Furniture Hardware
1820–30
Medium
Gilt brass
Dimensions
a: H. 2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm); Diam. 2 1/2 in. (6.4 cm) b: Diam. 3 5/8 in. (9.2 cm)
Classification
Furniture hardware
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Edward Hunting Smith, 1968
Accession Number
Inst.68.8.3a, b
Art Historical Context
Step into the refined world of early 19th American decorative arts with *Furniture Hardware* by Henry Kellam Hancock, created 1820 and 1830. This delicate set of gilt brass components includes two pieces: a compact knob (a) standing 2¼ inches high with a 2½-inch diameter, and a broader element (b) measuring 3⅝ inches across. Housed in The American Wing of the Metropolitan of Art, it was generously gifted by Mrs. Edward Smith in 1968Gilt brass, with its thin gold coating over durable brass, was a hallmark of luxury in Federal and early Empire-era furniture, offering the allure of precious metal...
About the Artist
Henry Kellam Hancock · 1816–1851
Henry Kellam Hancock (1788–1854) was a prominent American cabinetmaker based in Boston, Massachusetts, where he contributed significantly to the city's early nineteenth-century furniture trade. Son of Captain Belcher Hancock and Ann "Nancy" Susan Ackers, he entered the profession as a chairmaker around 1816 and transitioned to cabinetmaking by 1826, maintaining workshops on Orange Street from abou...