Records documenting silversmith production by Arthur J. Stone, his workshop, and Stone Associates.
Included are ca. 11,000 drawings, including bench drawings, designer's master drawings, architect's drawings, and ca. 1,000 "scales" or templates, made from full scale drawings; files from Stone's workshop containing an index to photographs, information on clients, and work summaries including dimensions, name, craftsmen's initials, hours, weight, and price; stock number cards, circle and gauge cards, and daily hours cards; files for Stone Associates containing work summary and stock cards.
Also found are photographs of Stone, his workshop, and silver pieces, (mainly taken by his wife, Elizabeth Bent Stone, 1912-1937), and objects made by Stone Associates; photograph albums of duplicate prints; clippings, 5 exhibition catalogs, and brochures; 17 letters; 2 essays on silverware by Jerome A. Heywood; records on stock number card categories; lists of silver gauges, weights, and circles; ten sections of plaster casts of chased silver forms by Arthur J.Stone; and a trade catalog of James Dixon and Son, Sheffield, England, undated. A microfiche of a card file is included with the records.
Records from the Arthur J. Stone workshop, including measured drawings; templates; albums of photographs of work, including commissions for leading Episcopal churches and churchmen, Yale and Harvard Universities, private patrons in Boston and N.Y., and for Stone's leading client, George Booth of Cranbrook, Michigan; photographs of an exhibition, and of Stone, his workmen, and his shop. Also included are Stone's copies of a few English silver and metalwork trade catalogs, ca. 1824-ca. 1937.
Biographical / Historical:
Arthur J. Stone was a leading silversmith from Gardner, Massachusetts. He was trained and worked in Sheffield, England, and Edinburgh, Scotland prior to coming to the U.S. in 1884. He was one of the last silversmiths in America to train apprentices to carry out designs in handwrought silver.
In 1901, Stone set up a workshop in Gardner, which operated under his name until its sale in 1937 to Henry Heywood, a Gardner businessman, who renamed it first as The Stone Silver Shop, changing it later to Stone Associates. Heywood died in 1945, and his sons Henry, Jr. and Jerome ran it until 1957, when they disbanded.
Provenance:
Donated by Jerome A. Heywood, 1979-1980 and Janet J. Loop, 1997. When Stone sold his shop to Heywood, he included the records to insure the continuity of the work. Stone retained records relating to his early work. These were donated to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston by Stone's family. According to Stone's niece, Elenita Chickering, who processed the papers, approximately 3 trunks of accounts and letters were destroyed in the 1940s by Stone's widow, Elizabeth Bent, to insure client's anonymity. The 1 ft. of records donated by Janet Loop, daughter of Herman Glendenning, were given to Glendenning by Stone's widow. Loop donated them along with some of her father's own designs and other papers, which are cataloged separately under Glendenning.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Silversmiths -- Massachusetts -- Gardner Search this
Topic:
Decorative arts -- Massachusetts -- Gardner Search this
Unpublished memoir of the life of Leah Curtiss Gould.
Biographical / Historical:
Art dealer; New York, N.Y. and Conn. Curtiss-Gould was a dealer in Arthur J. Stone silver from ca. 1936-1975. During the period 1936-1950, she worked in a shop, Portraits, Inc., in New York City where Stone silver was sold. Eventually, she opened her own business in Connecticut, the Curtiss Gallery, and sold it in 1970.
Provenance:
Donated 2001 by Thomas Beddall.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
