Toleware Sugar Bowl 1935 - 1942

Charles Henning’s watercolor of a toleware sugar bowl presents us with an object of everyday life. The image reflects the popular folk art tradition of painting on tinware, known as toleware. Henning's image is a copy of an object whose production was shaped by particular economic and social conditions. The industrial revolution in the late 18th and 19th century made tin more accessible, and painting these objects became a popular pastime for women, who would give or sell them. Note the combination of careful detail with a certain naive quality in the decoration, common in American folk art. How does this image speak to us today? The artist’s focus on a humble object connects to broader themes of domesticity, labor, and the changing status of women. Studying artifacts and documents from the period can reveal more about the historical context and social meanings embedded in this attractive, unassuming image.