Foot Warmer

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Foot Warmer
Datec. 1847–1858
Made inBennington, Vermont, United States
MediumLead-glazed earthenware (Rockingham ware)
Dimensions11 1/8 × 9 7/8 × 7 in. (28.3 × 25.1 × 17.8 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.57.39.A,.B
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Maple Bedroom
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

In an era when the American household was heated by either fireplace or stove, the bed was often a cold and clammy place. Bed warmers and other similar devices were used to comfort the sleeper. This example is particularly ingenious. Its bottlelike form could be filled with hot liquid or hot sand and placed upright under the covers; the molded “footprint”surface provided a perfect resting place for the sleeper's feet.

Description: Tall bottle with cork stopper. Impression of two feet on front. Owl-like face at top. Back flat, front base rounded. Sides have rows of scallops or feathers molded on them. Glaze mottled brown and green on buff colored body.

Related: Barret 1958, p. 127, pl. 183; Ketchum 1983, no. 275; Guilland 1971, p. 277.

Book excerpt: Warren, David B., Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.


Provenance[George S. McKearin, Hoosick Falls, New York]; [George Abraham and Gilbert May Antiques, West Granville, Massachusetts]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1957; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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