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"It's In The Bank"
Exhibit Is Featured At The Houston Museum
“It’s in the bank” -- a catch phrase that is an appropriate title for the current special exhibit at the Houston Museum of Decorative Arts. The exhibit features 24 cast iron banks, circa 1870 to 1890, which are on display as a unit for the first time.
Metal banks started being made in 1868 and were classified in three categories -- still, mechanical and registering. The latter were banks that showed the total money deposited within on the face of the bank.
According to a recently-published book on American metalware by Joe Rosson and Helaine Fendelman, Victorian parents wanted to teach their children the lesson of thrift. To do so they often gave them a bank in which to save their pennies.
The first such were “still” banks because they did not do anything but receive and hold the coins. Most of the banks in the Houston exhibit are that type. In 1865, John Hall in Watertown, Mass., received a patent for a bank that moved, thus it was considered to be mechanical.
The mechanical bank was manufactured by J. & E. Stevens Co., which was established in 1843 by brothers John and Elisha Stevens, in Cromwell, Conn., in the “Frog Hollow Valley.” Their first production included hardware and tools, but they soon branched out into toys and cap pistols. Later they concentrated solely on toys and banks and manufactured banks until 1928. The factory closed at the beginning of World War I.
Shepard Hardware Co. of Buffalo, N.Y., was another early manufacturer of cast iron banks. In 1892, Shepard sold out to Stevens.
The banks in the Houston collection are in generally good condition. Two in the grouping are mechanical. These include one entitled “Trick Dog,” which is modeled as a clown with a dog and a barrel on a rectangular base. This bank was patented in 1888 and is in working condition, although it is missing the hoop and closure through which the coin was sprung.
Another mechanical bank in the Houston exhibit is a nesting bird, feeding two young birds. The mouths are open, and the young move up to reach the food. This bank was patented in January, 1883, and is in very fine condition.
Among the still banks are a gabled house painted blue with a gold roof and red trim, a bank modeled as Buster Brown and his dog, Tig, each painted with red, white and blue details, and a bank modeled as the Statue of Liberty with the name raised in gold letters on the base.
Animals form a large number of the banks featured. They include a seated cat, boxer, pig, and standing bear, camel, cow, lion, donkey, llama and turkey. There is also a prancing horse.
One special bank is shaped like a safe and entitled “Fidelity Trust Vaults.” On two sides a dog sits at the teller’s window and a little girl is at the cashier’s window in the back. A clock mechanism closes the bank’s front door.
Among the still banks is a seated elf, painted gold and wearing a red cap. The bank is entitled “Billiken” and sports “Good Luck” on one side.
A hat provides the form of one exhibit piece. A band running around the hat is painted in red-brown and has the words “Pass the Hat.”
A lithographed tin strong box, circa 1935, is signed Steelmasters, Inc., Chicago, Ill., and entitled “Save-A-Way Budget Bank.” It is decorated as an iron-bound oaken strong box and has six coin slots.
The special exhibit will be on display through April and May. The museum is located at 201 High St., next door to the Hunter Museum of American Art. The museum is open Monday through Friday and Saturday and Sunday by appointment. The admission fee is $8 for non-member adults and $3.50 for children four to 17.
The first guided tour is at 9:30 a.m., and the last is at 4 p.m. Also on display are selected pieces of glass, ceramics, furniture and more from the approximately 10,000-piece collection of the late Anna Safley Houston, an eccentric, but discerning antiques dealer who left her treasures in trust to the people of Chattanooga. For more information call (423) 267-7176.
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