Seattle Everett Zürich

The House receives keepers by appointment, Tuesday to Saturday

Rosen The Rosen Association Seattle 1911

Forty-four pieces, 1911–1979

The heritage collection

Pieces the house made for itself, to prove a point or to keep its makers at the bench, kept in working order at the House and shown on any visit. None is autonomous, and none has needed a license.

The Copyist’s cam stack. A side elevation of sixteen cams stacked on one shaft, and beside it the plan of a single cam with an irregular profile and the follower arm that reads it. A B C NO. 9
Atelier drawing 9, 1913The Copyist

The Copyist

A seated clerk who dips his pen and writes, in a fair hand, the first Article of the Association.

1913 · RA.1913.2

The Lark Lantern. A domed cylindrical cage of thirteen brass bars on a moulded base with a winding key. A small bird with its beak open stands on a perch inside. NO. 41
Atelier drawing 41, 1922The Lark Lantern

The Lark Lantern

A singing bird in a domed brass lantern, with three songs and a pause between them that visitors fill without meaning to.

1922 · RA.1922.4

The Sleeping Hound’s bellows. A side elevation of a hinged leather bellows with pleated sides, worked by a lever from a slowly turning cam, which makes the hound appear to breathe. A B C NO. 66
Atelier drawing 66, 1931The Sleeping Hound

The Sleeping Hound

A greyhound asleep on a velvet cushion at the foot of the main stair. It breathes, and when it dreams its forepaw twitches.

1931 · RA.1931.1

The Correspondent’s type bar. A key lever linked through two pivots to a curved type bar that swings up to strike a round platen. R A B C NO. 118
Atelier drawing 118, 1958The Correspondent

The Correspondent

A woman at a typewriter who writes the house’s reply to every letter: that it will answer within the week.

1958 · RA.1958.3

The Penfield tone cabinet, 1979. A walnut cabinet on four turned feet, with a slatted grille below and a single round dial flanked by two knobs above. NO. 163
Atelier drawing 163, 1979Penfield tone cabinet, Mk I

Penfield tone cabinet, Mk I

The first Penfield instrument: a walnut cabinet with twelve registers, made by Eldon Rosen as the piece that elected him an Associate.

1979 · RA.1979.1

Further records

  • Pair of finches in a gilt cage, 1914Two finches that sing to each other in turn, the second always a little late, as finches are. RA.1914.1
  • The Weather Child, 1934A child in a yellow coat who opens a small umbrella about an hour before it rains. RA.1934.1
  • The Listener, 1971A bronze bust of a woman who turns, slowly, toward whoever in the room is speaking loudest. RA.1971.2

Also in the collection

A selection of the other thirty-six pieces
YearPieceAccession
1919The Draughtsman’s Cat, which washesRA.1919.2
1925Mantel clock with a sleeping foxRA.1925.3
1946Nightingale in a silver cage, for the reserveRA.1946.2
1951The Chess Clerk, who resigns gracefullyRA.1951.1
1964A pair of hands at a piano, playing one hymnRA.1964.4

The full catalog, with a record for every piece, is kept in the Archive and may be consulted by appointment. Pieces are not lent. Keepers of pieces made by the house for private clients before 1979 may write to the Archive for a heritage extract.

Studies

The house also keeps the studies it made on the way to its larger pieces. They are not part of the collection, which ends in 1979, the year of the first Penfield. One is shown: Nexus-1 study, finished in 1998 (RA.1998.1). The later Nexus studies are not shown.