Dinner Gong
Item
Title
Dinner Gong
Creator
Gustave Stickley or United Crafts
Date
1900-04 (ca.)
Dimensions
36 ¼ x 24 x 10 inches
Medium
Oak, bronze, leather
Object No.
L2011.5.1
Credit line
Loan from the Family of Mildred Stickley Cruess
Marks
Shop mark (decal) on front of base.
Description
As rustic and charming as the log house must have seemed when built, nestled in amongst the hillside and surrounded by smaller cottages and gardens, the presence of the dinner gong suggests that formality remained essential to the Stickleys, even in this country setting. As an etiquette guide published in 1896 instructed readers:
"Punctuality at meals is one of the canons of good taste on the part of the guests. At a dinner-party, either in town or country, a host and hostess have to submit to the inevitable, and wait with that patience they can for tardy arrivals; but guests under the roof of host and hostess have no such latitude allowed them, and at the sound of the dinner-gong they are expected to assemble and await with their entertainers the announcement of dinner, which follows within five to ten minutes after the gong has sounded through the house."
Although not pictured in 1911 article on the log house, it is clear from earlier accounts that the Stickley’s used a gong to call guests to dinner while living in Morris Plains. In October 1910 the author of the article “A Country Home for the Business Man: A Second Visit to Craftsman Farms,” recalled:
"The long shadows, the glow behind the hills, the stillness over the farm from whose busy acres the workmen had withdrawn told the evening hour. Here, indeed, was peace, breathed in the scent of wood and field. The mellow boom of a Chinese gong at the far end of the veranda broke the reverie."
By 1905, when he issued Cabinet Work From the Craftsman Workshops: Catalogue D, this model had been replaced by no. 812 a Gong and Stand. Since the earliest model was available before Stickley had established his metal shop, it is likely that he made the wooden surrounding structure and purchased the copper gong from a supplier.
"Punctuality at meals is one of the canons of good taste on the part of the guests. At a dinner-party, either in town or country, a host and hostess have to submit to the inevitable, and wait with that patience they can for tardy arrivals; but guests under the roof of host and hostess have no such latitude allowed them, and at the sound of the dinner-gong they are expected to assemble and await with their entertainers the announcement of dinner, which follows within five to ten minutes after the gong has sounded through the house."
Although not pictured in 1911 article on the log house, it is clear from earlier accounts that the Stickley’s used a gong to call guests to dinner while living in Morris Plains. In October 1910 the author of the article “A Country Home for the Business Man: A Second Visit to Craftsman Farms,” recalled:
"The long shadows, the glow behind the hills, the stillness over the farm from whose busy acres the workmen had withdrawn told the evening hour. Here, indeed, was peace, breathed in the scent of wood and field. The mellow boom of a Chinese gong at the far end of the veranda broke the reverie."
By 1905, when he issued Cabinet Work From the Craftsman Workshops: Catalogue D, this model had been replaced by no. 812 a Gong and Stand. Since the earliest model was available before Stickley had established his metal shop, it is likely that he made the wooden surrounding structure and purchased the copper gong from a supplier.
Sources:
“Au Fait,” Social Observances: A Series of Essays on Practical Etiquette (London and New York: Frederick Warne and Co., 1896), 124.
“A Country Home for the Business Man: A Second Visit to Craftsman Farms,” The Craftsman 19 (October 1910): 55.
“Au Fait,” Social Observances: A Series of Essays on Practical Etiquette (London and New York: Frederick Warne and Co., 1896), 124.
“A Country Home for the Business Man: A Second Visit to Craftsman Farms,” The Craftsman 19 (October 1910): 55.
Associated names
Gustav Stickley
Provenance
Gustav Stickley (by 1904); thence by descent.