New Acquisition 
Image: Old Sheffield-plated tea urn (with unrelated stand). England, circa 1840. Currently on display for PMH's children's programs. Gift of Phyllis and Chester Specht
(2011.011.01)
When the Fenyes Mansion reopens this fall, it will shine with several new donations of silver hollowware and flatware. A turn-of-the-century hostess would have her sideboard, dining table, and tea table gleaming with silver. Several family pieces - including a Friedell silver flower bowl, a part-set of Leonora Curtin's silver flatware, and Eva Scott Fenyes' silver hot water kettle - have made their way back to the Mansion, courtesy of the Estate of Leonora Frances Paloheimo.
Other donations have come from members of our community, including this Georgian tea urn that was once owned by Walter Murphy, the proprietor of the Murphy Coach Company (located where Rusnak Auto Group is today). This ingenious method of dispensing hot water at the tea table was popularized in England during the nineteenth century. A heated iron bar was placed inside the urn to keep the water hot. The tea urn is made of Old Sheffield plate, or silver plate on top of copper. This early form of silver-plating is much prized today by collectors.
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About the Collections
PMH maintains the area's largest and most comprehensive collection of documents and artifacts relating to the history of Pasadena and neighboring communities.
The ever-expanding collection spans the years 1834 to the present and contains well over one million historic photographs, rare books, manuscripts, maps, architectural records, art, costumes and textiles, and objects.
The Mission of the Museum is to promote an appreciation of history, culture, arts, and sciences relevant to Pasadena and adjoining communities.
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The Collections Quarterly, sent out four times a year, features new acquisitions as well as select items from the Archives, art and artifacts collection, and the Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo collections.
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Archives Feature
The Huntington Picture Bridge
The PMH Archives houses interesting ephemera on the famous Huntington Picture Bridge at the Huntington Hotel (now The Langham Hotel in Pasadena), including two beautiful booklets illustrating the bridge's paintings, which depicted the history of California. The inspiration of adorning the bridge with pictures came from a guest who described the picture bridge of Lucerne, with its paintings showing the history of Switzerland. Somehow the picture bridge at the Huntington Hotel became much more famous than the one in Switzerland. Artist Frank A. Moore, who was born in England and had trained with H. W. Ranger, painted all forty-two scenes in 1933. As payment, Moore received $20 a scene and free meals.
In addition to these original booklets, PMH's special collection on the Huntington Hotel contains an original drypoint etching, leaflet, prints of individual pictures on the panels, and postcards illustrating the picture bridge in Lucerne, Switzerland. Anyone interested in viewing these archival treasures is welcome to visit the Reading Room during our normal business hours, Thursday through Sunday, 1:00 to 4:00 pm.
Image: The Picture Bridge Custom House, Monterey Scene, 1933. The Huntington (Huntington Hotel Collection, Box 1, The Picture Bridge)
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Collections Feature
Vista del Arroyo Etching 
William A. Eskey, who signed his work "W.A. Eskey," resided in San Fernando in the twenties and thirties. A WWI veteran, Eskey spent some time in a veterans hospital to recover from lung damage caused by gas inhalation. According to art historian Nancy Dustin Hall Moure, in 1928 Eskey "made his first essay into drypoint" while at the hospital.
Image: William A. Eskey (1891-1937). "Vista del Arroyo Pasadena," c. 1930. Ink on paper, 10.25 x 7.5 cm. Gift of the McComas Family Trust (2012.005.01) |
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Fenyes Feature
Summer Sketches - Switzerland 1892
After her divorce from William Muse in 1890 and before meeting her future husband Adalbert Fenyes in 1895, Eva Muse traveled extensively with her daughter Leonora in Africa and Europe. In July and August 1892, they were in Switzerland. There Eva sketched the watercolors shown here, noting the hours when she painted them. Using color, shadow, light, and reflection, she captured in her scenes the varied coolness and warmth of Switzerland's summer hours.
Images, Top: Eva Scott Fenyes (1849-1930). "Ouchy. Lake Geneva. 25 - July - 1892. 11. to 1-," Watercolor on paper, 9.44 x 13.03 in. (Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo Papers, Box 206, ESF.006.1539); Bottom: Eva Scott Fenyes (1849-1930). "Ouchy. 25. July. 92. 3 to 5. p.m." Watercolor on paper, 12.91 x 9.09 in. (Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo Papers, Box 206, ESF.006.1540)
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