Images(2)

Stove Plate Fragment

Date1789

Manufactured by Nancy Furnace

Made under direction of Samuel Moore

Artist/Maker Andrew Bear (or Baer, Bare)

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Rockingham County

MediumCast iron

DimensionsOverall: 12 x 32 3/4 x 1 1/2in. (30.5 x 83.2 x 3.8cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1997-99

DescriptionThe lower portion of a rectangular cast iron side panel from a ten plate stove with a raised molded frame. Decorated with scrolling foliage, "C" scrolls, and two ribbons at the top bearing the name NANCY (with retrograde Ns) FURNACE. Below the door opening (forming part of the top edge of this fragment) is a double-handled urn flanked by "A B," the initials of the pattern carver, with the date "17 89" between the bottom molding and the decorative elements.
Label TextAppearing in early American homes in the mid-1760s, the "ten plate" stove was a much-improved version of earlier types. These heating devices included extra iron plates which were used to create an internal cooking oven set into one of the stove's sides. Its airy decoration displays common neoclassical motifs and scrolls, and includes the names of the masters of the furnace which produced it, the initials of the maker of the plate pattern, and the date it was cast.

It is believed Andrew Bear, a local pattern maker, produced the carved master from which this stove plate was cast.

Exhibition(s)