A rare and pleasing pointing hand-form hitching post with delineated fingernails and double rings, second half Nineteenth Century, height 37 inches.
:Not so long ago, the streets of cities and towns across America were lined with the elegantly restrained form of the cast iron hitching post. The sturdy sentinel was an eminently practical addition to the streetscape — it kept order by preventing horses from running loose through the roadways and assuring the driver or rider of finding the horse patiently waiting exactly where it had been left.
A peculiarly American form, the Nineteenth Century cast iron hitching post is the subject of the new exhibit "Horsing Around: Nineteenth Century Cast Iron Hitching Posts from the Collection of Phil and Bunny Savino" on view at the Albany Institute of Art and History through May 25.
Iron has played an essential role in America since the earliest settlements: the first viable ironworks was established in 1644 at Saugus, Mass. Colonial village blacksmiths created the tools, implements and utilitarian objects necessary to support domestic life. The hitching post was as important as other devices of daily life and its earliest manifestations were usually in the form of simple wrought iron rings attached to unembellished posts.
By the Nineteenth Century, however, evolving furnace technology at foundries across the nation allowed for more elaborate productions of an array of cast iron objects that facilitated a modern way of life. They included printing presses, stoves, farming implements, rails, street lamps and, finally, hitching posts. The elementary and utilitarian form ultimately gave way to a folk tradition akin to that of the walking stick: functional, linear and fancifully embellished.
The limits of ornamentation of the manufactured pieces were restricted only by the fancy of the artisan who carved and created the wooden pattern from which the mold was made. Little information survives about the actual production of hitching posts; and, of the surviving examples, only about 15 to 20 percent are marked. Even less information about the carvers is available. One exception is the German-born Julius Melchers, who specialized in carving cigar store Indians, but patented a horse head and chain hitching post from 1872 that bears his mark.
A rare African American head-form finial with well-defined facial features. Mid-Nineteenth Century, height 9 inches.
Nineteenth Century consumers could select an entire hitching post or just a decorative cap and finial. They bought from the local hardware store or directly from the foundry. Catalogs from the period reveal a startling array of choices, such as the heads of horses, dogs and other animals; elements of nature, particularly the tree trunk, and expressions of patriotism.
The image of the African American man is a perennial favorite, especially that of the jockey. Equally coveted is the form of George Washington's faithful groomsman, Jocko Graves, the 12-year-old African American who looked after Washington's horses while he and his troops crossed the Delaware to fight the British at Trenton.
Jocko kept a lantern illuminated so that Washington and his troops could find the camp upon their return. He was discovered frozen to death on their return, yet the lantern was still lighted and the horses he tended were still in place. Washington later commissioned a statue of the boy to honor his bravery. During the Civil War, images of Jocko or jockeys were used to identify stops along the Underground Railway.
