Description:
Powder horn inscribed: "ROMAN WETMORE / Oswego Aug 6 1760." The horn has a single cartouche with a scalloped and cross-hatched border containing Wetmore's name. Details of the Hudson River with towns and forts variously inscribed "Albany," “Moon” (for Half Moon), “S-Water” (for Still Water), “Saratoga," and “Miller” (for Fort Miller) extend the lengh of the horn. The horn is also decorated with drawings of vegetation, an owl, and a deer. The border along the plug end of the horn is composed of a row of repeating cross-hatched trianges below a row of repeating leaves connected by arches. The spout end is decorated with a sawtooth pattern border.
Label Text:
Building a Collection, September 27, 2025-February 23, 2025: Historic Deerfield is home to one of the finest assemblages of American engraved powder horns in the country. This horn, showing details of the Hudson River with buildings variously inscribed “Albany,” “Moon” (for Half Moon), “S-Water” (for Still Water), “Saratoga,” and “Miller” (for Fort Miller), is marked with the owner’s name, place, and date of production: “Roman Wetmore / Oswego / August 6, 1760.” In addition to keeping gunpowder dry, powder horns served as canvases of sorts for carvers to execute whimsical designs and detailed geographical or landscape scenes.
The ornate crosshatched cartouche surrounding Wetmore’s name is characteristic of the as-of-yet unidentified Memento Mori carver, so-called because of the addition of this Latin phrase (“remember death”) on many of his carved horns. Historic Deerfield owns several other examples of horns produced by the Memento Mori carver, including the adjacent horn for John Rockwell (2005.20), which was made the day before Wetmore’s horn. Owning these two horns inscribed a day apart and attributed to the same maker is rare, providing unique insight into patron choices in motifs and decoration. It also helps to answer long-standing questions regarding the amount of time it took to complete a horn and how many horns a carver worked on at a particular time.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2023.27 |
