Étagère: full view |
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Object Description
| Brief description | Étagère probably made in Cassville, Grant County, late nineteenth or early twentieth century. |
| Object name | Étagère |
| Alternate object name | Corner shelf; Shelves; Whatnot |
| Date | ca. 1880-1920 |
| Dimensions | 60 1/4"H x 23 3/8"W x 13 3/4"D |
| Marks | Top shelf stenciled "GRO CO/ DUBUQUE" Second shelf inscribed in black paint: "Groc/ F. W. D./ Cassvill" |
| Original location | Cassville, Grant County, Wisconsin |
| Current location | Eagle, Waukesha County, Wisconsin |
| Description | This corner shelf, known as a whatnot or étagère, has four shelves of graduated size supported by four narrow hand-carved legs. The front of each polygonal shelf is edged with scalloped molding attached with nails. The elaborate ornamentation at the top, made up of small, flat, interlocking bits of wood, is a style of tramp art termed "puzzle work." |
| History | Tramp art is the name given to a type of woodworking popular in the United States between about 1865 and 1940, characterized by simple techniques such as chip-carving and whittling and the use of small bits of wood assembled into or applied to larger forms. In spite of its name, tramp art was not only made by tramps and other itinerants, but was a popular craft taken up by both hobbyists and professional artisans. This shelf was acquired by Old World Wisconsin in 1983. As is typical of tramp art, no information is known regarding the maker, but the use of wood from shipping crates referencing the communities of Cassville, Grant County, Wisconsin and Dubuque, Iowa suggest a connection to the Upper Mississippi Valley lead region. |
| Sources | Amy Ortiz-Holmes, Tramp Art: Cultural Expression, Visual Splendor, exhibition catalog, Robert T. Wright Community Gallery of Art, College of Lake County, Illinois (2004), available online (accessed December 22, 2008): http://gallery.clcillinois.edu/pdf/Trampart2004.pdf |
| Related objects | Other examples of tramp art in the Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database include a baptismal font from the Sheboygan County Historical Society (object # 1142) and a stand from the Mt. Horeb Area Historical Society (object # 1980.001.0006): http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/u?/wda,257 and http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/u?/wda,2115 |
| Owner | Old World Wisconsin (Wisconsin Historical Society) |
| Object # | OW1983.49.10 |
| Rights | (c) 2009 by the Wisconsin Historical Society—Old World Wisconsin Historic Site. Contact the owner for more information. http://oldworldwisconsin.wisconsinhistory.org/ |
| Digital collection | Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database |
| Digital identifier | OW030 |
| Digital format | XML |
| Type | Physical object |
| Keywords | Furniture; Étagère; Furnishings (artifacts) |
| Date digitized | 2010-06-01 |
| Date modified | 2010-09-27 |
Description
| Object name | Étagère: full view |
| Rights | (c) 2009 by the Wisconsin Historical Society—Old World Wisconsin Historic Site. Contact the owner for more information. http://oldworldwisconsin.wisconsinhistory.org/ |
| Digital collection | Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database |
| Digital identifier | OW030a |
| Digital format | image/jpeg |
| Type | Physical object |
| Date digitized | 2010-06-01 |
| Date modified | 2010-06-01 |
