Search the Collection - Addison Gallery

☰ Open Filter >>

anonymous

Firehouse Sign

Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 1870
42 x 168 x 9 in. (107 x 427 x 23 cm)

Medium and Support: pine, gilded and painted

Credit Line: museum purchase

Accession Number: 1949.30

Commentary

This carved and gilded firehouse sign originally hung on the front of the wood-framed fire house on Middle Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, set over the fire house’s left doorway housing the Kearsarge Steam Fire Engine Company’s Steamer Engine 3. Its companion sign, also purchased by the Addison in 1947, hung above the doorway to the right that housed the W. J. Samson Steamer Engine 1.

Of the two the Kearsarge sign is the most ornate. The elaborately carved central-arched top frames a fluttering banner, a fireman’s trophy consisting of a helmet, axe, trumpet, and a banner announcing the founding of the fire company in 1870. It was purportedly the Kearsarge Engine 3 that was shipped from Portsmouth to fight Boston’s Great Fire of 1872.

Exhibition List

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

By Good Hands: New Hampshire Folk Art University Art Galleries, University of New Hampshire , 6/23/1989 - 6/23/1990
Presence of the Past: Decorative Arts at Phillips Academy Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/21/1995 - 3/19/1995
Masterworks from the Permanent Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/5/1995 - 12/17/1995
Conversations: A Collection in Dialogue Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/7/2003 - 7/31/2003
Art and Craft Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/30/2005 - 7/31/2005
[Permanent Collection in galleries 201-5] Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/12/2014 - 7/31/2014
Taking Shape: Sculpture at the Addison Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/17/2016 - 3/19/2017

Your current search criteria is: Object is "Firehouse Sign".

This site facilitates access to the art and artifact collections by providing digitally searchable records for thousands objects. The information on these pages is not definitive or comprehensive. We are regularly adding artworks and updating research online. We welcome your comments.