Object Record
Images
Metadata
Collection |
Canadian Harvest |
Object ID |
SH1984.028.354 |
Object Name |
Box, Needlework |
Description |
Small wooden box with carved horseshoes, eight-pointed stars, eight-pointed pseudo-compass stars and serrated chip carved edges. Decorated with red, green and gold paint. |
Date |
1875 |
Date |
1925 |
Dimensions |
H-10.9 W-20.5 D-20.5 cm |
History |
Every country kitchen in Waterloo County had some form of hanging wall box to hold papers, letters, combs, candles, matches, salt, spices or small articles in daily use. These boxes offered a man or boy an opportunity to show his decorative talents. Still its difficult to determine the beginnings of a custome of making decorative wall boxes in Ontario-German communities. Simple functional pieces of thsi type were made throughout the 1800s, but the application of decorative motifs appears to have developed not much before the beginning of the 1900s. After this time the skill was taught as part of "Manual Training" for boys in school. Chip carving, a manner of carving in which a knife, chisel or other sharp instrument is used to chip out gouges or indentations from an edge or surface. |
People |
Hoffman, Frederick G. Swartzentruber, Mrs. Joel |
Artist |
Fred G. Hoffman |