Description:
Pair of cast iron andirons with brass finials, possibly made at William Wilson's Greenfield Furnace in Greenfield, MA, c. 1832-1843. Pair of cast iron andirons with brass ball finials. They are in the American Empire style; the shafts are fluted Ionic columns supported by keystone shaped plinths surrounded on each andiron by a pair of outside curules/scrolls and a pair of inside curules/scrolls, which rest on tiny pad feet. The shafts are topped with round brass finials. These andirons are not marked but were possibly made in Greenfield, MA, near Mill Street where William Wilson and John J. Pierce ran the Greenfield Furnace from 1822. William Wilson (1787-1868) of Greenfield was a brother of Col. John Wilson (1782-1869) of Deerfield, a printer, civil engineer, and inventor. Wilson was known to have made similar cast and marked examples. William Wilson has a blacksmith shop at the northeast corner of Main and Federal Streets in Greenfield, MA, until it was destroyed by fire in 1822. Whether he was connected with James Wilson who made stoves and fire frames in Poughkeepsie, New York, has not been determined. Wilson had a patent was for the detachable billet bars (the bars that held the wooden logs).
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2022.28.2 |
