Design Meriden at artdesigncafé

Tremaine Miller Co Meriden Bradley & Hubbard stand Meriden Wilcox mansion Meriden Napier Company penguin Meriden
Meriden Britannia buffalo hunt sculpture Bradley & Hubbard candlestich holders Meriden Wilcox Silver Plate Co urn Meriden Miller Co Painting toward architecture Burle-Marx Meriden
Johnson face Miller Co Meriden Wilcox Silver Plate Co tea set Meriden Miller Co Meriden Mondrian International Silver Company theater Hollywood Meriden
Do you know how the artworks and designs shown above relate to the historical Meriden area? If not, click the photos and be directed to sources where you can learn more.


The Design Meriden online platform focuses on historical design from the area of Meriden, Connecticut, USA and its national discourse. Several designs are featured in museum collections including those at the Brooklyn Museum, the Corning Museum of Glass, Dallas Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, the Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute museum in Utica, Smithsonian Institution, and Yale University Art Gallery. Historical Meriden design is especially known for the high-quality production of Victorian and Art Nouveau silver, Art Brass, and Modernist silver and chrome ware— as well as the discussion-generating Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art exhibition across America [1947-52; 28(+) venues], the art/design book publisher Meriden Gravure, and Meriden’s International Silver (Company) Theater in Hollywood (c. 1937-50).

Through research, communications and this online platform, Design Meriden administered by artdesigncafe has helped facilitate a new, recent wave of appreciation and discoveries about historical Meriden design at a local, regional, national and international level since the summer of 2015. See Wikipedia’s Meriden page for some art/design highlights that were added at that time as initial discoveries, realizations and excitement took place.

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Meriden-area design in museum exhibitions

From New York to Los Angeles, from London to Lisbon, from Paris to Rio de Janeiro and Melbourne, Australia, historical Meriden design has been spotlighted in over 200 museum and exposition shows since at least 1853.

2017-18
The jazz age: American style in the 1920s at Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York (7 April - 20 August 2017); and Cleveland Museum of Art (30 September 2017 - 14 January 2018). (Meriden Silver Plate Co.; Napier Company; R. Wallace & Sons; Wilcox Silver Plate Co. / International Silver Company)

2016-18
Roberto Burle Marx: Brazilian Modernist at Jewish Museum, New York (6 May - 18 September 2016); Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, Berlin, Germany (7 July - 8 October 2017); and Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (November 2017 - March 2018). [Exhibiting 3 "Tremaine House"-related works, c. 1948, associated with the Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art (1947-52)]

MAY 17 - ongoing
Style and status in sterling: American silver at the Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey (International Silver Company, Wallace Silversmiths, Wilcox Silver Plate Co.)

18 NOV 16 - 12 NOV 17
Shaken, stirred, styled: The art of the cocktail at Dallas Museum of Art (Charter Company; Derby Silver Company; International Silver Company; Napier Company; R. Wallace & Sons; Wilcox & Evertsen Fine Arts)

27 AUG 16 - 21 MAY 17
JapanAmerica: Points of contact, 1876-1970 at Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY and Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA (Charles Parker Company; Meriden Britannia; and Meriden Silver Plate Co.)

8 NOV 15 - 31 JAN 16
St. Louis Modern at St. Louis Art Museum (Wilcox Silver Plate Co. / International Silver Company)

> See the historical Meriden design exhibition list

Meriden-area design at auction

Some historical objects from the Meriden area do rather well at auction. Check out some of the auction results below.

See Design Meriden magazine issues online

Design Meriden 1(2)
> Check out our "Modernism in Meriden" issue, featuring an interview of Jewel Stern, a Miami-based curator / writer / collector who put Modernist silver from Meriden-Wallingford on the national stage. Learn about the spectacular 28(+)-venue Painting toward architecture exhibition, from US coast to coast, organized by the Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art (1947-52). Plus check out the grand presentation of Wilcox Silver Plate Co. / ISC designs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1934.

Design Meriden 1(1)
> Read about the B&H crisis state, the Wilcox mansion, the noteworthy Cambridge-Tremont Street area, the Tremaines and Philip Johnson. Plus check out the floating proposal to thoroughly inform culturally-interested Meriden area high school students about the area's acclaimed art/design legacy.

See our extensively researched compilations ft. historical Meriden-area design

A. Miller Co. - B. ISC - C. Other companies - D. Historical Meriden maps and area history books online


B. ISC, predecessors & divisions


ISC predecessors & divisions


C. Other companies

Pre-1850


D. Historical maps of Meriden and area-focused history books, many online

  • > Historical books on the Meriden area, many online, including information on companies
  • > Historical maps of the Meriden area, many online, showing locations of historical companies

  • We encourage you to also explore other historical Meriden companies online including the Aeolian Company (player pianos), E. A. Bliss Co. (jewelry), Boardman companies (silver), Chandler-Evans Corporation (industrial design), Connecticut Telephone and Electric Company (industrial design), Chapman Manufacturing Co., Cuno Engineering Corporation (industrial design), Foster, Merriam & Co., Helmschmied Mfg. Co., Housatonic Brass Co. (Wallingford), Jennings & Griffin Mfg. Co., H. L. Judd & Co. (Wallingford), Kelsey Press, Meriden Fire Arms Co., Meriden Gravure (art / design book printer) (archive at Yale University), Meriden Machine Tool Co., Julius Pratt-related companies, Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Division (1951-62), Preisner Silver Company (Wallingford), M.B. Schenck, Silver City Glass Co., Simpson Nickel Silver Company (ISC predecessor; Wallingford), Valentine-Linsley Silver Co. (Wallingford) , Walter Webb & Co. (ivory products), Jedediah Wilcox-related companies, Wilcox & White (player pianos) and more.

About Design Meriden

The Design Meriden online platform aims to provide the fastest and easiest access to historical Meriden area design resources and documentation, which are located across North America and into Europe. We are actively requesting for as much out-of-copyright material to become available online as soon as possible. Why? Because it's about the design legacies of this group of historical designers and entrepreneurs that earned national attention for their work and Meriden. To further strengthen a fragile, developing discourse of their noteworthy achievements both now-- and for the future.

Read more: Design Meriden articles; Rockwell Silver Company, Meriden, CT; 1847 Rogers Brothers; ADC staff; American Silver Company, Bristol, CT; American Silverplate Company; Barbour Silver Company, Hartford, CT; Clement Beecher; Bergen & Niland, Meriden, CT (1882-85); J.D. Bergen Co., Meriden, CT (1885-1922); Bradley & Hubbard, Meriden, CT; Bristol Brass and Clock Company; C. Rogers & Bros., Meriden, CT; C.F. Monroe, Meriden, CT (1882-1916); Charles Parker Co., Meriden, CT; Charter Company, Wallingford, CT; Derby Silver Company, Derby, CT; Edward Miller & Co, Meriden, CT; Eureka Silver Company; Forbes Silver Co.; Ashbil Griswold; Handel Company; Holmes & Edwards Silver Company, Bridgeport, CT