Pa. German Toy Stamping Mill
1935/1942
Medium
watercolor and graphite on paper
Dimensions
overall: 24.5 x 31.9 cm (9 5/8 x 12 9/16 in.) Original IAD Object: 4 1/2" long; 2 1/2" wide; 2 1/2" high
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.13019
Art Historical Context
**Pa. German Toy St Mill** Created by Frances Lichten between 1935 and 1942, this delicate watercolor and graphite drawing on paper captures a charming Pennsylvania German folk toy—a miniature stamping mill measuring just 4½ inches long, 2½ inches wide, and ½ inches high. Part of the prestigious Index of American Design (IAD), a Works Progress Administration (WPA project during the Great Depression, the meticulously renders the toy's wooden form, complete with gears, levers, and a hand-crank mechanism designed for playful imitation of industrial milling. Lichten's precise technique highligh...
About the Artist
Frances Lichten
Frances Lichten was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, in 1889. At fourteen she enrolled in the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, where she studied design and interior decoration, while also pursuing landscape painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. After graduating she worked as a commercial artist for nearly a decade, building the technical foundation that would later serve...