Description:
Half-round comb box with a fitted overhanging lid and covered with marbleized paper on all exterior surfaces of box and lid except bottom of box and a different color of marbleized paper used on the lid, which is hand-written on the bottom of box and on underside of lid, "Purchased / 1832" and contained the comb, HD 86.009. These half-round shapes were made to accomodate the high curved combs of the 1830s. There is a rectangular label on the rounded front: "Boston Comb Manufactory. / ALFRED WILLARD, / 149 WASHINGTON STREET,/ (OPPOSITE THE OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE,) BOSTON./ Shell and Horn Comb/ MANUFACTORY./ :viz: Plain, Side, Dressing, Round, and Pocket COMBS./ Shell and Imitation/ CARVED COMBS./ [pointing finger] Carved and Plain Combs made and repaired at short notice./ [pointing finger] CASH PAID FOR SHELL AND HORNS./ IMPORTER or [sic] EVERY DESCRIPTION OF/ HAIR WORK./ Viz. Bunches of Curls, Frizetts, Bands/ of Long Hair - Hair and Mohair Puff, Netts, & c. & c./ All Kinds of MOROCCO GOODS.....Silver Spoons, Gold/ Beads, Silver Thimbles, & c./ English, French, and American Perfumery./ Tooth, Nail, Comb, Shaving, Hair, and Clothes BRUSHES./ CONSTANTLY ON HAND A GENERAL ASSORTMENT OF/ FANCY ARTICLES, CUTLERY, & c. & c./ [pointing finger] WHOLESALE OR RETAIL - LOW FOR CASH." 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 Borton 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: Paper that covers the cardboard has worn off at edges; paper has darkerned except where it was covered by the lid. Paper has worn off if flat surfaces in places. Horizontal piece of cardboard in the lid has large, diagonal fracture; or maybe it was originally 2 pieces. Thread which held the pieces of cardboard together along the round edge of the lid is broken in places.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+86.010 |
