EDWARDS PLACE HISTORIC HOME Storied objects grace the restored dining room
Reproduction print Family porcelain Items from the Edwards family’s porcelain dinner service dating to c. 1835-1850 once again grace the dining room in Edwards Place. The porcelain platter at right was given to the Springfield Art Association by an Edwards daughter or granddaughter. The fragments of matching dishes to the left were excavated out of an early privy on the property, thus reuniting pieces of the same set that had been separated for more than 150 years. This gold-banded French porcelain was a classic style of the second quarter of the 19th century. Porcelain was ~14 times as expensive as glazed earthenware and was therefore a luxury item and a status symbol.
Cook’s clock
One of the two existing photographs of the interior of Edwards Place was taken in the dining room. This photo, which dates to about 1900, shows an aged Helen Edwards with her great-grandson Henry McCoy on her lap. Behind her sit her granddaughter Alice McCoy and her husband Theodore, and behind them are Helen’s daughter Helen Condell and her husband Moses. Just as interesting to us as we restored the dining room was the print behind them on the east wall. A little bit of research determined that this scene is “Wild Cattle of Chillingham” by Edward Landseer. With this information in hand, the SAA was able to reproduce an image of this print and hang it near to where the original once hung. Edwin Landseer was an extraordinarily popular artist in the mid-19th century. His subjects were often animals such as horses, dogs, or stags. Imagery of “food” animals such as cattle and stags were often placed in Victorian dining rooms, where the evoked a feeling culinary abundance and plenty. David Davis, judge of the 8th Judicial Circuit and a friend of the Edwards family, had the exact same print hanging in his dining room in Bloomington. It is still on view at the Davis Mansion State Historic Site.
A clock used by the Edwards family’s longtime cook as she worked in the kitchen of Edwards Place now hangs in a place of honor in the restored dining room. Helen Edwards gave the clock to Ellen Bonner, her cook of thirty years, when Ellen left service. The clock was passed down through Bonner’s family and donated to the SAA by John Graham, her great-great nephew. The clock is an Ingraham eight-day model and dates to c. 1885-1895. Clocks were standard features of nineteenth-century kitchens, where they were frequently consulted to ensure proper cooking and baking times. They were also the focus of superstition among household servants, who believed that if the clock stopped in the middle of the night it was an omen that either signified that company was coming or that a member of the household would soon die. Ellen Bonner was born in Ireland in 1830. Other than the fact that she was a widow, little is known about her before she started work at Edwards Place around 1875. She worked at Edwards Place until at least 1901, and probably served as something of a companion for Helen after she was widowed in 1886. Helen wrote that Mrs. Bonner was “a tender hearted woman” who was “a real comfort to me” in times of sorrow. Helen Edwards generally kept a cook, parlor maid, dining room servant, and hired man on staff. The female servants slept in the attic, where remnants of a call bell are still visible over one of the doors.
Springfield Art Association • 9