(20TH CENTURY)

In a traditional farmhouse an assemblage consisting of a vertical wooden support and hook-shaped hanger was used to suspend cooking vessels from a rafter over the floor hearth. The central square hearth, where family and guests gathered, was the one area of the house that was consistently warm during the winter. A kettle of water was always kept on the boil. A transverse groove has been worn into the hanger by the rope suspending the kettle.

For another kettle hanger in the Jeffrey Montgomery Collection see Michael Dunn, Five Tastes, exh. cat. (New York: Japan Society, Inc., 2001).