The W.T. Mersereau Company made a brass tête-à-tête that is
fairly formal yet still displays Asian elements.
Curator Anna Tobin D'Ambrosio points out that one of the most
important results of the passion for art brass was the universal
acceptance of industrial materials in the production of decorative
accessories, an acceptance that paved the way for various Twentieth
Century movements such as Art Deco and Modernism, among others.
"A Brass Menagerie" celebrates the fanciful productions in brass
and bronze. It also pays homage to those late Nineteenth Century
manufacturers that produced the fanciful creations. The objects
on view are grouped according to maker (where that information is
known) except for door hardware, where objects are on view
together.
Art brass furniture and accessories by such Connecticut
manufacturers as Ansonia Brass & Copper Company, Bradley
& Hubbard, the Meriden Bronze Company, the Charles Parker
Company and the Matthews & Willard Company are on view. Other
manufacturers whose work is featured are the New York firms P.E.
Guerin, Manhattan Brass Company, W.T. Mersereau & Company,
and the J.L. Mott Iron Works, along with R Hollings & Company
of Boston.
A table on view appeared in Ansonia Brass & Copper Company's
1883 catalog of "artistic brass goods." Perforated metal
cylinders, peculiar to pieces manufactured by Ansonia, adorn the
base and the ceramic insert in the tabletop was made by Longwy
Faience Co. in France.
Bradley & Hubbard began as a maker of clocks in the
mid-Nineteenth Century, and by the 1870s its factories employed
1,000 people. The company maintained retail showrooms in New
York, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia, and it made everything
from tables and lamps to hoops for ladies' skirts. A table on
view was made with a flowerpot on the top and has a cylindrical
floral ceramic base in turquoise with green, white and blue
flowers. Several similar examples without the flowerpot are also
on view.
William C. Peet designed a gleaming pair of andirons for the
J.L. Mott iron works in the favored form of the day - sprightly
sunflowers. Bottom photo is a detail of the sunflowers.
A sinuous 421/2-inch floor lamp on view was made by the New
York firm of P.F. Guerin in the form of an elongated bird, which
was a highly popular product. The form harkens back to Art Nouveau.
A 91/2-inch brass candelabrum festooned with dangling brass drops
and cut glass balls would certainly have reflected light in an
extraordinary way. The curved handle shows a Middle Eastern
influence, a central round support suggests either a cog or a
gothic religious article. A 17-inch candelabra is a symphony of
gleaming brass and glass. Scalloped flowers have crystal centers
and round and elongated prisms that enhance the effects of light.
In each case the maker is unknown.
A pair of andirons made in about 1882 for the New York residence
of William H. Vanderbilt, the interior of which was designed by
Herter Brothers, combines all manner of aesthetic design
influences. The andirons are dominated by pierced radial suns
with open-mouthed lions and exhibit a slightly Egyptian quality.
Another circa 1882 pair of andirons by the J.L. Mott ironworks
also features sunflowers, along with feathered wings and owls.
The top of a brass table is made with Japanese design elements,
stylized clouds and peacocks. Its circular base supports four
tubular legs decorated with brass balls.
The imposing Bradley & Hubbard clock was made with brass,
silver plate and glass, with French works. The dome is Moorish
in design; the floral motifs on the sides are Japonesque.
Two objects of seating furniture were made in Newark, N.J.,
by the W.T. Mersereau & Company, which began life as a New York
maker of stair rods and trunk hardware, and only later turned to
brass beds. A side chair whose tubular brass legs and back were
made to resemble tree branches has a wood seat and a triangular
brass back panel made with designs of trees and sunflowers.
Mersereau also produced other brass furniture: tables, music
stands, easels, cuspidors, even Japonism teakettle stands. A
tête-à-tête attributed to Mersereau has hammered tubular brass legs
and an exuberant serpentine top rail. It is part of the collection
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A Mersereau table blends the
Japonism and the Gothic. Fanlike elements descend from each corner,
and the tubular legs are scribed with an overall Japonism pattern.
The vogue for things Aesthetic extended even to door hardware, of
which a number of examples are on view. "Artistic house
fittings," as they were advertised, were a must for any home
designed in the Aesthetic style. They included doorknobs,
handles, locksets, hinges, escutcheons and window hardware. The
Japonism influence is clearly evident in these fittings. The
Russell & Erwin Company of New Britain, Conn., produced
bronze doorknobs with stylized images of a geisha beneath a
parasol and others with images of cranes and flowers. A pair of
hinges designed by Rodolphe Christesen for Russell & Erwin is
embellished with images of two geishas on a bridge, one with a
lantern and the other with a parasol.
An extraordinary brass and glass candelabrum has it all: Middle
Eastern accents, a floral element that evokes a cog and a
ritual object, dangling brass drops and faceted glass balls.
A bronze doorknob and escutcheon in the "Ekado" pattern was
designed by Hermann Jaworski for Sargent & Company with a
delicate allover floral pattern within a trellis. An exotic
doorknob and escutcheon by the Nashua (N.H.) Lock Company employs
geometric elements and Japonesque symbols.
Other Connecticut makers of door hardware were P. & F.
Corbin, Sargent & Company and Yale & Towne.
Curator D'Ambrosio notes that a number of pieces on view were
subjected to conservation, which revealed the use of interesting
and some unusual techniques in construction, materials, plating
and coatings.
A companion exhibit to "A Brass Menagerie" is "Japanese Design
Inspirations," which examines the sources of Japanese design in
the way of woodblock prints and books, including design books.
"A Brass Menagerie: Metalwork of the Aesthetic Movement"
remains on view through March 19. The exhibit catalog by
D'Ambrosio, is available from the Munson Williams Proctor Arts
Institute at 310 Genesee Street, Utica NY 13502. For information,
315-797-0000 or .
