Metalwork: Pieces from Vesterheim’s Collection Tom Latané
As a blacksmith, I gravitate toward the ironwork displayed at Vesterheim. There are some nice lighting devices in the furnished room displays in the Museum Building and a good collection of tools housed in the Painter-Bernatz Mill. In the Bauder-Landsgard Collection Study Center, which can be toured by appointment, there are some impressive locks and some more lighting. Almost half of the storage space in the study center is taken up by trunks, which held the belongings of families immigrating to the United States. All of these wooden containers have iron hardware, most of it hand-forged by blacksmiths and much of it imaginatively decorated. The collection of trunks is often studied by painters looking at the rosemaling decoration, but much of the ironwork is equally ornamental. Keyhole escutcheons, the straps on the front that balance the hinge straps on the backs, lid straps, corner bands, and corner brackets are embellished by blacksmiths with a variety of skills. Edges are finished with chiseled-cut profiles and filed bevels. Surfaces are chisel-pierced, chased, and embossed. The trunks in which the immigrants brought their possessions across the ocean were essential in keeping their few worldly possessions safe. Locks secured the trunks to keep random folks from accessing the inside, and corner brackets and straps protected the wood that surrounded them from punctures and knocks on their long and rough journeys. The trunks were almost always fitted with spring-loaded locks that snapped shut every time the lid was closed. Because the owner would address the keyhole with the
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necessary key whenever accessing the trunk, special effort seems to have been given to the keyhole escutcheon. The iron escutcheon is more resistant to wear than the wood behind, and the keyhole is the first line of defense in the security the lock offers. A key that does not fit in the profile of the keyhole will not go any further to open the chest. Most of these locks are designed so that, when the key is rotated to its limit, it will hold the lock in the unlocked position, so the lid may be closed temporarily while dealing with the trunk. However, when the key is removed, the lock engages once again. The locks are generally secured from the inside with nails clinched through the front board of the trunk. On a few of the examples in the collection, there are scars where the clinched nails have been removed. I am guessing that those with minimal damage were pried out from the inside to repair a failing lock, and those with more external damage were dug out and punched through from the outside to open a locked trunk with a lost key. During a recent visit, I studied some of the examples of chest hardware that I found most appealing. A collection of that size is somewhat overwhelming, so I am sure I missed a few trunks with impressively forged hardware. Enjoy the examples on the following pages of the intricate and interesting metalwork used by Norwegian immigrant ancestors!
Trunks with Keyhole Escutcheons that Stand Alone The most basic of the escutcheons are those that stand alone in the upper center of the front of the chest. Vesterheim trunk 1970.029.001 shows an escutcheon that is irregular and crooked, yet a very pleasing shape. It
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