Images(2)

Pair of Andirons

Dateca.1795-1815

Artist/Maker Richard Whittingham

OriginAmerica, New York, New York City

MediumBrass and iron

DimensionsHeight: 21 1/2"; Width: 10 3/4"; Depth: 22 1/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1930-503,1&2

DescriptionPair of brass-mounted andirons with uprights including cylindrical plinths, prominent belted balls, and turned spindle finials. The shaped billet bars have integral rear feet, en suite brass log stops, and spurred cabriole legs set atop ball feet. Small legs add extra support to the billet bars directly below the log stops.
Label TextThe tail end of the eighteenth and the first decades of the nineteenth centuries were a "golden age" for American andirons. With bold silhouettes composed of cabriole legs, plinths, finials, and spires, their gleaming brass forms brough elegance and light to the dingiest space in a fine room. Most were crafted in the larger cities like this set, made by Richard Whittingham, or his son by the same name, in what is now the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

The elder Richard came from Birmingham, England and first appeared in the New York Directory in 1795 as "Richard Whittingham, brass founder" on Henry Street. Richard Whittingham, Jr. was first listed in 1810, and had evidently taken over his father's business by 1818, when he was listed as a brass founder at his father's last foundry address, while Richard Sr. was listed without occupation.
Markings"R•WITTINGHAM" and "N•YORK," incuse, in two lines struck into the reverse of the uprights near the bottom.
ProvenanceFormerly in the collection of Louis G. Myers (Fair Haven,NJ). Sold to Colonial Williamsburg by Myers as part of his collection on November 13, 1929.