-Childs Safe c. 1906

Curator: Right now, we are standing in front of "Child's Safe", a mixed-media piece made circa 1906 by J. Chein & Company. The safe combines painting, enamel, and metal work. Editor: It's striking how the bright colors immediately attract attention. The green and red really pop. What’s especially intriguing to me is how the promise of safety clashes with its rather diminutive, almost toy-like scale. Curator: Yes, the choice of materials points towards mass production – cheap metal shaped and painted rather than cast in a precious metal like iron. The production processes would have been mechanized, reducing labor costs. We see Art Nouveau aesthetics employed here as an element of appeal and salesmanship in a mass-produced child’s item. Editor: Absolutely. This safe speaks volumes about early consumer culture and the burgeoning middle class in the early 20th century. “Child’s Safe, Fire Proof”—that language is designed to assuage parental anxieties about social mobility, class, and economic security in rapidly changing times. The emphasis on individual responsibility for financial wellbeing is palpable. Curator: Note too the image emblazoned at the bottom: a ship, an allusion to commerce and trade – things worth saving for. There is perhaps a subliminal desire to indoctrinate these children with capitalism, the nuclear family, and commodification. Editor: I find it thought-provoking to think about this safe as more than a container for money, but a tool for the construction of identity. Children were being taught at a young age the importance of accumulation and thrift—behaviors closely linked to concepts of gender, status, and social power. It certainly reveals cultural ideas surrounding wealth. Curator: What an apt connection. We're dealing with the physical embodiment of societal pressures made miniature, which makes this item quite curious. It certainly gives one insight into values circulating at the turn of the century. Editor: Agreed. It's incredible how something so small can offer so much to reflect upon and question about those earlier anxieties.