A Selection of Objects from the Exhibition

Sugar box
Made by Edward Winslow (1669-1753)
Boston, Massachusetts; 1702
Silver
1959.3363 Gift of Henry Francis du Pont

Made by Boston silversmith Edward Winslow, this elaborate example of American silver was presented to Daniel Oliver (1664-1732) and Elizabeth Belcher (1678-1735) in 1702 upon the birth of their son. The complexly worked imagery on this box suggests courtly love, chivalry, marriage, and fecundity, all appropriate subjects for marriage and birth gifts. An interesting custom linking sugar boxes and marriage (and subsequently births) was that of drinking liquor and eating lumps of liquor-soaked sugar as a courtship ritual. Samuel Sewall, the noted New England diarist, recalled his unsuccessful courtship of Katherine Brattle Eyre Winthrop recording that "She gave me a Dram of Black-Cherry Brandy, and gave me a lump of the Sugar that was in it."

Kas
New York; 1700-1735
Tulip, maple; painted decoration
1958.1144 Bequest of Henry Francis du Pont

Vases & covered jar
Netherlands; 1670-1730
Earthenware
1961.1461.1, 1961.1461.2, 1961.1463a, 1961.1461b Bequest of Henry Francis du Pont

American Kasten were typically owned by Dutch settlers and their descendants in the New York and New Jersey regions during the early eighteenth century. The form as well as the grisaille painted decoration on the Kas seen here were derived from Dutch examples.

High chest
Made by John Pimm (d. 1773)
Boston, Massachusetts; 1740-1750
Pine, maple
1957.1084 Gift of Henry Francis du Pont

Representative of Boston japanning, the decorative motifs on this high chest range from oriental figures in outdoor landscapes with fences and pavilions to exotic birds and fantastic animals to varied floral sprays. Some of these motifs are "raised," actually built up above the surface of the wood with gesso and then coated with gold to complete the overall effect of shimmery splendor. This high chest is believed to have been owned originally by "Commodore" Joshua Loring (1716-1781), who, in the 1740s, became a privateer during the conflicts between England and France.

Bowl
China; 1785-1810
Porcelain
1961.1427 Bequest of Henry Francis du Pont

Chinese porcelain bowls such as this one detailing hongs--the residences and trading posts of Western merchants in Canton--were expensive "souvenirs" brought home by European and American traders. Along the rail fence that encloses the quay are flags of the various nations trading at Canton. Hong bowls displaying the American flag were not produced until about 1788, four years after the first American vessel sailed to China.

Portrait of Mrs. Benjamin Rush
Painted by Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 1776
Oil on canvas
1959.160 Gift of Mrs. T. Charlton Henry

Painted by Charles Willson Peale in 1776 around the time of her marriage, the portrait of Julia Stockton Rush depicts a serene and intelligent woman relaxing while playing her elegant English guitar with her books beside her. The daughter of a lawyer and trustee of the College of New Jersey, Julia grew up in a home where her father's library was reputed to be among the best in the colonies. Both Julia's father, Richard Stockton, and husband, Dr. Benjamin Rush, were members of the Continental Congress and signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Card table
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 1765-1780
Mahogany, oak, cedar
1960.1059 Gift of Henry Francis du Pont

Looking glass
Attributed to James Reynolds (1736-1794)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 1770-1771
Pine, poplar; glass
1952.261 Gift of Henry Francis du Pont

"Grand Platt Menage"
Staffordshire or Yorkshire, England; 1775-1790
Cream-colored earthenware
2000.5 Museum purchase with funds provided by Collectors Circle

Sconces
Probably London or Birmingham, England; 1760-1780
Brass
1957.126.26, 1957.126.27 Museum purchase

This carved and painted looking glass is one of the finest and most important examples of Philadelphia rococo carving. Made for the house of John Cadwalader on Second Street in 1770-1771, and attributed to carver James Reynolds, the looking glass is composed almost entirely of intersecting C scrolls and S scrolls and is embellished with foliage and trailing floral sprays. Few other American objects so fully echo the movement and motifs of the European rococo style seen in the imported brass sconce and earthenware centerpiece. The card table beneath the looking glass presents Philadelphia rococo furniture in a most understated yet superbly executed manifestation.

Dresser with sgraffito wares
Pennsylvania Folk Art Room

These highly ornamental sgraffito wares with their scratched and incised decoration were among the earliest Pennsylvania German arts to be collected. Henry Francis du Pont was not far behind others when he began to acquire such items in the 1920s. His final collection of sgraffito wares numbered seventy-seven pieces, to which the museum has continued to add fine examples. Although this dresser in Winterthur's Pennsylvania Folk Art Room would have held utilitarian pottery, it is unlikely that any one household would have owned such a quantity of richly decorated sgraffito.

Chest
Berks County, Pennsylvania; 1765-1810
White pine
1955.95.1 Museum purchase

Chests, or "chists" as they were often called in period documents, were perhaps the most essential piece of household furniture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This particular example comes from Berks County, Pennsylvania, a region noted for the production of a group of chests decorated with unicorns, men brandishing swords astride galloping horses, and distinctive sawtooth borders that frame arched panels on the facades.

Vase
Made in Josiah Wedgwood's factory
Staffordshire, England; 1790-1800
Stoneware (jasperware)
1997.14 Museum Purchase with funds provided by Collector's Circle and the Winterthur Centenary Fund

This monumental jasperware vase with applied relief decoration depicting Apollo and the Muses, is almost identical to no. 266 illustrated in Josiah Wedgwood's 1787 trade catalogue. Research over the past decade has revealed that in 1793 Philadelphia fancy-goods merchant John Bringhurst (1722-1810) placed several orders with Wedgwood among which was one for twelve vases, the most expensive of which cost £ 5.5.0 and had snake handles and reliefs of the muses.

Collector's console
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 1810-1820
Mahogany, satinwood; glass
1957.945 Bequest of Henry Francis du Pont

This unusual combination of pier table and collector's cabinet opens to reveal intricately divided compartments for specimens of various sizes. With a mirror affixed to the underside of the lid, the interior could be viewed even when the lid was partially open.

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Ave. NW, are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery’s Web site at www.nga.gov.

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