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: 1890s

Charcoal Stove

Portable charcoal stove consisting of a hemispherical bowl with two, horizontal, wire lug handles and a removable grate atop a short, cylindrical firebox on a domed pedestal base. Square opening at base of firebox.
Description
Portable charcoal stove consisting of a hemispherical bowl with two, horizontal, wire lug handles and a removable grate atop a short, cylindrical firebox on a domed pedestal base. Square opening at base of firebox. Front of fire bowl cast with "GOTSCHER" in raised sans serif letters. Grate stamped incuse "9" on underside. Single gate mark on bottom exterior of base.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1893
ID Number
DL.325605
catalog number
325605
accession number
28022

Minton parian porcelain pâte-sur-pâte vase (one of a pair)

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
c. 1890
ID Number
CE.P-983
catalog number
P-983
accession number
225282

Vase

This tall vase, made around 1900 at the Grueby Faience Company in Boston MA, represents well the influence of the Arts and Crafts aesthetic in American pottery.
Description
This tall vase, made around 1900 at the Grueby Faience Company in Boston MA, represents well the influence of the Arts and Crafts aesthetic in American pottery. Boston’s Society of Arts and Crafts, established in 1897, promoted a return to handcraft production, based on the model of English reformers like William Morris and John Ruskin who sought harmony of form, decoration, and function, and an enhanced satisfaction with the handcraft tradition as an alternative to mechanical mass production.
William Grueby (1867-1925) was a member of the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts. Beginning in 1894 his Grueby Faience Company manufactured architectural tiles and terracotta moldings for the building trade, products which received favorable publicity. Illustrated in the magazine House Beautiful in December 1898, vases were a later addition to the company’s output. The designer of the Grueby vases was silversmith George Prentiss Kendrick, but William Grueby himself developed a novel range of matt glazes. The dark green version on this vase, “like the deepest green of a very dark melon,” invites us to touch the surface. The Grueby matt green glaze became a hallmark for the company’s art pottery.
The potter’s wheel was the only mechanical device used in the making of the Grueby vessels. Until he left the company in 1902 George Kendrick supervised the shaping of vessels on the wheel from his designs. He also supervised a team of workers who applied the plant motifs that form a relief over which the glaze breaks to reveal the light clay color underneath. Most of these modelers were young women trained in the Boston art schools.
Since the 1870s, Boston’s wealthy and civic minded elite encouraged reform in the visual arts through education, especially through its Museum of Fine Arts three-dimensional design and decoration program, and the state run Massachusetts Normal Art School, which offered training for the art industries. Art education brought employment opportunities to an increasing number of women, and their work underpinned the American Arts and Crafts movement in enterprises such as the Cincinnati Pottery Club, the Rookwood Pottery, and Tiffany Studios, long before William Grueby began to produce his vases. Grueby Faience Company modelers frequently applied a mark of identification to a vessel, but their work was not acknowledged in exhibition catalogues.
Grueby exhibited at the major world expositions, winning awards at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle that brought his pottery to the attention of the European market. A vase of this model was on exhibition there. Promotions by the Paris dealer Samuel Bing identified Grueby’s pottery with European art nouveau. In the United States Grueby collaborated with Tiffany & Co., most notably in the making of lamp stands, which emphasized a connection with the art nouveau style. However, in his collaboration with the furniture maker Gustav Stickley, it is Grueby’s roots in the American Arts and Crafts movement that predominate.
William Grueby acknowledged the influence of the French potter Auguste Delaherche (1857-1940) on the development of his ceramics, and it is not hard to see prototypes among Delaherche’s work for several Grueby vessels, including this vase. Delaherche’s work provided Grueby and Kendrick with a sound model, but from that base they later produced vessels with a distinctive character of their own, especially in the glazed and modeled surfaces. In 1902, a contemporary critic, Walter Ellsworth Gray, wrote an article in Brush and Pencil that described Grueby’s wares of a type “not…designed to catch the fancy of those who delight in excessive ornamentation, high or varied colors, or elaborate patterns. It is a pottery rather that appeals to those who are fond of simplicity of design and rich but subdued monotones.”
Grueby’s architectural moldings and tiles were made from a robust type of clay obtained from New Jersey and Martha’s Vineyard, and he used the same material for the pottery vessels. Consequently, this monumental vase is heavy, but stable, and its sturdiness affirms the handmade characteristics of Grueby wares. A strong tactile quality in the matt glaze that rolls over the surface of the vase refers us to the organic world of plant and vegetable, and at the turn of the twentieth century consumers found these qualities of harmony in form and surface immensely appealing. However, Grueby’s pots were expensive, and like most of the products of the Arts and Crafts movement, only affluent members of society could purchase these items for their homes.
date made
1899
maker
Grueby Pottery
ID Number
2007.0182.01
accession number
2007.0182
catalog number
2007.0182.01

Teakettle

Pit-bottom teakettle with bellied gooseneck spout and cast-in arched ears at its rounded shoulder for the strap bail handle, half-round in section; no feet. Pivoting lid swings on bearing beneath back ear.
Description
Pit-bottom teakettle with bellied gooseneck spout and cast-in arched ears at its rounded shoulder for the strap bail handle, half-round in section; no feet. Pivoting lid swings on bearing beneath back ear. Both pieces are hollow cast: body has a pronounced horizontal seam that extends to top of spout and single gate mark on bottom exterior; cover has "B. M. SAVERY / NY." cast in raised sans serif letters around a "7" at center.
"B. M. Savery" appears to be Bartlett M. Savery (born 1830), a holloware manufacturer and dealer at 26 Cliff Street, New York, during the late 19th century. Bartlett Savery was also a nephew of Peleg Barrows Savery (1805-1863) who founded Savery & Co. in Philadelphia in 1838, which became Barrows, Savery & Co. in 1875. Bartlett was an investor in and agent for Barrows, Savery & Co., and it is possible this kettle was cast there.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
late 19th century
ca 1860-1890
ID Number
1982.0090.75
accession number
1982.0090
catalog number
1982.0090.75

Stamp Box

Rectangular, souvenir stamp box commemorating the World's Columbian Exposition with "1492", "COLUMBUS" and "1892" raised in reserves on the box front and sides. Hinged lid features a curved shield engraved "JCT." in script surrounded by repousse chased scrollwork.
Description
Rectangular, souvenir stamp box commemorating the World's Columbian Exposition with "1492", "COLUMBUS" and "1892" raised in reserves on the box front and sides. Hinged lid features a curved shield engraved "JCT." in script surrounded by repousse chased scrollwork. Underside of flat bottom is engraved "Chicago." in script. Gold washed interior with wire spring holder connected to hinge. Struck incuse along edges of bottom underside, "HYMAN, BERG & CO.", a chimera crest, "PAT.PEND" and "STERLING", all in sans serif letters.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1892
date retailed
ca 1892
ID Number
DL.60.1852
catalog number
60.1852
accession number
200122

Ivory Portrait Medallion

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1848
previous owner
Pell, Alfred Duane
ID Number
DL.60.0350
catalog number
60.0350
accession number
225282

cruet

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1880-1890
maker
United States Glass Company
ID Number
CE.382648ab
catalog number
382648ab
accession number
163850

Minton parian porcelain pâte-sur-pâte covered vase

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
c. 1870-1904
date made
c. 1890
ID Number
CE.P-988ab
catalog number
P-988ab
accession number
225282

tumbler

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1880-1890
ID Number
1993.0592.03
catalog number
1993.0592.03
accession number
1993.0592

Cup

Large circular cup with plain rim and straight tapered sides rounded into a flat bottom joined to a flared base or foot ring. Flat-top, angular C-shape handle, rectangular in section with split-scroll lower terminal. No monograms or surface decoration.
Description
Large circular cup with plain rim and straight tapered sides rounded into a flat bottom joined to a flared base or foot ring. Flat-top, angular C-shape handle, rectangular in section with split-scroll lower terminal. No monograms or surface decoration. Bottom underside struck with incuse circular mark containing a pointed shield with balanced scales bordered by "x MERIDEN x / B. COMPANY." in sans serif letters. Part of cup and saucer set, 1979.0170.01-.02.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1852 - 1898
maker
Meriden Britannia Company
parent company
International Silver Company
ID Number
1979.0170.01
accession number
1979.0170
catalog number
1979.0170.01

Fanciful Electric Light Shade

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
est. 1899
1914-1915
maker
Macbeth-Evans Glass Company
ID Number
CE.914
catalog number
914
accession number
58571

Bread Raiser

Deep, circular, footed bowl with an inset, low-domed, ventilated cover; both bowl and cover are flared with wire-rolled rims. Cover has a small bracket handle riveted in place above its perforated top; bowl has two wire lug handles riveted below rim.
Description
Deep, circular, footed bowl with an inset, low-domed, ventilated cover; both bowl and cover are flared with wire-rolled rims. Cover has a small bracket handle riveted in place above its perforated top; bowl has two wire lug handles riveted below rim. No marks.
Used for proofing bread dough.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1895
ID Number
DL.67.0578
catalog number
67.0578
accession number
248268

knife, dessert

Dessert knife. Straight steel blade with rounded tip and “yankee” style bolster. Blade and bolster are one piece of steel fitted into a tapered ivory handle with rounded sides and butt. Blade is discolored with rust spots and corrosion.
Description
Dessert knife. Straight steel blade with rounded tip and “yankee” style bolster. Blade and bolster are one piece of steel fitted into a tapered ivory handle with rounded sides and butt. Blade is discolored with rust spots and corrosion. Ivory is discolored and cracked near bolster.
Blade is etched: “TRADE/MARK/LANDERS FRARY & CLARK/AETNA WORKS”; with image of arm holding hammer inside a triangle.
Maker is Landers, Frary & Clark, New Britain, Connecticut (c. 1862). In 1890, L. F. & C. took on the Trademark “Universal”, in 1965, General Electric acquired the company.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1880- 1897
maker
Landers, Frary & Clark
ID Number
1986.0531.068
accession number
1986.0531
catalog number
1986.0531.068

Stencil

Small, horizontal rectangular stencil cut with the name "M.a. Shakespear." in roman letters along an undulating line with five-pointed stars and two feathery flourishes above and below.
Description
Small, horizontal rectangular stencil cut with the name "M.a. Shakespear." in roman letters along an undulating line with five-pointed stars and two feathery flourishes above and below. Plate is unevenly turned over along all four edges and countersunk to a zinc frame with horizontal oval window on back. No marks.
Name stencils such as this are often referred to as calling card stencils, but were used to mark a variety of items, including clothing, textiles, boxes or containers, etc.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1865 - 1895
ID Number
1987.0001.2
accession number
1987.0001
catalog number
1987.0001.2

Steam Cooker

Two-pot vegetable steamer or cooker.
Description
Two-pot vegetable steamer or cooker. The upper pot has a low-domed, molded cover with arched strap handle, two horizontal strap handles at sides, and is double-walled with a perforated liner, while the lower pot has a closed-end, conical handle reinforced where it is soldered to the pot, a horizontal assist or carrying handle on the opposite side, and a flat copper bottom. Both pots are wire-rimmed with vertical folded seams. Lower pot is stamped inside bottom in raised san serif letters "KREAMER" inside an oval, and has an attached, bead-bordered brass tag on one side that reads "WOODWARD & LOTHROP / WASHINGTON D.C."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1898
ID Number
DL.178207
catalog number
178207

vase

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1885-1890
maker
Mt. Washington Glass Company
ID Number
CE.382685
catalog number
382685
accession number
164184

Wall Shelf

Fretwork wall shelf consisting of a serpentine-front shelf with perpendicular bracket, both screwed into slots on a sawn, symmetrical back panel featuring an openwork, S- and C-scroll design ending in a lancet finial at top and tripartite drop at bottom; bracket pattern matches t
Description
Fretwork wall shelf consisting of a serpentine-front shelf with perpendicular bracket, both screwed into slots on a sawn, symmetrical back panel featuring an openwork, S- and C-scroll design ending in a lancet finial at top and tripartite drop at bottom; bracket pattern matches those at sides. No marks.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1875 - 1900
1860 - 1899
ID Number
1991.0269.01
catalog number
1991.0269.01
accession number
1991.0269
catalog number
1991.269.1

fork, dinner; cutlery, set, part of

Dinner fork, part of a matching set (see 1986.0531.049 knife). Three-tined with a baluster stem. Tines, stem, and tang are one piece of steel.
Description
Dinner fork, part of a matching set (see 1986.0531.049 knife). Three-tined with a baluster stem. Tines, stem, and tang are one piece of steel. Horn scales are riveted to the top and bottom of the tang with brass pins to form a tapered block handle with chamfered edges and blunt butt. Steel is discolored, rusted near handle. Horn is cracked, chipped, and worn around edges and separated from tang.
Underside of stem is stamped: “STEEL”
Blade of accompanying knife is stamped: “H. G. L & Co/SHEFFIELD”
Maker is H. G. Long & Company, active in Sheffield, England ca 1846-present (now a division of H. M. Slater).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1846- 1890
ID Number
1986.0531.050
accession number
1986.0531
catalog number
1986.0531.050

Cheese Scoop

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1890
1905 or later
ID Number
DL.67.0784
catalog number
67.0784
accession number
269842

Cigarette Case

Rounded rectangular case with hinged lid featuring a polychrome enamel depicting a nude nymph or female sprite with small transparent wings and gauzy drapery over her midsection, sitting on a grassy bank with calm body of water to left as she looks at a yellow butterfly perched o
Description
Rounded rectangular case with hinged lid featuring a polychrome enamel depicting a nude nymph or female sprite with small transparent wings and gauzy drapery over her midsection, sitting on a grassy bank with calm body of water to left as she looks at a yellow butterfly perched on her left forefinger; softly focused backdrop of blues, greens and purples. Concave back is engraved "GBB" in conjoined script. Pin closure with two tabs at opposite ends of lid and back. Gold washed interior has a removable retainer stamped "STERLING" on reverse. Bottom inside edge of back is struck incuse with Gorham trademark (lion passant facing right, anchor, and gothic or Old English "G"), "STERLING" in sans serif letters, "190" and date mark of a double hemisphere world map; inside lid and back are both stamped "191" next to hinge.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1893
maker
Gorham Manufacturing Company
ID Number
DL.60.2041
catalog number
60.2041
accession number
200122

Match Safe

Souvenir matchsafe commemorating the World's Columbian Exposition in the shape of a flattened egg broken at its tip with strike plate at bottom.
Description
Souvenir matchsafe commemorating the World's Columbian Exposition in the shape of a flattened egg broken at its tip with strike plate at bottom. Repousse chased case with side-hinged lid has "COLUMBUS' / EGG" on one side (hinge at right) above a view of the Nina under the date "1492"; the other side has "SOUVENIR / 1893" on lid and an empty, asymmetrical, beaded C-scroll reserve below. Collar outside is struck above Nina "STERLING" in incuse sans serif letters. No other marks.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1892 - 1893
ID Number
DL.60.2150
catalog number
60.2150
accession number
200122

Minton parian porcelain pâte-sur-pâte vase (one of a pair)

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
c. 1890
ID Number
CE.P-982
catalog number
P-982
accession number
225282

"Puritan" Gas Stove

Single-burner gas stove and heater featuring a removable, openwork, domed crown with scroll finial; a brass scalloped-edge cap; a vertical, cylindrical shell or casing pierced with two rows of dots and pointed drops near top and one row at base; and a three-foot base decorated wi
Description
Single-burner gas stove and heater featuring a removable, openwork, domed crown with scroll finial; a brass scalloped-edge cap; a vertical, cylindrical shell or casing pierced with two rows of dots and pointed drops near top and one row at base; and a three-foot base decorated with Eastlake- or Art Nouveau-style anthemion and fan motifs incorporating "PURITAN" at front center. Two-pane mica door on front is framed by a plaque with "No 2 / CLEVELAND FDY CO" and "CLEVELAND O." cast in raised letters above and below. Rectangular riveted-on plaque at center below cap reads "PATENTED / JULY 31.94". The threaded connector for the supply valve extends out above the back foot.
Charles Whittingham of Cleveland, OH, received U.S. Patent No. D23,531 for his "Design for Gas-Heaters" on July 31, 1894. The design depicted in the patent application is for a larger heater, possibly Puritan No. 3; No. 2 appears to be a smaller version. The Cleveland Foundry Company of Cleveland, OH, manufactured heaters and cook-stoves under the "Puritan" brand name.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1894
ID Number
DL.60.0212C
catalog number
60.0212C
accession number
226327

Dish

Two-handled, shallow, X- and crosslet-pierced oval dish or bowl on an oval, domed and lobed pedestal base with a clear red glass insert or liner.
Description
Two-handled, shallow, X- and crosslet-pierced oval dish or bowl on an oval, domed and lobed pedestal base with a clear red glass insert or liner. Applied cast decoration at dish rim includes a continuous band of beaded five-lobed shells suspended on exterior along with two, C-curve ram's head handles mounted at ends that are connected by circular link chains to two ram's heads at center of sides. Underside of pedestal base struck incuse at one end "M'F'D & PLATED BY / REED & BARTON" in roman letters; underside of dish stamped "1985". No marks on insert or liner.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1875 - 1895
ID Number
DL.60.1152
accession number
113420
catalog number
60.1152

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