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Object Timeline

1913	Work on this object ended.
1916	We acquired this object.
2005	We photographed this object.
2015	We photographed this object.
2024	You found it!

Cricket Cage (Italy)

This is a cricket cage. It is dated ca. 1903 and we acquired it in 1916. Its medium is wood, metal wire. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.

This object was donated by Eleanor Garnier Hewitt and Sarah Cooper Hewitt. It is credited Gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt.

This wooden structure is taller than it is wide, with light brown wood comprising the cage part and black lacquered wood base on bottom. The cage walls are made up of thin, round, uniformly spaced rods, closely arranged. The base frame is made of four rectangular bars: two parallel bars laid on top of two more parallel bars, in the opposing direction, making a square base. This arrangement is repeated twice again in the middle for support, using slightly smaller pieces of wood to hold up the thin rods of the cage walls. Between the middle frames is a concealed door, only indicated by a short horizontal wood handle running across the lower of the two central supports. The top frame is made in the same four bar placement except for additional bar running through center. The entire structure is attached to black lacquered wood base made of a simple square on top of curved legs, angled outward at each corner.

Cricket Cage And Base (Japan), late 19th century
rattan, bamboo, lacquered wood (base); fiber, paper, silk, feathers....
Gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt.
1916-40-3-a,b

Here we have a small cricket's cage reminiscent of a tiered building with roof. The rectangular structure's walls are made of bamboo and wire and are attached to the base, and a central, supportive wooden frame midway up, almost creating a second-floor effect. The larger bamboo pieces provide support in the four corners with two more centrally on the front and back of the second tier to support the top. The cage roof is made of three thin, wooden blocks: two larger, angled upward on the left and right to prop up the smaller, central piece. The overlapped roof is held together by four round, spherical supports located underneath the corners of the center block.The central roof also includes wires with closed hooks on its four corners above the spherical support, and a large open hook in the center, for hanging. The surface of each roof block has punctured holes where the rods and bamboo are held in place by wire, additional closed hooks out of four corners mirroring the cage's base.

Cricket Cage (Italy)
wood, bamboo, metal wire.
Gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt.
1916-40-6

Pin Brooch
wood, textile, foam, acrylic paint, pins.
The Susan Grant Lewin Collection, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
2016-34-56

Its dimensions are

H x W x D: 7 x 6.2 x 5.3 cm (2 3/4 x 2 7/16 x 2 1/16 in.) H x W x D (hook at top extended vertically): 10.5 x 6.2 x 5.3 cm (4 1/8 x 2 7/16 x 2 1/16 in.)

It is inscribed

On underside in graphite: "Verona, Italy / Cricket cage / June, 1903"

Cite this object as

Cricket Cage (Italy); wood, metal wire; H x W x D: 7 x 6.2 x 5.3 cm (2 3/4 x 2 7/16 x 2 1/16 in.) H x W x D (hook at top extended vertically): 10.5 x 6.2 x 5.3 cm (4 1/8 x 2 7/16 x 2 1/16 in.); Gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt; 1916-40-12

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2BdTv/
Accession Number 1916-40-12
Object ID 18188771