Description:
Liverpool delft tile decorated with a black transfer print by Sadler and Green, titled "Mercury and the Woodman" and set in a black, molded wood frame. The note on the back of the tile reads: "Tile from the fireplace at 350 Washington St., Abington, Mass, home of John King (1755-1819), great-great-great grandfather of Eleanor A. and Elizabeth A. Farrar of Lakewood, Ohio. The house was built in 1785." Fireplaces ornamented with Liverpool transfer-printed tiles are not uncommon in New England: Examples can be seen at the Ogden Codman House in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and the Jeremiah Lee Mansion in Marblehead, Mass. The scene is based on an edition of Aesop's Fables, "Fables of Aesop and others. Newly done into English. With an application to each Fable. Illustrated with Cutts", compiled by the Reverand Samuel Croxall and published in London in 1722. Mercury, who heard the complaint of a woodman who dropped his axe into the river, brought up three axes - the woodman's, one of gold, and one of silver. The honest woodman's claimed only his own axe; Mercury gave him the gold axe as a reward. The dishonest woodman immediately claimed the gold axe and receved nothing. The scene shows Mercury holding an axe, standing next to a seated honest woodman while the dishonest woodman stands in the background, all surrounded with an "88" border (for the double loop at each side).
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2000.68 |
