Label Text:
SKINNER LABEL: This type of lamp is also used in Labrador.
SKINNER CATALOGUE: A small soapstone open grease lamp. Shallow and roughly semicircular to triangular in shape, with the two front corners serving as wick channels, or moss could be floated in the middle for a wick. From Nantucket - but probably made in China for the Alaskan trade and brought from there by a Nantucket whaler.
The whaling industry also acted as an avenue for trade and cultural exchange. This small soapstone grease lamp from Nantucket, MA was probably made in China for the Alaskan trade and then brought from Alaska via a Nantucket whaler. By the 1830s, the Massachusetts merchants entered the profitable China, India, and Spice Island trades. Increasing numbers of household goods and art from Asia began to appear in the mansions of the city's whaling men and merchant traders during this period.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+SK+E.13.V.22.1 |
