Salada Tea Doors, (sculpture).

Salada Tea Doors, (sculpture).

Wilson, Henry, 1864-1934, sculptor.

Caira, M. Caesar, sculptor.

Bracquemond, E., assistant.

Saulo, M., assistant.

Guery, P., assistant.

David, A., assistant.

Gorham Manufacturing Company, founder.

Salada Tea Doors, (sculpture).

Inner doorframe: bronze; Outer doorframe: marble.

(Inner doorframe base panel on left side:) H. WILSON SC/ASSISTED BY/E. BRACQUEMOND/M. SAULO/P. GUERY/A. DAVID 1927 (Inner door frame base panel on right side:) THE GORHAM COMPANY/FOUNDERS (Inner doorframe on right side, below flanking figures:) KWANNON/APPAR SWAMI (Inner doorframe on left side, below flanking figures:) VISHNU/SUNDARA MURM SWARGI (Above doors, etched:) SALADA TEA COMPANY signed Founder's mark appears.

The entrance to the Salada Tea Company's first U. S. headquarters is adorned with a bronze inner doorframe and a marble outer doorframe containing reliefs illustrating the cultivation of tea in Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka).

The bronze inner doorframe is divided vertically into five panels on each side. On the right side, the top panel depicts male figures harvesting tea leaves; the second panel down depicts male figures around a table sorting tea leaves; the next panel depicts male figures drying tea leaves in boxes; the next panel depicts male figures carrying boxes of tea on their heads; and the bottom panel depicts elephants transporting boxes of tea. On the left side, the upper panels also depict male figures harvesting and processing tea leaves, but the bottom panel depicts the tea being loaded onto ships. The panels of the inner doorframe are flanked by two vertical rows of small figures in high relief.

The marble outer doorframe consists of two marble columns each containing a full-length figure of a woman in high relief. The capital at the top of each column contains a relief of three elephants. A narrow band across the top of the marble doorframe contains a relief depicting several elephants facing in different directions. Above the elephants is a large seated female figure with a seated child by her proper left foot and a standing child by her proper right foot.

Figure group -- Male

Ethnic -- Ceylonese

Occupation -- Industry -- Foodstuff

Animal -- Elephant

Architecture -- Boat

Figure female -- Full length

Outdoor Sculpture -- Massachusetts -- Boston

Located 330 Stuart Street, Entrance, Boston, Massachusetts

Peter Larken, founder of the Salada Tea Company, commissioned British sculptor Henry Wilson to create the bronze inner doorframe reliefs in 1928. Models for the reliefs won a silver medal at the Paris Salon of 1927. M. Caesar Caira, a French sculptor and special assistant to Wilson, sculpted the marble outer doorframe reliefs. IAS files contain a Boston Landmarks Commission Building Information Form, No. 420, that describes the history of the Salada Tea Company's building and includes bibliographic citations to an article in the Boston Sunday Globe Magazine, Nov. 3, 1974, pg. 28ff and Douglass Shand Tucci's "Built in Boston: City and Suburb, 1800-1950," Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1978.

Carlock, Marty, "A Guide to Public Art in Greater Boston," Boston: Harvard Common Press, 1988.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Massachusetts survey, 1996.

Carlock, Marty, "A Guide to Public Art in Greater Boston," Boston: Harvard Common Press, 1988, pg. 41.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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