AFA 18th Anniversary

2018 Antiques & Fine Art 161 Chad Alligood is the Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator of American Art, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California. Scrimshaw busk with initials “LH,” unknown maker, ca. 1835. Whalebone and pigment. 14 by 1½ inches. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Jonathan and Karin Fielding. Ratchet Lighting Device, unknown maker, ca. 1720. Oak and maple wood with paint. H. 30⅜, W. 12½, 7⅛ in. Jonathan and Karin Fielding collection. In early America, most homes were dimly lit by the fire in the fireplace, by the burning of dried plants such as reed or rush held erect in specially designed implements, or by the light of candles made from fat or wax. Animal fat, or tallow, was among the least expensive and most readily available materials used for candles, though it smoked and emitted an odor. Beeswax or bayberry candles, while costlier, burned cleaner. This lighting device, made of painted oak and maple wood, functioned using a ratchet to raise or lower the level of two candles. This allowed the light source to be nearer to the task at hand. Its durability and relatively lightweight construction rendered it highly moveable to illuminate different areas and rooms. Carved out of whalebone ribs by the idle crew of whaling ships on long voyages, busks were decorated with elaborate surface carving and then given to sweethearts of the crew back on land. Women would slip the busks into vertical pockets in their corsets, stiffening the garment and giving it structure. In this example, two registers of floral forms emerge from small pots, while below, an oversize bird with a black, fanned tail perches in a young tree. The maker incised the letters “LH” below the tree—likely the initials of his beloved. In its devoted, handmade approach, this object—like the hundreds of others in the Fielding collection—offers a window into the complex and fascinating world of early America.