Mailbox

Designer Paul Hankar (Belgian, 1859 - 1901)

Date1897

MediumMahogany and rosewood with ivory, wrought iron, and steel

DimensionsOverall: 28 3/4 × 13 1/2 × 9 3/4 inches (73.03 × 34.29 × 24.77 cm)
Part (key): 5/8 × 2 1/8 × 3/8 inches (1.59 × 5.4 × 0.95 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust (by exchange)

Object number2011.41

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Architecture, Design and Decorative Arts

Terms

DescriptionFrom the front view, the mailbox appears rectangular in form, and is trimmed with linear moldings at the top and bottom edges. Ornate ironwork hinges curve down from the top of the box to connect to a triangular door with a slot surrounded by corresponding metal mount. A key-hole is positioned at the apex of the front panel. Seen from the side, the apparent rectangular shape of the box gives way to an angular arrangement a total of five triangular panels which form the shape of the box. Except for the central panel, the wood frames abstracted and stylized ivory flourishes. A carved crest of three wooden cascading forms is applied at the base of the box.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World’s Fairs 1851-1939. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO April 14– August 19, 2012, hors cat.

Gallery Label

Architect Paul Hankar was a leading figure in late-1800s Belgian Art Nouveau, a style noted for its fusion of nature and abstraction. Hankar reduced floral motifs to their most basic elements for the decoration on this mailbox, made for Belgian painter Albert Ciamberlani.

The mahogany and ivory used for the mailbox were both products from the Belgian Congo. The colony, which functioned as a private business venture of King Leopold II of Belgium, is now regarded as reprehensible and brutal to the native peoples who were living under his rule.

Provenance

Commissioned from the designer by Albert Ciamberlani (1864-1956), Brussels, 1897-1956 [1];

Private collection, Brussels, 1989-2011;

With Galerie Historismus, Brussels, 2011;

Purchased from Galerie Historismus, Brussels by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2011.

NOTES:

[1] Hankar designed the mailbox for Ciamberlani’s studio. It remained there until the studio’s demolition in 1989.

Published References

Francois Loyer. Paul Hanhar: La Naissance de l’Art Nouveau. (Brussels, AAM Editions, 1986), 192-193, 369-373.

Thorson, Alice. “A WORLD OF IDEAS: At the Nelson, ‘Inventing the Modern World’ opens Saturday,” The Kansas City Star (April 8, 2012): E1, E5, E4 (repro.).

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