Miner Kilbourne Kellogg, born Manlius - Coffee Cup Stand of Constantinople - unknown - T-Shirt

This pencil drawing shows a single pierced metal coffee cup stand from Constantinople, set alone on a plain ground and inscribed as a gift.

Visual Elements & Composition

The stand fills the centre of the sheet. Its flared, open rim sits above a narrow neck and a bell-shaped body, and the lower edge ends in a scalloped border. The body is patterned with scrolling foliate forms, rosettes and small blossoms, all rendered as openwork. Soft shading on the right side and a horizontal shadow beneath give the object its volume. The palette is restrained: warm cream paper, sepia graphite and pale brown shadow. Below the image, a handwritten inscription reads "Coffee Cup Stand of Constantinople," followed by a presentation note to Miss Davenport from W. W. Warren, dated April 1856.

Meaning & Symbolism

The stand holds a small, hot cup of coffee and protects the hand, a vessel form tied to Ottoman coffee service in Istanbul. Here it is recorded as a souvenir. Its perforated decoration reflects the metalwork traditions of the region. The drawing belongs to the nineteenth-century American tradition of travel sketching. Miner Kilbourne Kellogg, born in Manlius, New York, made it as part of a wider body of pencil drawings of places and objects he encountered abroad. The annotation makes the sheet a record of a gift passed from one person to another.

Wearing the Design

A tee carries its image at a distance, so the open pattern of the stand reads as a clear silhouette across the chest while the fine foliate detail rewards a closer look. The flared rim and scalloped base give the composition a strong outline that holds its shape as you move. The shirt becomes the surface where a small, carefully drawn souvenir from a nineteenth-century journey is displayed.