Special Objects
from the Charnley House

All the artifacts that were unearthed through the archaeological excavations at the Charnley House are important because they provide information about the people who lived there and the society they inhabited, but some objects are “special” in other ways. Here are just a few of the 28,000 recovered items that have been prepared for display in the exhibit.

Many of these items were manufactured in places thousands of miles from the Charnley House, by people unlike those who purchased and used them. Aside from highlighting the increasingly globalized economic system of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these objects also show how Charnley House occupants constituted themselves as a certain kind of American—white, cosmopolitan, elite (or at least upwardly mobile)—through their consumption. Taken together, the orientalist exoticism of a Japanese-style teapot in the company of an ancient-looking European lamp and a fine monogrammed porcelain plate illuminate residents’ understanding of the racial and class structure of that era and of their place in that structure.

To learn more about the world of the Charnley-Persky House artifacts, including some of those featured here, explore Digital Chicago’s Charnley-Persky House Archaeological Project, its interactive World Artifact Map and Chicago Artifact Map, and this page on products from the Fair.

BelleEk SHell Bowl

This decorative bowl formed in the shape of the shell was manufactured by the Belleek Pottery Company of Belleek, County Fermanagh, Ireland, between 1863 and 1891, as indicated by a distinctive makers mark. The company was founded in 1857 and continues to produce fine china today.

Minton Kitten Plate

This plate depicting a kitten attempting to grab a fish from a bowl was one of a series of eleven cat plates manufactured by the Minton Company between 1873 and 1891. Minton was founded in 1796 in Stoke-on-Trent in the Staffordshire region of England, the home of many of the world’s most famous potteries. Minton merged with Royal Doulton Fine Tableware in 1968.

Bronze Crane Figure

The metal crane is a replica of an ancient lamp stand made for the tourist trade in Naples, Italy, in the late 1800s. It would have originally had a small oil lamp suspended from the wire overhead.

Monogrammed Plate

This plate is an intriguing mystery! It had a gold-enameled monogram that includes the letters “C,” “W,” and “J”, but we have yet to connect it to any individual, including the obvious candidates in the Charnley family. The plate does not have a makers mark.

Side-Handled Tea Pot and strainer

This side-handled teapot appears to be a European version of a traditional Japanese kyusu teapot. There is no makers mark to aid in our identification, but the object is one of several Japanese or Japanese-style ceramics recovered from the Charnley-Persky House, pointing to the aesthetic appreciation and consumer market for Japanese handicrafts at the turn of the 20th century.

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