Travel in Imagination

Object: Rocking Horse, 19th century

Accession #: 2002.9

One of the most loved toys in a child’s nursery is the rocking horse.  This one, in Wilton’s collection, looks as if it might have seen a lot of adventures at one time, by many excited children. Covered with tanned animal hide and adorned with a tail made of real animal hair, this wooden rocking horse looks out of glass eyes.  Its wooden snout also has red nostrils and an open mouth. One historian states that, “Posed imperiously on their curved rockers, many horses do exude quite an aggressive air, and probably taught the small child something of the respect he would later need in dealing with a living horse.”

Charles Lavallen Jessop (Boy on a Rocking Horse), 1840
Sarah Miriam Peale 

Children's toy horses goes back as early as the Middle Ages with the popular hobby horse- a fake horse’s head attached to a stick.  Early construction of rocking horses consisted of two boat shaped plank sides attached to sides of the bottom half of the horse’s body.  These toys were carved by hand until the late 19th century when they began to be mass-produced.

Horses were made to look realistic by being covered in animal skin.  Reference to these types of toy horses are made as early as 1561 when a young Bathasar Paungartner writes in a letter requesting from Frankfurt Fair a horse covered in goatskin.  These rocking horses were, by 1880, the more the more expensive types which also included manes and tails of real animal hair.  Queen Victoria’s children would not go on a trip to Osborne House, the royal residence in the Isle of Wight, without the desire to bring along their skin covered rocker.

 

Rocking Horse,
Victoria and Albert Museum Collection

The toy horse was seen as a valuable tool to teach skills to children they would need in adulthood.  James I, of England, told his young son that “the honourablest and most commendable games that ye can use are games on horseback.”  William Long, who was a carver and cabinet maker from London, boasted in the Pennsylvania Packet, in 1785, that his rocking horses were made “in the neatest and best manner to teach children to ride, and give them a wholesome and pleasing exercise.”  A wooden rocking horse in the Victoria and Albert Museum is thought to be the oldest in the United Kingdom. Charles I, who was the possible owner of this 17th century rocking horse, was a “delicate child” having trouble walking and speaking.  He suffered from rickets, a disease characterized by softened bones due to lack of Vitamin D intake, and it has been suggested that a rocking horse may have been used as treatment and to provide exercise while strengthening his legs.

Knowing the importance of learning how to interact with a real horse through the use of a toy rocking horse could have been evident in the Randolph household, especially with five boys. One historian adds that “to have the concept of a horse brought down to one’s own level when one is little opens wide the doors of unlimited travel in imagination.”  The children throughout the generations of the Randolph family living at Wilton would not have been any different, as a rocking horse similar to this one would have provided hours of limitless play and exercise. 

Bibliography

Barenholtz , Bernard and Inez Mclintock. AmericanAntique Toys: 1830-1900. Harry N.

Abrams, Inc. New York, 1980.

Gaffney, Dennis. Pbs.org. “Tips of the Trade:Galloping for Rocking Horses?”. 11 October 2002.

1 February 2013. < http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/tips/rockinghorses.html>

King, Constance. Antique Toys and Dolls. RizzoliInternational Publications, Inc. New York,

1979.

Simpson, Margaret. Powerhouse Museum. “PowerhouseMuseum Collection Search 2.53”. 1

February 2013. < http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=37763>

White, Gwen. Antique Toys and their Background.Arco Publishing Company, Inc. New York,

1971.

“History of Rocking Horses” Stevenson Brothers.2 February 2013.

<http://www.rockinghorses.uk.net/history-of-rocking-horses>

“King’s Rocking Horse Goes on Show” BBC News.  9 December 2006. 2 February 2012.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6165167.stm>

“Rocking Horse” V&A Collections.9 January2013. 2 February 2013.

<http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O138880/rocking-horse-unknown/>

“Rickets” Dictionary.com. 2 February 2013.

<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rickets?s=t>

ImageCredit

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O138880/rocking-horse-unknown/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_lavallen_jessop_(boy_on_a_rocking_horse)_sarah_miriam_peale.jpg

A Box for a Fragrant Powder

Object: Snuff Box
Accession #: 1952.2.1A-B

Snuff, which is prepared by drying, toasting, then crushing cured tobacco leaves, was the preferred method of tobacco consumption by the Incas. Containers used for storage of snuff included bottles, pockets, and bags as well as boxes.  The term "japan" entered the English language in 1688 as a word synonymous with black varnish or lacquer applied to wood.  One such "japanned" box in Wilton’s collection is this black wooden snuff box. Painted on the lid is a landscape with people on horses, a village, trees, and mountains in the distance.  As on many 18th century plantations, the cash-crop at Wilton was tobacco.  It is likely that the tobacco from Mr. Randolph’s plantation was made into snuff that was sold to the elite.

Snuff-taking was considered fashionable amongst the elite as well as being useful for preventing contagious diseases, colds, and consumption.  John Murray wrote Snuff Taking: its utility in preventing bronchitis, consumption, etc. in 1870 and includes a chapter with prescriptions.  He attests in his book that the first reception among the elite was “due much more to its reputed virtues, as a valuable remedy, than as an article of luxury; hence, the early names of the plant—southern all heal, holy herb, holy healing herb, &c.”  A powder of herbs was taken through the nose and used as a remedy for diseases as early as Hippocrates, in 400 B.C.  Jean Nicot, French diplomat and scholar who is connected with the introduction of tobacco in a granulated form, presented the powder to Catherine de Medici.  Catherine, the wife of King Henry II of France from 1547 until 1559, had been looking for a remedy for her headache.

There was an importance placed on how the “fragrant powder” was taken into one’s nose. One historian expresses the attitude of the times that “a polished snuff taker also required a steady hand, smooth nostrils and a clean shaven face.  Careless snuffers were a mess.”  Schools in London in the early 17th century were formed to teach the proper use of snuff.  Charles-Maurice-de-Talleyrand-Perigord, French statesman and diplomat under Napoleon during the French Revolution, “held snuff-taking to be essential to the politicians, as it gives time for thought in answering awkward questions while pretending only to indulge in a pinch.”  A box such as this one would have been ideal for a snuff-taker, such as Talleyrand, to keep a stash of the ground tobacco close by his side.

Mr. Randolph may have owned a box similar this one which could be set on a table for easy access to the snuff for the sniffing of the owner or for offering of it to a guest.  Either way, he would have been familiar with snuff as the owner of a tobacco plantation and a member of the elite.

Bibliography

Curtis, Mattoon M. The book of snuff and snuff boxes. Bramhall House. New York: 1935.

Gately, Iain. Tobacco: The Story of How Tobacco Seduced the World. Grove Press, 2001. New

York.

Le Corbeiller, Clare. European and American Snuff Boxes 1730-1830.. Viking Press. New York:

1966.

Murray, John Carrick. Snuff-Taking. J. Chruchill. London: 1870.

“Charles-Maurice-de-Talleyrand, prince de Benevent”. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 7 February

2013. < http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/581601/Charles-Maurice-de-Talleyrand-prince-de-Benevent>

Stargazing

Object: Book, The Young Gentleman’s Astronomy, Chronology, and Dialling by Edward Wells, D.D.

Accession #: 2012.0009

There were five sons in the Randolph family, each of whom was likely given the highest education.  The family likely hired a private tutor, who would teach the children year-round.  Not only were they taught by a tutor, but also used numerous books to aid their lessons.  One such book might have been similar to The Young Gentleman’s Astronomy, Chronology, and Dialling by Edward Wells, D.D.  This volume on astronomy, as well as related topics, includes multiple illustrations, diagrams, and tables, some of which fold out.  The book includes six chapters, three tables, and a catalogue. 

Astronomy is the scientific study of the individual celestial bodies (excluding the earth) and of the universe as a whole.  Its various branches include astrometry, astrodynamics, cosmology, and astrophysics.  Astronomical almanacs show that the colonists, according to one historian, “had a great desire to speculate on the mystical influence of stars on the fate of mankind.”  This included providing a connection between health remedies and the timing of the phases of the moon, as the Pennsylvania Dutch believed.  Even one of the nation's founding fathers had a keen interest in the subject.  When Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia in 1819, his earliest plan for the curriculum of the school included astronomy.  He also made plans for the nation's first observatory and planetarium.  The university's observatory was constructed in the 1830s (the first one having failed to be finished before Jefferson died).  By this time the federal government had built the U.S. National Observatory and astronomy become, “one of the most popular courses in the American university.”   

Along with the subject of astronomy the book also covers chronology and dialing.  Chronology is the science of computing time or periods of time and assigning events to their true dates.  One historian explains that it was considered a “legitimate field of study through medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods” and even Isaac Newton wrote about the subject in his treatise, The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended.  Lastly, The Young Gentleman’s  examines dialing, the telling of time using the face of a sundial and the casting of the sun's shadow. 

The conviction of the author, Edward Wells, as stated in his preface was that

Wherefore, the most proper method to make Young Gentleman Learned, is this, to teach them at first the only such elements of the Liberal Arts or Sciences, as are most useful in the common affairs of Life, and withal most easy to be known…And when they find that the Understanding thereof has no Difficulty, then they will be also encouraged to proceed. And when they have thus gone through, and become Masters of the most useful and easy Elements of the liberal Arts and Sciences, they will thereby be enabled with much more Ease to conquer the more difficult Parts of Learning, if their own Inclinations shall lead them thereto hereafter, when they are come to Riper Years, and so can judge more rightly of the worth of Learning.

It is possible that the Randolphs saw the importance of studying these subjects as well and had a book similar to this one presenting astronomy, chronology, and dialing to their five young gentlemen. 

Bibliography

Aveni, Anthony F. Colonial Williamsburg. “Astronomy and Stargazers”. 4 November 2012.

<http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/winter05-06/telescopes.cfm>

Latham, Lance. Hermetic Systems. “Technical Chronology”. 4 November 2012.

<http://www.hermetic.ch/compsci/techchron.htm>

Wells, Edward. The Young Gentleman’s Astronomy, Chronology, and Dialling. Googlebooks. com. 6 November 2012.

<http://books.google.com/books?id=nDMVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PP11&lpg=PP11&dq=Young+Gentleman's+Astronomy,+Chronology,+and+Dialling&source=bl&ots=MmIMZwy_Cg&sig=yCIGHykZRZsxte502hDiGKZZo6g&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_R-ZUMmLLsbZ0QHq44HICA&ved=0CFgQ6AEwBw>

“Dialling”. Dictionary.com. 5 November 2012.

<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dialling>

“Monograph”. Dictionary.com. 4 November 2012.

<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/monograph?s=t>

A Well Prepared Dish

Object: Book, Mackenzie's Receipts
Accession#: 1988.0023


This leather bound book published in Philadelphia in 1827covers a broad spectrum of subjects, from metallurgy to husbandry. Mackenzie’s Receipts or Five Thousand Receipts in All the Useful and Domestic Arts constituting a complete and universal practical library and operative Encyclopedia, which is its full title, also covers the subject of the culinary arts.  Several recipes and directions are under the subject of cookery, which is sub-divided into the sections of soups, pastry, confectionary, pickling, and preserving.  Mrs. Randolph might have consulted the pages of a book such as this one when planning her meals and advise the slaves how to cook dishes on the plantation.

A cook on a plantation, such as Wilton, faced hours of preparation for the afternoon meal as well as ensuring the fire was stoked.  The kitchen, which was a separate building at most plantation homes, was where all of this hard work took place.  On a plantation the size of Wilton, the kitchen would need to be supplied with a variety of foods.  Mrs. Randolph likely spent a lot of time supervising and directing the meal preparation.  It was the duty of the housewife to make sure that there was a well supplied cellar of meats, vegetables, and  preserved fruits to supply her dinner table for guests.  Dinner would have been, as one historian attests, “one of the most visible symbols of the success of a lady as a housekeeper.”  In wintertime, dinners included a large assortment of vegetables to compliment the roasted or broiled meats served.  Many delectable sweets would have been served for dessert, which may have included jellies, cakes, cookies, and puddings.

Walking into a kitchen during the eighteenth century, one would meet a series of aromas and odors, cooking tools and gadgets, and intense heat.  A huge brick fireplace with an iron crane attached to the walls of the chimney which would support pot hangers holding large pots and kettles over the roaring fire.  The pot hangers could be raised or lowered to adjust the temperature.  A swinging crane was used to move the pots and pans out from the fire.  A metal shield may have conveniently been placed next to the fire for use by the cook to “hasten” or keep the heat which made the food cook faster.  Boiling and roasting were the most common means of cooking meat.  Roasting was done on a spit turned, in wealthy households, by a jack driven by clockwork weights, smoke, and the winding and unwinding of cords.  A long metal pan would lay under the roasting meat to catch any drippings, which would be used in the gravies.  Potatoes and pieces of cut up meat were also put in this pan to be cooked. One historian points out, “scarcely a main dish was served without [sauce]” whose main ingredient was gravy. (see above recipe from Mackenzie's Receipts)

Brick ovens, which were used exclusively for bread, cake, and pastry,  were also common by the 1770s in larger plantation kitchens of Virginia.  The oven door was left open a crack to allow smoke to escape and oxygen to enter the oven to keep the fire going.  One historian points out that, “Baking was a highly organized, efficient operation in which none of the precious heat of the oven was allowed to go to waste.”  A peel, a long handled wooden shovel, was used to take baked goods in and out of the oven without the cook being burned. 

Cakes were “one of the staples of the well fed household” which took a lot of preparation as the cook would have to “pulverize, sugar [from loaves or cones], grind the spices, free the flour from possible bugs, [and] beat egg yolks with rods.”  The cake is one example of a popular dessert whose preparation shows how much work was needed to prepare each course of a dinner served in the 18th and 19th century. 

The culinary arts, in Mackenzie’s, opinion was one of the subjects he wanted to preserve in his book.  In the preface of this 1827 edition, he states, “In a truth, the present volume has been compiled under the feeling, that if all other books of sciences in the world were destroyed, this single volume would be found to embody the results of the useful experience, observations, and discoveries of mankind during the past ages of the world.”  Food, how it is cooked and served, continues to be important today as it was in the time the Randolphs lived.  Around mid-December, Mrs. Randolph might have started planning the Twelfth night meal and consulted the pages of books similar to this one to pick out the perfect dishes to impress the palates of her visitors. 

Bibliography

Carson, Jane. Colonial Virginia Cookery. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Williamsburg:

1985.

Caruba, Rebecca. Colonial Cooking. Hammond Inc. Maplewood: 1975.

Crump, Nancy Carter.  Hearthside Cooking. EPM Publications, Inc. Mclean: 1986.

Dosier, Susan. Colonial Cooking. Capstone Press. Minnesota: 2000.

Garrett, Elizabeth Donaghy. At Home: The American Family 1750-1870. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 

New York: 1990.

Schmidt, Patricia Brady, ed. Nelly Custis Lewis’s Housekeeping Book. Historic New Orleans

Collection, New Orleans: 1997.

Well Heeled

Object: Women’s Shoes
Accession #: 1900.0069

         By the time of the Randolphs and the founding of Wilton in the 18^th century, the trades of tailor, shoemaker, and makers of other such personal accessories were well established in the colonies.  However, some upper-class American families still enjoyed ordering these items from Europe.  Due to Europe’s vast trade routes, colonists, while purchasing their clothes from England, could be wearing textiles from all over the world – such as linen from Holland or silk from China. 

            As early as 1616 the shoemaking trade was popular in the colonies.  Not only did the colonies have skilled shoemakers and bootmakers, they also imported ready-made shoes from Europe.  Yet, as mentioned, some colonists preferred to order their footwear from England to keep abreast of the current European fashion trends.  In order for a shoemaker in England to create footwear to fit the feet of a colonist in America a few different ways to describe shoe size were developed.  One way was to measure the feet in inches and then send those measurements to the shoemaker.  Another way was for the customer to send a shoe they owned to the shoemaker, thus, allowing the shoemaker to assemble the new shoe to the same measurements as the old shoe.  A third way was to ask for a shoe fit for a person of a specific age: “Shoes and Pumps for a Boy of eight years old.”  Interestingly, a common way to order shoes for women was by a “standard” shoe size; however, these sizes were in no way universal.

            

            Upper-class colonial women’s shoes were very elegant but somewhat fragile.  They were often made from silk or worsted¹ and had narrow soles with a heel a few inches high.  Heels on shoes for both genders were a very popular trend during the 17^th and 18^th centuries and were an indicator of the wearer’s wealth and status. 

            Wilton’s collection contains a pair of white satin and kid² women’s pumps made between the late 18^th and early 19^th century.  Although they did not have ties or shoelaces, the latchets³ of these shoes identify them as “laced” shoes and would have been fastened with shoe buckles⁴.  Buckles were separate, removable items which could be transferred from shoe to shoe.  A label inside one of these shoes identifies the shoemaker as “Chamberlain and Sons Shoemaker in Cheapside, London.”  An inscription on the bottom of the shoe reads “S.C. Madison.”  According to their provenance, the shoes were once owned by Sally Catlett Madison Macon (1764-1843) and worn on her wedding day in 1803 when she married Thomas Macon.  Sally Madison was the sister of the fourth president of the United States, James Madison.

¹  Worsted is a fabric made from smooth, compact yarn from long wool fibers.

²  Kid is a type of leather made from goatskin.

³  Latches are overlapping flaps on the top of the shoe.

⁴  An example of buckles can be found on this blog under the entry “Finery for the Occasion.”

Bibliography:

Baumgarten, Linda. Eighteenth-Century Clothing at Williamsburg. Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation , 1986. eBook.

Baumgarten, Linda. What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. Print.

O'Keeffee, Linda. Shoes: A Celebration of Pumps, Sandals, Slippers, and More. New York: Workman Publishing Company, 1996. eBook.

 "Search the Collections." Victoria and Albert Museum. N.p., 4 2012. Web. 10 Dec 2012. <http://collections.vam.ac.uk/>.

Tunis, Edwin. Colonial Living. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. eBook.