Kettle 1911

Shreve & Company made this kettle, currently held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, sometime between 1852 and 1967. This object is a product of its cultural moment. While superficially resembling earlier silverware, the hammered surface is a hallmark of the Arts and Crafts movement, which opposed industrialization and celebrated the supposedly honest labor of the handcraftsman. These values reflected a broader anxiety about the social effects of industrial capitalism. By the late 19th century, the consumption of luxury goods like silverware had become central to the performance of middle-class identity. The Arts and Crafts movement sought to ennoble this activity with its rhetoric of authenticity, even as companies like Shreve were becoming powerful institutions in their own right. To understand this kettle fully, we would want to know more about the firm of Shreve & Company, its place in the consumer culture of its time, and its relationship to contemporary craft ideals.