EXHIBITION DATES: Currently showing through Sunday, November 2

Tuesday, Oct. 14 for special event

This special exhibition of Arts and Crafts metalwork objects consists of displays throughout the Gamble House that celebrate the importance of metal as a supporting material in the work of Greene and Greene, along with rarely seen highlights from the Gamble House collection. These are complimented by a selection of works by other west coast craftspeople, brought together by co-curator Bryan Mead, an expert in Arts and Crafts metalwork. A large collection of pots by early 20th century copper artist Dirk Van Erp, given to the Gamble House in 2006, is a special highlight, showing off the breadth of the artistry of this Northern California craftsman. 

Special presentation:

Metal Manifestations:  Artistic Expressions in Arts & Crafts Metalwork (1900-1920) 

A presentation by Bryan Mead of Hammered and Hewn, In person and via Zoom

Tuesday, October 14th at The Gamble House

We recognize Arts and Crafts objects more from the ideas that they embody than by their particular “style.” Many of these handmade objects were commercial production that satisfied a market for artistic goods for the home. Others reflected the idiosyncracies of their makers. Inspiration from nature, local materials, history, and an artist’s own internal sense of whimsy are all expressed in the medium of metal. Certain themes and motifs became popular, as in any period, and artists and makers grasped the possibilities of the material for their own purposes. As Greene and Greene started to incorporate metalwork into their architecture and interior design, their metalwork designs were keyed to the ideas of each commission and served the larger expression of the home by the architects. This visually-based presentation by Bryan Mead (Hammered and Hewn) will explore how the ideals and theories of the Arts and Crafts movement are reflected in the great variety of metalwork during the period. This lecture will be available on Zoom for those who can’t attend in person!

In person tickets are $20.00 and Zoom registration is $8.00.
Click here to purchase tickets online!

Nichols House Museum Announces New Museum Acquisitions and Programs

Nichols House and House Museum

55 Mount Vernon Street
Boston, MA 02108

 

This October, the Nichols House Museum is celebrating the Arts & Crafts Movement with a series of public programs through October 18th.

Highlighted during these programs will be new items in the museum collection crafted by the youngest Nichols sister, Margaret Homer (Nichols) Shurcliff.

Through the end of October, visitors can view an exhibit about Margaret’s woodworking in the Nichols House Museum shop. The wedding chest and chairs are on view in the museum and can be seen on the museum tour.

‘The Arts and Crafts Movement on Beacon Hill and in Boston’ – a talk by Nonie Gadsden, Katharine Lane Weems Senior Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – then takes place Oct. 15 at 6 p.m. at Grogan & Company, 20 Charles St.

A ‘Brahmins and Bohemians Arts & Crafts Edition Beacon Hill walking tour’ takes place on Oct. 18, at 10:30 a.m.

Enjoy a stroll around the Hill and hear about some of the Arts & Crafts movement artisans living and working on Beacon Hill, with a discussion that will touch on utopian art communities, artist cooperatives, craftsman architecture on the Hill, and more.

For more information, visit nicholshousemuseum.org.

About Rose and Margaret Nichols:
At a time when woodworking was an unusual profession for a woman, Margaret ran her own furniture-making business and taught woodworking classes. These pieces, gifted by Margaret’s descendants, are now a permanent part of the museum collection. Along with woodcarving and embroidery created by her sister Rose Nichols, they help tell the story of the Nichols sisters: artists and activists living on Beacon Hill at the turn of the 20th century.

Margaret learned basic carpentry skills as a girl while attending the progressive Mrs. Shaw’s School on Marlborough Street. She later continued her education in the MIT carpentry workshop, the only woman in her cohort. As an adult, she taught woodworking classes, initially at the Ellis Memorial settlement house, and later from her homes on Beacon Hill and in Ipswich, Mass. Beginning in the 1920s, she ran a furniture business, Pegleggers, handcrafting Early American-style furniture in her attic workshop at 66 Mount Vernon St.

Carpentry was a shared interest with her husband, the landscape architect Arthur A. Shurcliff, whom she married in 1905. Among the pieces gifted to the museum is a wedding chest Margaret and Arthur crafted on their honeymoon, featuring a curved cassione-style front and painted with their initials. Later, the couple created much of the interior of their Ipswich summer home themselves, including two chairs that are part of the gift to the Museum. The Nichols House was also given a few Pegleggers items, including one of their signature pieces, a low peg-legged stool.