Stove, Laundry
Stove for laundry irons, South Family, Mount Lebanon, NY
ca. 1840
Description
Cast iron stove consisting of a base with four cast iron round taper legs riveted to it (a), a fire-box top cast with ridges on either side and both sides of top for holding sad irons (b), and a fire box door (c). Rectangular flue at top back.
Notes
The Shakers designed dozens of different styles of stoves for heating their residences and workshops. They also made stoves to serve special purposes such as this cast iron stove that was designed to hold and heat irons in the South Family laundry. The wooden knob on the door latch and the small draft regulator at the bottom of the door are missing. Shaker woodworkers made patterns for all parts of the stove that were to be made of cast iron. The patterns were then taken to commercial foundries where the required number of stoves were cast. Shaker blacksmiths would finish off the stoves by making any parts, such as door latches, that were to be forged rather than cast. A photograph by William F. Winter in 1931 (SMML accession no. 14096) shows the stove in its original location. Blog post on this object: https://shakerml.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/no-such-thing-as-too-many-irons-on-the-fire-shaker-stoves/
Reference: Measured drawings published in Ejner Handberg, Shop of Drawings of Shaker Iron and Tinware (Stockbridge, MA: The Berkshire Traveler Press, 1976), pp. 28-29.
New York Mount Lebanon South Family
