Cradle

Date1757

MediumMahogany, straight-grained and crotch (veneer); secondary woods eastern white pine.

DimensionsOH" 27 1/2"; OW: 24 1/2"; OD: 43 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1964-262

DescriptionCradle; arched hood "roofed" with four "shingles" larger in front than in back; roof slants downward toward back; under front is scalloped "barge board" veneered with crotch mahogany; under hood, sides are scalloped in front; sides of bed boards plain; flattened heart-shaped hand-holds near canopy; foot board arched, canted inward; flat, shaped rockers with rounded rosette-shaped terminals.Mark(s)None found.ProvenanceThis history is "second hand" from one who was not a member of the Glen-Sanders family, and whose writing, although sometimes inaccurate, is valuable: Marion Harland (pseud. Mary Virginia Hawes), MORE COLONIAL HOMESTEADS AND THEIR STORIES (New York, 1899), p. 183 - "Close by are two cradles, one within the other. In one-a child's cradle-Deborah Glen rocked her son (John II), the hum of her flax-wheel (it stands but a few feet away now) forming a lulling undercurrent of sound to the Scotch song learned from her mother. The second cradle is over six feet long, and of proportionate width. The stout ribes and bars are of black walnut, and it was constructed according to the orders of the same John Sanders in his infirm old age. For months before the end came, he would, or could, sleep nowhere else, and was rocked to his rest nightly. By-and-by he was cradle-ridden, and lay thus, swung gently to and fro by his son John (III) and his negro slaves, until senility passed naturally into death." The senility cradle, mentioned at the end of the paragraph, is CW acc# 1964-264. Deborah Glen Sanders' son John Sanders II was born in 1757; he died in 1834. These dates correspond with the style, construction, and patina of both cradles.