Day 358 - The Ipswich room


May 16, 2024

The first thing I note about Gallery 709, a period room that comes from a house in Ipswich, Massachusetts that was built around 1680, is how dark it is. Its two small leaded glass windows with triangular  panes are actually quite decorative (you can join the triangles in your mind to form diamonds, six-pointed stars, and possibly other geometric shapes as well), but  they don't admit much light. A low-beamed ceiling also makes for a closed-in feeling. 

But as I then notice, the room is actually quite large - perhaps 30 feet on each side. It would appear that the space served multiple functions: parlor, sitting room, likely kitchen as well. A large brick-lined fireplace occupies one wall, and two long-handled pans are on view One I immediately recognize as a warming pan. The other, according to the signage, was used for cooking; its long handle prevented the person using it from having to stand too close to an open fire.  A canopied bed occupies a corner opposite the doorway. Adding a note of vibrancy to the room,  both canopy and bed cover are red, bordered with red and gold tassels.  At the foot of the bed is a rocking cradle. Other items of furniture in the room include a dark wood cupboard and a chest, a spindle-back armchair covered with a red pillow, another spindle-back chair; and two pieces that, to my mind,  could have served as stools to sit on  or as occasional tables.

But the item that immediately catches my eye is an armchair made of oak, pine, and cedar dating to 1650-1700 and made in Plymouth County or Marshfield, Massachusetts. The chair has a rounded back,  perhaps 42 inches in diameter, attached to the rest of the chair by a hinge. The back could be lowered to form a table or raised to provide extra seating and strikes me as a real example of Yankee ingenuity, even at this early point!  But what do I know?  The furniture-maker may have been copying English models of the period. A less appealing but perhaps more realistic possibility.  The Met website provides no information on rhia matter.


 

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