Description:
Wrought iron lamp (electrified) with four-legged pronged base ending in diamond-shaped feet and a twisted shaft, which was made by Cornelius Mahoney Kelley (1874-1954). Born in County Cork, Ireland, Kelley moved to the U.S. in 1889 and Greenfield, Massachusetts, in 1891 where he initially worked for a carriagemaker. By 1899, Kelley was renting space in Deerfield where he was the village blacksmith making horse shoes and repairing farm implements. Beginning around 1900, Kelley gradually shifted his work from blacksmithing to fashioning reproduction hardware, fireplace equipment, and iron lamps and candelsticks.The twisted shaft design is Kelley's own distinctive weave, the "Kelley weave," an intricate four-ply braiding, which he started making in the 1920s. The Arts and Crafts movement, of which this is a local example, was considered finished in the U.S. by 1916. Kelley, who was more of a traditional blacksmith than artist, was never considered a "cutting edge" in the movement, but was a practical man who recognized the changes in society's needs and followed the artistic trends of the day in wrought iron work to become an American success story.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+86.007 |
