More Objects from the Fielding Collection

Glisson, James

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More Objects from the Fielding Collection

James Glisson (Editor)

Description: Becoming America: Highlights from the Jonathan and Karin Fielding Collection of Folk...

Becoming America: Highlights from the Jonathan and Karin Fielding Collection of Folk Art

FIRE AND IRON

Author

James Glisson (Editor)

PublisherYale University Press

Copyright© 2020 The Huntington Library, Art
Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22068

Chapter subject tags:Folk artDecorative arts, Early AmericanWindsor chairsPortrait painting, AmericanIndians of North AmericaShaker boxesMiniature painting, AmericanClothing and dressSlavery

More Objects from the Fielding Collection

MINIATURISTS

Before the invention of photography in 1839, silhouettes and miniature portraits were a more affordable, though by no means inexpensive, way to memorialize someone. In Boston, William M. S. Doyle set up a shop, while itinerant silhouettists traveled the country advertising in local papers. The term silhouette only came into use gradually, and Americans called such a work a “shadow portrait,” “shade,” “shadow graph,” or, simply, “likeness.” The portrait pair of Samuel and Elvira Fish could have been a wedding portrait. Both are dressed formally, and Samuel holds a glass with wine or rum, while a row of glasses points to a festive occasion.

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Description: Portraits of Samuel and Elvira Fish by Unknown

POSSIBLY EZRA WOOD (1798–1841), “PUFFY SLEEVE ARTIST”
Portraits of Samuel and Elvira Fish, ca. 1810
Watercolor and ink on paper
Each: 3½ × 2⅞ in.
Inscription (verso): “Samuel / Mrs. Elvira Fish / (Gov. Wentworth Family—N.H.)”
L2015.41.148

The portraits of Hannah and Stephan Spear were also probably made for their wedding and were formerly attributed to an artist known as Mr. Boyd. They are more likely by Jasper P. Miles, an artist and sign painter active in northern Pennsylvania, New York’s Finger Lakes, and later, northern Ohio. Miles is known to have painted on wood, used a neutral gray background, and captured likenesses with delicate brushwork.

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Description: Portrait of Hannah Spear by Miles, Jasper P.

JASPER P. MILES (1782–1849)
Portrait of Hannah Spear, ca. 1820–25
Oil on tulipwood panel
8½ × 6¼ in.
L2015.41.158.2

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Description: Portrait of Stephan Spear by Miles, Jasper P.

JASPER P. MILES (1782–1849)
Portrait of Stephan Spear, ca. 1820–25
Oil on tulipwood panel
8½ × 6⅜ in.
L2015.41.158.1

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Description: Children in Pink and Blue by Russel, Mrs. Moses

MRS. MOSES RUSSEL
Children in Pink and Blue, 1840
Watercolor on ivory
5 × 3⅞ in.
L2015.41.181

PERIPATETIC ARTISTS

A successful itinerant portrait painter, John Brewster Jr. was also deaf and mute. Brewster studied art under Reverend John Steward and pursued a successful career, traveling throughout New England. In 1820, he moved to Hartford to enroll for three years at the recently founded American School for the Deaf, where, in his fifties, he finally learned formalized sign language. Brewster completed the portrait of Henry Sayward of Alfred, Maine, after leaving the school. Distracted by his toy horn long enough to sit still, the boy has lively eyes and rosy cheeks, suggesting a picture of health—not to be taken for granted in a period with high rates of child mortality. In fact, Henry lived a long life, passing away in 1901 after a career as an express-man, a courier for shipments of gold and hard cash.

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Description: Portrait of Henry Sayward by Brewster, John, Jr.

JOHN BREWSTER JR. (1766–1854)
Portrait of Henry Sayward, 1820
York County, Maine
Oil on canvas
20 × 16½ in.
L2015.41.167

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Description: Portrait of Betsy Brownell Gilbert by Phillips, Ammi

AMMI PHILLIPS (1788–1865)
Portrait of Betsy Brownell Gilbert, ca. 1820
Columbia County, New York
Oil on canvas
29 × 22¾ in.
L2015.41.162

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Comb, ca. 1820–30
Possibly tortoiseshell
4 × 5½ × 2¼ in.
L2015.41.26

GENERATIONS

Illuminated family registers of births, marriages, and deaths began appearing in the United States after the Revolutionary War. Before that time, the family Bible served as the genealogical archive. The dedication to maintaining these records across generations is touching. The Deyo-Smith register spans three centuries, from the parents’ births in the 1770s until the death of an unmarried son, Oliver, in 1904. Across New England, these registers have consistent emblems and symbolism. The double heart signified marriage and its indissoluble bond, an association driven home in this register by the marriage column’s double-heart header. Tree and vine imagery was also common, and present in all the registers illustrated in this catalogue. In the Acrostic “Portrait”, delicate vines run along the sides, while the lithographed border of the Tracy Family Register has curling morning glories and stylized boughs. Trees and fruits as metaphors for lineages can be found in the Bible. Printers began to turn out empty registers like the Tracy one en masse by the 1820s and 1830s.

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Description: Jacob Deyo—Ruth Smith Family Record

Jacob Deyo–Ruth Smith Family Record, ca. 1813
Connecticut
Watercolor and ink on paper
13½ × 9½ in.
2016.25.104

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Description: Acrostic Portrait Dedicated to Winthrop Eager by Wilcox, H.

DRAWN BY H. WILCOX
Acrostic “Portrait” Dedicated to Winthrop Eager, 1811
Massachusetts
Watercolor and ink on paper
18¼ × 12⅛ in.
Inscriptions: “Dedicated to Winthrop Eager. / Drawn by H. Wilcox, A soldier in the 4th Inftry”
“Winthrop Eager, Sergt Major To the 4th Regt. U.S. Inftry”
2016.25.103

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Tracy Family Register
Durham, New Hampshire Kellogg & Comstock, Lithographic Firm (active 1849–50)
Hand-colored lithograph
“Heart and Hand Artist” (active 1850–55)
Watercolor and ink on lithograph
Framed: 12⅜ × 16½ in.
2016.25.105

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Description: Simeon Burnham & Lucy Smith Family Record

Simeon Burnham & Lucy Smith Family Record, ca. 1830
Bridgton, Maine
Watercolor and ink on paper
7½ × 9½ in.
L2015.41.149

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Description: Elijah E. Norton and Sally Martin Marriage Certificate by Johnson, William

WILLIAM JOHNSON, ESQ.
Elijah E. Norton and Sally Martin Marriage Certificate, 1815
Watercolor and ink on paper
9 × 6¼ in.
Inscription: “by Wm Johnson Esqr. / Fort Ann. Washington County N.Y.”
L2015.41.155

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Description: A Record of the Family of Ensign Jacob Chamberlain of Alton, in the County of...

A Record of the Family of Ensign Jacob Chamberlain of Alton, in the County Strafford, and State of New Hampshire, 1800
Watercolor and ink on paper
15 × 12 in.
L2015.41.157

SHELDON PECK

This striking portrait of a fashionably dressed blue-eyed man by Sheldon Peck was rediscovered under a nineteenth-century print during the filming of the PBS series Antiques Roadshow in 1997. The artist’s decision to slightly misalign the focus of the sitter’s eyes— as if he were looking in different directions at once—heightens the picture’s dramatic intensity. Born in Vermont but later moving west, Peck straddled numerous careers, painting portraits while homesteading in Illinois and perhaps dabbling in real estate speculation in Chicago. A radical abolitionist and active in the Liberty Party, Peck opened his home in rural DuPage County outside Chicago as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

A telltale symbol of the artist is the trefoil, or rabbit’s foot, seen here in the gray band between the brown jacket and brilliant white cravat, and in the embroidery on the dress of Eunice Judkins.

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Description: Untitled (Portrait of a Young Man with Red Curtain) by Peck, Sheldon

SHELDON PECK (1797–1868)
Untitled (Portrait of a Young Man with Red Curtain), ca. 1827–30
Oil on poplar panel
23 × 19¼ in.
L2015.41.160

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Description: Portrait of Samuel and Eunice Judkins, Ulster County, New York by Peck, Sheldon

SHELDON PECK (1797–1868)
Portrait of Samuel and Eunice Judkins, Ulster County, New York, ca. 1834
Oil on wood panel
Framed: 23 × 30 in.
Inscription: “SAMUEL JUDKINS ORIGINALLY FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE VERMONT OF OHIOVILLE, ULSTER CO. N.Y. AND HIS FIRST WIFE WHO PAINTED THE PICTURE / EUNICE DAUGHTER OF CONSTANT / AND DEBORAH SAMUEL JUDKINS DIED SEPT 7TH 1844 / AGED 50 YRS 4 MO AND 10 DAYS.”
L2015.41.168

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Description: Little Girl in a Windsor Armchair by Peck, Sheldon

ATTRIBUTED TO SHELDON PECK (1797–1868)
Little Girl in a Windsor Armchair, ca. 1827–32
Oil on panel
23 × 18½ in.
L2015.41.169

PRIOR-HAMBLIN SCHOOL

Prior-Hamblin School is an attribution given to American folk portraits in the style of William Matthew Prior (1806–1873) and Sturtevant J. Hamblin (active 1837–56), brothers-in-law who worked together. Sturtevant’s sister, Rosamond, married Prior. The three lived together in Portland, Maine, and later in Boston. By the 1850s Sturtevant probably left painting to work with his brother Joseph. Prior continued as a portraitist in a studio at 36 Trenton Street, Boston, until 1873.

Paintings of this school have direct frontal poses, bright colors, and confident, unfussy brushwork, which is most evident in the deft treatment of the lace and trimmings in the children’s clothing.

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Description: Portraits of a Boy and Girl

PRIOR-HAMBLIN SCHOOL
Portrait of a Boy, ca. 1840–50
Oil on heavy paper (paper laminate)
Each: 14¼ × 10¼ in.
2016.25.110

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PRIOR-HAMBLIN SCHOOL
Portraits of a Girl, ca. 1840–50
Oil on heavy paper (paper laminate)
Each: 14¼ × 10¼ in.
2016.25.111

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Description: A Portrait of Two Children by Hamblin, Sturtevant

STURTEVANT HAMBLIN (1817–1884)
A Portrait of Two Children, ca. 1845–50
Boston
Oil on canvas
Framed: 39½ × 32½ in.
2016.25.108

SHAKER BOXES

The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, better known as the Shakers, is a Christian sect whose membership peaked with a couple thousand adherents between 1840 to 1860. Like a monastic community, the Shakers require celibacy, a life of prayer, and communal property. For commercial sale, they produced furniture, buckets, baskets, medicines, and seeds. Their craftsmanship reflects their beliefs in simplicity and the rejection of ostentation. This set of colored bent- wood boxes was meant to be nested, one box inside another, like Russian dolls. Their maple sides comprise a single piece of wood secured by metal tacks with swallowtail joints that clasp together like interlocking fingers. Maple could be sliced into thin sheets and then shaped with steam over an oval form without splitting. Pine, a light wood, formed the tops and bottoms. Complete sets in such vibrant colors are rare. The yellow box below is an unusually fine example.

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Red Shaker Carrier, ca. 1820–40
Maple or pine with red stain
11 × 8 × 4 in.
L2015.41.36

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Chrome Yellow Oval Box, ca. 1820–40
Probably New Lebanon, New York
Pine, maple, tacks, and chrome yellow finish
6½ × 15 × 11 in.
L2015.41.27

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Shaker Boxes, ca. 1820–60
Possibly Canterbury, New Hampshire
Pine, maple, stain, shellac, and copper tacks
Maximum size: 3⅝ × 9⅜ × 7 in.
Inscription (lid of smallest box): “Presented by Eld’r Grove to Martha Johnson”
2016.25.46

WINDSOR CHAIRS

Windsor chairs feature a solid seat joined to the spindles, arm posts, and legs either by mortise and tenon or by a snug fit into drilled holes. By contrast, other chairs in the Fielding Collection, such as the child’s chair or the slat-back armchair, have a vertical stile—or back post—that runs from top to bottom as a single piece of wood and an upholstered or woven seat. Other than the seat, which is carved, nearly all the Windsor’s components are turned on a lathe. Often called “stick chairs” in the eighteenth century, Windsors became popular in Britain during the 1720s. By the late 1760s, Massachusetts alone exported over a thousand chairs a year to the southern colonies. Their ubiquity cannot be overemphasized: everyone from Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin to common tradesmen owned them, and they graced homes, workplaces, and public areas like theaters and courtrooms. The comb-back writing armchair, with its original green paint and two drawers, matches the style of Ebenezer Tracy Sr., whose workshop in Lisbon, Connecticut, produced chairs now considered exemplary.

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Birdcage Windsor Armchair, ca. 1800
Plymouth, Massachusetts
Wood
34½ × 20½ × 22 in.
2016.25.73

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Description: Child's Ladder-Back Armchair

Child’s Ladder-Back Armchair, ca. 1800
Probably Maine
Wood, reed, and green paint
23½ × 13 × 11¼ in.
2016.25.72

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Description: Windsor Continuous Armchair

Windsor Continuous Armchair, ca. 1780
Wood and red paint
36 × 21½ × 20 in.
2016.25.64

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Description: High-Back Windsor Armchair with Writing Arm, alternate view by Tracy, Ebenezer

ATTRIBUTED TO EBENEZER TRACY SR. (1744–1803)
High-Back Windsor Armchair with Writing Arm
Late eighteenth century
Lisbon, Connecticut
Wood and green paint
36⅞ × 36¼ × 31 in.
L2015.41.112

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Description: Comb-Back Windsor Armchair with D Seat

Comb-Back Windsor Armchair with D Seat, ca. 1760
Philadelphia
Wood with early red wash and later green paint
46 × 27¾ × 23 in.
2016.25.74

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Windsor Continuous Armchair, ca. 1780
Wood and red paint
36 × 21½ × 20 in.
2016.25.63

FIRE AND IRON

The kitchen was central to homes in early America, and the focal point of the kitchen was the hearth. Toasters placed next to hot coals crisped brown bread, a mixture of rye and corn that colonists preferred because wheat was expensive. Skimmers could have lifted doughnuts frying in a cauldron of boiling lard. Trivets or broilers once held pieces of meat while they grilled over hot coals. Smokers grasped embers with pipe tongs and dropped them into long clay pipes. The typical New England hearth was deep, with pots suspended above the fire on a lug pole and later a swinging iron crane. This kettle tilter’s hook at one time attached to a crane. Firebacks grew hot and radiated heat into the room, recapturing some lost heat. A long-armed oven peel enabled a cook to retrieve bread from a deep beehive oven built into the hearth’s thick sides. By the 1830s and 1840s, factory-made cast-iron cook stoves requiring far less fuel began to replace hearths and removing the need for tools like these.

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Description: Toaster with Shoulder Handle

Toaster with Shoulder Handle
Wrought iron
7¾ × 9¼ × 27½ in.
2016.25.132

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Toaster
Eighteenth or nineteenth century
Wrought iron
7 × 18 × 14 in.
2016.25.128

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Heart-Shaped Trivet
Wrought iron
1⅝ × 5¼ × 9 in.
2016.25.133

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Oven Peel, ca. 1790
Wrought iron
8¾ × 46 in.
Inscription (recto of handle): “EWT”
2016.25.135

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Fry Pan with Long Handle
Eighteenth century
Wrought iron
49¼ × 13⅞ × 8¼ in.
2016.25.125

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Hearth Fork
Late eighteenth to early nineteenth century
Wrought iron
2½ × 24¾ in.
Inscription (verso of handle): “WG”
2016.25.134

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Pierced Spatula, 1818
Wrought iron
25¼ × 4½ × 1⅜ in.
Inscription: “MMK 1818”
2016.25.130

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Large Broiler
Late eighteenth century
Wrought iron
4¼ × 30 × 13 in.
2016.25.122

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Description: Broiler with Grease Collector

Broiler with Grease Collector
Late eighteenth century
Wrought iron
4½ × 18½ × 11½ in.
2016.25.123

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Broiler
Wrought iron
3¾ × 26⅜ × 14½ in.
2016.25.124

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Description: Pair of Shield Front Andirons

Pair of Shield Front Andirons, ca. 1790
Wrought iron
14½ × 11 × 17 in.
2016.25.7

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Description: Pair of Hessian Grenadier Andirons

Pair of Hessian Grenadier Andirons, ca. 1790
Cast iron
12⅜ × 13¾ × 6¼ in.
2016.25.6

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Boot Scraper, ca. 1790
Wrought iron
15⅜ × 17⅜ × 5⅜ in.
2016.25.117

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Broiler
Late eighteenth century
Cast iron
3 × 24½ × 13⅜ in.
2016.25.121

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Skimmer, ca. 1770
Wrought iron
39⅝ × 7⅛ × 3⅝ in.
2016.25.126

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Kettle Tilter, ca. 1780
Wrought iron
16½ × 18 × 2½ in.
2016.25.120

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Pipe Tongs
Eighteenth century
F. Frost Sawyer House, Durham, New Hampshire
Wrought iron
5 × 16 × 2 in.
2016.25.119

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Pipe Tongs, ca. 1750
Wrought iron
25¾ × 2¾ × ¾ in.
Inscription: “1750”
2016.25.131

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Adam and Eve Fireback, ca. 1770
Boston
Puddle-cast iron
34½ × 23 × ½ in.
2016.25.94

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Devil Bootjack, ca. 1850
Cast iron
2¼ × 10½ × 3⅜ in.
2016.25.114

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Horse Tool, ca. 1850
Cast iron
¾ × 15½ × 9⅛ in.
2016.25.142

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Cheese Ladder
Wood
38½ × 38¼ × 1⅛ in.
2016.25.127

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Mackerel Plow, ca. 1850
Wood and pewter
⅝ × 9⅜ × 2⅜ in.
2016.25.136

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Bootjack, ca. 1850
New York
Cast iron
2¼ × 14⅝ × 5⅜ in.
2016.25.115

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Bug Bootjack, ca. 1850
Cast iron
3 × 11 × 5½ in.
2016.25.116

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THOMAS DANFORTH BOARDMAN (1784–1873, ACTIVE HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT)
Coffeepot
Early to mid-nineteenth century
Pewter and ivory
11⅝ × 10 × 6 in.
2016.25.21

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Coffeepot
Tin
10⅜ × 7½ × 4½ in.
2016.25.20

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Chip-Carved Spoon Rack, ca. 1760
Possibly Hudson River Valley or Connecticut
Probably pine and blue paint
24 × 12½ × 5½ in.
L2015.41.101

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Chip-Carved Box
Second half of nineteenth century
Wood
3¼ × 8 × 2¼ in.
L2015.41.52

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SALMON BREWSTER (1802–1887)
Bucket
Nineteenth century
Maine
Wood, metal, and paint
8⅝ × 11¾ × 11⅛ in.
Inscription: “J. BAGNALL & SONS”
2016.25.118

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SALMON BREWSTER (1802–1887)
Bucket
Nineteenth century
Maine
Wood, metal, and paint
13⅛ × 12½ × 12⅛ in.
Inscription: “SB”
L2015.41.188.2

HOMESPUN

These tools relate to domestic yarn making: yarn produced for sale, exchanged for credit, or used at home. Governor Bernard of colonial Massachusetts reported in 1763 that while people from cities wore clothes imported from Great Britain, “the poor laboring people in the country towns wear their own common clothes principally of homespun linens and woolens.”

Wool yarn was once spun on this giant wheel, then wrapped around a niddy-noddy to make a skein. Like the niddy-noddy, the winder prepared the yarn for weaving or knitting, while this rack of twenty-four bobbins stored it or perhaps fed it to a hand- or water-powered loom.

Probate records from 685 homes in Connecticut and Massachusetts show that by 1674, 50 percent of homes owned a spinning wheel, whether large for wool, or small for linen. Fewer than one in ten households owned a loom. This discrepancy reflects the fact that yarn spinning required substantially more labor than weaving on a loom.

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Yarn Rack, ca. 1850
Northern New Hampshire
Wood, wire, and modern fiber
24½ × 75¼ × 2⅝ in.
2016.25.143

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Yarn Winder, ca, 1790
Massachusetts
Cherry, metal, and traces of red paint
40½ × 19½ × 25½ in.
2016.25.148

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Niddy-Noddy, ca. 1800
Walnut
14 × 18¼ × 13¾ in.
2016.25.144

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Spinning Wheel
Early eighteenth century
Wood with traces of blue-gray paint
68⅞ × 64 × 18 in.
Inscription (end of bench): “TJC”
2016.25.145

JOHN HILLING

This artist was a jack-of-all-trades. An 1867–68 directory published in Bath, Maine, advertised his skills as a “house, sign, and fancy painter, grainer and paper hanger.” He chronicled the destruction of Bath’s Catholic Old South Church on June 6, 1854, by an anti-Catholic and anti-Irish mob. During the 1850s, the United States saw the growth of anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiment primarily directed at Irish Catholics escaping the Potato Famine (1845–52). A rabble-rousing representative of the Know-Nothings, a vehemently anti-immigrant American political party, gave a speech that stirred up a crowd. On the following evening, they looted and burned the church. The clock and moon mark the rioters’ destructive progress, while pews tossed from windows, a makeshift battering ram, and an American flag saved from the flames give the paintings a reportorial quality.

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Description: Before the Burning of Old South Church in Bath, Maine by Hilling, John

ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN HILLING (1822–1894)
Before the Burning of Old South Church in Bath, Maine, ca. 1854
Oil on canvas
17 × 23 in.
L2015.41.177.1

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Description: The Burning of Old South Church in Bath, Maine by Hilling, John

ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN HILLING (1822–1894)
The Burning of Old South Church in Bath, Maine, ca. 1854
Oil on canvas
17½ × 23½ in.
L2015.41.177.2

CERAMICS

American stoneware and redware ceramics were made for every-day kitchen use. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, these were among the most common kitchen items and frequently listed in probate records. Jars might have held pickled fruits, like pears or plums, or shellfish, including oysters and mussels, to which vinegar was added for preservation. They could have also held molasses, homemade beer, cider, or rum, a potent liquor made from molasses that New Englanders imbibed in great quantities.

These ceramics fell into two types: redware, an earthenware fired at a low temperature, and stoneware, fired at a higher temperature with fewer impurities and more silica. Potteries all over the Northeast turned out low-cost earthenware items, like this redware jar with its variegated green and red glazes. Besides chipping easily, redware is too porous to hold liquids without the addition of toxic lead-based glazes. As early as 1778, the British physician James Hardy warned about the dangers of lead poisoning from earthenware vessels, especially those that held acidic foods containing vinegar. By contrast, stoneware is nonporous and uses a safe, salt-based glaze with a distinctive orange-peel texture.

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Description: Swag- and Tassel-Decorated Jar

Swag- and Tassel-Decorated Jar, ca. 1810
Possibly New York State
Stoneware
13¾ × 11½ in.
2016.25.12

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Jar, ca. 1804
Boston
Stoneware
10¾ × 12½ in
Inscription: “BOSTON / 3”
2016.25.8

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Jar, ca. 1840
Albany area, New York
Redware
12½ × 7¾ in.
2016.25.11

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Jar, ca. 1810
Charlestown, Massachusetts
Stoneware
11¾ × 12 in.
Inscription: “CHARLESTOWN”
2016.25.13

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Jar, ca. 1820
Connecticut or New York
Stoneware
17⅜ × 13½ in.
2016.25.15

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Jar, ca. 1804
Boston
Stoneware
13¼ × 11½ in.
Inscription: “BOSTON / 3”
2016.25.16

SLAVERY IN NEW ENGLAND

These jugs probably held rum or its principal ingredient, molasses, a product made by slaves on the sugar plantations of the West Indies. New Englanders exported rum to Africa, Africa sent slaves to the Caribbean, and the Caribbean shipped molasses to New England in the Triangular Trade. The traffic in molasses and rum meant that New Englanders enriched themselves from slavery, while some participated in the slave trade.

In colonial New England, there were sizable numbers of slaves who were Native Americans or of African descent. In 1750, slaves made up 14 percent of Rhode Island’s population, while New York City in 1771 had around twenty thousand. Unlike slaveholders in the South or the Caribbean, where plantations had hundreds of slaves, the average New England slaveholder had only one or two, and many worked in skilled trades like ironworking, shipbuilding, weaving, and tailoring. After the American Revolution, the slave population of New England decreased, but the cotton mills that sprang up depended on cotton from Southern plantations. The wealth of New England continued to derive from an inhumane and horrific system. Also, racist laws blocked political rights of freed people. In 1814, Connecticut limited suffrage to white males, and Rhode Island did the same in 1822.

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Jug, ca. 1810
Charlestown, Massachusetts
Stoneware
14½ × 11 in.
Inscription: “CHARLESTOWN”
2016.25.17

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ORCUTT & CRAFTS POTTERY
Three-Gallon Jug, ca. 1835–37
Portland, Maine
Stoneware
15 × 11 in.
Inscription: “ORCUTT & CRAFTS / PORTLAND / 3”
2016.25.14

BASKETMAKING

Today in Maine and nearby areas, Native American people have vibrant practices in basketmaking and other craft traditions. Organizations like the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance and the Abbe Museum share the work of Passamaquoddy, Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, and Penobscot artists. In the early nineteenth century, Native American basketmakers who peddled their wares from door to door were already a fixture across New England. In face of the dispossession of their land, discrimination, and few economic opportunities, baskets woven mostly by women from freely available wood and grasses offered a way to earn money. They filled Northeastern homes, holding clothes, tools, sewing, hats, cheese, and fruits.

Few baskets can be attributed to an artist or even a group. In the Fielding Collection, a tricolor ash splint basket, however, is initialed “J.H.S.,” as are about a dozen other known examples. J.H.S. was purportedly Mohegan. On the following page, two other splint baskets have colored, stamped, and drawn patterns, which are typical.

Baskets are only one kind of container. Waterproof and naturally antiseptic, birchbark containers held food and liquids, including maple syrup. Colored porcupine quillwork remains a specialty of the Mi’kmaq. Soaking the hollow quills makes them pliable and good for weaving.

J. H. S.

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Basket (view from above), ca. 1880
Mohegan
Ash splint and dye
14 × 12 × 10½ in.
Inscription: “J.H.S.”
2016.25.50

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Splint Woven Basket
Late nineteenth century
Maine
Wood splint and pigment
7¼ × 12⅛ × 11⅞ in.
2016.25.24

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Basket (and lid interior), ca. 1832
New England area, Native American
Woven ash splint and pigment
Basket: 7½ × 12⅞ × 13½ in.
Lid: 5⅞ × 14½ × 13¾ in.
2016.25.25

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Bark-Covered Container
Mid-nineteenth century
Elm bark, spruce root, and black pigment
4⅛ × 3½ × 6½ in.
2016.25.23

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Quillwork Box, ca. 1850
Mi’kmaq
Wood, birchbark, porcupine quills, and natural aniline dye
3⅞ × 5⅞ × 5¼ in.
2016.25.27

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Small Makuk
Late eighteenth to early nineteenth century
Probably Ojibwe
Birchbark and spruce root
6 × 5 × 5 in.
2016.25.48

GNARLY

A burl is an abnormal, wart-like tree growth caused by a virus or fungus. Rather than the typical parallel bands found in wood, the burl grain pattern is irregular. This makes it unusually resistant to warping, cracking, and wear—an ideal material for kitchen bowls like these. Because they are hewn by hand rather than turned on a lathe, it is likely that they were made by a Native American craftsperson.

Finely textured burl veneers, like those on the Fielding Collection chest of drawers (see pp. 60–61 for a detail), also embellished furniture surfaces. Burls form on trees in mature forests, which were common in North America but far rarer in heavily logged Europe. For this reason, burl woods were a luxury in Europe, but far more common in the colonies.

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Oval Bowl (view from above)
Ash burl, carved
6 × 21 in.
2016.25.22

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Oval Bowl
Ash burl, carved
8 × 20 × 16⅝ in.
L2015.41.55

NATIVE AMERICAN KNIVES

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Chip-Carved Knife
Mid- to late nineteenth century
Penobscot
Wood, iron, and fiber
10 × 1½ × 1¼ in.
2016.25.140

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Crooked Knife
Northeastern Native American
Wood and metal
2½ × 1½ × 10 in.
2016.25.138

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Figural Crooked Knife
Late nineteenth century
Probably Northeastern Native American
Maple burl and iron
9½ × 1¼ × 1¼ in.
2016.25.139

FIRE!

During a period when open flames were needed for cooking, lighting, and heating, fire posed a perennial danger. Volunteer firefighters patrolled city streets looking for uncontrolled fires and organized bucket brigades to douse flames. Portsmouth, New Hampshire, saw serious fires in 1802, 1806, and 1813, the last destroying 108 buildings. These two leather fire buckets come from Portsmouth’s Mechanic Fire Society, a volunteer firefighting organization. They bear the name William P. Gookin (1813–1857) and have shears to signal his trade, a draper. Fire buckets had names on them to facilitate their return to the owner after the mayhem of a blaze. Gookin joined the society in 1839 and rose through the ranks, eventually becoming its president in 1854.

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Pair of Fire Buckets, ca. 1839
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Leather and paint
12¼ × 8⅜ × 8¾ in.
Inscription: “Mechanic Fire Society / William P. Gookin”
L2015.41.189

BONE AND HORN

In between sighting, killing, and butchering whales, sailors had to pass the time—ports of call being months apart and home thousands of miles away. On seeing another ship in the open ocean, they might gam, or pull up alongside it, to gossip and trade. Some ships had small libraries for readers, while scrimshanders carved elaborate scrimshaw. Besides busks, sailors made practical items, like these clothespins, or this elegant seam rubber probably used for pressing down the seams on tough sailcloth.

Powder horns made from ox, buffalo, or cattle held gunpowder, keeping it secure and dry. The narrow opening fed gunpowder— a mixture of saltpeter (potassium nitrate), charcoal, and sulfur—into the gun barrel. Besides his name, John Young etched the date and game animals, including squirrels and a boar, that he might have shot while carrying this horn.

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JOHN YOUNG
Powder Horn, 1777
New England
Horn
3 × 13 in.
Inscription: “JOHN YOUNG / 1777”
2016.25.49

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Clothespins, ca. 1825
Whalebone
Each: 3¾ × ½ × ⅝ in.
2016.25.146

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Seam Rubber
Whalebone
5½ × 2⅛ × ½ in.
2016.25.147~

CLOSE TO THE HEART

A busk slides into a pocket in a woman’s corset located on the sternum. Busks and whalebone-reinforced corsets entered European aristocratic fashion in the beginning of the sixteenth century. From the start, busks were tokens of romantic affection inscribed with hearts, birds, and sometimes poetry. These scrimshaw examples, embellished by sailors with plants, birds, and radiating patterns, were gifts to women they rarely saw. Sailors spent years away from home. Birds and plants could be symbols of fecundity. Carried close to the body, busks acted as constant reminders of the absent companion.

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E. WARREN
Scrimshaw Busk
Whalebone and pigment
13 1/2 × 2 in.
Inscription: “C H”
2016.25.4

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Scrimshaw Busk, ca. 1825
Whalebone and pigment
13¼ × 1¼ in.
2016.25.3

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Scrimshaw Busk
New England
Whalebone and pigment
14 × 1½ in.
Inscription: “LH”
2016.25.2

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Scrimshaw Busk, detail
New England
Whalebone and pigment
14 × 1½ in.
Inscription: “LH”
2016.25.2

COLD FEET

Before the widespread use of central heating in homes, railways, and public buildings, foot warmers provided portable heat. They could be low-tech, a hot brick or a water bottle. The following example, however, with its delicate twisted wrought-iron handle and intricate circular patterns, is exceptional. The metal cup held hot coals. Perforations let in oxygen for combustion and allowed heat to escape. A metal hook holds the door shut to contain the coals.

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Description: Chip-Carved Foot Warmer with Container for Coals

Chip-Carved Foot Warmer with Container for Coals, ca. 1720
Eastern Massachusetts
Oak, iron, and tin
Foot warmer: 6½ × 9½ × 7 3/16 in.
Container: 3¼ × 5 in.
L2015.41.29

KEEPING TIME

Clocks were an expensive consumer item whose diffusion into homes marks the increasing affluence of Americans during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1668, Boston saw its first public clock, put there by the selectmen. Scholars Philip Zea and Robert C. Cheney have noted that between 1685 and 1735, a dozen clock repairmen were active in Boston, a town of around four thousand. Brass clockworks were imported until the mid-eighteenth century, but repairs to these finicky machines had to be done locally. By 1798, 8 percent of Connecticut households owned a clock, a fact that is known because the U.S. Congress imposed a clock tax and did a census. Timekeeping devices became still more common in households after Simon Willard patented his wall-mounted banjo clock in 1802. He eventually produced around five thousand examples.

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Tall Case Clock, ca. 1775–1800
ATTRIBUTED TO JONAS FITCH (1741–1808), CLOCK MOVEMENT
UNKNOWN, CARVED CASE WITH FRETWORK AND TURNED FINIALS
Connecticut River Valley
Cherrywood, brass, pewter, and glass
88¼ × 19¼ × 10½ in.
2016.25.19

TOP HATS

Starting in the 1790s, top hats became a fashion necessity for well-off men and remained part of a man’s formal attire until the 1940s. Like all fashions, their look changed over time, from these brown and black hats with curving brims to the tall stovepipe hats associated with Abraham Lincoln. Made by Boston hatter Collins & Fairbanks, the hats shown here were sold in mass-produced pasteboard boxes. The smaller hat is probably a sample.

Jacob Maentel (1778–1863), a German immigrant painter active in Pennsylvania and later Indiana, pictured a jaunty John Mays in his hat shop in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania. The white, brown, and black hats, which narrow toward the hat band, date this image to the late 1820s or early 1830s, when D’Orsay and Regent styles ruled. Beaver-fur top hats went out of fashion by the 1850s, when silk became the covering of choice.

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COLLINS & FAIRBANKS
Top Hat, ca. 1835
Boston
Silk-lined beaver-skin hat
4 × 6 × 5 in.
Inscription (inside hat): “EXTRA QUALITY / TRADEMARK / COLLINS & FAIRBANKS, 383 WASHINGTON ST. / OPP. FRANKLIN / BOSTON / REGISTERED”
2016.25.75

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SILAS GOODRICH
Bandbox, ca. 1835
Boston
Printed wallpaper on pasteboard
4 × 7 × 6 in.
Inscriptions (lid, silkscreened): “FROM / PETER HIGGINS’S / HAT AND CAP / ESTABLISHMENT, / NO. 1 CITY WHARF, / BOSTON.”; (underside of lid, printed paper label) “SILAS GOODRICH, / MANUFACTURER OF / BAND BOXES, / HAT, STORE MUFF & FANCY BOXES, / OF EVERY DESCRIPTION, / 25 Court Street, Boston. / Entrance through S.H. Gregory & / Co’s Paper Hanging Store.”
2016.25.76

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Description: Portrait of Hatter John Mays of Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania

JACOB MAENTEL (1778–1863)
Portrait of Hatter John Mays of Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, ca. 1830
Watercolor, gouache, ink, and pencil on paper
Framed: 18 × 15 in.
2016.25.102

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SILAS GOODRICH
Bandbox, ca. 1835
Boston
Printed wallpaper on pasteboard
9 × 14 × 13 in.
Inscription (lid, silkscreened): “FROM / PETER HIGGINS’S / HAT AND CAP / ESTABLISHMENT, / NO. 1 CITY WHARF, / BOSTON.”
2016.25.78

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COLLINS & FAIRBANKS
Top Hat, ca. 1835
Boston
Silk-lined beaver-skin hat
6 × 11 × 10 in.
Inscription (inside hat): “EXTRA QUALITY / TRADEMARK / COLLINS & FAIRBANKS, 383 WASHINGTON ST. / OPP. FRANKLIN / BOSTON / REGISTERED”
2016.25.77

SIGNS AND WEATHERVANES

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Description: Equestrian Trade Sign for the Cincinnati Stove Works

Equestrian Trade Sign for the Cincinnati Stove Works, ca. 1901
Cast iron and paint
27½ × 40½ × 2½ in.
Inscription: “CINCINNATI STOVE WORKS /TRADEMARK”
2016.25.95

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Sign for A,S, Adams. Tailor., ca. 1840
New England
Wood and paint
12⅞ × 58½ × 1⅞ in.
Inscription: “A,S, ADAMS. / TAILOR.”
2016.25.96

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Description: Trade sign for Six Mile House Tavern

“Six Mile House” Tavern Sign
Montgomery County, Ohio
Wood and paint
52 × 40 × 4 in.
Inscription: “1851 / SIX. MILEHOUSE / BY / J.MILLER.”
L2015.41.136

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Description: Ten-Point Leaping Stag Weather Vane

Ten-Point Leaping Stag Weather Vane, ca. 1880
Molded copper and lead-filled antlers
32 × 39 × 9 in.
L2015.41.132

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