Joseph Lancellotti The term “Quaker aesthetic ... - Temple Fox MIS

Joseph Lancellotti
The term “Quaker aesthetic” reveals many key words and ideas, or catch phrases
so to speak that gives you a very good idea of what the Quaker culture was fundamentally
all about – kinship, community, craft, and consensus. Tie in those four keywords with the
idea of plainness and simplicity and then you may begin delving into what life was for
the Quakers (Herman). The two artifacts that I chose to compare were both from the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, in the Sherrerd Gallery. The first is a hot water urn, which I
believed started out to be representative of the Quaker aesthetic but eventually became
something more grandiose, above and beyond. The second artifact I chose was nothing
else but a square backed Windsor chair, something I believe to be more accurate in
representing Quaker aesthetics.
Richard Humphreys, a Quaker philanthropist, crafted the urn in 1774. Humphreys
was born on a plantation in the West Indies and came to Philadelphia in 1764. After
Humphreys witnessed what African Americans went through competing for jobs with the
influx of immigrants, he charged his fellow Quakers “...to instruct the descendents of the
African Race in school learning, in the various branches of the mechanic Arts, trades and
Agriculture, in order to prepare and fit and qualify them to act as teachers…” The
founding of Cheyney University was mainly due in part to Humphreys bequeathing 1/10 th
of his estate to educate African Americans (Cheney U).
The urn itself is maybe 2 feet or less from base to top, and extremely shiny silver.
The urn was made for the Continental Congress, as is evident when reading the highly
intricate engravings on the face of the urn (Lindsey). While the urn has a very classical
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Joseph Lancellotti
shape to it, reminiscent of Quaker aesthetic, it reaches far passed any Quaker ideals.
Humphreys experimented with the rising neoclassical style, which would show up
heavily later during the Federal period (Lindsey). Any Quaker would not have this urn in
their home, the urn just screams out elitist. While Quakers did enjoy distinctiveness, this
urn is one of a kind, too distinct, and far from plainness and simplicity. The one question
that I asked myself when I saw the urn is simply this – would a Quaker use this on a dayto-day
basis? I would definitely say no to that. The urn does not represent necessity of
living and day-to-day use that this urn would surely not see.
Switching gears, the Windsor chair was made in the early 1800’s in Philadelphia,
also found in the Sherrerd gallery. The chair features a square back; perfect simple
symmetry and a very rustic color of aged brown. As soon as I saw the chair, I saw
Quakers, meaning I envisioned that chair inside of a Quaker home, and everyday after the
Quaker homeowner came back from work he would take a seat right in that chair. I
believe the chair embodies the ideals of plainness and simplicity on a more realistic level
than does the urn. However plain and simple the chair is, it also tells a tale of superior
craftsmanship and even kinship – I can’t imagine anybody looking at that chair and not
feeling some sort of attachment to it. That’s what I feel is the most important aspect of
the chair – it’s homey feeling that I get from looking at it. The chair was clearly made for
everyday life, but in no way does that diminish its extraordinarily simple but strong
appearance.
On the one hand you have the super stylish, in your face silver urn, which looks so
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Joseph Lancellotti
fancy it just begs never to be touched – heaven forbid you leave a fingerprint on it; then
you have the chair – plain, simple, durable, yet so accessible at the same time. The
fundamental difference in the urn and the chair is you want to sit down in the chair, but
you would hesitate and event thinking of touching the urn. In this way, I believe the
Windsor chair embodies the work and ideals of Quakers while the urn simply works
against them.
Works cited
Cheney U. Penn Powerpoint Presentation - https://docs.google.com/a/temple.edu/viewer?
a=v&q=cache:VZNrxe0Rz9sJ:www.cheyney.edu/about-cheyneyuniversity/documents/RichardHumphreys_QuakerPhilanthropist.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pi
d=bl&srcid=ADGEEShrl6YokQKpMuXu-
HWYRuY69g1M5Gx0oT_KRBGOJMM5dC6TEMf6MGY3OIzK2f91uuY4PNm1m0t0PY5O1dIvWnlLX09kntZoIBQvyX7WPK3WT8HERhaJ1QGjhPnJ23vj4Fh66n&sig=AHIEtbTMi4
bxQRKm7A0TnaDeyPQBD0qjZg&pli=1
Herman, Bernard L, "Quakers as Producers," in Quaker Aesthetics.
Lindsey, Jack L, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995),
p. 262.
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