Spoon: full view |
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Object Description
| Brief description | Carved spoon incised with political cartoons, Erik Teigen, Stoughton, 1896. |
| Object name | Spoon |
| Alternate object name | Treenware; Woodenware |
| Maker | Teigen, Erik, 1842-1902 |
| Date | 1896 |
| Dimensions | 21 1/2"L x 6 3/4"W |
| Materials and techniques | Carved and incised wood |
| Marks | Incised on underside of handle: "1896" |
| Original location | Stoughton, Dane County, Wisconsin |
| Current location | Decorah, Winneshiek County, Iowa |
| Description | This large spoon is carved from a single piece of wood. The handle is carved in the shape of curving acanthus leaves and incised with flowers. The interior of the bowl is incised with traditional Norwegian-style flowers on the rim and a political cartoon at the center. Captioned "Uncle Sam’s Sickness" the humorous vignette depicts a massive doctor (with a paper marked “$10,000,000 fee” in his back pocket) examining a seated Uncle Sam. On the exterior of the bowl, another incised cartoon illustrates Uncle Sam grabbing a short man (marked "Grover" for Grover Cleveland) by the ear and pointing to a board of financial figures. |
| History | Born in Gudbrandsdal, Norway in 1842, Erik Teigen (also called Erik Larson Nystuen) settled in Stoughton, Wisconsin in 1891, where he worked as a tobacco farmer and sign painter. While in Stoughton, Teigen practiced the traditional Norwegian craft of carving decorative wooden spoons. Many of his spoons, including this example, combine traditional Norwegian-style acanthus decoration with intricate figurative illustrations and narrative vignettes. The imagery is typically executed in a technique known as kolrosing, in which fine incised lines are darkened with soot or powdered bark. |
| Sources | Norwegian-American Wood Carving of the Upper Midwest (Decorah, IA: Vesterheim, 1978); Norway in America (Decorah, IA: Vesterheim, 1989); Marion J. Nelson, ed., Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration of a Tradition (New York, Abbeville, 1995); Kare Herfindal, "Kolrosing" Vesterheim 3:2 (2005). |
| Related objects | Several additional examples of Teigen's spoons are among the Vesterheim collections (object #s 1996.065.003 and 1980.064.003): http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/u?/wda,2043 and http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/u?/wda,1952 |
| Owner | Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum |
| Object # | 1996.065.010.1 |
| Rights | Image courtesy of and copyrighted by the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. Contact the owner for more information. http://vesterheim.org |
| Digital collection | Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database |
| Digital identifier | VNA004 |
| Digital format | XML |
| Type | Physical object |
| Keywords | Woodwork; Spoon; Flatware; Equipment; Tools and equipment; Furnishings and equipment; Food Service Tools and Equipment |
| Date digitized | 2008-11-17 |
| Date modified | 2009-02-24 |
Description
| Object name | Spoon: full view |
| Rights | Image courtesy of and copyrighted by the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. Contact the owner for more information. http://vesterheim.org |
| Digital identifier | VNA004a |
| Digital format | image/jpeg |
| Type | Physical object |
| Date digitized | 2008-11-17 |
| Date modified | 2009-01-12 |
