Lot Essay
This model shop, with approximately 300 moving parts, was made by Swedish silversmith Eric Youngberg to represent the full range of activities in a 19th-century silversmith's shop. Youngberg served his apprenticeship at the firm of Swensson & Luhr, a silver manufactory in Gothenburg, Sweden, from 1894-1904. He emigrated to Rhode Island, where he built this shop over a period of five years, assembling some 10,000 handmade parts. Shortly after its completion, the Providence Journal described it as follows:
By means of tiny shafts, levers and cams, and with the aid of a
small electric motor placed in the basement of the miniature
factory, the builder has put the breath of life--or at least the
resemblance of it--into every one of the busy workmen who toil
at the tiny machines. By viewing the animated figures, machines
and tools of the shop you will learn how grandmother's silver
service came into being in the days of hand labor.
The silversmiths in this automaton demonstrate every stage necessary to convert molten silver into finished objects. At the smelting furnace, silver nuggets are melted and poured into bars, and a figure works the bellows. The bars are then flattened on the rolling press, operated by a heavy handwheel. Silver sheets from the rolling mill are made into thinner strips on the drawbench. A screwpress is then used to punch spoon blanks. The figure representing the apprentice turns the bar of the screwpress, closing then opening it for inspection by the journeyman. At this stage, a piece is finished by a filer and then a burnisher, often the only woman in the shop. Holloware is produced on a lathe, where a spinner presses a silver disk over a wooden chuck which gives the object its form. A figure at a bench uses a fretsaw for piercing, another at the footlathe gives high polish to a finished object, and a solderer uses a blowpipe to make joints. The silverplating bath is attended by the colorist, and the sandblasting machine requires both an apprentice to pour sand and a journeyman to hold the object inside the box. On the solderer's bench are, chasing and engraving tools, hammers, and punches for striking the maker's mark. Finished objects ready for marking are also arranged on this table.
In addition to the craftsmen's activities, the room is animated by the swinging of the clock's pendulum, the glow of the forge, and running "water" made of tiny turning glass straws. Since 19th-century silversmiths depended on natural light, the daylight through the windows brightens and finally dims, representing the course of the workday.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Eric Youngberg, maker' of this model shop, at work with fellow silversmiths at the firm Swensson & Luhr, Gothenburg, Sweden, circa 1894.
By means of tiny shafts, levers and cams, and with the aid of a
small electric motor placed in the basement of the miniature
factory, the builder has put the breath of life--or at least the
resemblance of it--into every one of the busy workmen who toil
at the tiny machines. By viewing the animated figures, machines
and tools of the shop you will learn how grandmother's silver
service came into being in the days of hand labor.
The silversmiths in this automaton demonstrate every stage necessary to convert molten silver into finished objects. At the smelting furnace, silver nuggets are melted and poured into bars, and a figure works the bellows. The bars are then flattened on the rolling press, operated by a heavy handwheel. Silver sheets from the rolling mill are made into thinner strips on the drawbench. A screwpress is then used to punch spoon blanks. The figure representing the apprentice turns the bar of the screwpress, closing then opening it for inspection by the journeyman. At this stage, a piece is finished by a filer and then a burnisher, often the only woman in the shop. Holloware is produced on a lathe, where a spinner presses a silver disk over a wooden chuck which gives the object its form. A figure at a bench uses a fretsaw for piercing, another at the footlathe gives high polish to a finished object, and a solderer uses a blowpipe to make joints. The silverplating bath is attended by the colorist, and the sandblasting machine requires both an apprentice to pour sand and a journeyman to hold the object inside the box. On the solderer's bench are, chasing and engraving tools, hammers, and punches for striking the maker's mark. Finished objects ready for marking are also arranged on this table.
In addition to the craftsmen's activities, the room is animated by the swinging of the clock's pendulum, the glow of the forge, and running "water" made of tiny turning glass straws. Since 19th-century silversmiths depended on natural light, the daylight through the windows brightens and finally dims, representing the course of the workday.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Eric Youngberg, maker' of this model shop, at work with fellow silversmiths at the firm Swensson & Luhr, Gothenburg, Sweden, circa 1894.