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. “A Brass Menagerie” is a dazzling display of that brasslighting, furniture, fireplace equipment and door hardware. Many ofthe objects on view were adorned with glass and crystal prisms andballs to enhance the reflective qualities of the brass. They werealso given interesting ceramic flourishes to render them even moreaesthetically 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.” Curator Anna Tobin D’Ambrosio points out that one of the mostimportant results of the passion for art brass was the universalacceptance of industrial materials in the production of decorativeaccessories, an acceptance that paved the way for various TwentiethCentury 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. A sinuous 421/2-inch floor lamp on view was made by the NewYork firm of P.F. Guerin in the form of an elongated bird, whichwas 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. Two objects of seating furniture were made in Newark, N.J.,by the W.T. Mersereau & Company, which began life as a New Yorkmaker of stair rods and trunk hardware, and only later turned tobrass beds. A side chair whose tubular brass legs and back weremade to resemble tree branches has a wood seat and a triangularbrass back panel made with designs of trees and sunflowers.Mersereau also produced other brass furniture: tables, musicstands, easels, cuspidors, even Japonism teakettle stands. Atête-à-tête attributed to Mersereau has hammered tubular brass legsand an exuberant serpentine top rail. It is part of the collectionof the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A Mersereau table blends theJaponism 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. A bronze doorknob and escutcheon in the “Ekado” pattern wasdesigned by Hermann Jaworski for Sargent & Company with adelicate allover floral pattern within a trellis. An exoticdoorknob and escutcheon by the Nashua (N.H.) Lock Company employsgeometric 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 .
28 Nov 2005 / 0 Comment
‘A Brass Menagerie: Metalwork of the Aesthetic Movement’ Glitters In Utica
Published: November 28, 2005
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.
The W.T. Mersereau Company made a brass tête-à-tête that is fairly formal yet still displays Asian elements.
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.
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.
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.
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