited at Miskatonic University’s museum. Its continued availability distinguishes it from Lovecraftian evidence lost during escape or destroyed by a terrified witness. It survives even though the larger events remain unexplained.
The stone counterpart in the loft
When the Witch House is demolished, the debris includes a damaged object that resembles the museum figure. This second version is larger, made from an unfamiliar bluish stone and equipped with an angled pedestal bearing undeciphered markings.
The resemblance links the objects associated with Gilman’s journey to the sealed space connected with Keziah. It suggests a wider material context without disclosing what either version meant to its makers.
The text does not prove that the stone object is a duplicate taken from the same balustrade, that both are idols of a named god or that either functions as a portal key. Their relationship is morphological and contextual; their complete original purpose remains uncertain.
References
- The Dreams in the Witch House — original text
The fictional narrative is evidence for what the story says, not proof of events in the real world.
At a glance
The Dreams in the Witch House
An alien city’s terrace balustrade
Approximately 4.5 inches
Approximately 2.5 inches
Iridescent gray metal with green veins
Miskatonic University museum
A larger blue-stone figure recovered from the Witch House