: It is not all gold that glitters in the new show "A Brass
Menagerie: Metalwork of the Aesthetic Movement," which recently
opened at the Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute. The subject
is brass and the inspirations that drove largely anonymous
metalsmiths to produce such astonishing feats of flamboyance as
those on view. The 75 works in the exhibition take ornamentation
to dizzying heights, each piece more amazing than the last.
The Aesthetic movement in the United States occupied the short
span between the high Victorian and the Arts and Crafts movement.
Although it arrived on these shores from England, it was a
considerably milder affair than in England where the cult of
beauty prevailed unto silliness. In that vein, high aesthete
Oscar Wilde was said to have sat up all night talking to a
primrose he found particularly fetching.
While the Aesthetic movement evolved in reaction to
industrialization, it was also a result of it. The new and
fanciful embellishments of art brass and bronze would not have
been possible without the expansion of technology. American art
brass began as an aesthetic counterpoint to the dark and heavy
rooms of the Victorian era. As a bright spot, it caught on
quickly, relieving the ponderousness of period furnishings.
The top of a fancifully wrought table is decorated with
Japanese design elements. Tubular brass rods with brass balls
end in interestingly formed feet. The maker is unknown.
"A Brass Menagerie" is a dazzling display of that brass
lighting, furniture, fireplace equipment and door hardware. Many of
the objects on view were adorned with glass and crystal prisms and
balls to enhance the reflective qualities of the brass. They were
also given interesting ceramic flourishes to render them even more
aesthetically compelling.
Until the mid-Nineteenth Century in America, brass was used
primarily in the manufacture of armaments and other highly
utilitarian objects. The American brass industry had been
established in Waterbury, Conn., in 1802 when the Porter and the
Grilley brothers began making brass buttons. As other brass
manufactories set up in the area later in the century, Waterbury
became known as the "Brass City." Neighboring Meriden gained the
epithet of "Silver City" for its burgeoning silver-plate
industry. While the area did not possess the natural resources
required for metal manufacture, it did have more important
attributes: easy access to rail and shipping ports, water and
fuel to power steam boilers and a skilled workforce. The
proximity of manufacturers and their consequent centralization
spawned wide expertise in technology and creativity.
American art brass emanated from a convergence of events that
included the development of advanced technology in metal
manufacture, particularly in the Naugatuck Valley in Connecticut
where talented workers clustered. Another factor was the
influence of the Aesthetic movement itself, and the third driving
force was the astonishing craze for things Japanese that sprung
from the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia where the Japanese
exhibit was wildly popular. Art brass adopted a highly decorative
and distinctive mélange of Japonism and the Gothic along with
strains of Renaissance Revival, Greco-Roman Revival, French and
Orientalism (Persian and Moorish) and its manifestations
encompassed tubular frames, angles and stamped and spun brass.
Brass and mixed metal, particularly bronze, household objects of
every persuasion celebrated the style. And late Nineteenth
Century American householders coveted the gleaming golden sheen
of brass. It reflected light brilliantly at the same time it
reflected well on those who possessed it. It was, after all, the
"Gilded Age."
