Collections record Beta

Collection Record Detail

Object Name

Portfolio

Object Number

1970-07-7

Description

Two wooden boards hinged with leather tooled in gold with small repeating floral vase pattern. The interior contains ends covered in blue silk brocade fabric with the outer edges tooled in gold. Interior also contains 11 sheets of blank paper. The front is made of a thin board or layers of cardboard, the edges beveled and the surface japanned. There are four small buttons of pearl in each corner. Front decoration is a large wreath of flowers made with inlayed pieces of mother of pearl interspersed with free hand leaves and buds in gold, green and washes. The back side has a large bird on a branch snapping at an insect. It is done in gold leaf with realistic brushwork over it. The outside edges have a meandering band of ivy and berries done in gold with red dots

Provenance

The Litchfield Manufacturing Company was founded in 1850 by Dr. Josiah G. Beckwith, a local physician and druggist who operated a medical practice and pharmacy on South Street in the building currently occupied by the Post Office. After founding the company Beckwith acquired the property on South Street along the Bantam River that a decade earlier had been used first by Wadsworth, Lounsbury, and Turner, and later by Julius Peck & Co., to manufacture shelf clocks. At the time Beckwith acquired the building it measured 80 feet by 50 feet and was three stories high. In 1851 the Litchfield Manufacturing Company was incorporated and several investors, including circus owner P.T. Barnum, joined the Board of Directors. The company manufactured papier-mache goods such as small tables, card cases, fire screens, portfolios, small boxes, vases and clock cases as well as metal nails, ornamental hinges and clasps for everything from trunks to daguerreotype cases. Trained papier-mache workers from England and Germany were brought to Litchfield to work for the Company and train local men and women in the technique. At its peak, the factory employed over 50 people. The success was short lived however. In 1854, P.T. Barnum persuaded the board to move the factory to East Bridgeport. A year later, due to financial difficulties, the factory closed.

Comment

Belonged to Norton Warner's mother and said to have been her mother's before. There are two notes inside of the portfolio addressed to Miss Sarah M. Smith.