Record Details
Cat Bootscraper
Artist
Artist unidentified
Date1900
Place/RegionUnited States
MediumCast iron
Dimensions11 3/8 × 17 1/2 × 3"
Credit LineGift of the Friends Committee of the Museum of American Folk Art
Accession number1979.22.1
DescriptionDuring the nineteenth century cast iron became a popular and relatively inexpensive material for the manufacture of a wide variety of utilitarian objects, including bootscrapers and door stops. Generally, a carver would fashion a wooden pattern, which in turn would be used to produce a metal mold. The mold made the multiple production of identical objects possible. These were then usually hand painted.
Elizabeth V. Warren and Stacy C. Hollander, "Cat Bootscraper," Expressions of a New Spirit: Highlights from the Permanent Collection of the Museum of American Folk Art (New York: American Folk Art Museum, 1989), 113