Henry Francis du Pont and iron - Winterthur - collection of iron decorative arts at Winterthur Museum

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2002 by Donald L. Fennimore

It would be easy to spend a full day viewing the period rooms at the Winterthur Museum and come away not remembering having seen a single piece of iron. This is not because there is no iron in the collection, but rather because Henry Francis du Pont (see p. 154, Pl. I) felt that period rooms would "show America as it had been" much better and more accurately than galleries with objects in cases and on pedestals. (1) In his mind, this meant bringing together in reconstructed antique architectural spaces thematically contextually, and proportionally consistent artifacts of all types to create three-dimensional environments that presented life in the past. The importance of that goal over the significance of any individual object was the driving force behind his dominant aesthetic principal, "that if you go into a room, any room, and right away see something, then you realize that it shouldn't be in the room." (2)

The iron is there in the multitude of purposes for which it was originally intended--a testament to du Pont's catholic vision in re-creating domestic life in preindustrial America. His interest in iron was probably an outgrowth of the way he chose to assemble and display his collection. By their very nature, period rooms need a broad variety of materials and forms to make sense. A recreated dining room of the 1730s, for example, cannot be effectively offered as a picture of the past if its ceramic plates are not accompanied by forks and knives with iron tines and blades. A stylish Philadelphia parlor is conceptually incomplete if the fireplace is not fitted with wrought-iron andirons and a cast-iron fireback. The hearth of a massive fireplace in an eighteenth-century Pennsylvania German kitchen is meaningless if not littered with a variety of iron forks, spoons, spatulas, flying pans, spiders (round-bottomed frying pans with legs), and cooking kettles.

When the first major catalogue of the collection at Winterthur, American Furniture Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods, was published in 1952, H. F. du Pont wrote a brief foreword in which he outlined the rationale for his collecting. Since the book was about furniture he focused on that topic, with one significant exception. He recalled that "The first auction I attended was in June, 1924, in Connecticut. There I bought my first iron floor lights." (3) This statement in a book devoted to furniture strongly suggests that iron was a conscious part of his thinking as he sought artifacts for his growing collection.

Indeed, when one peruses the Day Books that list in varying detail the many purchases du Pont made between 1917 and 1956, one finds iron artifacts entering the collection on a regular basis, eventually numbering in the hundreds. (4) In many cases the entries are ambiguous, as with the "pr. hinges" he purchased from the West Chester, Pennsylvania, antiques dealer Francis D. Brinton on December 1, 1923; the "Eagle foot scraper" bought from Henry W. Guest (1908-1983) in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, on November 1, 1941; or the "wrought fire carrier" acquired on December 31, 1948, from Charles M. Heffner (1887-1962) of Reading, Pennsylvania. In these and many other entries in the Day Books the fact that the artifacts were iron must be inferred from context and common sense. Also, because identically worded entries pepper the Day Books it is frequently not possible to pair an entry with a specific object in the collection. Nonetheless, some entries are quite explicit. On January 1, 1924, du Pont bought a "wrought iro n trivet American New England made, dated 1778" from Charles Woolsey Lyon (1872-1945) of New York City. On March 11, 1943, he purchased a "Steel chamberstick with saucer base with handle at side. Complete with scissor wick trimmer and cone snuffer American 18th century ca. 1770 Makers mark W. Parkes--stamped 5 3/4" bottom 5" height" from Douglas Curry of New York City. On January 17, 1952, he purchased a "General Wolfe fire-back" from Carl Jacobs of Southwick, Massachusetts. On November 13,1953, he bought the "Elaborately decorated pipe tongs" shown in Plate V from Winsor White, of Pelham, New York. The tongs are among the finest pieces of wrought iron in the collection and rank among the best made in eighteenth-century America.

The iron objects eventually formed a collection that came to be recognized and admired in its own right. This is perhaps nowhere more evident, and at an early date, than in the work of Albert H. Sonn (1867-1936), whose three-volume opus entitled Early American Wrought Iron was published in 1928. In it he pictured and discussed a constellation of wrought-iron forms that were in widespread use throughout early America. An impressive number of the illustrated objects are accompanied by the credit line "Mr. H. F. du Pont, Southampton, Long Island." The reference is to Chestertown House in Southampton, which du Pont began to build in 1924. (5) This was not only to be a fashionable summertime residence but also an 'American house" that would properly showcase the early American artifacts du Pont so revered. (6) Increasingly he came to see the house as an artistic creation devoted to American decorative arts history that deserved permanence. In 1930 he drew up a lengthy document outlining the precise manner in which the house should be operated as a museum in order "to afford all those interested an opportunity to view and to study the conditions surrounding the early American home life." (7)