USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume II > Part 43
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The demand for ironware stimulated local production. As early as 1643 bog iron ore was obtained from deposits beside the Saugus River in Lynn and there smelted and forged or cast as the need might require. From this source, as well as from Europe, some of the local smiths obtained their raw materials; but the venture was financially mismanaged and finally ceased about 1688. For these few years, however, the production ran, to quote a letter written by Governor Winthrop in 1648, "8 tons per week and their bar iron is as good as Spanish." The industry induced new people to come to the Colony, among them a mechanically minded individual, Joseph Jenckes ( 1602- 1683), who developed the first fire engine, who shaped the scythe in its present form, and who turned his practical nature to the manufac- ture of dies for the stamping of the "pine tree" coins at the Boston Mint in 1652-an act not pleasing to the English Government, which exercised the sole right of coinage; but the mint operated profitably,
3. J. B. Felt : "Annals of Salem."
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probably because those at home were too busy with other affairs to bother about it.
In 1629 glass was asked for by the colonists as well as other materials.
The only attempt at local glassmaking took place at Salem in 1641. There, Obadiah Holmes and Lawrence Southwick, together with the Concklin brothers, engaged in the manufacture of glass dur- ing the short period of four years. R. M. Knittle, in her book on "Early American Glass," is inclined to the opinion that "the output included roundels or bull's-eyes, thick coarse metalled lamps, pans and heavy squat bottles." Whatever the output, the enterprise was so short lived that it is of historical rather than of craft interest.
The windows of the better houses, such as the Parson Capen house in Topsfield, which was the wedding gift of a wealthy family to their daughter, were glazed, the panes being small and leaded, of diamond shape. This diamond design in the windows was sometimes repeated in the front door by grooved crossed lines, with iron or brass nails driven where the lines intersected, an instance of the irrepressible desire to decorate harmoniously, if sparingly, in keeping with Cal- vinistic sterness, yet showing a human wish to re-create the niceties left behind them in England.
Other ornamental architectural features of the outside of the houses were the carved drops and brackets at the corners, supporting the overhanging second story, and pilastered brick chimney, which can be seen on the Parson Capen house at Topsfield. Most other houses of this period had plain rectangular brick chimneys.
Entering the house, inside the door, was the narrow hallway, with a staircase leading steeply to the rooms above. On either side of the hallway were the principal living rooms of the house, usually the kitchen and the parlor. The parlor was also often used for sleeping, as can be seen by lists of furnishings of rooms found in inventories.
In the covering of the wooden floors the householder exercised his ingenuity in a form of simple decoration which could hardly call forth sermons on extravagance from the pastor, or fines from the court; although some of the more distinguished early settlers brought a few rugs, probably Oriental, with them from home, which were used as bed coverings. Most of the "common livers" covered the boards of the floor with clean sand :
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"Every Monday morning, after washing, the floors would be scoured as white as pine would allow them, in all regular establishments, and then the light blue sand, from the beaches of Gloucester and Ipswich, would be thrown on, in handfuls, so as to make circular and spotted figures. . . . When tidy housewives had so prepared their floors, they were lothfully crossed, for a day or two, by orderly children, who hated to erase the handywork of their mothers. Especially, if their little heads got inside of the front room door, did the whole appearance seem to salute them-kept for show-keep off --- make no tracks here.' "'4
The pine sheathing, added for warmth, formed the walls of the rooms, and here again the neat and orderly decorative sense of the settler prompted him to finish this purely utilitarian form of panel- ing with grooving on the boards where they joined; the beams also were simply finished with chamfering. Rarely the walls were plas- tered. This was considered a luxury owing to the scarcity of lime, which was frequently made of sea shells; this source of lime continued to be used, even in the eighteenth century; in 1724 an order was issued : "muscles shall not be used for making lime, or anything else, except for food and bait to catch fish."
The ceilings of the rooms were usually the planks of the floors above. A witness before the court testified that the floor boards of a house in Rowley were laid so loosely that a person above could look through the cracks and see whatever was occurring below.5 This crude workmanship had a practical purpose, that of letting the warmth from the fireplaces in the parlor and kitchen rise into the bleak unheated bedchambers.
The chimney was the central motive around which the house was built. In the kitchen, or hall, as it was then known, the fireplace was the cooking stove, oven, and furnace combined, and the huge hood was often large enough to provide seating space within the brick enclosure. The fire irons, the pots and the kettles, all the ingenious devices for roasting and broiling are evidence of the decorative mind with which the most commonplace things were wrought. The artist has attended to the turn of shovel and slicer handles, to the curve of
4. J. B. Felt : "Annals of Salem."
5. T. F. Waters: "Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony."
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a skewer hook and the proportion of a trivet, to the mechanical accu- . racy of a pipe tongs which has been carefully compensated to ensure that the ends meet squarely, to the hinges, the locks and the brackets which everywhere ornament their surroundings. Excellent examples of kitchen fireplaces with their practical contrivances may be seen in many of the house museums such as the Whipple house in Ipswich and the Ward house in the garden of The Essex Institute in Salem.
William Bentley, in his diary of Salem, written at the end of the eighteenth century, gives a description of an interior which seemed very old-fashioned to him. In 1796 he speaks of the death of a Mr. Symonds, apparently rather an eccentric old man, with whose loss "the appearance of the last and the beginning of this century is lost." The windows of this (Mr. Symonds') house are of the small glass with lead in diamonds and open upon hinges. The doors open with wooden latches. The chairs are the upright high arm chairs and the common chairs are the short-backed. The tables are small and oval, the chest of drawers with knobs and short swelled legs. The large fireplaces and the iron for the lamp. The blocks of wood in the corners. The press for pewter plates with round holes over the door of it. Large stones rolled before the door for steps. Old Dutch maps and map mondes highly coloured above a century old. The beds very low and the curtains hung upon the walls. . "
An inventory of one of the wealthiest houses of the time is inter- esting, because it shows the type of importation which was in demand and indicates the goal toward which the local craftsman must strive if he wished to win the market for himself. Nathaniel Rogers died in Ipswich in 1655 and left an estate valued at £1,497; he was a wealthy man.
"His hall contained a small cistern, with other implements, valued at 17s. (this was an urn, probably of pewter for hold- ing water and wine, and the 'other implements' were wine glasses perhaps), two Spanish platters of earthen or china ware, very rare at that time, a chest and hanging cupboard, a round table with five joined stools, six chairs and five cushions. Evidently this was a dining room, for the kitchen was a sepa- rate room, with an elaborate set of pewter dishes, flagons, and the like that weighed a hundred and fifty pounds, and
Essex-67
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the usual paraphernalia of cooking utensils includings a 'jacke' for turning the spit.
"The parlor contained some rare articles, a great chair, two pictures, a livery cupboard, a clock and other implements worth three pounds, window curtains and rods, and the one solitary musical instrument in all the town, so far as early inventories show, a 'treble violl,' by which is meant, it may be supposed, a violin. Yet this elegant room had a canopy bed and down pillows.
"The chamber furnishings were exceptionally fine. Its bed and bedding were valued at £14/10. A single 'per- petuanny coverlet' was appraised at £1/5. There was a gilt looking glass, a 'childing wicker basket' for the babies toilet, perhaps, a table basket, and a sumptuous store of linen. A single suit of diaper table linen was reckoned at £4, two pair of Holland sheets at £3/10, five fine pillow beeres or cases, £1/15, and goods brought from Old England worth over £20."
It is not likely that the implication that all else was locally made is intended; these were probably additional goods brought from Old England. To continue :
"In the chamber over the hall, were a yellow rug, a couch, silver plate worth £35/18, and the only watch I have ever found mentioned, valued at £4, in addition to the common furniture. The study gloried in a library worth £100, an extraordinary collection of books, revealing scholarly tastes as well as a plethoric purse, a cabinet, a desk and two chairs, and a pair of creepers or little fire irons."6
The shapes of the furniture, whether of the wealthy or of the less wealthy were for the most part simple. Pine was frequently used in combination with oak, or by itself.7 The chest was a common article of furniture; it was simple to make and with its handles easy to move. Often it was brightly painted, usually a single color, blue, green, brick red, but harmonizing with the general oak and pine sur- roundings with an effect far from sombre. Later, as life became more
6. T. F. Waters: "Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony."
7. Some excellent examples of pine furniture are illustrated by R. H. Kettell : "Pine Furniture of Early New England."
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sedentary, drawers were set in the base and the chest became height- ened. It was then a convenient table; platters, lamps, embroidered covers were placed upon it. The lid became impractical and drawers were installed from bottom to top; the chest was given legs and became the lowboy; another chest was set above it to make a new piece of furniture, the highboy.
Chairs were not common in the seventeenth century; stools and settles were simple to construct and did service for all but the wealthy. Even so "the value of the ordinary chair was slight. A common entry in the inventories is a trifling sum set down to wooden goods and other lumber."s
Not so trifling, however, was the Rogers bed, cited above, nor that belonging to John Whittingham and priced in 1648 together with "two fether beds, curtains, rugg, etc.," at thirteen pounds, which was alone worth more than twice the value of some of the dwellings of the day.º We have no picture of either of these beds beyond that which the imagination may conjecture, but it is likely that their worth was concerned with the carving of the wood, as well as with the cover- ings, probably all imported. The joiner's work was ordinarily more simple. William Averill was the father of seven when he died in 1652, but he owned only one bedstead, which with the bedding, some small linen, and two chests was valued at £5/10, more than half the appraised price of his house and lot, £10.º No mention is made of other furniture.
Furniture undoubtedly existed when the need for it existed. Space in these houses was restricted, cushions were conveniently set on the floor, or upon stools which could be tucked away. A common article was the folding settle; this could be shoved against a wall and become a high-backed seat, but the back was hinged so that it formed a table top when the settle was drawn to the center of the room; drop tables with folding legs were also convenient. The ceiling was low, chests were fitting where large furniture was not. Small value was set upon furniture generally because it was often made by families themselves as required. Names are of little importance, consequently. Only toward the end of the century do itinerant joiners or turners derive profit from the increasing wealth of townships. Belknap lists three
8. E. Singleton : "The Furniture of Our Forefathers."
9. T. F. Waters : "Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony."
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joiners of the time who are perhaps typical:10 John Corning, bap- tized 1675, died 1733 in Beverly, was one; Samuel Beadle, in Salem, and his son Lemmon ( 1680-1717) are two others. It was at this stage of its development that furniture begins to undergo a certain skillful refinement. Not only the mere serviceable construction, but also the appearance of the piece is considered. Unnecessary weight is removed, proportion of the parts is studied in relation to the whole. The movement keeps step with the changing attitude of the period. The settler is taking stock of his position, weighing his circumstances with regard to the rest of the world, adjusting his life according to those proportions which seem to him most convenient and which give him the best possible appearance in the eyes of the community. Design, however unconscious, is an integral part of his living.
The entire interior was probably arranged with a mind to making the rude buildings as attractive as possible. Domestic tableware and kitchenware must have contributed brightly to the scene, pewter, occa- sional silver, burnished copper, yellow brass. Giles Badger, of New- bury, died in 1647. From his inventory is gained an impression of the appearance his utensils may have made. "He left to his young widow a glass bowl, beaker and jug, valued at three shillings; three silver spoons, £I/o and a good assortment of pewter, including 'a salt seller, a tunnel (funnel), a great dowruff (mixing bowl) valued at one shilling. The household was also furnished with six wooden dishes and two wooden platters."11 Wooden tableware was the serv- iceable and ordinary ware of the day.
William Clarke, a Salem merchant, died in the same year. His possessions were richer : "6 silver spoons and 2 small pieces of plate and the following pewter which was kept in the kitchen-20 platters, 2 great platters and 10 little ones, on great pewter pot, one flagon, one pottle, one quart, 3 pints, 4 ale quarts, one pint, six beer cups, 4 wine cups, 4 candlesticks, 5 chamber pots, 2 lamps, one tunnel, 6 saucers & miscellaneous old pewter, the whole valued at £7. The household was also supplied with 'china dishes' valued at 12 shill- ings."11 Porcelain had not yet come into general use and was a mark of costly elegance.
The pewter craft did not develop in Essex County until sometime in the middle of the eighteenth century. It probably originated with .
IO. H. W. Belknap: "Artists and Craftsmen of Essex County."
II. G. F. Dow: "Notes on Pewter," "Old-Time New England," Vol. XIV, No. I.
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seventeenth century tinkers, who occupied themselves by repairing the easily broken ware. Thin pewter spoons were bent or broken; tin melts readily and pots became soft and misshapen; constant repairing was necessary. In his book on pewter, J. B. Kerfoot asserts that he has been able to find no pewter objects which can be identified as of colonial workmanship before 1750. Workers limited themselves to trading and repairing. That no markings appear earlier than 1750 does not mean that pewter was not used in this country, however. There are records of men known as pewterers outside of Essex County in 1654, 1660, 1678, and 1683.12 There was imported pew- ter as we have seen; but the only name of a pewterer living within the county boundaries mentioned in the seventeenth century is that of Richard Graves, who arrived in Salem in 1635. He comes to attention because of his frequent citation in court records; the point to be noted in this connection is that pewtering didn't occupy his full time. Ferry tending, stealing fence rails and other wood, gambling, "kissing Goody Gent twice," were some of the other pursuits.11 The pewter trade at this time was not large; it was not sufficient to war- rant the attention which would record its activity, nor to keep one craftsman busy, nor to stimulate the imaginative design that comes with constant preoccupation.
It may seem curious that among the somewhat simple effects of the early settlers silver should play a greater part than pewter. Inven- tories give the impression that the colonists were very well off, but it must be remembered that only the finer belongings of the wealthier people were worth the trouble to inventory; the majority of the set- tlers had no inventory at all. The arts of design flourish on the wealth of a community, whether the wealth belongs to a few in pro- portion to the population or whether it is well scattered; but they flourish only when the wealth is turned to their account. In the seven- teenth century it was turned to the account of the silversmith.
In contrast to the dearth of names among pewterers, those known to have worked in silver are far more numerous, and one or two are of real importance artistically. The reason probably lies in the fact that these men were known for their silver rather than for pewter with which they may have worked as well. Either they failed to mark pewter ware, as being of minor importance, or else it has long since
12. W. A. Dyer : "Early American Craftsmen."
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been melted to serve Revolutionary guns; certainly much of the early pewter disappeared in this way. Silver being more costly would be less readily melted; rather it would be hidden with the hope that its value might be realized on better opportunity. Much silver has been lost from the vicinity because it was carried off by the wealthy loyalists previous to the Revolution. Whatever the circumstances which impede or reward research, the silver of early years is more com- monly to be found than pewter, and the makers of it are in many cases known.
Among others William Moulton, born in England in 1617, who came to Newbury in 1637, is noted as the forebear of a long line of silver workers, rather than for any work which he did. He died in 1664. His son was born in that year and is recorded as a maker of silver buckles and ornaments. At the end of the century the third generation, Joseph Moulton (1694-1758?) became a blacksmith and maker of gold beads. For eight generations, until 1917, with the retirement of William Moulton 5th, the succession of gold and silver- smiths continues.13
Samuel Phillips was a silversmith in Salem. The date of his birth is not known, but he was first married in 1687, later married again in 1704, and died in 1722. At the beginning of the new century Geof- fry Lang (1707-58) was also working in Salem and William Jones (1694-1730) in Marblehead. Names and dates such as these are all the information that is available concerning the activities of the ordi- nary craftsman. The greater part of their livelihood may have come from the making of buttons and ornaments; such small things the less wealthy might afford.
Yet the number of those who acquired wealth seems to have grown rapidly. They owned more elegant ware than pewter; but because most of it was imported, the less important commissions were given to local craftsmen. To such patronage Essex County silver owes its beginnings. These local commissions were as much the result of convenience as of artistic demand. The wealthy merchant had little security for surplus money gained through the prosperous ship- ping trade. This surplus consisted largely of coins bearing the stamp of many nations, which were bulky, liable to theft without the possi- bility of future indentification, and, for want of a standard commonly
13. H. W. Belknap: "Artists and Craftsmen of Essex County."
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inconvenient ; paper currency was unstable. He, therefore, brought his surplus to the silversmith with the commission that it should be melted and shaped as some useful article, a spoon, a caudle cup, a porringer, a tankard (the refinements of tea and coffee were rare before the eighteenth century), and thereby acquired a handsome realization of his success with the additional safety that the shape and mark increased the chances of recovery in case of loss.14
The practice of converting surplus coins into silverware continued to the advantage of the designer in spite of the fact that the General Court realized the necessity of a monetary standard and issued an order as early as 1652 for the establishment of a mint at Boston (as previously mentioned in connection with the stamping of the dies by Joseph Jenckes). John Hull ( 1624-83) was chosen mintmaster and chose in turn his friend, Robert Sanderson ( 1608-93) to be his part- ner in the enterprise. To Hull is given credit for the design of the pine, oak, and willow tree coins. The significant fact is not the quality of the design itself, but that he was, in 1652, a recognized silver- smith.15
Although most of Hull's work was done in Boston, and he is gen- erally classified as a Boston artist, he owned property and lived for a time in Newbury,16 and was representative from Wenham in 1668.17 To him was apprenticed Jeremiah Dummer ( 1645-1718), who was born in Newburyport, but who likewise did much of his work in Boston. However, the association which these two men had with the people of Essex County and their probable influence on county craftsman renders them important to an understanding of local work.
Dummer's work is of a good quality and may be taken as typical of the best executed by his contemporaries. Two examples, a tankard and a caudle cup, are worth comment.18 The tankard is as simple as the architecture of the period; it relies on solid relationship between bowl and handle and upon unelaborate moulding for its artis- tic appeal. The lid is decorated with plain gadrooned or ropelike moulding which tops the otherwise empty silver surface like ripples on a deep pool. Another example19 omits this gadrooning, but in
14. C. L. Avery : "Early American Silver."
15. Ibid.
16. J. J. Currier : "History of Ould Newbury."
17. W. A. Dyer : "Early American Craftsmen."
18. Illustrated by E. A. Jones : "Old Silver of Europe and America."
19. Illustrated by C. L. Avery : "Early American Silver."
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addition to an ordinary moulding a design cut from a sheet of silver (cut-card) is applied to relieve bare monotony. The handle here is of a more delicate turn than the other, but it is as stout, for a light empty tankard serves little purpose and the handle must prove its usefulness as well as grace. Usefulness is the heart and grace the soul of all the Puritan arts.
Dummer's caudle cups and standing cups are of a more delicate order than the tankards, but restraint is their charm; orderly fluting and gadrooning contrast with broad shiny surfaces. The flare of handles, the syncopated rhythm of moulded stems, the hinted turns at the lip lend an ease to the primly rounded bowls as the Puritans' pleasure and kindliness might vary an otherwise straight-sided dignity.
Much of the design was borrowed from England. The purchas- ers of silver were slaves to fashion. They ordered from local crafts- men what was too expensive or too impractical to import, but demanded that the product should resemble the elegant importation. And this it did, but with less sophisticated detail, less ornamenta- tion, less elaboration. Their lives did not possess the complexity of the high world from which they drew their fashion. Decoration which was worked into their silver was, consciously or unconsciously, intended to harmonize with these lives. This is the secret of the colonial artist who was capable of doing elaborate work. Examples show his skill, but show also that judgment controlled his design. Essex County silver of the period differs from English to the same extent that individual differs from individual, and one social group differs from another.
Pottery is mentioned as early as 1630. An enthusiastic Essex County settler writes to England :
"It is thought here is good clay to make Bricks and Tyles and Earthen-pots as need be. At this instant we are setting a Bricke-Kil on worke to make Brickes and Tyles for the build- ing of our Houses. For Stone, here is plentie of Slates at the Ile of Slate, Masathulets Bay and Lime-stone, Free-stone and Smooth-stone and Iron-stone and Marble-stone also in such store that we have great rocks of it and a Harbour hard by our plantation is from thence called Marble-Harbour."20
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