Description:
Framed coat of arms made by Pauline Rolf Lanphar Perkins (July 7, 1839-August 1860), the daughter of Samuel Deering Lanphar (1798-1849) and Miriam Tarbeaux (or Tarbox) Felker (1800-1892) of Biddeford, Maine, with a shield with crossed lances over "By the Name of Lanphere" in a deep-set, gold-painted wooden frame. The coat of arms is done in a tent stitch with woolen yarns in red, green, brown, black, and cream on perforated cardboard, a technique known as "Berlin Work". Berlin Work was popular in the USA from 1840 til the 1880's, with the use of new type of wool - Merino; by mid century, aniline dyes were being used. The subjects tended to be sentimental and often quite colorful. According to the donor, the great-great grandson of Samuel Deering Lanphar, the design was copied from a coat of arms painted on parchment made by Samul Deering Lanphere's sister prior to the Civil War, which has disintegrated. Although few American families were conferred arms by the English College of Heralds, the aristocratic connotation was no less meaningful to established families in New England; they did not hesitate to select arms of people with common surnames. By 1730, Boston heraldic painters had access to a number of publications that illustrated coats of arms from which to copy or combine elements. Heraldic embroidery provided the perfect forum for displaying needlework, education, leisure, status, and family allegiance. Nearly all the Boston coats of arms appear to be in basically the same form, but the earlier ones seem to be more lavishly embroidered in metallic material. These have been mistaken for hatchments, the coats of arms of the deceased which were often painted on black backgrounds and carried in funeral procession, hung in churches, and placed on the exterior of the deceased's house. However there is no evidence that these embroidered coats of arms were associated with funeral rituals although their shape and black backgrounds were probably inspired by funeral hatchments. See Ms. Lanphar's ambrotype, HD 97.061. The donor is the great-great grandson of Samuel Deering Lanphar.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+86.058 |
