Cast Iron Two Column Parlor Stove

Low & Leake, Albany
American, New York, 1844.
Cast iron
Condition: Over-all in good condition, evidence of some early repairs.
This stove, utilitarian in function and material, was intended to occupy a fashionable entry hall or parlor and illustrates the thorough dissemination of the antique style into all American manufactures by the 1840s.
During the 19th century, manufacturers in Albany and Troy, New York were among the largest producers of cast-iron stoves in the world. Stoves made in these two cities were renowned for their fine quality castings and innovations in technology and design. Low & Leake, the makers of this stove, took out a patent for the design on August 10, 1844. It is in the popular columnar formation and neoclassical style, with architecturally inspired volutes and molding, and surmounted by an imposing American Eagle. The fineness of Low & Leake casting can be seen in the detail of the eagle.
There are only a few surviving known examples fully intact which reside in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, Massachusetts, and Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.