A ewer and basin by Gien

In October 1875, John and Frances Glessner attended the Interstate Industrial Exposition, located in a cavernous W. W. Boyington designed building on the present site of the Art Institute of Chicago.  It was here that the Glessners saw a collection of artistically designed furniture organized by Peter B. Wight and William Le Baron Jenney, much of it carved by Isaac Scott.  The long collaboration between the Glessners and Scott that began at the exposition is well-known.  Often overlooked, however, is the fact that the Glessners acquired one of their favorite pieces of faience earthenware at the exposition.

The Glessners purchased several photographs of the furniture they saw at the exposition, including a sideboard designed by architect Asa Lyon and carved by Isaac Scott (shown above).  Prominently displayed at the center of the main shelf is a stately ewer and basin which the Glessners acquired soon after and placed at the center of the mantelpiece in their Washington Street parlor (shown below). 

The piece was manufactured by the French firm of Gien, considered one of the finest faience manufacturers in the 19^th century.  The company dates back to 1821 when Thomas Edme Hulm (or Thomas Hall) left his factory at Montereau, which had been operated by his family for nearly half a century, and purchased the property of the old convent of Minimes.  It was here that he opened his new factory to produce faience using English methods. 

The earliest pieces were more utilitarian in nature such as crockery, but later he began producing decorative pieces and dinner services, often copying older objects that combined both old and new decoration inspired by other manufacturers in Europe as well as pieces from the Far East. 

Photo by Susan Einstein for the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

The Glessners’ piece is a close copy of Rouen ware produced in the late 17^th and early 18^th centuries which made Rouen a major center of French pottery.  A ewer that is very similar to the Glessners’ piece was exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2012-2013 as part of their exhibit “Daily Pleasures: French Ceramics from the MaryLou Boone Collection.” Shown above, the piece was made about 1700 and is virtually identical in shape including the applied handle, although some freedom was taken in creating the decorative designs on the Glessners’ ewer. 

The period between 1855 and 1900 is generally considered to be the pinnacle of faience production in Gien.  Their pieces became known around the world as the firm won many awards at international exhibitions in 1855, 1867, 1878, 1889, and 1900. 

The mark on the underside of the basin, consisting of three crenelated towers with a ribbon beneath bearing the name GIEN, indicates that the piece was produced in the first half of the 1870s.  The three towers design was introduced as a mark for the firm in 1856, and in the Glessners’ piece, it also features prominently in the decoration.  The three towers motif is painted into a medallion beneath the lip of the ewer, and also serves as the central motif in the basin.  

Additional decoration includes a royonnant design inside the basin and a variety of richly detailed floral decorations and foliate scrolls across the body of both the ewer and basin.  The heavy lip of the ewer is decorated with a twisted rope design.  

One of the most unusual features of the piece is the pair of grotesque masks forming handles for the basin, which sits atop four pyramidal peg feet. 

During the decades that the Glessners lived on Prairie Avenue, the ewer and basin appear to have always been on display on the south bookcase in the library near the doorway to the cork alcove, as shown in the photo below, taken in 1923.  Today, the piece is displayed on a side table in the courtyard bedroom.

In 1986, the Gien Museum opened in an old clay body cave dating back to the 16^th century.  Telling the story of Gien from 1821 to the present, it consists of two large rooms showing both popular and artistic faience, along with special pieces created for the various World’s Fairs.  Click here for more information on the museum, located in Gien, France, 78, Place de la Victoire. 

Gien is still produced today and is considered among the highest quality earthenware in France.

The Glessner Center

Glessner House Museum is one of two buildings in Chicago that carry the Glessner name.  The other is a lesser known, five-story brick loft building at 130 S. Jefferson Street in the West Loop known as The Glessner Center.  In this article, we will explore the history of that building and how it came to be known by that name.

John Glessner arrived in Chicago in December 1870 with his new bride, in order to take over management of the sales office for his farm machinery firm, Warder, Bushnell & Glessner.  Business thrived under his capable leadership, and by the early 1880s, the firm sought to build a larger headquarters to house their offices, showrooms, and warehouse. 

In August 1882, the firm purchased a lot at the northwest corner of Adams and Jefferson, measuring 80 by 200 feet, for $31,000.  Glessner engaged the firm of Jaffray & Scott to design the five-story building.  The newly formed partnership consisted of architect Henry S. Jaffray (best remembered today for his design of the George M. Pullman mansion at 1729 S. Prairie Avenue), and designer Isaac Scott, a close friend of the Glessner family, who had completed numerous projects for them including furniture and interiors for their home on West Washington Street. 

All was proceeding according to plan until April 10, 1883 when a wooden pier collapsed in the north half of the building, causing the whole interior to crash into the basement level and taking much of the north wall with it.  Later that evening, during a heavy windstorm, the east wall, which had been compromised by the earlier collapse, also fell in.  Jaffray and Scott were dismissed from the project, and architect W. W. Boyington was called in to complete the building.

The new headquarters was ready for occupancy by October of that year.  Known as the “Champion Building” after the trademarked name of the machines produced by the firm, its efficient and attractive design was praised in newspapers and other publications.  The building consisted of two main parts.  The south half of the building facing Adams contained offices and the showrooms, with huge windows facing south to bathe the spaces in natural light.  The north half of the building was utilized as a warehouse, and was bisected by a tall driveway that ran east to west through the building, allowing up to eight delivery wagons to be loaded and unloaded simultaneously while protected from the elements. 

The functions of the building were clearly demarcated on the exterior – the offices and showrooms were set beneath a hipped roof with dormers and a tower, whereas the warehouse was a more utilitarian structure with a simple brick cornice.  A delicate band of terra cotta ran across the top of the large showroom windows and depicted oak leaves and acorns, an image that would be welcoming to farmers visiting to purchase equipment.  Four different designs of oak leaves and three different designs of acorns were used to create a meandering, naturalistic pattern. 

The Chicago Tribune, in an October 27, 1883 article entitled “A Champion Enterprise,” praised the building and stated, in part:

“The building, covering an area of 80x200 feet, built of the best pressed brick, terra cotta trimmings, etc. is of elegant architectural proportions, and forms at once an ornament and landmark.  Designed and built expressly for a reaper warehouse with great care in every arrangement, it is today the best-lighted and most perfect building of its kind in America.”

Main Office

(Inland Architect, October 1883)

Another article, published simultaneously in The Inland Architect and Builder, gave a detailed description of the interior:

“What are conceded to be the finest appointed mercantile offices west of New York are those just completed in the Champion Reaper Company’s building built by architects Jaffray & Scott.  These offices occupy two floors in the front part of the warehouse proper.  The total space occupied is about 60 x 80 feet.  A space of 20 feet square is occupied by an immense vault and the stairway leading to the upper tier of offices.  This stairway is open, and like the general woodwork, is of red-oak.  The main office is 40 x 60, and divided from this and also from each other by partitions composed almost entirely of plate-glass, are four offices about occupying an equally divided space, 18 x 60.  The ceilings are frescoed in colors harmonizing with a heavy, solid, polished red-oak cornice and stained glass in quiet shades, give a softening effect.  The smaller offices are elegantly fitted with grates and mantels, Turkish rugs are on the polished red-oak floors, and above the mantels bronze panels add effectiveness to the general interior, in which one is apt to forget that this is an office devoted to the demands of trade, and not a costly private apartment. . . As a whole, this office in its arrangement and light-colored decoration, with the view of securing perfect light, is a model in office construction, and reflects general credit upon architect and owner.”

John J. Glessner's office
(Inland Architect, October 1883)

After Glessner’s firm merged with others to form International Harvester in 1902, the building was utilized by the new corporation, but was sold in 1907.  Through the years, it was occupied and owned by various companies and was known by its address – 600 W. Adams Street.  For many years, it was owned by Polk Brothers, which used it as a furniture and appliance warehouse-outlet store. 

In 1984, as the surrounding neighborhood was rapidly changing, it was purchased by a developer and completely gutted and rehabbed into a luxury loft office building, containing 60,000 square feet of office space.  The architects were Booth/Hansen and Associates, with Paul Hansen serving as project architect.  

It was renamed The Glessner Center and the main entrance was shifted around the corner to 130 S. Jefferson Street.  Many of the exterior features were altered, including the roofline and corner tower, but the basic structure remains as it did when first built.  And one original interior feature was left in place – the massive door to the vault, which still bears the inscription “The Warder, Bushnell and Glessner Company – Champion Binders & Mowers.”

Unearthing Hanford

During the last twenty years, as the Prairie Avenue District has been reborn as a desirable residential neighborhood, bits and pieces of its history have been unearthed as construction equipment disturbs the sites of long vanished houses.  In many cases, the sites have laid undisturbed for decades beneath a thick layer of asphalt for a parking lot, or a concrete slab for a warehouse.  Such was the case of the former site of the long vanished Philander C. Hanford house.

Built in 1883 at 2008 S. Calumet Avenue, the home of the oil magnate and art collector was the largest on that street, and rivaled the finest homes on Prairie Avenue and the entire city.  Designed by architect Henry S. Jaffray, the massive pile was faced in Connecticut brownstone and featured beautifully designed interiors from the hand of Isaac Scott.  But the history of the house was not a happy one.  Just ten years after moving into his palatial home, Hanford committed suicide due to business reverses, and his family abandoned the house and city, leaving a caretaker to care for the property.  After sitting unoccupied for decades, the structure was seriously damaged by fire before succumbing to the wrecker’s ball in 1953. 

Rubble from the structure was used to fill in the basement before the site was paved over for a parking lot for employees of the nearby R. R. Donnelley & Sons printing plant.  But soon after, a section of the parking lot caved in, taking several cars along with it.  It was discovered that the Hanford house had been constructed with a double basement, and only the top level had been filled in during demolition - the added weight of the cars causing the large sinkhole. 

After that incident, the house was largely forgotten until 2001, when the site was excavated in preparation for a development of new townhouses that occupy the site today.  As bulldozers peeled away the asphalt and began digging, they uncovered the thick limestone walls of the Hanford house foundation, still largely intact.  Rubble and dirt was hauled away until the huge footprint of the house was fully revealed.

Jack Simmerling, who had been fascinated with the house since first touring it more than 50 years earlier, was on site, capturing these images.  For the first time since the early 1950s, huge blocks of brownstone saw the light of day, providing onlookers with a glimpse of the former grandeur of the house.  Remnants of chimneys that served the many fireplaces were uncovered as were countless smaller fragments ranging from window glass to tiles, and metal hardware to bottles and china.

An interesting find was a large locked safe brought to the surface – the source of much conversation amongst the demolition crew.  Like all the other pieces being unearthed however, it was loaded onto a truck and sent off only to be reburied as landfill, without ever being opened.  The secrets of any treasures it might have contained going with it.

Simmerling was able to salvage some small pieces as seen in this image and the one below.  One wonders how he must have felt walking amongst the bits and pieces of the house he had known so well, glimpsing the shattered remnants that he thought had been lost to time.  Fortunately, however, these are not the only pieces of the fabled house to survive.  Before the building was demolished, Simmerling, then just 17 years old, salvaged dozens of tiles, carved wood mouldings, and pieces from the elaborate windows, some of which are now displayed in the Simmerling Gallery of Prairie Avenue History at Glessner House Museum.  Viewing these pieces today, along with paintings and building models created by Simmerling, one can get a sense of the exquisite craftsmanship that went into the building of this house.  During 2001, the site of the house was stripped of all traces of the building that once stood there, but we are fortunate that Jack Simmerling had the foresight to rescue what he could so that future generations will always be able to appreciate this home and the many others that made the Prairie Avenue neighborhood the finest in the city.

NOTE:  On Tuesday March 31, 2015 at 7:00pm, Glessner House Museum will host “Unearthing Chicago,” a program of Clarke House Museum featuring Eric Nordstrom, owner of Urban Remains.  He will discuss several recent digs at locations throughout the city including Wolf’s Point and the former site of the c. 1855 John Kent Russell house, explaining what layers of trash and debris from prior generations reveal about the development of the city we know today.  The program is free, for more information call 312.326.1480.  

The Glorious Fourth of July

The Fourth of July was celebrated in grand style at the Glessners’ summer estate, The Rocks, in 1911.  The event included a parade in which the Glessners’ seven grandchildren and their friends participated, along with their horses and ponies – a total of 17 children and 13 horses.  A grand stand was erected in front of the farm house, where lemonade was served following the spectacle.  John Glessner served as the master of ceremonies and orator of the day, delivering the following speech to explain the holiday to his grandchildren:

“My dear children – I wonder if you know just what the 4^th of July means.  More than 135 years ago this country was a colony of Great Britain and all the laws were made in England, and a large amount of the taxes collected here were spent there.  This was so unjust and burdensome that the people here determined to change it and make a new nation and choose their own rulers to make their laws and collect and spend their taxes here at home.  And they resolved to do this even if it meant a long and bloody war, which it did.  So on July 4, 1776 they made their Declaration of Independence and it is this that we now celebrate every July 4^th.  For a great many years the celebration was largely in fireworks and shooting guns and cannon.  I don’t know why this way was chosen unless because people like the blaze of fire, the smell of gunpowder and the noise of explosion, but a great many persons were hurt by it and some were killed every 4^th of July and a great deal of property was burned up, until now in many places fireworks etc. are prohibited by law and this is why we have our pleasant little celebration.”

A program was printed giving the details of the parade, with the various grandchildren and their horses assuming the roles of characters from mythology, fairy tales, and literature.  Isaac Scott and Helen Macbeth (Frances Glessner’s sister) made the banner which read, “THE ROCKS, JULY 4^th.”  Frances Glessner Lee, in her usual highly efficient manner, served as “stage manager,” coordinating and the details of timing, props, etc.  Following a variety of races and another parade, this time on bicycles, John Glessner awarded prizes to the participants.  Not surprisingly, every child won a prize – a crisp new $1.00 bill.

The printed program, entitled “THE GLORIOUS FOURTH OF JULY, Patriotic Celebration at THE ROCKS 1911,”  announced the following participants and activities:

ORDER OF PROCESSION

Grand Marshal on Horseback

Which is Mrs. George Glessner on Dixie Crow

Herald riding Boabdil and carrying Banner

Frances Glessner and Bob

Queen Mab bestriding Pegasus

Emily Glessner on Queen

Cobweb and Mustardseed

Diminutive fairy princesses, drawn by miniature horses in midget jaunting car

Frances and Martha Lee with ponies

Queen Elizabeth in Chariot of State

Drawn by black charger Bucephalus

Elizabeth Glessner in cart with Harry

Titania, Queen of Fairies

Mounted on Firefly

Frances Sullivan on Bessie

Cinderella, escorting Prince Charming in Pumpkin Coach

Drawn by Æsculapius

Barbara Beattie and John Glessner with Doe

Oberon, driving Ginger and Blue Blazes in Carriole

With Hyacinth and Squash Blossom in back seat

John Lee and Florence and Loyal Betts, with Ruby and Belle in pony wagon

Mercury on a Heaven-kissing Hill

Togo in solitary grandeur

Flower and Other Fairies with the horses of Helios

Driven by Phaethon in the Chariot of the Sun

Sam and Topsy in Charibanc, driven by Charlie Green, and containing the three Maxners and three Greens

Exhibition of Lady Equestriennes

(Excuse the Tantalogy)

Barbara Beattie on Doc

Frances Sullivan on Dandy

Frances Lee on Buster

Frances Glessner on Queen

RACES—Open to All

Marathon—Prize for Fastest Runner—No Handicap

Sack Race

Uni-legged Contest

Bi-legged Competition

Tri-legged Struggle

Quadrupedal Effort

BICYCLE PARADE

AWARDING OF PRIZES

STAGE MANAGER . . . MRS. FRANCES G. LEE

It sounds as though it was a glorious Fourth of July indeed!

Next week:  The Chicago Museum, Part II

Gesu Bambino

Among the many engravings on display in the museum is one entitled “Gesu Bambino,” the Italian name for the baby Jesus.  As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, we will take a look at the engraving, its artist and dealer, and how it came to be owned by the Glessners.

On November 27, 1880, Frances Glessner noted in her journal:

“French and literature classes in the afternoon.  Mr. Scott over to spend Sunday and look at engravings sent up by Mr. Keppel’s – Roullier.  We selected twenty one pictures.”

Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) appears to have been the exclusive dealer through whom the Glessners purchased their numerous engravings, which numbered nearly 100 by the time of John Glessner’s death in 1936.  Keppel was born in Ireland in 1845, emigrated to Canada, and later moved to New York to become a bookseller.  In 1870, he inadvertently became the first dealer in fine etchings and engravings in North America after acquiring some prints from a disgruntled London print seller who wanted to return to England and needed to dispose of the prints from his New York shop.  Keppel was educated by leading print collectors of the day, including the greatest collector at that time, James L. Claghorn, and was also an intimate friend of James McNeill Whistler.  He travelled regularly to Europe to buy prints and engravings and was the senior member of the art importing firm of Frederick Keppel & Co. with offices in New York and London.  He also lectured widely and wrote regularly for newspapers and magazines.  (Keppel presented the Glessners with a signed reprint of his important article, The Golden Age of Engraving, in 1878).  He died in 1912 at which time his firm donated collections of prints to several museums in his memory to encourage a better understanding of prints and engravings.

Although Keppel did not maintain an office in Chicago, he frequently exhibited here, at the store of Jansen, McClurg & Co., located at the northeast corner of State and Madison.  His representative, Albert Roullier, eventually went into business for himself and established his own store in Chicago around 1900. 

An article in the Chicago Tribune dated November 21, 1880 confirms that Keppel was exhibiting in Chicago at the time the Glessners viewed and purchased their twenty one engravings:

“Next week there will be exhibited at Jansen, McClurg & Co.’s, the Keppel collection of the line engravings, composed of specimens of the works of Morghen, Toschi, Longhi, and other masters of the Italian school, the most of them being in the early state, and once the property of Antonio Perfetti, the pupil of Morghen.  Another feature of the exhibition will be the greater portion of the fine engravings which adorned the gallery of ex-Queen Christine of Spain, who died two years ago.  This is particularly rich in specimens of the renowned engravers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries – Nanteuil, Edelinck, Massou, Drevet, Willie, Bervic, Strange, and Sharp.”

A series of fourteen receipts in the museum archives indicate that the Glessners were purchasing from Keppel as early as 1877 and as late as 1892.  The receipt for their purchase in November 1880 shows that they paid $3.75 for their copy of the Gesu Bambino.  It was the least expensive of the twenty one engravings, for which they paid a total of $596.50.  The receipt also shows pieces by Edelinck and Drevet, possibly those referenced in the Tribune article as being from the collection of Queen Christine of Spain. 

Mauro Gandolfi, Self portrait, 1785

The Gesu Bambino engraving was executed by Mauro Gandolfi, an Italian painter and engraver of the Bolognese school.  Based on an original artwork by Giovanni Zecchi, it shows the baby Jesus lying in a manger with outspread arms and beams of light illuminating from the clouds above.  Born in 1764, Gandolfi came from a family of artists – his father was the painter Gaetano Gandolfi, and his six younger brothers were all painters as well.  In 1794, he was made a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and by the early 1800s he was focusing on engraving.  In 1801, he moved to Paris and engraved the works at the French museums.  He later returned to Italy to continue his work as an engraver.  He traveled to the United States in 1816 and published a series of illustrations depicting New York City and Philadelphia.  Gandolfi died in Bologna in 1834.

The exact date that the engraving in the Glessner collection was made is not known.  John Glessner presented it to his wife as a Christmas gift, and added the penciled notation “With Christmas compliments 1880, J. J. Glessner” in the lower right hand corner.  

Isaac Scott designed an elegant wood frame for the piece with simple reeded sides featuring small stylized flowers at each corner, each one of different design.  A wide beveled gold leafed inner frame surrounds the print itself; a broader velvet covered mat outside the glass fills the area between the inner and outer frames. 

Today the print hangs on the west wall of the hallway leading to Fanny’s bedroom. 

The Adoration of the Magi

One of a small number of objects on permanent display in the museum depicting scenes from the Christmas story is a plaster cast plaque showing the three wise men presenting gifts to the Christ child, set within a shadowbox created by Isaac Scott.  The piece is one of four fictile ivories hung over the mantel in the courtyard bedroom.  In this article, we will examine the story behind the original artwork as well as how the copy was made.

The original piece, entitled “The Adoration of the Magi,” was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London in 1866 and is currently on display in their Medieval and Renaissance Gallery.  Carved by an unknown artist from the bone of a Rorqual, or Finner whale, it was created between 1120 and 1150 A.D. in northern Spain and measures 14.4” tall by 6.3” wide.

Courtesy of the V&A

The website for the V&A states the following about the original:

“The relief is one of the strangest surviving representations of the Adoration of the Magi and the largest surviving medieval carving in bone.  The artist’s love of decoration can be seen in the elaborately pleated drapery edged with geometric designs; even the area around the Virgin’s feet is filled by foliate scrolls and a small tree.”

It was originally thought that the relief was of English origin but subsequent research has linked it stylistically with other work executed in Northern Spain.  The level of craftsmanship is very high, and the depiction of the kings as pilgrims was very popular along the road to Santiago de Compostela.  Additional symbolism includes beasts fighting at the feet of the Virgin Mary, and an owl above, which some scholars have interpreted as reflecting the circumstances of “reconquista” in which the object was produced. 

Courtesy of the V&A

The largest figure is the Virgin Mary, seated beneath a Romanesque arch from which is hung an elaborately detailed drapery.  She wears a pleated head dress and a jeweled diadem.  The Christ child is seated on her left knee, with the three kings at far left, crowned and carrying staves, offering their traditional gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 

Courtesy of the V&A

The maker of the cast owned by the Glessners is unknown, but information from the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney Australia provides a possible source.  That museum owns a large collection of fictile ivories (the term for copies made from original ivory or bone carvings) made in England during the period in which John and Frances Glessner purchased their pieces.

Two Englishmen, J. O. Westwood and A. Nesbitt, made numerous casts of original artworks, which are described in a catalogue entitled “A Descriptive Catalogue of the Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum” published in 1876.  (The South Kensington Museum was the original name for what is now the V&A.)  The process involved mixing wax and gutta-percha (a natural latex derived from a variety of trees in Malaysia) which was then flattened into a piece larger than the artwork to be copied.  The artwork was wetted with cold water or soap, after which the mix of wax and gutta-percha was placed upon it and pressed carefully so as to reach into all the deeper cut parts of the work.  After the mixture hardened and cooled, it was lifted carefully from the artwork, after which it was ready to receive plaster of Paris. 

The molds were used by Westwood and Nesbitt to create numerous copies, and other makers were allowed to use the molds to make their own copies as well.  Plaster casts in general became very popular in the mid- to late-19^th century.  They were widely purchased for domestic use, but many museums also acquired large collections, such as the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney which acquired 650 casts during the mid-1880s. 

During the 1870s and 1880s, the Chicago Tribune featured several articles that discuss plaster casts as art, and how the pieces were made.  An article in 1878 mentions that the managers of the Interstate Industrial Exposition (which the Glessners attended each year) were assembling a large collection of plaster casts.  One prominent Chicago dealer was Anthony Equi, so it is highly probably the Glessners either acquired their casts directly at the Exposition or through Equi’s gallery. 

Frame detail

The four casts purchased by the Glessners were set into custom-made shadowboxes designed and executed by Isaac Elwood Scott, who created numerous other picture frames and pieces of furniture for the Glessner family.  The framed pieces show up in photos of the Glessners’ previous home on Washington Street, so were definitely acquired by them prior to their move to Prairie Avenue in 1887.

Today, the striking “Adoration of the Magi” and the other fictiles continue to impress visitors with their fine detailing, warm patina, and handsome shadow boxes.

Frances Glessner's Book of Quotations

In September 1895 Frances Glessner began collecting quotations in a book she labeled simply “Volume No. 1 Quotations.”  Over the next 34 years, she filled 194 pages with more than 1,200 quotations gathered from a variety of sources.  Most are written in her own hand, a few are clipped from periodicals.  Reading through the quotations provides a great deal of insight into her character, and the values that she considered most important in her life.  It is believed that the quotations were gathered to be shared with her family over breakfast.

Family friend Isaac Scott designed two elaborate covers for her book of quotations, which for reasons unknown, were never used.  The two covers were mounted and one was framed, so perhaps Frances Glessner found them so attractive that she preferred to display them.  The first cover, shown above was designed by Scott in 1896 in Boston, and is labeled:

Breakfast Table Quotations

Prose and Poetic

Quotations

adapted for reading at the

Breakfast Table

Compiled and Edited

by

Frances M. Glessner

Chicago, Ill.              1896

The words are set amongst a lush pen and ink design of foliage and flowers, typical of much of the work Scott designed for the Glessners including furniture, metalwork, and embroidery designs.

The second cover, shown above, is executed in ink and watercolor wash and is undated.  Entitled Breakfast Table Quotations, the design features a large urn surrounded by elaborate scrollwork with torchieres at either side.  Within the urn is the following quotation:

“I wonder at men always ringing a dish or jar before buying it but being content to judge of men by his look alone.”

The quote is attributed to Diogenes, a Greek philosopher born about 412 B.C.  It was apparently a favorite quote of Frances Glessner, to be featured on the intended cover for her quotation book. 

(NOTE:  Both book covers are on display in the butler's pantry at the museum).

Immediately following the title page in the quotation book is a page featuring five quotes, which precedes page 1 on which the numbered quotations begin.  These may have been favorite quotations and appear to have been written at different times.

The first quotation comes from Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), who served as British Prime Minister in 1868 and again from 1874 to 1880.  He played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party in the 1840s.  His quote reads:

“It is much easier to be critical than to be correct.”

The second quotation comes from Joseph Joubert (1754-1824), a French moralist and essayist.  He wrote extensively but published nothing in his lifetime.  His widow gave his notes and papers to Chateaubriand who in 1838 published Collected Thoughts of Mr. Joubert.  The quotation in Frances Glessner’s book reads:

“Good maxims are the germs of all excellence.”

It comes from a slightly longer quotation which reads in full:

“A maxim is the exact and noble expression of an important and indisputable truth.  Good maxims are the germs of all excellence; when firmly fixed on the memory, they nourish the will.”

The third quotation was written by Beatrice Harraden (1864-1936) a British writer and suffragette.  It comes from her debut novel, Ships That Pass in the Night, a love story set in a tuberculosis sanatorium.   Although that book was a best-seller, Harraden never again achieved the same acclaim for her subsequent works.  She became an ardent suffragette and wrote extensively in the suffragette paper Votes for Women.  The quote from her novel included in Frances Glessner’s book reads:

“What does matter is to judge gently, and not come down like a sledge-hammer on other people’s feelings.”

In the novel, the next line reads:

“Who are we, any of us, that we should be hard on others?”

The fourth quote comes from a book entitled Thoughts, written in 1886 by Ivan Panin (1855-1942), a Russian emigrant to the U.S. who achieved fame for claiming to have discovered numeric patterns in the text of the Hebrew and Greek Bible.  Most of his published works deal with this topic, but Thoughts, among his first published works, contained “435 sententious observations on abstract subjects, such as misfortune, charity, truth and love” according to a review in the New York Evening Post.  The review goes on to say that “the writer’s excuse for the book is characteristically given as follows”:

“All that is good has been said before;

All that is noble has been thought before.

But is there less need now of resaying the good,

of rethinking the noble?”

That is the quote which Frances Glessner recorded in her book of quotations.

The last quotation is unattributed.  Similar versions are found in various sources, but none exactly worded as Frances Glessner recorded it:

Have you learned to think and judge without prejudice?”

Taken together, these five random quotes, brought together on a single page by Frances Glessner, serve as a window into her character, and show the breadth and scope of the books and periodicals she was reading on a regular basis.   Each quotation invites the reader to look deeper into their own soul, and to consider the thoughts and feelings of their fellow human being.  Penned well over a century ago, the words still ring true today and continue to inspire and provide direction in a world that is so different from that of Frances Glessner, but in many ways, has not changed at all.