Furniture Hardware
1820–30
Medium
Gilt brass
Dimensions
8 3/8 x 1 7/8 in. (21.3 x 4.8 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.68.8.68
Art Historical Context
This elegant piece of furniture hardware, created by Henry Kellam Hancock between 1820 and 1830, represents the refined craftsmanship of early nineteenth-century American decorative arts. Made of gilt brass and measuring just over eight inches in length, it likely served as a drawer pull, escutcheon, or handle for a chest, desk, or sideboard. Such fittings were essential components of high-style furniture during the Federal and Empire periods, when American makers drew inspiration from classical motifs to convey elegance and sophistication in domestic interiors. Gilt brass was prized for its ...
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...