Description:
Tortoiseshell comb originally with 18 teeth and a carved decorative crest with three garland medallions, each encircling a flower, separated by two sections with garlands incorporating a heart shape, and a horizontal garland, which came stored in its original box (HD 86.010) and inscribed on the bottom of the box and lid "Purchased / 1832" along with a broken off tortoiseshell comb tooth which does not appear to have come from HD 89.009. This comb and box belonged to Charlotte Blaisdell Ruggles (d.1926), the wife of Professor Edward Rush Ruggles (1836-1897) of Dartmouth College and the grandmother of Mr. Arthur Ruggles and Mrs. Augustus T. Graydon (sister of the donor), who lived in Norwich, Vermont. Alfred Willard was in business at 149 Washington Street from 1826-1834? selling shell and horn combs among many other items. The Boston Athenaeum has a Pendleton lithograph of his shop. There are other Willard combs and boxes in the collections of the Winterthur Museum and Old Sturbridge Viilage. Condition: One tooth broken off, pieces broken off in two places in the decorative crest of the comb, small nicks in the comb teeth, surface dirt. Two more teeth broken off in 1989.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+86.009 |
