Winter 2016

Winter 144 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com Fig. 3: Views of Cornelius & Baker’s two manufactories, one on Cherry Street above 8th and the other on Columbia Avenue and 5th Street, Philadelphia. The buildings, although about twenty blocks apart, were connected by a telegraph line for instant communication. Courtesy the Library Company of Philadelphia. Fig. 4: View of Cornelius & Baker’s show and sales room at 710 Chestnut Street, with their trade card advertisement below. Courtesy Winterthur Library: Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera. In spite of vigorous competition, the Cornelius firm dominated the field for decades, only waning after Thomas A. Edison patented his incandescent light bulb in 1880. During the firm’s heyday, it produced some of the most elegant candle, oil, gas, kerosene, and electrical fixtures made in the United States. Fortunately, many Cornelius fixtures survive, providing insight into the stylistic and technical nature of its production, and by extension, deepening appreciation for the appearance of American interiors, both private and public, during the era (Figs. 1, 2). A number of social commentators wrote about the firm, the scale and scope of its production and the impact it had on mid- nineteenth century American’s sensibilities. A twenty-four page pamphlet published about 1858, Description of the Establishment of Cornelius & Baker, Manufacturers of Lamps, Chandeliers & Gas Fixtures, Philadelphia , is among the most informative. 3 It states that the firm began as a small craft shop about fifty years earlier (in 1810), with the founder and two or three journeymen. Such was the demand for lighting in general and Cornelius’ fixtures specifically, that by the time the article was written the business had grown to encompass a six-story brick manufactory on Cherry Street, a five- story manufactory on Columbia Avenue, each almost a city block in size, and a separate three-story show and wareroom on Chestnut Street (Figs. 3, 4). It employed over five hundred and fifty men, women, and children, with two large steam engines supplying the motive power. The many work and display areas devoted to modeling, casting, spinning, stamping, dipping (in acids to clean), burnishing, fitting (parts together), painting and lacquering, glass cutting and finally, packing, are described in the pamphlet. In the last of these, packages and crates containing the firm’s products were addressed to every state in the Union, as well as to “China, India, various ports in South America, Havana, and the Canadas.” In the firm’s “museum,” a vast array of patterns and models were kept for use as inspiration by resident artists and designers. Another record about the firm was generated by the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, commonly known as the Franklin Institute.