Museum accessions

Magazine Antiques, May, 2003 by Eleanor H. Gustafson

Pennsylvania German artisans in Soap Hollow--a small valley in Somerset County in southwestern Pennsylvania so named from the soft soap made there--produced a recognizable body of painted furniture from about 1834 into the second quarter of the twentieth century. It is perhaps less well known than the painted furniture from the Schwaben Creek area of the Mahantongo Creek valley, but it has the distinction of being characterized by the frequent inclusion of the words "Manufactured by [maker's name]" (or variations of this wording) stenciled in a prominent position as part of the decorative scheme. This has allowed for the attribution, on the basis of similarities in decoration, of a large number of pieces to the five identified Soap Hollow makers: John Sala, Christian C. Blough, Jeremiah Stahl, Peter K. Thomas, and Tobias Livingston.

Illustrated below is a Soap Hollow chest of drawers recently acquired by the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in neighboring Westmoreland County Attributed to Stahl, it is ornamented with pairs of stenciled birds, floral elements around the knobs, and frames around the keyhole escutcheons found on his signed pieces. As on several of Stahl's other chests of drawers, initials, presumably of the original owner, and a date, here 1867, are painted on one side. The top drawers are rounded on the front, as they are on others of Stahl's chests, and the backboard is exuberantly shaped to resemble breaking waves, typical of Soap Hollow chests.

Born on September 8, 1830, Stahl was listed as a carpenter with two children in the 1870 United States Census. He is known to have worked with Thomas prior to 1865, and their families both moved to Kent County Michigan, the Stahls in 1880.

There can be no greater satisfaction to a museum curator than to finally acquire an object that has been a gleam in the eye for decades. Such is the case with the labeled tambour desk-and-bookcase illustrated above, now safely in the Maine State Museum in Augusta. The contented curator is Ed Churchill, the museum's chief curator, who has tracked the secretary since the 1980s when he examined it at Mount Cuba, the house of the then owners, Mr. and Mrs. Lammot du Pont Copeland, in Wilmington, Delaware. When their estate was broken up last year, the museum made the winning bid at Sotheby's, New York, and the desk-and-bookcase came home to Maine, where it was made between about 1807 and 1810. The paper label inside the bookcase section declares, "MAHOGANY,/AND BIRCH FURNITURE/ [OF] ALL KINDS, AN]) OF THE LATEST FASHIONS,/ MANUFACTURED BY/DINSMORE & BATCHELDER/Brunswick (Maine)."

The partnership of James Dinsmore and Smith Batchelder is verified in a deed of 1807, but Batchelder disappears from the records after his listing in the 1810 federal census. Dinsmore continued to live in Brunswick until at least 1820, growing ever more prosperous. He bought and sold land, became a gentleman, and even served for a time as a deputy sheriff.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has recently installed exciting new galleries for its American arts, including its recent accessions. Among die latter is the Herter Brothers cabinet illustrated at bottom right. Great attention was lavished on this piece, which beam the penciled inscription "Harriman" on the outside of the back rail, leading to the speculation that it was made for the railroad executive Edward Henry Harriman of New York City and his wife, Mary Williamson Averell Harriman, possibly about the time of their marriage in 1879. Stylistically the cabinet appears to fall between the one the Herter firm made for Mark Hopkins, another railroad magnate (now in a private collection), and a more Japanesque cabinet now in the Art Institute of Chicago, both of which were made between about 1878 and 1880. Among the unusual decorative features is the stamped, gilded, and painted paper used to line the splashboard and the back and sides of the niches in the lower section, a rare survival.

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Chest of drawers attributed to Jeremiah Stahl (1830--1907), Soap Hollow valley, Conemaugh Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, 1867. Inscribed in paint "1867" and "K B" on one side. Cherry and tulip poplar with painted and stenciled decoration; height 54, width 403/4, depth 201/2 inches. Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greenburg, Pennsylvania gift of the Westmoreland Society.

Desk-and-bookcase labeled by James Dinsmore and Smith Batchelder (w. together c. 1807--1810), Brunswick, Maine. Mahogany and pine with mahogany veneer and various inlay woods; height 781/2, width 391/2, depth 191/2 inches. Maine State Museum, Augusta.

Cabinet made by Herter Brothers (1859 1906), New York City, c. 1879. Stamped "HERTER BRO'S" twice and inscribed "Hiarriman" in pencil, all on outside of the top back rail. Maple, bird's-eye maple, and oak or chestnut, with stamped, gilded and painted paper; height 521/2, length 72 3/4, depth 15 1/8 inches. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, museum purchase with funds donated anonymously and the Frank B. Bemis Fund.