Cradle for child of Samuel Colt, designed by Isaac Stuart, made by John Most, Hartford, Conn, 1857. Oak (from the famous Charter Oak) and oak veneer with amethyst, topaz, other precious stones. See detail pic and text of poem inscribed in base of frame in the comments. Wadsworth Atheneum [2000×1715]

[Wadsworth Atheneum](https://5058.sydneyplus.com/argus/final/Portal/Public.aspx?lang=en-US&p_AAEE=tab4&g_AABX=%7bs%3aAABR%7d&d=d): 1905.1580

[display description](https://i.ibb.co/d4tY3NtD/20250216-153028.jpg)

[Colt Family Cradle, 1857

American, Hartford, Connecticut

Isaac W. Stuart (active c. 1844-1857), designer

John H. Most (active c. 1855-1876)

Oak and oak veneer with amethyst, topaz, and additional precious stones

The Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt Collection, 1905.1580

When Elizabeth and Samuel welcomed their first son, Samuel Jarvis, they commissioned a cradle to honor their child, who soon after died in infancy. Isaac Stuart, the owner of the Charter Oak, provided both the wood and the design for the cradle. Noted furniture and piano maker John H. Most made the canoe-shaped cradle and the elaborate frame. The Colts purchased the precious stones that encrust it at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair in Russia.
The Colts’ close friend and poetess, Lydia Sigourney, wrote a poem that antiquarian Isaac W. Stuart hand-inscribed underneath the rough burl at the base of the cradle frame, which reads:

*That brave old Oak*

*Stood forth, a friend indeed,*

*And spread its Aegis o’er our sires In their extremest [sic] need,*

*And its sacred breast,*

*Their germ of Freedom bore, And his their life-blood in its veins*

*Until the blast was o’er.*

*The fair ones of our Vale,*

*O’er its fallen Guardian sigh,*

*And Elders, with prophetic thought,*

*Dark auguries descry;-*

*Patriots and Sages design*

*O’er the loved wreck to bend,-*

*And in the funeral of the Oak Lament their Country’s friend.*]

[detail of the poem inscribed in base of cradle](https://5058.sydneyplus.com/argus/final/ViewImage.aspx?template=Image&field=DerivedIma&hash=0bfa67c0e4c2a1ae9d7a43bf16afe6b5&width=max&height=max&r=1569810390&lang=en-US)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Colt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_Oak