Domestic Furnishings

Washboards, armchairs, lamps, and pots and pans may not seem to be museum pieces. But they are invaluable evidence of how most people lived day to day, last week or three centuries ago. The Museum's collections of domestic furnishings comprise more than 40,000 artifacts from American households. Large and small, they include four houses, roughly 800 pieces of furniture, fireplace equipment, spinning wheels, ceramics and glass, family portraits, and much more.

The Arthur and Edna Greenwood Collection contains more than 2,000 objects from New England households from colonial times to mid-1800s. From kitchens of the past, the collections hold some 3,300 artifacts, ranging from refrigerators to spatulas. The lighting devices alone number roughly 3,000 lamps, candleholders, and lanterns.

MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “2” impressed;”52” impressed.PURCHASED FROM: E. Pinkus, New York, 1961.This oval stand is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr.
Description
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “2” impressed;”52” impressed.
PURCHASED FROM: E. Pinkus, New York, 1961.
This oval stand is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began collecting in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The stand is from a large dinner service of which most pieces are Meissen but with some items made at the Höchst manufactory, presumably as replacements for items originally in the Meissen service. With a petal-shaped edge the plate has a molded foliate design on the flange and center known as the Gotzkowsky pattern, after the Berlin porcelain entrepreneur Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky (1710-1775), a pattern also known as “raised flowers” (erhabene Blumen) first modeled in 1741.
Following the appointment to the manufactory in 1733 of court sculptor Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775), modeling techniques became more sophisticated. The process of creating shallow relief patterns was laborious and required considerable skill. The sources for designs in relief came from pattern books and engravings, especially those by the French designer Jean Bérain the Elder (1638-1711), and the Nuremberg designer Paul Decker (1677-1713) among many others. Later rococo designs in the French style were disseminated through the German states principally by François Cuvilliés the Elder (1695-1768). These designs were applied in architecture, interior stucco work and wood carving, furniture, wall coverings, and ceramics.
Painted in onglaze enamel are sprays of natural flowers and on the rim there is a gold diaper pattern.
European flowers began to appear on Meissen porcelain in about 1740 as the demand for Far Eastern patterns became less dominant and more high quality printed sources became available in conjunction with growing interest in the scientific study of flora and fauna.
The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Flower and fruit painters were paid less than workers who specialized in figures and landscapes, and most painters received pay by the piece rather than a regular wage. Decoration in gold was applied by specialists in gold painting and polishing at Meissen.
On relief patterns and three dimensional modeling at Meissen see Reinheckel, G., 1968, ‘Plastiche Dekorationsformen im Meissner Porzellan des 18 Jahrhunderts’ in Keramos, 41/42, Juli/Oktober.
On graphic sources for Meissen porcelain see Möller, K. A., “Meissen Pieces Based on Graphic Originals” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp.85-93.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 410-411.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750
1750
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.245497.4
catalog number
245497.4
accession number
245497
collector/donor number
1224
This is an inkwell owned by the Copp Family of Stonington, Connecticut during the 19th century. The bottle has a well in the center for holding the tip of the quill pen.
Description
This is an inkwell owned by the Copp Family of Stonington, Connecticut during the 19th century. The bottle has a well in the center for holding the tip of the quill pen. Examples of pens that were used in this ink bottle can be seen in DL*006512.02.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750
ID Number
DL.006520
catalog number
6520
accession number
28810
Jersey measure or flagon with double-acorn thumb piece, engraved "R G C" in serif letters on face of handle; half pint size. Wedge extension is burnt to the plain, pointed and pouted lid; hinge pin possibly embellished. Plain body with a slightly flared rim and incised base.
Description
Jersey measure or flagon with double-acorn thumb piece, engraved "R G C" in serif letters on face of handle; half pint size. Wedge extension is burnt to the plain, pointed and pouted lid; hinge pin possibly embellished. Plain body with a slightly flared rim and incised base. Strap handle with short terminal; cylindrical strut. Crowned "GR" mark stamped incuse to left of handle.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1700-1750
ID Number
DL.67.0168
catalog number
67.0168
accession number
250853
Small flagon or pichet with double-acorn thumb piece and wedge extension; stamped twice with a raised serif "M" inside a square on the outside of the heart-shaped, pouted lid. Baluster body with plain, flared rim and incised, flared base.
Description
Small flagon or pichet with double-acorn thumb piece and wedge extension; stamped twice with a raised serif "M" inside a square on the outside of the heart-shaped, pouted lid. Baluster body with plain, flared rim and incised, flared base. Strap handle with short terminal.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1700-1750
ID Number
DL.67.0258
catalog number
67.0258
accession number
250853
Circular name boss from an arched clock dial plate, cast and engraved across its slightly domed front "Made.By / Rich : Manning / In:Ipswich / 1751" inside a band border with wavy line.
Description
Circular name boss from an arched clock dial plate, cast and engraved across its slightly domed front "Made.By / Rich : Manning / In:Ipswich / 1751" inside a band border with wavy line. Pierced post or shank with two wire hooks is brazed at center of reverse.
Made by clockmaker Richard Manning (b. c. 1701-1774) of Ipswich, MA.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1751
ID Number
DL.388668
catalog number
388668
accession number
182022
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.This figure of a miner is part of the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr.
Description
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.
This figure of a miner is part of the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychoanalysis and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
Saxony’s miners held a high status in comparison to other laboring communities, mining silver, lead, copper, cobalt, and bismuth out of the rich Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) in the south-west region of the Saxon State. The figure seen here represents a miner in his parade livery with an axe carried over his right shoulder. On his hat the emblem of crossed mining picks is painted in gold, and crossed swords - just like the mark on Meissen porcelains - are painted on his belt buckle. Miners worked hard rock to get at the ores, with water and toxic fumes their constant enemies. Smelters and furnace workers who processed the ores also belonged to the mining industry (bergbauindustrie), as did the surveyors responsible for mapping the complex underground seams of ore, and the engineers who built and worked the machinery that kept the mineshafts open.
The Meissen modelers Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) and Peter Reinicke (d. 1768) produced the original figure for this and other mining subjects. Kaendler, who joined Meissen in 1731 after working for the Dresden court sculptor Benjamin Thomae (1682-1751), developed a baroque style and a scale for porcelain figures that successfully exploited the nature of the material. The mining figures were based on prints from a publication by Christoph Weigel of Nuremberg, Die Abbildung und Beschreibung derer sämtlichen Berg-Wercks und Hütten Beamten und Bedienten nach ihrem gewöhnlichen Rang und Ordnung im behörigen Hütten-Habit [The representation and description of all the mining and metallurgy officials and their subordinates in appropriate livery according to their customary rank and order]. Mining personnel wore these garments at the elaborate parades that formed part of the court festivals held to celebrate anniversaries, betrothals, and weddings in the European court calendar. One of the most spectacular was the Saturn Festival held in 1719 to celebrate the marriage of Augustus II Elector of Saxony's son, the electoral prince Friedrich Augustus, to Princess Maria Josepha of Austria, the daughter of the Emperor Joseph I. (See Watanabe O'Kelly, H., Court Culture in Dresden: From Renaissance to Baroque, 2002).
It was the custom in court entertainments to decorate banqueting tables with figures made from sugar, and the design of these elaborate ornaments was the task of the court sculptors. When Kaendler took up his post as a modeler at Meissen he was quick to see that porcelain could add to or replace sugar in this function. This figurine was one among many in a series that depicted the work of miners, and collectively formed a table decoration on this theme.
The Meissen Manufactory uses the same techniques today to make individual figures and figure groups as it did in the eighteenth century. The original figure, sculpted in wax or modeler’s clay, is cut into smaller pieces from which plaster of Paris molds are taken. This miner is a relatively simple subject, but complex figure groups often require up to seventy separate molds. It is the job of the Meissen manufactory’s team of figure specialists to reassemble the figures from porcelain pressed into, and then released from the molds when still damp. The pieces are then stuck carefully in place and the complete figure group is dried slowly and evenly before firing. (See Pietsch, U. Triumph of the Blue Swords, 2010, pp. 61-67; pp.121-131).
Syz, H., Rückert, R., Miller, J. J. II., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 440-441.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750
1750
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.65.387
catalog number
65.387
collector/donor number
422
accession number
262623
Jersey measure or flagon with conjoined twin-acorn thumb piece; half noggin size. Wedge extension is burnt to the plain, pointed and pouted lid. Plain body with a slightly flared rim and incised base. Strap handle with short terminal; cylindrical strut.
Description
Jersey measure or flagon with conjoined twin-acorn thumb piece; half noggin size. Wedge extension is burnt to the plain, pointed and pouted lid. Plain body with a slightly flared rim and incised base. Strap handle with short terminal; cylindrical strut. Crowned "GR" mark stamped incuse to left of handle. Bottom exterior incised "E:L.".
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1700-1750
ID Number
DL.67.0169
catalog number
67.0169
accession number
250853
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750
ID Number
DL.317881.0002
catalog number
317881.0002
accession number
317881
Rounded rectangular lidded box with heavy cast bands of overlapping laurel leaves applied along the top and bottom of all four sides; its flat lid engraved with a crest depicting a horned goat's or deer's head erased, facing left with coronet around its neck rising from a heraldi
Description
Rounded rectangular lidded box with heavy cast bands of overlapping laurel leaves applied along the top and bottom of all four sides; its flat lid engraved with a crest depicting a horned goat's or deer's head erased, facing left with coronet around its neck rising from a heraldic wreath. Lid has a reverse-cyma tab at front and is attached with one long hinge at back. Bottom underside struck with three marks, a crowned leopard's head in rounded shield, a raised gothic or Old English "A" in shaped shield, and crossed keys in shaped shield; "D771" lightly incised above stamps. Portion of a circular paper label adhered with yellowed and cracked cellophane tape inside lid. Heavy.
Marks not identified; needs further research. Catalog card suggested this box was silver, made in London, possibly 1756. However, the crowned leopard's head appears to be a pseudo-hallmark and crossed keys could indicate silver plate. Crest not identified; needs further research.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1756
ID Number
DL.61.0318
catalog number
61.0318
accession number
200122
Wrought iron fireplace poker with brass end piece. J-shaped shaft with blunt end. Formed bulbous brass end piece. No mark. Scratched.Currently not on view
Description
Wrought iron fireplace poker with brass end piece. J-shaped shaft with blunt end. Formed bulbous brass end piece. No mark. Scratched.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1700-1750
ID Number
DL.59.2354
accession number
113420
catalog number
59.2354
Tankard with a raised stepped-and-domed lid topped by a cast spiral or flame finial and straight tapered sides with applied moldings around rim, midbody and base. Cast S-curve scroll thumbpiece with anthemion on reverse attaches to five-knuckle hinge with pendant drop.
Description
Tankard with a raised stepped-and-domed lid topped by a cast spiral or flame finial and straight tapered sides with applied moldings around rim, midbody and base. Cast S-curve scroll thumbpiece with anthemion on reverse attaches to five-knuckle hinge with pendant drop. Hollow, D-section, S-curve handle is engraved on face "CS" in conjoined foliate script letters and has a scrolled tab terminal with circular attachment. Struck once on rim exterior to left of handle and on bottom underside "W.BURT" in raised serif letters in a rounded-corner rectangle. Bottom underside incised "HISMSH." above mark; old red-bordered white paper collection label. No centerpoint.
Maker is William Burt (1726-1751) of Boston, MA; son of John Burt (1692/3-1746) and brother of Samuel (1724-1754) and Benjamin (1729-1805), all silversmiths.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1745-1750
ID Number
DL.383483
catalog number
383483
accession number
162866
TITLE: Vienna saucer (with Meissen tea bowl)MAKER: Vienna ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: Saucer: D.
Description
TITLE: Vienna saucer (with Meissen tea bowl)
MAKER: Vienna Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: Saucer: D. 4¾" 12.1cm.
OBJECT NAME: Saucer
PLACE MADE: Vienna, Austria
DATE MADE: 1750-1755
SUBJECT:
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1983.0565.38B
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 919B
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Shield in underglaze blue, and “70” incised.
PURCHASED FROM: Hans Backer, London, England, 1952.
This saucer, and a matching tea bowl, is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The pattern on this saucer, and the matching Meissen tea bowl, is painted in overglaze enamel, purple luster, and gold. The design comes from Johann Schmischek’s (1585-1650) Groteschgen Büchlein(Little Book of Grotesques) published in Munich in 1630, and the patterns were originally designed for the ornamentation of guns, hence the hunting dog confronting a wild boar on the saucer and another dog chasing a hare on the tea bowl; Schmischek is listed as an arquebusier in contemporary catalogs which probably indicates his work as a designer of ornament for this class of weaponry. Not many Meissen pieces with this pattern exist today, and that suggests that the design was not successful or that the service was a private commission. The provenance of the saucer is further complicated by the fact that it appears to have been made in Vienna, and a sugar bowl with a Vienna mark passed through Christie’s salerooms in 2005. The saucer may have been a replacement and the sugar bowl a replacement or an addition to a Meissen service that may well have been in Vienna in the mid-eighteenth century.
Experts suggest on the one hand that the decoration on the tea bowl was the work of a Hausmaler, an enamel painter outside the Meissen manufactory, or on the other hand, that the presence of purple luster indicates decoration at Meissen; purple luster was not usually seen outside the manufactory in the 1720s. It is also possible that an outside decorator could have mastered the technique of handling purple luster as this style is not typical of Meissen in the 1730s. Made in Vienna in the 1750s, the saucer has decoration applied to match the original Meissen piece.
To view the Meissen tea bowl with the Vienna saucer see ID number 1983.0565.38A
Two tea bowls and saucers with very similar patterns can be seen in Ulrich Pietsch, Early Meissen Porcelain: The Wark Collection from the Cummer Museum and Art Gallery (The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens and D.Giles Ltd: Jacksonville FL and London UK, 2011) p.521. Comparable items are in the collections of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle WA; the British Museum (1955.0708.1)and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London UK (202&A-1854); the Nationalmuseum Stockholm, Sweden.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 276-277.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750-1755
maker
Vienna
ID Number
1983.0565.38B
accession number
1983.0565
catalog number
1983.0565.38B
collector/donor number
919
TITLE: Meissen figure of a man with grapesMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: 5⅝" 14.3 cmOBJECT NAME: FigurePLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, GermanyDATE MADE: 1745-1755SUBJECT: The Hans Syz CollectionArtDomest
Description
TITLE: Meissen figure of a man with grapes
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: 5⅝" 14.3 cm
OBJECT NAME: Figure
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1745-1755
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 78.429
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 328
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1943.
This figure is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) may have modeled this figure to represent fall in a group emblematic of the Four Seasons. There are several models of vintners but this figure is designed to hold condiments in the basket alongside the figures representing winter, spring, and summer and was part of a group in a plat de ménage, a centerpiece for the table that held salt, pepper, spices, mustards and lemons. Allegorical groups representing the seasons, the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water, the four continents of the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Africa, the four senses of touch, smell, sight, and sound, were modeled at Meissen in several versions. This figure belongs to a group that is modest in comparison to the more ambitious and larger scale plats de ménage.
Meissen figures and figure groups are usually sculpted in special modeling clay and then carefully cut into separate pieces from which individual molds are made. Porcelain clay is then pressed into the molds and the whole figure or group reassembled to its original form, a process requiring great care and skill. The piece is then dried thoroughly before firing in the kiln. In the production of complex figure groups the work is arduous and requires the making of many molds from the original model.
The figure is painted in overglaze enamel colors.
On the modeling and molding process still practiced today at Meissen see Alfred Ziffer, “‘…skillfully made ready for moulding…’ The Work of Johann Joachim Kaendler” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgeoisie 1710-1815, pp.61-67. On the plat de ménage in the same publication see p. 112.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection, p.454-455.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1745-1755
1745-1755
ID Number
CE.78.429
catalog number
78.429
accession number
1978.2185
collector/donor number
328
Mallet-shaped flagon or pichet with double-acorn thumb piece and wedge extension; stamped "L B D" in serif letters on the outside of the heart-shaped, pouted lid.
Description
Mallet-shaped flagon or pichet with double-acorn thumb piece and wedge extension; stamped "L B D" in serif letters on the outside of the heart-shaped, pouted lid. Slightly flared, galleried rim with two pairs of incised lines; narrow, round shouldered body; and applied, tapered base. Strap handle with stepped thumbrest and short scroll terminal; short oval strut.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750
ID Number
DL.67.0254
catalog number
67.0254
accession number
250853
This is a magnet, nail, and piece of iron or steel that belonged to the Copp family of Stonington, Connecticut during the 19th century.
Description
This is a magnet, nail, and piece of iron or steel that belonged to the Copp family of Stonington, Connecticut during the 19th century. The pieces may have been used for work or to illustrate the principles of magnetism in an educational lesson.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750
user
Copp Family
ID Number
DL.006846.02
accession number
28810
catalog number
6846.02
1757 George II sixpence or half shilling ladle with twisted baleen or whalebone handle. Raised bowl has bulbous sides, plain flared rim and single pouring spout with the coin set in at bottom center.
Description
1757 George II sixpence or half shilling ladle with twisted baleen or whalebone handle. Raised bowl has bulbous sides, plain flared rim and single pouring spout with the coin set in at bottom center. Silver portion of shaft consists of a flat, tapered section bright cut with a shield containing "TR" in conjoined script and a conical socket for the capped handle, which is secured by a single pin. Underside of spout is struck with five hallmarks, an undecipherable maker's mark, a lion passant facing left in a clipped-corner square, a crowned leopard's head in a clipped-corner rounded shield, the raised lowercase roman date letter "l" in a clipped-corner pointed shield, and a sovereign's head in profile facing right in an oval.
Ladle was made thirty years after coin was minted.
Location
Currently not on view
date ladle made
1786-1787
date coin made
1757
ID Number
DL.383728
catalog number
383728
accession number
166645
Circular wafer iron, plier form; both plates feature an incuse musical trophy design composed of a lyre at center on an open music book, surrounded by pairs of tympani and cymbals, five trumpets, and two flags, all inside a laurel wreath border.
Description
Circular wafer iron, plier form; both plates feature an incuse musical trophy design composed of a lyre at center on an open music book, surrounded by pairs of tympani and cymbals, five trumpets, and two flags, all inside a laurel wreath border. Two, long, tapered handles have rectangular shafts, cylindrical grips, and ball-and-acorn terminals; the tip of one is hammered into a hook holding a shaped locking ring that fits over the other handle to secure closed. Both handles have small arrow-shaped pads double-riveted to plates. No marks.
According to the accession file, the donor was apparently related to early Dutch settlers in New York and this wafer iron and waffle iron, DL*59.2205-.2206 are catalogued as having been "brought from Holland by early New York Dutch." The catalog card dates this wafer iron to "second quarter 18th century". Date seems early; further research needed.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1725-1750
ID Number
DL.59.2205
catalog number
59.2205
accession number
205078
TITLE: Meissen: Pair of PlatesMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: D.
Description
TITLE: Meissen: Pair of Plates
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: D. 9⅞" 25.1cm
OBJECT NAME: Plates
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1750-1760
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 63.244. AB
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 378 AB
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “22” impressed.
PURCHASED FROM: Arthur S. Vernay, New York, 1943.
These plates are from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychoanalysis and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
Sprays of natural flowers take up the center of these plates. The reserves on the flanges frame paintings in onglaze enamel of songbirds perched on branches that were likely based on hand-colored plates from Eleazar Albin’s (1713-1759)two volume work A Natural History of Birds, first published in London in 1731, with a second edition in 1738. The Meissen manufactory had a copy of the work, one of the earliest illustrated books on birds that Albin completed with his daughter Elizabeth. Keeping caged songbirds was popular with many people across a broad spectrum of the eighteenth-century middle class and the nobility, and their decorative potential was exploited especially in wall coverings, textiles, and ceramics.
The specialist bird painters (Vogelmaler) at Meissen were low in number compared to the flower painters, but the term “color painter” (Buntmaler) was a fluid term indicating that painters moved from one category to another as demand required, especially for flower, fruit and bird subjects.
The low relief pattern on the flanges of the plates is the so-called “New Dulong” (Neu Dulong) pattern named for the Amsterdam merchant who was a dealer for Meissen. Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) recorded modeling a trial plate for a table service for Monsieur Dulong in June 1743. The process of creating shallow relief patterns was laborious and required considerable skill, and the “New Dulong” pattern was the first to break away from the formality of the basket weave designs to introduce a flowing pattern in the rococo style.
These plates belong to the same or similar pattern as the tureen, cover, and stand (ID number 1992.0427.20 abc.)
On graphic sources for Meissen porcelain see Möller, K. A., “Meissen Pieces Based on Graphic Originals” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp.85-93; Cassidy-Geiger, M., 1996, ‘Graphic Sources for Meissen Porcelain’ in Metropolitan Museum Journal, 31, pp.99-126.
On relief decoration see Reinheckel, G., 1968, ‘Plastiche Dekorationsformen im Meissner Porzellan des 18 Jahrhunderts’ in Keramos, 41/42, Juli/Oktober , p. 103, 104, 77-No. 60.
On the painting division at Meissen see Rückert, R., 1990, Biographische Daten der Meißener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, pp. 134-136
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 412-413.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750
1750
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.63.244A
catalog number
63.244A
accession number
250446
collector/donor number
378h
Plain-rimmed circular dish with shallow, flat well scored around perimeter; no foot ring.
Description
Plain-rimmed circular dish with shallow, flat well scored around perimeter; no foot ring. Underside of rim is struck with seven marks, three at top are a partial touch mark for Stephen Cox, an incuse crowned "X", and an indented oval bordered by "[HARD] / [METAL]", while four partial hallmarks are below (left to right): "S•C" between horizontal lines and Britannia seated, both in squares, a lion's head erased facing left in an octagon, and an illegible figure (a rooster walking left) in a clipped-corner square. Two clipped-corner white paper collector's labels adhered near center of underside. One of three plates, DL*006812.03-.05.
Maker is Stephen Cox of Bristol, England, w. 1735-1754.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1735-1754
ID Number
DL.006812.04
accession number
28810
catalog number
6812.04
Counter-clockwise loop- or ring-top andiron with a rectangular upright tenoned through the squared, shallow-arched legs. Billet bar tenoned through upright at middle. No marks.
Description
Counter-clockwise loop- or ring-top andiron with a rectangular upright tenoned through the squared, shallow-arched legs. Billet bar tenoned through upright at middle. No marks. One of a pair, DL*388201A-B.
Small size and short billet bar suggest these are possibly a pair of creepers (used between larger andirons) or meant for use in a small fireplace.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1680-1750
ID Number
DL.388205B
catalog number
388205B
accession number
182022
TITLE: Meissen cup and saucerMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: Cup: H. 1⅞" 4.8cm; Saucer: D.
Description
TITLE: Meissen cup and saucer
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: Cup: H. 1⅞" 4.8cm; Saucer: D. 5¼" 13.3cm
OBJECT NAME: Cup and saucer
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1755
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1992.0427.06 a,b
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 51 a,b
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “17” impressed on saucer; “66” or “99” impressed on cup.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1941.
This cup and saucer is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
On this cup and saucer the blue ground incorporates a scale pattern leaving two reserves for the overglaze enamel painted sprays of naturalistic flowers and fruits.
European flowers began to appear on Meissen porcelain in about 1740 as the demand for Far Eastern patterns became less dominant and more high quality printed sources became available in conjunction with growing interest in the scientific study of flora and fauna. For the earlier style of “German flowers” (deutsche Blumen) the Meissen painters referred, among other publications, to Johann Wilhelm Weinmann’s Phytantoza Iconographia (Nuremberg 1737-1745), in which many of the plates of fruits and flowers were engraved after drawings by the outstanding botanical illustrator Georg Dionys Ehret (1708-1770). The more formally correct German flowers were superseded by mannered flowers (manier Blumen), depicted in a looser and somewhat overblown style based on the work of still-life flower painters and interior designers like Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636-1699) and Louis Tessier (1719?-1781), later referred to as “naturalistic” flowers.
The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Flower and fruit painters were paid less than workers who specialized in figures and landscapes, and most painters received pay by the piece rather than a regular wage. Details in gold were applied by specialists in gold painting and polishing at Meissen, and so was the application of the blue scale pattern. In the late eighteenth century flower painters were even busier and consumer taste for floral decoration on domestic “china” has endured into our own time, but with the exception of a manufactory like Meissen most floral patterns are now applied by transfers and are not hand-painted directly onto the porcelain.
On graphic sources for Meissen porcelain see Möller, K. A., “Meissen Pieces Based on Graphic Originals” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp.85-93; Cassidy-Geiger, M., 1996, ‘Graphic Sources for Meissen Porcelain’ in Metropolitan Museum Journal, 31, pp.99-126.
On the painting division at Meissen see Rückert, R., 1990, Biographische Daten der Meißener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, pp. 134-136
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 408-409.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1755
1755
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1992.0427.06ab
catalog number
1992.0427.06ab
accession number
1992.0427
collector/donor number
51
Plain-rimmed circular plate with shallow, flat well scored around perimeter; no foot ring.
Description
Plain-rimmed circular plate with shallow, flat well scored around perimeter; no foot ring. Underside of rim is struck with seven marks, three at top are a partial touch mark for Stephen Cox, an incuse crowned "X", and an indented oval bordered by "[HARD] / [METAL]", while four partial hallmarks are below (left to right): "S•C" between horiztonal lines and Britannia seated, both in squares, a lion's head erased facing left in an octagon, and an illegible figure (a rooster walking left) in a clipped-corner square. Two clipped-corner white paper collector's labels adhered near center of underside. One of three plates, DL*006812.03-.05.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1735-1754
ID Number
DL.006812.05
accession number
28810
catalog number
6812.05
Jersey measure with conjoined twin-acorn thumb piece; half gill size. Wedge extension is burnt to the plain, pointed and pouted lid. Plain body with a slightly flared rim and incised base. Strap handle with short terminal; cylindrical strut.
Description
Jersey measure with conjoined twin-acorn thumb piece; half gill size. Wedge extension is burnt to the plain, pointed and pouted lid. Plain body with a slightly flared rim and incised base. Strap handle with short terminal; cylindrical strut. Crowned "GR" verification mark stamped incuse to left of handle.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1700-1750
ID Number
DL.67.0170
catalog number
67.0170
accession number
250853
Pot-bellied flagon or pichet with a horizontal or handlebar thumb piece and wedge extension burnt to the overhanging, heart-shaped, pouted lid. Plain, slightly flared rim; two pairs of incised lines around body and one around flared base.
Description
Pot-bellied flagon or pichet with a horizontal or handlebar thumb piece and wedge extension burnt to the overhanging, heart-shaped, pouted lid. Plain, slightly flared rim; two pairs of incised lines around body and one around flared base. Tapered, S-scroll handle with stepped thumbrest and scroll terminal; conical strut. Three stamps on outside of lid, two illegible next to a touchmark dated 1754 with crown above, interlocking "C"s at center and "R" below, all in a conforming surround.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1754
ID Number
DL.67.0261
catalog number
67.0261
accession number
250853

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