Out, Out Brief Candle

 

QUESTION: One of my aunts recently passed away. She had a collection of antique candle snuffers that was truly unique. Now I’ve inherited them. I know absolutely nothing about them. Some look very strange. What can you tell me about candle snuffers? How far back do they go—obviously before the invention of electricity. 

ANSWER: Most people call the bell-shaped cone at the end of a long handle used to put out candles a snuffer. But the device known as a snuffer is actually an “extinguisher” or candle “douter.”

As candlesticks became more sophisticated in the mid-18th century, people required a method to safely put out candles without blowing them. While the candle snuffer's component parts—scissors, a stand, dustpan—might be familiar to some people,  combined, they do look strange. However, before electricity, candles and candle snuffers were an integral part of everyday life. Candle wicks used to be made of cotton which would start smoking and burst into flames as they grew longer, therefore necessitating regular trimming. The scissor part of the candle snuffer would sever the burnt wick, which would safely fall into the dustpan to be extinguished and discarded. This would also catch any dripping hot wax.

Christopher Pinchbeck the Younger developed and patented the true candle snuffer in England in 1776. His device looked like a pair of stunted scissors with a raised round bowl on top of them. The user would to snip the wick, catching it in the bowl and extinguishing the candle safely with no soot or wax on the walls from blowing, or hot wicks catching anything on fire. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, it was considered a sign of candle skill for a person to be able to use the snuffer to trim a wick without extinguishing the flame.

There’s considerable confusion among collectors, antiques dealers and the public concerning the name and function of these little devices known as candle snuffers.

The problem is due to two meanings of the word "snuff." Used as a noun, snuff refers to the burned ash from the spent wick of a candle, but when it's a verb, usually used with the word "out" – then it means to extinguish.

Back in the 18th century, people used snuffers to trim the candlewicks, and to remove the burned snuff, but not to extinguish the candle. At times the flame might have been inadvertently put out in the process, but that wasn’t the intent.

A snuffer was a device made of metal for cutting off, or snuffing, and holding the charred part of a candlewick. Before the invention of the self-consuming wick, around 1830, the hanging burned wick caused the flame to dim, flicker or even go out. Or it may have dropped against the side of the candle, forming a channel or gutter in the precious wax. So it became expedient to reach in with the snuffer to clip the wick and remove the snuff every hour or so. 

The earliest snuffers were plain and simple but over time became more decorative and complicated. The first snuffers were simple scissors types with no container for the snuff. This presented the problem of dropping charred, sometimes still burning wick onto the table, and so the idea of adding a little box to contain the snuff was born.

Craftsmen made all snuffers, douters, and extinguishers of brass, copper, or pewter and  elaborately engraved them. They added delicately twisted handles, basket woven cones, or beautifully etched patterns to make the snuffer a beautiful addition to any home.

Besides improving the efficiency of their snuffers, craftsmen began engraving and chasing them with cupids, garlands, leaves and flowers, and sometimes with the monogram of the owner. They used elaborate finishes, such as gilt, enamel, silver plating and even inlaid fancier ones with faience and porcelain. 

Snuffer trays were flat and usually rectangular, with cut off corners, deep enough to hold the snuffer and the clippings with safety. Sometimes, the tray had small feet to raise them up The invention of the box addition and the automatic spring mentioned above affected the style of the tray. The deep dish of early days was no longer required, for the snuffer box contained the burned snuff. So a more shallow tray with a low rim grew in favor. At the same time, makers fitted trays with three short feet—one beneath each finger hold on the scissors end and one on the pickwick end. These lifted the tool a bit above the tray and made it easier for the user to grasp.

Makers also decorated snuffer trays with handles, scrolls, and masks, and often finished them in Sheffield plate. Heavy borders became popular. By the late 18th century, large “table snuffers,” that sat between a pair of large candlesticks, came into fashion. By that time smaller ones became known as “chamber snuffers.”

It may seem strange today that so much effort went into the design and making of simple snuffers and trays. But since candles provided all lighting during the darker hours, it’s easy to see why so much went into care went into these devices. A pattern bock of around 1800 shows 165 different tray designs, and in 1839 a directory of the city of Birmingham, England, listed 30 manufacturers of steel candle snuffers, the plainest kind.

With the invention of the self-consuming candle wick and improved wax, snuffers and their trays became unnecessary. In fact, many people used the snuffer trays as ashtrays when cigar smoking came into vogue during the Victorian Age.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the "Antiques of Christmas" in the 2021 Holiday Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

The Hidden Bed

QUESTION: My husband and I recently purchased an older home. After we closed the sale, we discovered a Murphy bed in one of the smaller bedrooms. Though the bed needs some refurbishment and a new mattress, it’s seems to be in working order. Can you tell me more about Murphy beds and perhaps how old this bed might be.

ANSWER: Murphy beds have been around since the early 20th century. They have been made continuously by various companies, so it’s difficult to tell how old your bed is.

The Industrial Revolution brought with it lots of innovative ideas for convertible furniture, but it wasn’t until immigrants began arriving in greater numbers in the latter part of the 19th century that some of these came into common use. Whole families often had to live in one room—eating, relaxing, and sleeping in the same space—so that they needed furniture that served dual purposes. Beds stand out as the primary convertible piece of furniture most wanted by urban dwellers at the time. 

By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the rolling trundle bed had become a common piece of furniture in homes. This large rectangular box rolled under high bedsteads for storage during the day. At night, an adult or child would pull on a rope and drag the bed out for sleeping.

A Murphy bed, on the other hand—also called a wall bed, pull down bed, fold-down bed, or hidden bed—is one that’s hinged at one end to store vertically against the wall, or inside of a closet or cabinet.

William Lawrence Murphy invented the Murphy Bed around 1900 in San Francisco. Legend says that he was falling for a young opera singer and courting customs at that time wouldn’t permit a lady to enter a gentleman’s bedroom. His invention allowed him to stow his bed in his closet, transforming his one-room apartment from a bedroom into a parlor.

Murphy then formed the Murphy Bed Company and patented his “In-A-Door” bed in 1908. He never trademarked the name “Murphy Bed.” 

Earlier fold-up beds had existed and were even available through the Sears Catalog, but Murphy introduced pivot and counterbalanced designs for which he received a series of patents. 

In 1911, William L. Murphy filed a patent for what he called his “disappearing bed.” His innovative design enabled a person to convert a bedroom to a sitting room by folding the bed back into a chifforobe-style cabinet mounted to the wall. 

Most Murphy beds don’t have box springs. Instead, the mattress usually lies on a platform or mesh, held in place so as not to sag when in a closed position. The mattress is often attached with elastic straps to hold the mattress in position when the unit is folded upright.

One of the most unique hideaway beds was the convertible piano bed from 1885. This piece could be placed in the family’s parlor and by day the room would look stylish and functional as not everyone could even afford a piano. Then by night it was a bed, affording a large family more flexibility with their sleeping arrangements. Later Murphy beds catered to the poor, but early versions may have appealed to middle and upper classes as curiosities.

Sarah Goode, the co-owner of a furniture store in Chicago with her carpenter husband, filed a patent in 1885 a patent for a “cabinet bed,” more commonly known as a “bed in a box.” Goode’s customers often complained that they liked the furniture she and her husband sold but simply didn’t have anywhere to put it in their small, urban homes.

So Goode set about inventing a folding cabinet bed that when not in use looked like a desk standing against the wall. Goode’s design was far more elaborate than a bed-in-a-box. Her folding bed unit had hinged sections that were easily raised or lowered by an adult.

Essentially, when the user folded the cabinet down, it changed shape revealing a bed. The concept wasn’t new since other manufacturers had developed “hideaway” beds that could be found in early Sears catalogs. Many of the manufacturers of these pieces had factories in Indiana. 

Unlike Murphy beds or piano beds, Goode’s cabinet bed was movable and short in stature, allowing for a safer experience and ease in moving the bed around the room. Upright hideaway beds need to be fixed to the wall so that they didn’t topple over, but cabinet beds could be freestanding.

Another feature that separated Goode’s design from all but the piano bed was that her roll-top cabinet desk-bed was actually a functional desk, with working storage and a writing surface to be accessed when not in bed form. It isn’t known if Goode’s furniture company made these beds or if she licensed her patent to other furniture makers. However, an existing cabinet-desk-bed from the era doesn’t mention anything about Goode or her patent, instead it bears the label of A.H. Andrews & Company, based in Chicago, that claim to be the sole manufacturer of such a bed.

Today both new and antique Murphy beds are quite costly, most selling for at least $1,200 to $1,500 for either.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the "Antiques of Christmas" in the 2021 Holiday Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

The Aroma of Beauty

 

QUESTIONS: I’ve always loved the look and variety of antique perfume bottles. Since most of these are small, they’re often overlooked in the cases of smalls at flea markets and antique shows. It takes determination to seek them out. I’d love to know more about the history of perfumes, as well as some history about perfume containers.

ANSWERS: The Egyptians were the first to use perfume, but not for personal, everyday use.  They utilized scents to celebrate prayers and religious ceremony by burning essential oils, resin, and perfumed unguents.

Early civilizations used perfumes—usually aromatic resins and oils, burned to release an aroma—to scent the air. The Latin term “per fumum” means “through smoke” which is where the name ‘Perfume’ came from. 

In ancient Greece, common people began using perfumes as part of their daily hygiene. The ancient Egyptians traded spices, aromas, and resins abundant in Egypt, as well as those  imported from the Middle East, Arabia and India. Myrrh and incense made up some of the main ingredients of the scents of the time.

For much of recorded history, perfumes were only available to aristocrats and the wealthy. By the late 18th century, perfumes were in common use among the upper classes, and it didn’t take long to become de rigueur for the fashionable set, both male and female. In 1856, Harper’s Monthly railed against overuse of scents by men, calling the practice "foppish, effeminate, a waste of money, and a foolish gratification of sensual appetite."

After the Civil War, a variety of cheap perfumes came on the market. Such labels as Little Tot, American Girl, Boudoir, Bridal Bouquet, Duchess Ladies, Sensible, Home Sweet Home, Bow Wow, and Happy Family were common. By far the most popular, however, was the Hoyt's 5-Center, sold over general store counters everywhere. Hoyt's became the great odor of the common man. Like most other cheap brands it had a faint aroma of rose and honeysuckle. And while lavender and violet were popular with upper class women.

Queen Victoria’s preference was for simple, fresh and understated fragrances. Following Victoria’s lead, English women began wearing delicate scents such as lavender, jasmine, bergamot and lemon. Violet became particularly popular, as well as herbaceous notes of thyme, clove and rosemary. 

Besides flowers, aromatic woods, odorous spices, grasses and herbs, animal substances were primary ingredients of perfumes. Ambergris was a secretion of the sperm whale that net only mellowed other scents but gave them greater longevity. The most lasting of odors came from the musk deer of China and Tibet. One part of musk was said to scent over 3,000 parts of "inodorous powder" with an intoxicating aroma that impregnated any surface with which it came in contact. 

Given the nature of perfume, from the confidence it gives its wearer to the indescribable effect it sometimes has on its very targeted audience, it’s not surprising that perfume has long been kept in bottles whose shapes seem to echo the mysterious properties of the fluids inside them. Whether it’s a slender phial, a tiny tear-shaped lachrymatory, or a round, flat-sided ampullae, perfume bottles are designed to contain magic, which is only unleashed when a woman opens the bottle and applies a drop or two of the precious liquid to her body.

The earliest examples of perfume bottles come from Ancient Egypt, initially crafted from clay or wood. As the popularity of perfume spread across cultures, artisans created more ornate designs. The Romans hollowed out precious stones or blew magnificent glass bottles to hold their fragrances, while the ancient Greeks used terracotta sculpted into animal forms and shells. By the late 18th century, perfume containers came in a variety of materials, such as porcelain, silver, copper and white glass in various shapes influenced by artistic movements of the time. Enamel became popular as a base to hand-paint detailed pastoral scenes. 

As luscious as perfume smells, so were the shapes and designs of the bottles that contained it. Some were small enough for a woman to wear on a chain around her neck, in which case, the bottle became a piece of jewelry. Glassblowers in Britain, Bohemia, Germany, and France made perfume bottles throughout the 19th century. U.S. glass manufacturers such as the New England Glass Company and the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company also made perfume bottles during that time. Some of these were hexagonal and opaque—white, blue, and green were common colors—with knobby, pineapple-shaped stoppers.

Fashionable Victorian women revived the use of the vinaigrette filled with a variety of delightfully sniffable scents. They also developed a preference for French labels on their dressing table bottles. The allure and snob appeal of French fragrances swept the perfume industry until even the down-to-earth Sears & Roebuck catalog succumbed with terms such as parfums, odeurs , and flacons. A typical 1905 ad offered: "Our Special Violette France Perfume, put up in magnificent 2-ounce cut glass stoppered bottle, for only 60 cents.”

Beginning around 1890, artisans and glass factories alike produced elaborate cut or blown glass perfume bottles with ornate caps, some of which had hinged silver stoppers and collars. Purse-sized conical bottles with very short necks and round stoppers were often decorated with gilt flower-and-leaf patterns.  

The world of perfumes was then and is today one of mystery and magic. And the containers that house them are highly collectible. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the "Antiques of Christmas" in the 2021 Holiday Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

The Snowman

 

QUESTION: I have two George Durrie prints I'm trying to find out about. I know that One is called “Home to Thanksgiving” and the other one is “The Road-Winter.”  What can you tell me about George Durrie and his prints?

ANSWER: George Henry Durrie’s work has often been confused with that of Currier & Ives. He dealt with the same subjects, mostly rural winter themes, and his style is very similar. This is no accident, for while Durrie painted on his own, Currier & Ives marketed his work after their firm became the premier seller of hand-colored lithographs.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1820, the son of a stationer John Durrie, he studied off and on with local portraitist Nathaniel Jocelyn from 1839 to 1841. After mastering his painting skills, Durrie traveled throughout his home state of Connecticut and then through New Jersey doing portraits on commission. In his record book, Durrie lists portraits sold during visits to the Connecticut towns of Bethany, Hartford, Naugatuck, and Meriden. He also traveled successfully to Freehold, New Jersey, and Petersburg, Virginia. 

By 1845 local newspapers carried advertisements for Durrie's 'snow pictures' and his Sleighing Party was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in that year. Landscapes, which had first appeared as backgrounds in his portraits, became his primary focus. He painted local landmarks such as East Rock and West Rock, as well as composite scenes of rural life. Country inns and barnyards, scenes of human activity, became his most oft-used subjects. While he painted these in all seasons, his depictions of them in winter were the most numerous, growing in frequency between 1854 and 1863. 

He became so known for his snow scenes that people called him “The Snowman.” Durrie was a meticulous artist, including fine details in his scenes, providing a record of 19th-century rural life. He paid special attention to the foliage and animals in his paintings, making them all the more realistic. But his method was more stylistic than realistic, catering to nostalgic images of farm life that people liked, rather than brutally realistic ones. Pioneers who had traveled West from New England especially liked them.

Though he began painting New England summer farm scenes, he soon discovered that if he added snow to them they became more appealing to the public. Durrie has been credited with adding the “snowscene” into American painting, creating a wintry ambiance that can be found on many Christmas cards today. 

Almost all of his compositions are small, with few being larger than 18 x 24 inches. His scenes were still and intimate. He knew and admired the works of Thomas Cole and tried to emulate Cole's style, yet he was more drawn to the compositional complexity and expansiveness of the Hudson River School, the leading school of American landscape painting at the time. He used a wide angle view in his compositions with people in them being close enough to be within hailing distance. Durrie’s paintings had a storytelling content that made them pleasant, accessible images to the average viewer.

His early landscapes were often of local landmarks and other local scenes, which were popular with his New Haven clients, and he painted numerous variations of popular subjects. As his portrait commissions declined, Durrie concentrated on landscapes. He wanted a wider audience, and he seemed to have a good sense of what would sell. Durrie realized that his paintings would have a wider appeal if he made them as generic New England scenes rather than as identifiable local scenes, retaining a sense of place without specifying where that place actually was. 

The New York City lithographic firm of Currier & Ives knew their audience; the American public wanted nostalgic scenes of rural life, images of the good old days, and Durrie’s New England scenes fit the bill perfectly. Lithographic prints were a very democratic form  of art, cheap enough that the humblest home could afford some art to hang on the wall. Durrie had been marketing his paintings in New York City, and Currier and Ives, who had popularized such prints, purchased some of Durrie’s paintings in the late 1850s or early 1860s, and eventually published 10 of his pictures beginning in 1861  and the artist's death in New Haven in 1863. Currier & Ives published six additional Durrie prints posthumously. Among his most popular prints were "Cider Making," "Winter in the Country," "Getting Ice," and "Winter Morning."

"Home to Thanksgiving," painted in 1861 and one of Durrie’s snow landscapes, became one of Currier and Ives’ most popular prints. Currier & Ives published the large-folio print from it in 1867. The print originally sold for $1.50. Today, an original of this print sells for many times that. 

The popularity of Durrie’s snow scenes received an additional boost in the 1930s, when the Traveler’s Insurance Company began issuing calendars featuring Currier and Ives prints. Starting in 1946, the January calendar always featured a Durrie snow scene. Of Durrie’s 125 paintings, 84 were of snow scenes, making him the most prolific snow scene painter of his time.

Critics dismissed George Durrie as a popular artist, an illustrator rather than a fine artist—an common opinion at the time. They considered anyone painting commercially for payment a hack. While in theory art should be for all the people, those who support the fine arts would rather keep the riff-raff at bay. Ironically, it was the common man who made Durrie’s work famous.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the "Antiques of Christmas" in the 2021 Holiday Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.