Furniture Hardware
1820–30
Medium
Gilt brass
Dimensions
W. 7 5/8 in. (19.4 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.68.8.19
Art Historical Context
This elegant piece of furniture hardware, crafted by Henry Kellam Hancock between 1820 and 1830, exemplifies the refined decorative arts of early nineteenth-century America. Made of gilt brass and measuring just over seven inches wide, it likely served as a drawer pull, escutcheon, or mount for a chest or cabinet. Such fittings were essential in transforming everyday furniture into objects of beauty, reflecting the growing prosperity and taste for ornament among American households during the Federal era. Gilt brass was prized for its ability to mimic the appearance of solid gold at a more ac...
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...