Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Collection |
Mouns Jones |
Archive Number |
MJHDWG2 |
Title |
Southwest perspective view from wood engraving |
Description |
Digital image of a perspective view of Mouns Jones House from woodcut engraving published on page 945 of "History of Berks County, Pennsylvania" by Morton Montgomery, pub. by Everts & Peck, Philadelphia. Montgomery describes the building as in a "good state of preservation", of dimensions 36 by 21 feet. This is the earliest known image of Mouns Jones House, captioned "Old Swede’s Building." Details include: gable-end chimney; corner chimney; stone tablet [exaggerated scale] with initials and date [1716]; 19th-century recessed door in board-sheathed doorway; casement windows; "water-table" [the top surface of the projecting stonework along foundation of eaves wall; the projecting masonry, thicker than the walls above the "table" was also called a "plinth" in early usage]; door stoop. Image #2 is a c.1948 photographic print of a similar perspective view. Excepting the horizontal casement frame in the north bay of the second storey, the window frames in this photo are post-1886, vertically oriented, and constructed for hung-sash glazing. It seems quite likely that the sole surviving casement window from 1886 was not converted to the vertical alignment because of the porch roof seen in archive photos from 1902 to 1911. The porch rafters were socketed in the sill of the casement frame and the porch roof shingles rested on the wall near the top of the sill. Buildings in the distance to the right of house are in the village of Douglassville northeast of railroad. The southeast corner chimney shows significant loss of stonework below the ridge-plane. The brick chimney on the north gable was a replacement of the stone chimney apparent in the woodcut [assuming the woodcut artist took minimal license in rendering the masonry joints]. Photographer of Image #2 was Walter A. Romanski; generous thanks to George M. Meiser IX for permission to publish edited print of image from Passing Scene Volume 9, page 247 (1994). See MJHTX4--1000.01.063 for full text and position of drawing within text. |
Date |
c.1886 & c.1948 |
Object Name |
Drawing |
Catalog Number |
1000.01.089 |
Search Terms |
MJHDWG MJHTX Mouns Jones House Mouns Jones House Drawing Datestone Gable-end Chimney Wood Engraving Woodcut Perspective Drawing Stoop Window Frame Corner Chimney Stone Chimney Chimney Cap Brick Chimney Board & Batten Shutter Sheathed Doorway Water Table Pargeing Shingle Roof Shingles Random-rubble Masonry |
Creator |
Unknown (woodcut) |
People |
Jones, Mouns Montgomery, Morton Romanski, Walter A. Meiser, George |
Notes |
Image #2 reproduced with generous permission of George Meiser, IX from his book "The Passing Scene," volume 9, page 247, published in Reading, 1994. |