Object of the Month

Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site has a large museum collection consisting of thousands of objects, many of which are not regularly displayed in the house's furnished exhibit rooms. Every month, an object will be featured on this page, providing a look at an unusual piece from the collection.

 

On the desk in Alice Longfellow’s study sits this small, hexagonal earthenware inkwell painted with vibrant floral designs in blue, red, green, purple, brown and ochre. It has three separate pieces, the main body, the chamber for holding ink that nests inside the main body, and a cap. Markings on the bottom clearly indicate the manufacturer, the Rozenburg Company, from The Hague in the Netherlands. Also on the bottom is a year marker in the shape of an anchor, revealing that this piece was made between December 1898 and November 1899.

The inkwell’s decoration identifies it as belonging to the Art Nouveau style. Popular in much of Europe from 1890 until the start of World War I in 1914, the movement influenced art and architecture. Emphasizing patterns and forms found in the natural world, especially floral designs and wavy lines reminiscent of intertwining vines. In the Netherlands, where the Art Nouveau style was called Nieuwe Kunst or “New Art”, pieces such as this one reveal an Indonesian influence on Dutch art, especially from the Indonesian hand-dyed cotton and silk garments known as batik.

Alice Longfellow, who was a supporter of the Society of Arts and Crafts Boston, may have been attracted to this piece as both the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movements had a common goal to connect nature with art, whether through the use of traditional craftsmanship techniques and materials, or by featuring energetic, organic displays, arrangements and motifs inspired by nature.

How Alice Longfellow acquired the inkwell is unknown. It may have been a gift, or maybe she got it during one of her numerous trips to Europe, possibly one in which she passed through Paris in 1899, the year this piece was made. Alice may not have visited the Rozenburg factory in The Hague, but the company’s wares were widely traded and would have been available in shops in many of Europe’s major cities.

The inkwell is listed in a 1912 inventory of the Longfellow home’s furnishings as an “Art Pottery Hexagonal Inkstand” in Alice’s Study. The inkwell shows signs of considerable use, with ink stains and dried ink residue inside the well, and multiple cracks in the cap.With a change in artistic tastes starting in the 1910s, the Rozenburg company’s products started to wane in popularity. The onset of World War I made obtaining materials more difficult and Rozenburg ended manufacturing operations in 1914.

 

Click here to view past Objects of the Month.