Chapter 7; Coffins, burial cases and caskets Flashcards
Acquired only after a long period of training under a master craftsman
Art and Mistery
a trade or occupation
a Craft
How many apprentices/journeymen were sheltered in the household of the master craftsman at a time?
1 or more
A cerecloth might be used to preserve the body for short periods and placed it in a coffin before burial
shroud
When was it believed that the dutch colonists used coffins in their burials?
1683/ 17th century
When were coffin furniture (trimmings and fittings) imported?
18th century
by 1775, what type of coffin was being made?
Wood coffin.
What did different varieties of wood reveal?
different classes
Polished or strained; More expensive wood coffins served well-to-do
Hardwood
Painted with a mixture of lamp black and glue water, sufficed for less- fortunate
lowly pine wood
What did the coffin traditionally symbolize?
the trade of English undertakers
Following the war of 1812, period of westward was marked by rapid growth and spread of coffin shops focused exclusively on
production of burial receptacles and coffin warehouses
Coffin and casket-maker goals :
- product should have increased utility
- better indicate importance of the deceased and family
- provide more protection against grave robbers
- forces of dissolution
- more artistic and more beautiful to better harmonize aesthetic movement in burials
a simple, unadorned wooden receptacle was used to encase the dead body before burial.
utilitarian
5 themes in defining and fulfilling the proper function of the burial receptacle
- utility
- status indication
- preservation of the body
- protection
- aesthetic representation
Describe some materials used to produce coffins?
hardwood, lowly pine, mahogany, iron, stone, metal, metallic, marble, hydraulic cement, potters clay, artificial stone, zinc, glass, rubber, elastic materials, papier-mache, aluminum, cloth.
An air tight coffin of cast or raised metal
fisk
When was the Fisk patented for specified as an improvement of coffins
1848
Who created the Fisk metallic case “a new and useful manner of constructing an air tight coffin of cast or raised metal”
Almond D. Fisk
What were the reasons for the metallic burial cases? (5)
- to allow distant relatives to journey to the deceased’s home and behold again the features of their departed friends
- protection of the body against water seepage and vermin
- safeguarding against infection and contagious diseases
- facilitation of removal for the body for reburial
- provided an improved device for returning bodies from a distance for burial with ancestors and other relatives.
pauper burying grounds
“potters fields”
Why did the “covered case” mark the ultimate attempts of the company to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the original pattern, although it fell out of the idea of beauty in burial cases led to a new and rather distinctly American form of burial receptacle.
The casket was born
Who’s innovation was designed to improve burial cases of the square variety, ie caskets by reducing the excess space through the ogee design
A.C Barstow
What year was the earliest straight sided burial case?
1830
What does the term casket suggest?
a jewelry box or container for something valuable.
What does the term “iron casketts” represent
an iron box or container and not a burial receptacle
who was the first to offer caskets to the American public?
William Cooley of Boston Mass
Shaping the casket top to the human form
sarcophagus principle
pure and simple in design; not ornate and airtight
chaste
the primary idea expressed in earlier burial receptacles, is now modified toward the presentation of the dead in a burial receptacle designed to provide an aesthetically pleasing setting for its visually prominent and dramatically centered object of attention
encasing the body
Who and when supplied the first true sheet-metal casket to the trade
Crane, Breed & Co in early 1870’s.
a term sometimes used generically to designate all burial receptacles, sometimes to indicate a coffin built along Egyptian mummy-case principles or some modification or refinement thereof
burial case
the traditional term taken over from earlier English usage
coffin
In what year did the term casket dominate the language of burial receptacles in patent literature
1890
Who manufactured President Ulysses S. Grant’s casket and in what year?
Stein Manufacturing Co. and 1885
What was President Ulysses S. Grant’s casket named?
The “style E state casket”
Describe the style E state casket
Made with the finest black broadcloth, heavy silver metal mountings and a flat top with full French plate glass; inner metallic case was finished on the interior and set off by a pillow which had the generals initials embroidered.
3 types of burial receptacles
- traditional wooden coffin
- metallic “mummy case”
- cloth covered metal reinforced burial case
When was the burial vault patented and by who
May 1, 1880 & William H. Bachtel of Canton, Ohio
unvulcanized natural rubber
caoutchouc
invented “a life preserving coffin in case of doubtful death” ; featured an arrangement of wires and pins and a spring lid, that enabled the occupant to cause the coffin lid to spring open by the slightest movement of hand or head.
- Christian Eisenbrandt of Baltimore Md (November 15, 1843)
invented a square tube containing a ladder and a cord, one end of which was to be placed in the hand of the person laid in the coffin, while the other extended up to a bell on the top of the tube, which was attached to the head of the coffin.
- Franz Vester of Newark New Jersey, 1868
invented the “improvement of life detectors for coffins” consisted of a narrow round tube, similar to the speaking tube, attached to the head end of the coffin in such a manner that the rope within it might be pulled by the buried person, releasing an air opening in the mouth of the tube and simultaneously setting off an electrical alarm.
- Theodore Schroeder and Hermann Wuest of Hoboken, New Jersey 1871
invented a rather formidable arrangement of pipes, bars, tubes and cross pins; that would upon a movement of the hands pf “persons beign buried in a trance” open an air vent and at the same time, give indication that there was life in the coffin below.
- John Krichbraum of Youngstown, Ohio 1882
