Domestic Furnishings

Tiffany Floor Lamp

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.

Date: 1780s

John Paul Jones

Black & white print; half length portrait of a man (John Paul Jones) in uniform holding a sword in his right hand and drawing one of five pistols that he is carrying. He appears to be in the midst of a battle on a ship.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black & white print; half length portrait of a man (John Paul Jones) in uniform holding a sword in his right hand and drawing one of five pistols that he is carrying. He appears to be in the midst of a battle on a ship.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1781
depicted
Jones, John Paul
maker
Guttenburg, Carl
original artist
Notte, Claude Jacques
ID Number
DL.60.3121
catalog number
60.3121
accession number
228146

Coffee Spoon

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1785
ID Number
DL.60.1168
catalog number
60.1168
accession number
52752

table

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1780
ID Number
DL.058850
accession number
209041
catalog number
58850

chair, side

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1780
1775 - 1825
date reupholstered
ca 1923
ID Number
DL.64.0040
catalog number
64.0040
accession number
246243

Tankard

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1752 - 1785
maker
Bradford, Cornelius
ID Number
1986.0027.93
accession number
1986.0027
catalog number
1986.0027.93

Saucer (Paten)

Single-reeded saucer or small plate, possibly a paten, with plain flat well; no foot ring.
Description
Single-reeded saucer or small plate, possibly a paten, with plain flat well; no foot ring. Small touchmark of Johann Christophe Heyne, his initials "I.C.H." in a scalloped rectangular surround, on underside of well near center.
Maker is Johann Cristoph Heyne (1715-1781), a Saxon-born and -trained pewterer who was also a Moravian minister and teacher. He worked briefly in Germany (now part of Poland), Stockholm and London before immigrating to America in 1742 as part of the first group of Moravians to settle in Pennsylvania. He lived in Bethlehem and Tulpehocken, traveled to Dublin, Ireland as a missionary and finally made his home in Lancaster around 1752. Considering almost all of the roughly 100 known pieces of Heyne pewter are for ecclesiastical use, this small dish or plate could be a paten. (See flagon by Heyne, 1986.0027.98; also from the Kler Collection.)
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1752 - 1781
maker
Heyne, Johann Christopher
ID Number
1986.0027.02
catalog number
1986.0027.02
accession number
1986.0027

Meissen figure of a boy

TITLE: Meissen figure of a boyMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: 7¾" 19.7cmOBJECT NAME: FigurePLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, GermanyDATE MADE: 1775-1780SUBJECT: The Hans Syz CollectionArtDomestic Furnishing
Description
TITLE: Meissen figure of a boy
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: 7¾" 19.7cm
OBJECT NAME: Figure
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1775-1780
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 73.175
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 170
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords and star in blue on flat, unglazed base.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1942.
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.
The boy stands with arms outstretched, and belongs to the later eighteenth-century Meissen models that represent children and family groups, subjects like The Good Mother and The Happy Parents. Many of these models were the work of the French modeler at Meissen, Michel Victor Acier (1736-1799), and the subjects appealed to the increasingly affluent middle class who bought figures and figure groups for display in their homes. Following the publication of Swiss born writer Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Émile in 1762, there was a surge of interest in the nurturing and education of children, and the importance of the parental role in their upbringing. Many of Acier’s subjects derived from engravings after the French artist Jean Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805), who specialized in painting themes with strong moral content.
Meissen figures and figure groups are usually sculpted in special modeling clay and then cut carefully 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 Meissen porcelain after the Seven Years War of 1756-1763 see Anette Loesch, “Meissen Porcelain from 1763 to 1815” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgeoisie 1710-1815, pp. 35-51.
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.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, p.476-477.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1775-1780
1775-1780
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.73.175
catalog number
73.175
accession number
308538
collector/donor number
170

Meissen plate

TITLE: Meissen: One of three platesMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: (85)D. 11¾" 29.9cm; (86A) D. 9½" 24.2cm; (86B) D.
Description
TITLE: Meissen: One of three plates
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: (85)D. 11¾" 29.9cm; (86A) D. 9½" 24.2cm; (86B) D. 9¼" 23.5cm
OBJECT NAME: Three plates
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1780
SUBJECT:
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 73.174B
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 86B
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords with star and “//” in underglaze blue; “13” impressed.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1941.
This plate is one of three in the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain (see ID # 73.174A and 1992.0427.11). 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.
Swags of flowers and blue ribbons frame the overglaze polychrome enamel painted subject in the center of the plate. The pastoral scene depicts a young shepherd attending to his sheep in a setting alluding to antiquity in the blocks of masonry and a ruined structure in the background. This theme marked a transition from the rococo style to the neo-classical and is known in German as the Zopfstil , or late rococo classicizing style corresponding to the Louis XVI style in France. Zopf means pigtail or braid in German, and it was fashionable at the time for men and women to wear their hair with a braid falling down their backs. Braids and ribbons like those seen on the three plates ornamented furniture and interior décor carved in wood or stucco and often gilded.
The Seven Years War of 1756-1763 brought Meissen’s production almost to a halt when Saxony was under Prussian occupation. In order to preserve the ‘secrets’ of porcelain manufacture much of the Meissen manufactory’s infrastructure was destroyed. The Saxony economy was severely weakened by the war which brought sales and commissions close to a standstill, and in addition Meissen faced growing competition from enterprises like Sèvres, Wedgwood, and the Thuringian manufactories. In 1764 the Dresden Academy of Art was reinstated, and part of its role in Saxon recovery was to educate the young and improve the standards of art and design in the studio and in the manufactories. Academicians from Dresden took responsibility for the art education of Meissen workers and introduced new designs to the manufactory in the Meissen Drawing School. Sometimes artists from Dresden painted Meissen wares and in this case the pastoral scenes were painted by Johann Carl Mauksch (1754-1721) who was listed as a student at the Dresden school for fine arts.
On Meissen following the Seven Years War see Loesch, A., “Sentimental, Enlightened and Classical: Meissen Porcelain from 1763-1815” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 352-355.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1780
1780
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.73.174B
catalog number
73.174B
accession number
308538
collector/donor number
86B

Meissen plate

TITLE: Meissen: One of three platesMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: (85)D. 11¾" 29.9cm; (86A) D. 9½" 24.2cm; (86B) D.
Description
TITLE: Meissen: One of three plates
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: (85)D. 11¾" 29.9cm; (86A) D. 9½" 24.2cm; (86B) D. 9¼" 23.5cm
OBJECT NAME: Three plates
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1780
SUBJECT:
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 73.174B
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 86A
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords with star and “//” in underglaze blue; “13” impressed.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1941.
This plate is one of three in the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain (see ID # 73.174B and 1992.0427.11). 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.
Swags of flowers and blue ribbons frame the overglaze polychrome enamel painted subject in the center of the plate. The pastoral scene depicts a shepherd attending to his sheep in a setting alluding to antiquity in the block of masonry and a ruined tower in the background. This theme marked a transition from the rococo style to the neo-classical and is known in German as the Zopfstil , or late rococo classicizing style corresponding to the Louis XVI style in France. Zopf means pigtail or braid in German, and it was fashionable at the time for men and women to wear their hair with a braid falling down their backs. Braids and ribbons like those seen on the three plates ornamented furniture and interior décor carved in wood or stucco and often gilded.
The Seven Years War of 1756-1763 brought Meissen’s production almost to a halt when Saxony was under Prussian occupation. In order to preserve the ‘secrets’ of porcelain manufacture much of the Meissen manufactory’s infrastructure was destroyed. The Saxon economy was severely weakened by the war which brought sales and commissions close to a standstill, and in addition Meissen faced growing competition from enterprises like Sèvres, Wedgwood, and the Thuringian manufactories. In 1764 the Dresden Academy of Art was reinstated, and part of its role in Saxon recovery was to educate the young and improve the standards of art and design in the studio and in the manufactories. Academicians from Dresden took responsibility for the art education of Meissen workers and introduced new designs to the manufactory in the Meissen Drawing School. Sometimes artists from Dresden painted Meissen wares and in this case the pastoral scenes were painted by Johann Carl Mauksch (1754-1721) who was listed as a student at the Dresden school for fine arts.
On Meissen following the Seven Years War see Loesch, A., “Sentimental, Enlightened and Classical: Meissen Porcelain from 1763-1815” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 352-355.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1780
1780
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.73.174A
catalog number
73.174A
accession number
308538
collector/donor number
86A

Meissen dish

TITLE: Meissen: One of three platesMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: (85)D. 11¾" 29.9cm; (86A) D. 9½" 24.2cm; (86B) D.
Description
TITLE: Meissen: One of three plates
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: (85)D. 11¾" 29.9cm; (86A) D. 9½" 24.2cm; (86B) D. 9¼" 23.5cm
OBJECT NAME: Three plates
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1780
SUBJECT:
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1992.0427.11
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 85
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords with star and “//” in underglaze blue; “13” impressed.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1941.
This plate is one of three in the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain (see ID # 73.174A and 73.174B). 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.
Swags of flowers and blue ribbons frame the overglaze polychrome enamel painted subject in the center of the plate. The pastoral scene depicts a shepherdess attending to her sheep and a cow in a setting alluding to antiquity in the block of masonry she sits on and a ruin in the background. This theme marked a transition from the rococo style to the neo-classical and is known in German as the Zopfstil, or late rococo classicizing style corresponding to the Louis XVI style in France. Zopf means pigtail or braid in German, and it was fashionable at the time for men and women to wear their hair with a braid falling down their backs. Braids and ribbons like those seen on the three plates ornamented furniture and interior décor carved in wood or stucco and often gilded.
The Seven Years War of 1756-1763 brought Meissen’s production almost to a halt when Saxony was under Prussian occupation. In order to preserve the ‘secrets’ of porcelain manufacture much of the Meissen manufactory’s infrastructure was destroyed. The Saxony economy was severely weakened by the war which brought sales and commissions close to a standstill, and in addition Meissen faced growing competition from enterprises like Sèvres, Wedgwood, and the Thuringian manufactories. In 1764 the Dresden Academy of Art was reinstated, and part of its role in Saxon recovery was to educate the young and improve the standards of art and design in the studio and in the manufactories. Academicians from Dresden took responsibility for the art education of Meissen workers and introduced new designs to the manufactory in the Meissen Drawing School. Sometimes artists from Dresden painted Meissen wares and in this case the pastoral scenes were painted by Johann Carl Mauksch (1754-1721) who was listed as a student at the Dresden school for fine arts.
On Meissen following the Seven Years War see Loesch, A., “Sentimental, Enlightened and Classical: Meissen Porcelain from 1763-1815” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 352-353.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1780
1780
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1992.0427.11
accession number
1992.0427
catalog number
1992.0427.11
collector/donor number
85

chair, side

date made
1760 - 1780
ID Number
1990.0455.04
catalog number
1990.0455.04
accession number
1990.0455
catalog number
1990.455.4

Side Chair

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1760 - 1780
ID Number
1990.0455.05
catalog number
1990.0455.05
accession number
1990.0455

chair, side

date made
1760 - 1780
ID Number
1990.0455.03
catalog number
1990.0455.03
accession number
1990.0455
catalog number
1990.455.3

chair, corner

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1775 - 1785
ca 1760 - 1790
ID Number
1978.0108.01
accession number
1978.0108
catalog number
1978.0108.01

chair, side

date made
1760 - 1780
ID Number
1990.0455.02
catalog number
1990.0455.02
accession number
1990.0455
catalog number
1990.455.2

chair, side

date made
1760 - 1780
ID Number
1990.0455.01
catalog number
1990.0455.01
accession number
1990.0455
catalog number
1990.455.1

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