Pair of finches in a gilt cage

1914

The finches were the house’s first commission from a private client, a timber widow on Capitol Hill who asked for “two birds that keep each other company,” and the pair in the collection is the second of two made, kept back when the first was delivered. Each bird has its own bellows and whistle. The first sings a phrase of between four and nine notes; the second waits, and answers with a phrase of its own that begins a fraction of a second before the first has finished.

Anselm Kroll, who voiced the whistles, took the timing from a pair of house finches nesting in the porch of the House in the spring of 1913, and wrote in his notebook that the hardest part was not the song but the interruption. The client’s pair has never left her family. It is kept today by her great-granddaughter in Portland, who sends it to the House every seventh year for its overhaul.

The cage is gilt brass, with a door that opens, though the finches have never been seen to use it.