Stove plate (Jamb or five-plate stove)

Description

This front plate of a cast iron stove depicts a traditional marriage scene: two people with hands bound together before a clergyman. The date, 1768, was a leap year and suggests that the union may have resulted from a proposal that challenged traditional gender roles. The image on the stove’s side plates reinforces the idea of an unconventional union. On these panels three women in petticoats (skirts) shake noisemakers at a pair of breeches (pants) in a tree while a man nearby appears to clap his hands. The women have “treed” the pants so they may be captured. The scene illustrates a folk tradition about leap year, when women could symbolically swap petticoats for pants and use the privilege to propose marriage to a man.