Trivet c. 1938

This trivet was made by Roy Weber sometime between 1855 and 1995, though we don't know exactly when. It’s hard to tell definitively from this image, but it seems that this trivet has been cast in iron. You can see a pattern of grapes and leaves, and the curling forms typical of decorative ironwork. It's a functional object, meant to protect a tabletop from a hot dish, but it’s also undeniably ornamental. Iron is obviously a material tied to industrial processes. It is also, more subtly, an index of class. The very earliest cast iron objects were luxury goods, but over time, especially with innovations in mass production in the 19th century, iron became widely available, prized for its strength and affordability. The trivet is a reminder that even the most humble objects can be understood as products of complex social and material histories.