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Museum of American Folk Art

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woodstock, n.y. 12498

by appt.

(914) 679-8696

edmund I. fuller

By appointment Telephone (212)799-0825 (if no answer leave message at (212)787-6000)

American Folk Art and Country Furniture In New York City

QA-LLAN L. DANIEL

Photo: Salmieri

AMERICAN ANTIQUESC&QUILTS 1022 LEXINGTON

AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y.10021 PH0NE:(212)YU PROPRIETORS: BLANCHE GREENSTEIN, TOM WOODARD

Baltimore album quilt. Maryland, circa 1855. Applique. 117 x 117 inches.

We wish to purchase rare and exceptional quilts ofthis quality.

8-2906

THE CLAJ'\ION 1 -11 gkr SPRING 1979

TABLE OF CONTENTS Letter from the Director Dr. Robert Bishop

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American Folk Painting; Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Wiltshire III

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Perspective on American Folk Art Nina Howell Starr

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Design Origins of Amish Quilts Elizabeth Safanda

Rainbows in the Sky C. Kurt Dewhurst and Marsha MacDowell

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The United States Tobacco Museum Jane Nobes Brennan

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Noteworthy Events Wildcliff Craft Center New England Meeting House and Church: 1630-1850 Permanent Exhibit of Folk Art, Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum Mural at South Street Seaport Historical Society of Early American Decoration, Inc. Fiftieth Anniversary of Archive of Folk Song Do You Have Information to Share?

46

Recent Additions to Museum Collections

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Folk Art Calendar Across the Country

52

Schedule of Museum Exhibitions

54

Book Reviews

56

Our Growing Membership

57

Index to Advertisers

72

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Covers The Tow Sisters by MaryAn Smith. 1854. Pennsylvania. Watercolor on paper. 14 3/4" x 12". Signed and dated. Eyes attuned to the visual fantasies created by prominent 20th-century artists are given a treat of color and pattern in this watercolor. (Collection of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Wiltshire HO The Clarion, America's Folk Art Magazine, Spring 1979. Published quarterly and copyright 1979 by the Museum of American Folk Art, 49 West 53rd Street, New York, New York 10019. The cover and contents of The Clarion are fully protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any manner without written consent. Unsolicited manuscripts or photographs should be accompanied by return postage. The Clarion assumes no responsibility for the loss or damage of such material.

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MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Officers Ralph Esmerian, Chairman Barbara Johnson, President Alice M. Kaplan,(Mrs. Jacob M.), Executive Vice-President Lucy Danziger,(Mrs. Frederick M.), Vice-President Jo Lauder,(Mrs. Ronald), Vice-President Maureen Taylor,(Mrs. Richard), Vice-President Frances Sirota Martinson, Esq., Secretary William I. Leffler, Treasurer

Museum Staff: Dr. Robert Bishop, Director Patricia L. Coblentz, Assistant Director Laura Byers, Exhibition Coordinator Robin Harvey, Business Manager Dia Stolnitz, Museum Coordinator Lillian Grossman, Secretary Karen Schuster, Chairman, Friends Committee

Members Alice Burke,(Mrs. James E.) Catherine G. Cahill Phyllis D. Collins Adele Earnest Margery G. Kahn,(Mrs. Harry) Theodore H. Kapnek Ira Howard Levy Basil G. Mavroleon Cyril I. Nelson Kenneth R. Page, Esq. Karen S. Schuster,(Mrs. Derek) Andy Warhol William E. Wiltshire III

Docent Community Education Program: Lucy Danziger, Program Coordinator Susan Klein, Education Coordinator Cynthia Schaffner, Correspondence Coordinator Patrice Clareman, Public Relations Coordinator Priscilla Brandt and Dottie Kaufman, Membership and Book Coordinators Marie DiManno, Outreach Coordinator The Museum Shop Staff: Elizabeth Tobin, Manager Kevin Bueche Sally Gerbrick Phillida Mirk Hazel Osborn Suzanne Stern

Trustees Emeritus Mary Allis Marian W. Johnson,(Mrs. Dan R.) Louis C. Jones Jean Lipman,(Mrs. Howard) The Honorable Helen S. Meyner

The Clarion Staff: Patricia L. Coblentz, Editor. Helaine Fendelman, Advertising Manager. Ann Gold, Designer. Neal Davis, Designer. Ira Howard Levy, Designer. Topp Litho, Printers.

Change of Address. Please send both old and new addresses and allow five weeks for change.

Advertising. The Clarion accepts advertisements only from advertisers whose reputation is recognized in the trade, but despite the care with which the advertising department screens photographs and texts submitted by its advertisers, it cannot guarantee the unquestionable authenticity of objects or quality of services advertised in its pages or offered for sale by its advertisers, nor can it accept responsibility for misunderstandings that may arise from the purchase or sale of objects or services advertised in its pages.

The Museum is dedicated to the exhibition and interpretation of folk art and feels it is a violation of its principles to be involved in or to appear to be involved in the sale of works of art. For this reason, the Museum will not knowingly accept advertisements for The Clarion which illustrate or describe objects that have been exhibited at the Museum within one year of the placing of the advertisement.

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MAFA's educational and publishing programs have expanded dramatically over the last several years. Our new Clarion continues to elicit plaudits and members froni across the United States and numerous foreign countries have written to tell us how excited they are about the new format of America's Folk Art Magazine, which is being edited by the Museum's Assistant Director, Patricia Coblentz.

Other Museum activities have received both national and international recognition as well. Barbara Johnson, President of the Board of Trustees, attended the Fifth Annual Exhibition Publications Awards Program of the Art Libraries Society of North America, New York Chapter, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in December and accepted a Special Award for the Museum of American Folk Art. The Citation was awarded to the Museum "for its 1977 exhibition catalog, A Child's Comfort: Baby and Doll Quilts, for impressive design and quality of reproductions in keeping with its subject matter." This publication, derived from an exhibition presented at the Museum, was written by Director Bruce Johnson in collaboration with Susan S. Connor, Josephine Rogers, and Holly Sidford, and published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. The only other museum cited was the Metropolitan Museum of Art for its exhibition catalogues, Treasures of Early Irish Art 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D. and Daniel Chester French: An American Sculptor.

A Silver Award was won at the 21st International Film & Television Festival of New York in November for an audiovisual presentation created by the Museum in conjunction with the Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of New York. Mr. Michael J. Folso, Director of Media Services for the Department

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

of Cultural Affairs, accepted the award on behalf of the Museum. This citation is particularly gratifying for it was selected from over 7,000 entries from 34 countries around the world. Mr. Folso served as Production Manager and I as Creative Director. It is expected that this audio-visual presentation will be used in developing outreach programs for Museum educators.

Over the last several months I have been working with the Art in Embassies Agency, Washington, D.C., and have specifically focused upon assisting Mrs. Donna Hartman, wife of the newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to France.

We have acquired from private lenders and donors significant works of American of Amerifolk art which are being used in the Silver medal awarded to the Museum can Folk Art at the 21st International Film American Embassy in Paris. Ms. Laura and Television Festival for its audio-visual Harding was especially generous in loan- presentation,"What is Folk Art?" ing numerous pieces from her personal collection to this program. The Museum has also been active within New York State and several of its paintings are currently being shown in Governor Carey's office in New York City.

I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank Mr. and Mrs. Theodore H. Kapnek for their very generous MUSEUM .AMTRICAN ION ART loan of samplers from their personal A CHILD'S collection. The exhibition was one comFoRT of the most successful ever mounted by the Museum of American Folk Art and the publication, A Gallery of American Samplers, produced in conjunction with E.P. Dutton, has been tremendously popular. Both the curator, Mrs. Glee Krueger, and Museum docent, Mrs. Davida Deutsch, have lectured on the Kapnek samplers numerous times at Citation from the Art Libraries Society of the Museum.

North America, New York Chapter, for the is Our future exhibition schedule "impressive design and quality of reproductions impressive indeed and no one will want in keeping with its subject matter" of the to miss the very exciting summer show Museum of American Folk Art's exhibition of Hawaiian Quilts. This is the first catalogue, A Child's Comfort: Baby and Doll time that a major exhibition of this Quilts.

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material has been mounted in continental United States.

In this issue of The Clarion, we are instituting a new department. Since many people have enthusiastically supported the Museum through gifts to the collection, a list of the donors and the items received is being published. Likewise, new members and members who have upgraded their membership category are also being cited for their generosity.

The Museum has recently signed a contract with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., of New York City to produce a new four-color poster-size book on folk art.

Darlene Geis of Abrams will edit the book and Seth Joel will photograph works of art from the Museum's permanent collection for inclusion. Many works of art recently added to the permanent collection will be published for the first time.

Dr. Robert Bishop Director

Top: Museum docent Davida Deutsch lecturing on the Theodore Kapnek Collection of American Samplers.

Mr. and Mrs. Theodore H. Kapnek, flanked by Museum Director Dr. Robert Bishop and Exhibition Curator Mrs. Glee Krueger, at the Member's Opening of the Sampler exhibition.

Above: Museum trustees Ralph Esmerian, Lucy Danziger, and Alice Kaplan engaged in conversation at the Member's Preview Opening of the Sampler exhibition.

Left: Mr. John S. Kartovsky (right) was the successful bidder, at the Museum's Annual Manhattan House Tour, for the antique quilt which had been autographed by Broadway celebrities. The stars of the Broadway hit, BALLROOM, Vincent Gardenia and Dorothy Loudon, offer their congratulations to Mr. Kartovsky.

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Height: 12/ 1 2inches

An examplefrom our large collection offine American Folk Art

H.& G. Diamant 115 West 73 Street • New York, N.Y. 10023

By Appointment (212)362-2552 7

Arm' 01;12

OLD ABE, A War Hero, Watercolor by Beth R. Warrds, painted 89 years of age. A portrait of an eagle who became a hero of the Civil War, subject of a story by Edmund Lindop, War Eagle, The Story of a Civil War Mascot, Little Brown & Company, Boston, Toronto, 1966.

JMT

1 .

1

-on Court Ave. J & S Schneider 299 N. Court Ave.•Tucson. Arizona 85701 (602)622-3607•Appointment Advised

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Brilliant reds, blues and greens against Old Abe in black and white. 22/ 1 2" x 30/ 1 2" framed.

Marvelous example of American Folk Art. Artist was a widow of one of the soldiers of the Eau Claire Badgers of Wisconsin who cared for Old Abe during his life time. An important find.

Sotheby Parke Bernet The leading auctioneers of American Folk Art The Stewart E. Gregory Collection of American Folk Art sold at our New York galleries on January 27,1979, setting a world record for a single owner sale of Americana.

Ammi Phillips,A Lady (one of a pair of portraits), c. 1836,oil on 4 x 261 / 4 inches. The pair sold at our New York / canvas, 311 galleries on January 27,1979 for $62,500.

Property from other fine collections that Sotheby Parke Bernet has sold include: Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Edith Gregor Halpert, Channing Hare and William E.Wiltshire III. If you have a fine individual piece or an extensive collection, this may be the appropriate time for you to talk to us.

Ms. Nancy Druckman of our Americana Department will be pleased to meet with you.

For an appointment, call(212)472-3511

980 Madison Avenue, New York 10021(212)472-3400

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Photographed at the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion, Philadelphia by Dane T. Wells.

J9c nineteenth century Victorian heritage is NINETEENTH CENTURY This lavishly illustrated magazine of The Victorian Society in America is your window on the sumptuous world of Victorian sights and sounds, tastes and textures.

NINETEENTH CENTURY is packed with entertaining and informative articles, book reviews, auction notices, and travel opportunities helping you get better acquainted with the architects, artists, and decorators who made those palatial Victorian residences and public buildings.

For the basic $20 annual membership in The Victorian Society, four issues of NINETEENTH CENTURY will be delivered to your door.

But this is only the beginning of membership benefits.

Members receive ten issues of the Society's Bulletin, special book offers with savings up to 40%, and handsome invitations to meetings, workshops, symposia, summer schools, and tours.

Victorian lovers, have more fun when you join The Victorian Society.

Return this application and open a window on the NINETEENTH CENTURY today.

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)9c THE VICTORIAN SOCIETY IN AMERICA East Washington Square, Suite 139 Philadelphia,PA 19106 I would like to receive NINETEENTH CENTURY and join The Victorian Society in America Name Address City

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0 individual—$20 0 family—$25 0 sustaining—$35 0 library—$20 0 VISA 0 Master Charge 0 Check Make check payable to The Victorian Society in America.

Account No. Master Charge Interbank Number Expiration date Signature

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Add $5 per year for overseas postage.

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The Phoenix Building Pittsford, Monroe County, N.Y. Circa 1812 On the old Erie Canal

AN INVITATION TO COLLECTORS...

For years, some of the most interesting antiques anywhere have been found in upstate New York: folk art, glass, textiles, indigenous country furniture and sophisticated pieces brought in by canal packetboats from New England and New York City.

An increasing number of antiquers across the country are getting to know another important upstate product, THE NEW YORK-PENNSYLVANIA COLLECTOR, published eleven times a year from this handsome Federal building, once an early inn.

We put together what we think is a lively mix: reports from correspondents covering the antique scene throughout the Northeast (and beyond), articles by museum curators and collectors, and advertisements from dealers, including a growing number of Canadian sources.

The result is a specialized newspaper that more and more readers are finding an important reference tool.

Old-fashioned rates are still to be found here, too. Five dollars a year for a subscription; low, low rates for advertisers. We think you'll agree that's a bargain...

If you'd like to see a copy, drop us a line. We'll send one off in the very next mail, with our compliments.

ntiques, Arts & Antiquarian Books

4 South Main Street Pittsford, New York 14534 11

THIRTEEN is proud to announce for the second year

AMEN COLLECTION

TELEVISED AUCTION OF ART AND ANTIQUES MRS 10-13,197D You are invited to support this highly successful auction event. Here is a unique opportunity to have your name and your quality donation presented on television to our audience of millions of art-oriented viewers.

We welcome donations in the areas of traditional and contemporary European and American art, Oriental art, American furniture, European furniture, decorative arts, Americana,art-nouveau,art deco,tribal art and antiquities,fine jewelry, gold,silver, objets de vertu, Judaica,antique jewelry, rugs,tapestries,textiles, contemporary crafts, photography,architectural drawings,stamps,coins, autographs,antique maps and rare books. Authorities in each field are now reviewing donations to be offered at auction.

To make your tax-deductible art/antique donation for the benefit of THIRTEEN, please write THIRTEEN's Auction office at 356 West 58th Street, New York, NY 10019 or call(212)560-2700.

Note: Donations made by December 31,1978 can be considered gifts for tax purposes in 1978.

CHAIRMEN LAWRENCE A. FLEISCHMAN Kennedy Galleries, Inc.

JOHN L MARION Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc.

HAROLD SACK Israel Sack, Inc.

VICE-CHAIRMEN DORIS BLAU Doris Leslie Blau Gallery, Inc. ALLAN S. CHAIT Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc. SYLVAN COLE Associated American Artists, Inc. PHILIP COLLECK Philip Colleck of London, Ltd. RALPH DESTINO Cartier, Inc 12

PETER EHRENTHAL Moriah Antique Judaica ANDRE EMMERICH Andre Emmerich Gallery HELAINE FENDELMAN Museum of American Folk Art Staff HARMER JOHNSON Harmer Johnson Tribal Art and Antiquities MURIEL KARASIK Muriel Karasik Gallery, Ltd

BERTHE KOLIN Collector ANDREW LEVITT Sotheby Parke Bernet Stamp Auction Company,Inc. LLOYD MACKLOWE Macklowe Gallery, Ltd. HERBERT ROMAN Herbert Roman,Inc. PAUL M. SCHAFFER A La Vieille Russie, Inc.

RUTH SIEGEL Art Latitude Gallery, Inc. BENJAMIN STACK Stack's Coin Company MYRA WALDO Travel Author LEE WITKIN Witkin Gallery, Inc RUDOLF WUNDERLICH Kennedy Galleries, Inc

Sandisfield, Mass.-1735 Colonial

Granville, Mass.

allifbassatuminemmiamillimanii Attractive Old Colonial mostly restored featuring 4-5 bedrooms, country kitchen, 4 fireplaces, overlooking the Clam River, together with 110 acres and a small barn. $135,000

Handsome brick Federal era home with center hall, a 'hanging' staircase, 4 bedrooms, fireplaces, family wing, and separate shop area for art or antiques. Set on 41 / 2 acres with brook. $159,900

Berkshires Colonial-17 ac.—Pond

Attractive Colonial featuring 4 bedrooms, parlor, dining room, 20 living room, 3 barns, small pond, lovely views, and along a quiet country 1 2 hours from N.Y.C.,40 minutes to Tanglewood, 20 mm to skiing. Offered at $165,000 road, ideal for jogging, walking, and X-country. 2/

Above properties shown by appointment only. BROCHURES AVAILABLE Colonials and other fine country properties located in Northwest corner of Conn.,& the Berkshires of Mass.

Robinson Leech, Jr. Realtor Main office-Lakeville, Ct. 203-435-9891

Jana Klauer, Associate Norfolk res. 203-542-5360 wkends NYC res. 212-288-8667 wkdays

Arthur & Cynthia White, assoc. Hotchkiss School(res)

Robinson Leech Assoc., Realtors Box 424 Lakeville, Conn. 06039 (203)435-9891 REALTOR ÂŽ 13

qkegreatafil'ork) Aitipe! i Slow Salo at the York Fairgrounds (Memorial Building) West Market Street, York, Pennsylvania Route 462 West

MAY 25,26,27 12 noon to 10 p.m. daily Closing day 12 noon to 6 p.m.

125 DEALERS showing the finest antiques such as folk art, country and period furniture, pottery, quilts, coverlets, dolls, primitive art objects, silver, art glass, cut glass.

This fine antiques show is sponsored by the Y's Men's Club of the York Y.M.C.A. and will benefit the Greater York area Y.M.C.A., particularly the Y's outstanding community service and family membership programs

Admission $2.00, Mention this ad $1.50 Managed by JIM BURK 4117 Miller Road Washington Boro, Pa. 17582 717-397-7209

p‘\40UT (Mcp Wicker furniture has had its ins and outs in the history of home furnishings, but it was never so popular as with the Victorians. People then were wild about it, and they put wicker into every room in the house. And they are doing exactly the same today and probably for the same reasons: wicker is natural, handmade,and comfortable; it is rustic, yet exotic, and always maintains an integrity of its own.

This handsome book by Patricia Corbin, a contributing editor to House & Garden, is just what its title implies: all about the history of wicker from earliest times, its myriad forms during the Victorian period, its high style and popularity in today's homes,how to collect wicker, old and new, and how to live with it.

107 photographs, 24 pages of full color. $8.95, paper

Miles B. Carpenter

Jeffrey and C. Jane Camp AMERICAN FOLK ART COMPANY 310 Duke St., Tappahannock, Va. 22560 by appointment (804)443-2655

CDUTTON) 2 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y.10016 15

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Special Exhibition at the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art May 15,1979- June 24,1979

American Folk Painting Selections from the Collection of Mr.and Mrs.William E.Wiltshire III Excerpts from the Introduction to the Exhibition Catalogue by Mary Black

I

t is some fifty years since the reawakening of interest in the untutored, self-taught American country artist first began. Today, when most dealers and collectors of folk painting suspect that the great days when the best examples of this art form could be found in quantity are over, Mr. and Mrs. William E. Wiltshire III of Richmond, Virginia, are proving that new enthusiasts with taste and interest can still assemble a comprehensive collection of American folk painting within a relatively short period.

As a child, William Wiltshire collected Civil War memorabilia, but when he set out for college he dispersed this collection. In 1967 he married Barbara Gottschalk, and in fur-

Opposite: Rev. Ebenezer Gay, Sr. Winthrop Chandler (1747-1790).

1773. Suffield, Connecticut. Oil on canvas. 38" x 29".

Above: Still Life. Isaac W. Nuttman. ca. 1865. Newark, New Jersey. / 4"x 60".

Oil on canvas.401

nishing their first house they began to develop a fine arts library to help them in their search for fine American furniture and decorative arts.

A ceramic and pottery collection was begun by the Wiltshires, and European wares were accumulated with the encouragement and assistance of William Lautz (a life-long collector of these materials and, on retirement, a dealer and advisor to museums and private collectors). Alongside Japanese ceramics, European Renaissance cutlery, and French soft-paste porcelain, another group of stronger, rougher wares was growing. It was this collection of American pottery that opened the door to the Wiltshires' interest in American folk art. About a third of the major exhibition, "Folk Pottery of the Shenandoah Valley," at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection in Williamsburg (May 25-Oct. 4, 1975) was made up of pieces owned by the Wiltshires.

At first the Wiltshires collected folk paintings to decorate the walls of their home, but soon their enthusiasm grew

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beyond casual purchases. The more they learned about this art form, the more strongly they were attracted by its strong colors and bold designs. These works had an honesty and forthrightness that seemed to the Wiltshires to be lacking in academic paintings of the same period.

Later, a large, high-ceilinged room was set aside as a gallery, and museum lighting was installed. In this space, paintings are frequently moved to accommodate new arrivals and to enable study of relationships between styles, periods, and types. Many of the stars of the Wiltshire constellation are portraits, the major production of American folk artists between 1785 and 1840. These, along with landscapes and genre scenes, effectively illustrate the heyday of the rural and town artists who worked for their peers within isolated nineteenth-century societies.

Between 1640 and 1840, scores of painters attempted to fill the needs of their contemporaries and peers in rural and suburban America in recording the appearance of varied and culturally-isolated segments of society. Portraiture was the preeminent need, but eventually they also produced interiors, exteriors, farm scenes, landscapes, still lifes, and religious and genre scenes. By the time the Revolution ended and the slow, painful, and exhilarating task of building a new nation of united and independent states began, a tradition of native art by self-taught practitioners was already well established.

Between 1700 and 1750, a well-defined school of portrait and religious painting by more than a score of painters existed along the Hudson River, from New York to Albany. Earlier folk painters had worked in New England, and one of the New York artists appears to have ventured as far south as Williamsburg and Jamestown, Virginia, with a way stop in Newport, Rhode Island. In South Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia, isolated examples of folk art were being created.

On the eve of the Revolution, a group of Connecticut painters entered into the prolific production of portraits and a few landscapes, shifting the center of folk art activity from New York to southern New England. As the new states emerged, a new and independent middle class, devoted to the rights and individual worth of each of its members, arose.

Every man might attain privileges and position formerly available only to the rich and well-educated. In this milieu, in which each person was considered an integral part of his immediate society, an expanding record of the appearance of the rising middle class was begun. In small towns, far removed from large urban centers, country artists set to work.

Separately, they found solutions to problems of perspective, anatomical representation, and accurate portrayal. Occasionally, this development took the form of a cooperative venture, through observation or knowledge of other artists' work. This process was aided by the natural talents of the artists, and was intensified by endless repetition of the lessons learned. The results were varied, but the folk artists acclaimed today—those identified as well as those known only by style— 18

were also the ones most frequently patronized in their own times. Originally, these paintings were practical and often beautiful records of faces, farms, and events. Today, they are treasured not only for their value in presenting a portrait of colonial America and the early republic, but also for their enduring aesthetic traits.

As these works came into respectability in this century, the anonymity of many of the artists led to a curious and romantic fiction. The folk artist was viewed as a failed itinerant, a dreamer inadequate to business or trade who took up painting because he was unsuccessful at everything else.

He was seen as idly wandering through the countryside, painting for board and room—the snake-oil charlatan of early America. Occasionally a painter fulfills this tradition.

The nearest realities to the legend are the almshouse painters of Pennsylvania, all German immigrants, all part-time residents, "via the alcohol route," at one or more of the Pennsylvania almshouses, which were their favored subject. Yet even here the record is far from the whole story. The organization and skill with which these late nineteenth-century practitioners used their talents suggest that they had early successes as lithographers and painters before intemperance took over their lives. In the Wiltshires' collection, one of John Rasmussen's works is a fine and unusual example of the genre.

As folk paintings reached never-before achieved positions of honor on museum walls, curators, collectors, dealers, and art and social historians began to attempt to identify the makers of correlated groups of paintings. As a result, in the last two decades the professional folk painter has been returned to an active, productive, and honored place within his society. Although repetition was the artist's accepted mode of development, the former concept of the folk painter as a hack artist has been dispelled as his history has unfolded.

An older legend, known as "the headless body theory," still lives, although the evidence against it is strong. Its persistence is fortified by two practices that took place immediately before and immediately after the heyday of the American folk artist. One was the use of the velvety mezzotint as the source for background, costume, and pose in preRevolutionary portraits. The other, beginning at mid-nineteenth century, was the common practice among early photographers in using painted backgrounds and stage furniture as settings. Since poses in folk portraits often are identical, backgrounds similar, and costumes occasionally the same, the fiction arose that in off seasons the folk painter would paint figures fat and lean, young and old, then in good weather travel with these "headless bodies," finally adding the only original notes: faces to match those of the clientele he solicited along the way. It is a grand and funny tale perpetuated in fiction and in earnest belief, but so far lacking in documentary proof.

What is known is this. There is no record of these practices in the many letters, account books, diaries and journals of folk painters now known. Costumes did indeed move within a family unit. For instance, sisters and sisters-in-law are known to have worn the same dresses, collars, jewelry, and combs

.otraWasolatliffIrOIWAI .,-iiitiesikairAmor.mmmAnr

Becks County Farm Scene. John Rasmussen. ca. 1880. Berks County, Pennsylvania. Oil on tin. 27" x 36".

as they sat for their portraits. Two particular painters, Jacob Maentel and Ammi Phillips, may have carried with them distinctive green umbrellas that appear in full-length portraits by them. In a Boston Museum acquisition, clothing, jewelry, and family furniture went along with a group portrait by Erastus Salisbury Field of the Moore family of Ware, Massachusetts, totally precluding the possibility of advance preparation. Ammi Phillips did several copies of one subject, changing the numbers of embroidered hearts on the sitter's muslin collar to individualize the copies intended for three of four children of the subject (surely a fourth likeness once existed).

Often, the reality that we know today is so much better than the invention, and once a folk painter's life is revealed, interested observers look for more examples of his work

and further biographical information. Where many unknowns once stood, now stand Pieter Vander Lyn, Gerardus Duyckinck, John Durand, Winthrop Chandler, Reuben Moulthrop, Rufus Hathaway, Simon Fitch, John Brewster, Jr., Ammi Phillips, Erastus Salisbury Field, Joseph Stock, Edward Hicks, Charles Hofmann, John Rasmussen, and Jacob Maentel, all with records of busy and active lives and listings of known works numbering in the fifties and hundreds. Many more are identified, while some few are still called after the names of the families they painted. One of these, the Payne Limner, emerges in this exhibition, represented by three of ten known Payne family portraits. All are Virginia subjects, and the style is reminiscent of, but seemingly different from, that of John Durand, who was working in Virginia from 1770 to 1782.

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Archer Payne, Jr. The Payne Limner. ca. 1791. Goochland County, Virginia. Oil on canvas. 41 7/8" x 35 3/4".

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Double Portrait of a Boy and Girl. Joseph Whiting Stock (1815-1855). 1840s. New England. Oil on canvas. 47" x 39".

21

The Wiltshire collection provides insight into the working methods and styles of other artists, as seen in the 1793 Rufus Hathaway portraits of two members of the Sampson family of Duxbury, Massachusetts. The portrait of Captain Sylvanus Sampson was painted less than four months after that of his wife and cost the same, yet it seems far less practiced and sure than the dazzling and typical Hathaway style evident in the wife's portrait. Hathaway himself is a good example of the artist working within and for a society of his peers.

He began his career as a painter in Taunton, but soon settled in nearby Duxbury, where he lived and worked, not only as a painter but also as a practicing physician, for thirty years until his death in 1822.

The Child of the Hubbell Family by Jonathan Budington, Ralph Earl's portraits of John and Mary Hill Nichols, and Major Andrew Billings by the Beardsley Limner represent the emergence of the second well-defined school of artists, the painters of a large and related body of work in Connecticut between 1770 and 1805. The portrait of the Reverend Ebenezer Gay, Sr. is by Winthrop Chandler, who was the first to rise among these Connecticut folk artists. Echoes of style and overlapping territories indicate acquaintance with each other's production; some members of this group of country painters are known actually to have studied each other's work, as in the case of Simon Fitch, who was briefly an apprentice of Winthrop Chandler.

Out of this late eighteenth-century Connecticut school other painters developed. Isaac Sheffield was one of them, and the full-length portrait of Mary Ann Wheeler is a fine example of his style.

The two Ammi Phillips portraits of about 1824 show the same general transition, but as it developed within one prolific artist's work over a long period. This pair, known in the early 1940s, disappeared from sight in about 1950; they are now restored to view in the Wiltshire collection. Woman with Shawl and Cap and Man with Large Bible bridge the period between Phillips' border period (1811-1818) and his Kent period (1830-1838). Of all the folk portraits now known, those by Phillips are among the best and the most inventive.

His contemporary, the artist John Vanderlyn, had this to say of Phillips' career and position in his society: "Indeed moving about through the country as Phillips did and probably still does, must be an agreeable way of passing ones time . . . Were I to begin life again I should not hesitate to follow this plan, that is, to paint portraits cheap and slight. . . it would besides be the means of introducing a young man to the best Society and. . . might be the means of establishing himself advantageously in the world . .

The portrait of the two children attributed to Joseph Stock was found in southeastern New York State. Unlike most folk painters, Stock kept an account of his work. His •Vanderlyn to John Vanderlyn, Jr. (nephew), Sept. 9, 1825, Kingston Senate House Museum, Kingston, N.Y.

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journal, written between 1832 and 1846, records 912 paintings. Approximately seventy works of this period have been identified, while a dozen more have been identified in the past year (by this writer) as the work of three years in Orange County, New York (between 1852 and 1855); there, early in his stay, he advertised completion of a hundred portraits of county residents. Thus, portraits by Joseph Stock have become one of the newest treasures to seek in the folk art field. The Wiltshire painting follows in the tradition of other Stock portraits in the handling of the full-length figures depicted on a reverse-patterned Scotch grain carpet; the children are presented as though on a stage surrounded by billowing folds of curtains.

Such portrait subjects, prospering citizens in rural areas, were viewed by their recorders as equals. Indeed, all the artists' account books, receipts, journals, and descriptions indicate that their travels to find subjects most often took them to places where friends, relations, or acquaintances would sit for portraits and permit the artist to use the results to introduce themselves in unfamiliar territory.

In addition, the Wiltshire collection contains a large number of landscapes and genre scenes which further illustrate the appearance of prospering farms and the increasing ease of transportation. Thus the German immigrant and sometime resident of the Berks County Almshouse, John Rasmussen, records one of the well-kept farms of that Pennsylvania county, and Henry Dousa shows the immaculate Indiana house and farm of H. Windle. L. Johnston in Connecticut delineates a southern New England scene, while ship portraitist James Bard records the King Bird. The riches of the harvest are described almost surrealistically in Newark artist Isaac W. Nuttman's Still Life, its elegance contrasting with the naive and colorful description offered by Susanna Sibbel's Pennsylvania watercolors of bees and birds, stone house and bridge, village, and livestock.

Thus the Wiltshire collection, spanning one hundred years of American folk painting, is a fine selection of portraits, landscapes, and genre scenes which illustrates the heyday of the professional, self-taught painter. The eighteenth-century portraits are especially rich, while outstanding examples of portraits and landscapes by identified folk painters of the first half of the nineteenth century round out this recently formed collection. The representation of southern folk art is a further strength that expands its geographical reach.

In bringing this important assembly of newly discovered works by American folk painters to a wide audience, the Wiltshires are extending knowledge and appreciation of this evocative and beautiful aspect of American art.

NOTE: These excerpts were taken from Mrs. Black's Introduction to the catalogue, American Folk Painting: Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Wiltshire III (Richard B. Woodward, comp., Richmond, Va.: Virginia Museum, 1977). The catalogue is available at The Museum Shop at $6.95. Please add $1.50 postage and handling on mail orders.

/ 2". / 4"x 121 Spiritual Chimes Drawing. Artist unknown. First quarter of the 19th century. Pennsylvania. Watercolor on paper. 121

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Perspective on American Folk Art

Nina Howell Starr

T

o readers of The Clarion there is no surprise in viewing, enjoying, and evaluating 20th century American folk art, with the same eyes, the same appetite they bring to folk art of earlier times.

However, the whole field of American folk art is so new to most, that it may be surprising to hear how recent the discovery of contemporary folk art really is. It has been my mission for 20 years to gain recognition for the existence of folk art and folk artists of today, a mission I have thought accomplished again and again, only to meet stubborn deniers.

Looked at historically, this is not surprising. It did not help that the impressive Whitney Museum exhibition of 1974, "The Flowering of American Folk Art," although claiming to survey "the entire range of American Folk Art," used a cut-off date of 1876, and that Jean Lipman wrote in the publication on the exhibit, with the same title, "By the time of the Centennial this art reached its peak; the machine age marked the start of its decline."

Yet the same year, 1974, saw the publication of the stunning, comprehensive, very timely Twentieth Century American Folk Art and Artists of Herbert Hemphill, Jr., and Julia Weissman, a book that surpasses the Whitney publication in number of folk artists included and rivals it in the number of works shown. Unimpressed, editors continued to tell me that the subjects of an article I submitted about roadside folk art found currently in New York were "not folk art"; and in a recent panel on "The Interrelationship of Folk Art and 24

Modern American Sculpture," moderator Pat Mainardi categorically insisted that there was no American folk art of this century.

Error dies hard. And anyone doing hasty research on the subject might understandably accept the same heresy.

For the researcher might find Nina Fletcher Little, in her introduction to the catalogue of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection of 1957, speaking of American folk art in the past tense, explaining that "Before the middle of the nineteenth century the effects of the machine became apparent in every branch of the arts . . .

Lithographs, daguerreotypes and multiple iron castings satisfied the desire for pictures and sculpture."

Note that Mrs. Little refers to the satisfied consumers, patrons, buyers, whereas we will see that she was not considering the urge to create on the part of folk artists, which we find has never ceased and cannot die.

The following year, 1958, the fourpart art contribution by the United States to the Universal International Exhibition in Brussels, Belgium, gave American folk art equal recognition along with Indian Art, Seventeen Contemporary American Painters, and Contemporary Sculpture. In the official catalogue of the Four Exhibitions, the introduction to the Folk Art section, written by Leslie Cheek, Jr., presents the 70 works in the exhibition as a "tremendous visual history of the United States as it grew into nationhood."

But, like Mrs. Little, Cheek treated it in an archaeological context. Referring to the "short phase of American art documented by this exhibition," he writes tenderly and sensitively about the "spontaneous artistic expression called folk art," only to declare its demise. His "short phase" ran between the Revolutionary War and the end of the Civil War, even shorter than the Centennial period allotted by Lipman

and Winchester. For all his appreciation of the force that led early Americans to create, regardless of professional qualifications, he, too, could not translate that basic human force into today's scene.

"Folk art of the United States ended as mechanization rushed across the continent" according to Cheek; ironically "the camera suppressed the brush in the people's hand." Ironic, because it is this photographer's camera that initiated recognition of the vital force and extent of today's folk art. By photographing and exhibiting that aspect of contemporary folk art on exhibition for all to see along our roads, streets, and highways, I have born witness to and sparked the hunt for the larger range of works now enjoyed by all folk art aficionados.

Bridging the gap between Brussels in 1958 and the Whitney Museum's "Flowering," we can find the authoritative John Canaday's 1965 comment of folk art: "It seems more and more an art inspired with a strength we have no way of recapturing." By then my photographs and several original works I had been able to acquire (always from primary sources) had been given a large exhibition at the Museum of Early American Folk Arts (February 1 to April 4, 1965). A year later, 1966, that name was changed to Museum of American Folk Art. So it was our roads and highways that first exhibited 20th-century folk art, not museums nor publications.

Right: Mermaid by William H. Slater, Shirley Slater, and Junior Brantley, Panama City, Florida. Photographed in 1961.

Opposite: Fig. 1. Cow by Mr. Butts, Mt. Dora, Florida. Photographed in 1951.

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Fig. 2. Watermelon sign, "Cold Slices," by N. Thaggard, St. Joseph, Missouri. Photographed in 1958.

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r-• rq

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Above, left: Fig. 3. Alligator, St. Joseph, Missouri. Photographed in 1958.

Above, right: Fig. 4. Nathan Starr removing fish sign in 1961 from a Pensacola, Florida, fish market. Painting by Edward B. Wickland.

Near left: Fig. 5. "Man With Oranges" by Arthur Langlois, Inverness, Florida. Photographed in 1968.

Far left: Fig. 6. Orange crates decorated by Arthur Langlois, Inverness, Florida. Photographed in 1962.

The first "spontaneous artistic expression farms, as well as the laws against signs called folk art" that I found and photo- on the Federal highways, have brought graphed outdoors, on the maker's front about a sharp decline in their incidence. lawn, were several sculptural works By now it is in cities that one finds

by Mr. Butts in Mt. Dora, Florida, in roadside folk art most frequently. In 1951: an almost lifesize cow (fig. 1), New York alone, there is a rich vein, a girl astride a small horse, and a dog. not only of signs, but painted windows These were photographed simply be- and other decorations both two-dimencause of my life-long love of folk art. sional and sculptural.

From the 1954 watermelon to the It was three years later, in 1954, that I consciously began to "collect" road- summer of 1961 my documentation side folk art by photographing it. Even grew significantly. We were living in then this was not with a sense of purpose Florida at that time and drove North every summer to New Hampshire. There other than to photograph what could not be acquired. The 1954 work was were other trips, in and around the a watermelon sign in a field with "Ice South and the Middle and Far West.

Cold Price 35g To-1.00" precisely let- And there were exhibitions of my doctered over a curved red slice. The owner, umentation at the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts, as is often the case, refused to part with it. The answer all too often is "Then mounted by Bartlett Hayes; at BenningI would have to make another one," ton College, Bennington, Vermont, superunimpressed by the idea that anyone vised by E. C. Goosen; and a more comprehensive show at the Norton would find the work valuable.

Watermelons are the subject of more Gallery, West Palm Beach, Florida, under art in my documentation than any other the direction of Willis Woods.

In 1961, Mary Black launched an subject. The variety of composition and detail presented in this extremely exhibition of my work, entitled "Signs simple and unvarying subject is amazing; of a Living Folk Art," at the Abby usually there is a slice, a basic curved Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection, or angular form, and three colors, red, Williamsburg, Virginia, and Jean Lipman white and green plus a possible linear published my article with the same title black (fig. 2). These handmade signs in Art in America. Both these events used to be a frequent sight, but the reflected the then current denial of routing of superhighways to bypass the existence of living folk art and 29

artists, and heralded a repudiation of this mistaken idea.

In announcing the Williamsburg show, Mrs. Black implicity acknowledged the prevailing opinion that folk art was "considered lost through 20th century methods of advertisement and photography," but went on to state: "The same naivete and simplicity that distinguished 19th-century folk art can be seen in the pictures of the lions and toothy alligators ... and the elongated painted fish." The lions and the alligators (fig. 3) she referred to, had been photographed in St. Joseph, Missouri, and in Georgia and Florida, while the elongated fish were not only in photographs of fish signs, but in an original double painting 6 feet 4 inches long (fig. 4) that had been acquired in Pensacola, Florida. The artist, Edward B. Wickland, former proprietor of a store where the sign still hung, had moved to California

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and the owner of the building sold it to me on condition that it be removed.

My brother and my husband Nathan, who has always stood ready to help on folk art safaris, managed the feat, and our station wagon bore it home.

During the exhibition at the Museum of Early American Folk Arts in New York, this sign hung in the front window, for all who passed along 53rd Street to see.

Alice Winchester, in her part of the book, The Flowering of American Folk Art, attributes to American folk art "its own qualities of vigor, honesty, inventiveness, and a sense of design" and describes the pieces, shown in both the book and the beautiful Whitney Museum exhibition of the same name, as "characterized by an artistic innocence that distinguishes them from works of so-called fine art."

Miss Winchester's analysis is superla-

tive, and actually equally applicable to our 20th-century folk art. When visiting the Whitney "Flowering" exhibition, I found a number of the works shown there could be paired with certain Roadside Folk Art finds.

When I first saw the small 15-inch 1875 sculpture, "Man with Grapes," in the Guennol Collection exhibition of 1969 at the Metropolitan Museum, its similarity, in all but scale, to the "Man with Oranges" photographed in Florida in 1968 was striking. The difference in scale was forgotten upon viewing the huge blow-up of "Man with Grapes" that heralded the "Flowering" exhibition in the Whitney lobby.

The Florida figure is of heroic propor-

Fig. 7. "Power House of Prayer:' Brooklyn, New York. Photographed in 1972.

tions (fig. 5) towering over the artist, Arthur Langlois, whose fruit stand near Inverness, Florida, is also adorned with lyrical paintings of orange branches and crates of sculptured polychrome oranges and grapefruit (fig. 6).

In Brooklyn there is a store-front church with the wonderful name "Power House of Prayer" that has religious scenes painted on four windows in a trompe l'oeil manner simulating pillarsupported arches framing the figures (fig. 7). These paintings are reminiscent of Mary Ann Willson's "The Prodigal Son Reclaimed" of 1820 in the Whitney "Flowering" show, and illustrated in the Lipman-Winchester book also. One of these Brooklyn windows, "Christ Healing the Leper," is particularly moving.

In no work in the Whitney exhibition do we find better the "strength" John Canaday attributed to folk art, the "naivete and simplicity" ascribed to it

by Mary Black, and the "qualities of vigor, honesty, inventiveness and a sense of design" noted by Alice Winchester, than in the Curlew weathervane from Cape May County, circa 1870.

To a strikingly similar degree the large sheet-metal boot, found in New York in 1966 hanging above the sidewalk on East 108th Street, shares these attributes and brings the Curlew strongly to mind. Spying Francisco Penuela's Shoe Repair sign (fig. 8) from a Lexington Avenue bus, I got right off, photographed his sign and then him inside his shop, and asked him if he would consider selling the sign. He said he expected to return to Spain that May, and indicated I should come back then.

In May he agreed to sell the sign.

George Washington is brought to our eyes freshly by 20th-century folk artists, as he was so often by those of the earlier centuries. The Lipman-Winchester 19thcentury small walnut sculpture of the Father of our Country, with its stiff lines and polished surface, is a less human, though equally stylish, figure than the life-size Washington made by Charles Bressler-Pettis in 1954 (fig. 9).

Bressler-Pettis, who lived in Kissimmee, Florida, was a graduate of the Harvard Medical School. Many of his sculpture works were well known in

his Central Florida community. His Nativity figures (fig. 10) which I came upon in Dundee, Florida, for the first time in 1960 have been exhibited there during the Christmas season for many years. Unfortunately, first the energy emergency of 1973, then problems of vandalism in Dundee, terminated the outdoor display of the extraordinary lifesize group. The sculptured heads Continued on page 49

Clockwise from below, left: Fig. 8. Sheet-metal boot by F. Penuela and his father, New York City. Photographed in 1965.

Fig. 9. "George Washington" by C. W. BresslerPettis, Kissimmee, Florida. Photographed in 1961 by Van Deren Coke.

Fig. 10. Nativity Group by C. W. BresslerPettis, Dundee, Florida. Photographed in 1960.

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Fig. 3. Crib quilt, Lancaster County, wool,linsey-woolsey, and stroud cloth. This lovely quilt is not unlike those made by non-Amish neighbors.

(Collection of the author)

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Design Origins of

AMISH QUILTS Elizabeth Safanda

he number of theories purporting to explain the origin of the unique designs of Amish quilts may be almost equal to the number of Amish quilts in existence! Depending on whether the speaker is an artist, an antiques dealer, a sociologist, or a farmer and neighbor of the Amish, these explanations reflect an understandable bias.

Thus an artist of my acquaintance maintains that the unadorned, earth-toned patches of the simpler Amish quilts, vertical stripes or large diamonds or center squares, echo the elemental patterns of their farmland. The artistcollector sees an unconscious equation

between geometric textile design and furrowed fields and squared-off meadows.

A prominent anthropologist, however, may prefer to analyze Amish behavior— and by extension their bedcovers— by examining the boundaries they carefully maintain to separate their communities from the "outside."

Many of these theories make sense; it is imperative, however, to interpret Amish quilt design in context, that is, with full awareness of the social, religious, and geographic "setting" of the Amish. One should avoid rigid interpretations and associations, for it is difficult to find firm evidence of exact correspondences between a specific quilt design and a folk art symbol which has

Fig. I. These Amish Ausbunds (hymnals) were printed in 1767 and 1801. The brass bosses and tooled designs on the leather bindings are very similar to the pieced and stitched designs of some early Amish quilts.

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acquired a certain meaning. Thus, though the lily or tulip may have a specific Biblical connotation, that does not mean the Amish consciously transposed that symbol from Bible to bedcover. Likewise, the heart has both religious and sentimental symbolic value, but it is exceedingly difficult to prove that Amish seamstresses designated certain quilts to be "bridal quilts" by stitching hearts in the outer borders. What one can do is carefully examine patterns of Amish behavior, well back into the 19th century, and then make reasonable generalizations about the evolution of quilt formats and motifs.

The anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss has observed that any given culture reflects certain "preference patterns" or recurring motifs which are discerned in gardens, food, religious objects, and artwork (in this case, textiles), and a careful observer can identify, within rather flexible boundaries, an Amish tendency to favor a limited range of colors, designs, and motifs.

The student of Amish textile design faces one major obstacle: the culture's history is primarily an oral one, with little documentation by the Amish of early farming methods, for example, or sewing styles. While the Sugarcreek, Ohio, Budget, an Amish newspaper published since 1890, does record seasonal farm activities and quilting bees, it never explains the choice of a certain technique or the regional preference for a specific design. We may learn that eight women met at the Bontrager farm, quilted for five hours, and enjoyed ice cream afterwards, but we are not told what colors or designs they worked with, much less why.

John Kouwenhoven, in Made in America (Doubleday & Co., 1949), laments that it is hard to trace the development of a folk art because "no one bothers to note the patterns of colors, shapes, sounds, and ideas which plain people produce—at least no detailed record is kept until long after the patterns have crystallized and have become habitual."

Thus an Amish woman may show visitors a "book" of cloth quilt designs which have been handed down for generations in the same family, yet she will probably have no explanation for the origin of a given design or for her family's preference for a certain pattern. Typically this Amish woman has been more absorbed in practical occupations, in sowing, gardening, canning foods, and piecing simple bedcovers for show or sale, and she has not been trained to analyze or explain designs. This is not meant in any way to be a criticism of the Amish attitudes toward their stunning quilts. One should simply not expect a preoccupation with historical perspective to be present in a culture which has little exposure to printed material or electronic media and—until recently—limited personal contact with the outside world.

A cursory examination of Amish quilts made between 1860 and 1930 reveals a preponderance of simple, pieced

Fig. 2. From top. Center Diamond (Collection of Bryce and Donna Hamilton); Center Square (Collection of Jonathan Holstein and Gail van der Hoof); Bars (Collection of Phyllis Haders). These three wool quilts represent favorite Lancaster County quilt designs from 1875-1925.

Fig. 5. Shoofly, Ohio, c. 1910, cotton (Collection of Bryce and Donna Hamilton). Midwestern Amish quilts, like this one, differed from traditional

Lancaster County bedcovers not only in color, but especially in the common use of an overall repetitive pattern.

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Fig. 4. Center Diamond, Lancaster County, c. 1900, cotton and wool (Collection of Ted Hicks). Split Bars, Lancaster County, 1900-1910, wool (Collection of America Hurrah Antiques, N.Y.C.).

geometric designs. For the Amish, as for the non-Amish, this may be attributed to practical considerations: Frances Lichten observed that American pioneers and farmers made quilts for everyday use in such common designs as diamonds, squares, and long strips of cloth. (Folk Art Motifs ofPennsylvania, Hastings House Publishers, 1954). As these pioneers achieved a degree of prosperity and were less harassed by the daily struggle to survive, they were able to expend time on more elaborate bedcovers. The flourishing Amish farm, however, has always depended on the vital participation of the women in the local church district, who may devote many hours to strenuous sowing, plowing, harvesting, preserving, and feeding animals, leaving less time than her nonAmish sister has for constructing fancy decorated bedcovers.

In Nineteenth Century Modern (Praeger Publishers, 1970), Herwin Schaefer describes "everyday useful objects whose forms were the result of .. . intuitive adaptation to function."

This is a relatively accurate description of the basic Amish quilt well into the 20th century. Using large scraps of old clothing or textiles, Amish women fashioned quilts to cover their beds, to provide warmth. Aesthetic considerations were usually secondary. They pieced rather than appliqued the quilts because the highly decorative appliques served no practical function, not even supplying additional warmth.

Though the religious ordinances of the Old Order Amish have never specifically shaped or limited the nature of quilt design, the centuries-old tradition of simplicity and avoidance of ostentation has had an indirect impact on the design of Amish bedcovers. Early in the 17th century, when the Amish 36

still resided in Switzerland, their leaders cautioned them to avoid appliques in clothing and textiles because they were reminiscent of the overly luxurious Catholic vestments. It is extremely doubtful that the Amish seamstresses of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who began to piece simple quilts 250 years later were aware of the source of this tradition; more likely they unconsciously and automatically adopted the cultural tendency of their sect to favor the modest over the ostentatious, the plain over the fancy. The result was unpretentious textiles fashioned of homespun or wool, often in quiet solid tones, in which worn-out dresses or coats enjoyed a second life as they were transformed into diamond or bar shapes.

An important cultural value which is intimately related to their religious tradition is the avoidance of an excessive display of pride. Amish craftsmen and women work with care and obviously show pleasure when they have produced a wellmade bentwood rocking chair or a finely stitched quilt, but they are not supposed to channel too much psychic energy into the production of a utilitarian item. It is very difficult to measure or control exactly what constitutes excessive pride or ego involvement, and standards have varied from church district to church district. Some 40 years ago, in Lancaster County, a bishop chastised an Amish seamstress for being too preoccupied with tiny quilting stitches which, he claimed, revealed her intense feelings of pride in her achievement! Apparently this woman had flaunted a series of religious or community customs, and her delicately stitched bedcovers were the last straw for the bishop. His reaction and intervention appear to be atypical; on the whole, Amish seamstresses have followed cultural prescriptions for relatively unadorned quilts and the few women who have deviated from this tradition have been accepted or quietly ignored.

In addition to practical and religious factors, a primary influence on Amish quilt designs has been constant exposure to everyday household objects. Jonathan Holstein (The Pieced Quilt: An American Design Tradition, The New York Graphic Society, Ltd., 1973) and Patsy and Myron Orlofsky (Quilts in America, McGraw Hill Book Company, 1974) point that wallpaper, Oriental ceramic tiles, book covers, and printed fabrics have all inspired certain American quilt patterns, both in the overall pieced design and in the appliqued or stitched motifs. The transference of design may have been indirect, a gradual adaption after lengthy exposure to a pattern, or it may have been a totally planned, purposeful transposition. The former development is probably the case with the Amish; the simple geometric shapes of their quilt patterns reflect an unconscious awareness of the elementary shapes of their household goods. The most striking example of this can be observed in the undeniable similarities between the engraved designs of their leather book covers and the geometric and stitched motifs which recur in Amish quilts.

Amish homes can boast of few books, but every traditional Old Order Amish household owns one or more copies of the Ausbund, their hymnal printed in German, and The Martyrs Mirror, a catalogue of tortures endured by certain faithful European Christians in the 17th century. In the 18th century, German-American craftsmen in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, and Germantown, Pennsylvania, produced leather bookbindings for these two volumes which reflected the medieval style of the "old country," with brass clasps and bosses (raised designs) and blind-tooled leather covers. Amish families have passed these treasured volumes down through generations, so that a family living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1900 might own an Ausbund dated 1781 and a Martyrs Mirror dated 1760. Fine examples of these books are preserved today in the rare book rooms of the Goshen (Pennsylvania) College Library and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Library in Harrisburg.

There is a striking correspondence between the basic linear designs engraved on these antique book covers and the simple geometric formats of classical Amish quilts. Compare the Ausbunds displayed in fig. 1 (see page33) with the wool quilts, dating between 1900-1925, in fig. 2 (see page 34). In several cases, the duplication is almost exact; the sense of recurring motifs is heightened when you see black and white photographs of the Ausbunds which emphasize the outlines of the brass bosses and linear tooling while omitting the textured, mellowed quality of the leather. One Ausbund printed in Germantown in 1767 is decorated with brass corner squares and blind-tooled lines, forming inner and outer borders connecting the corner squares, much like the pattern of the Center Square Amish quilt. On this binding the brass center diamond and the corner squares are embellished with raised wreaths found on many Amish quilts.

Other Ausbunds and Martyrs Mirrors are decorated with variations of the center square or center diamond motif, and often these are trimmed or bordered with sawtooth tooling, another favorite geometric configuration on Amish quilts.

One cannot argue that the Amish seamstresses made a direct, conscious transference from the book binding to textile design. Historians and anthropologists, however, have carefully documented the absence of popular magazines, books, or fancy decorative objects in the Old Order Amish homes, so one of the few sources of design influence and inspiration would be the cherished family hymnals. While the "English" and "Gay Dutch" farmwomen adopted quilt designs more readily from a wide variety of objects—the tiles and fabrics and wallpaper described elsewhere by the Orlofskys and Holstein—the Amish woman's limited exposure to worldly goods probably reduced her design options.

Though the Amish have tried, with varying degress of success, to maintain farms and communities separate from their non-Amish neighbors, undoubtedly the different sects and cultures mingled, and nowhere more than at the bustling farm sales held every Saturday in Lancaster County and in many Ohio and Indiana Amish communities. These provided a prime opportunity for the Amish woman to observe, strung across an auction clothes line, the quilts and textiles of her Mennonite and "Gay Dutch" sisters. Thus she was exposed, on a weekly or monthly basis, to the often somber-toned Mennonite quilts composed of tiny pieces of sprigged and printed fabric, the gaily striped or appliqued "Gay Dutch" bedcovers, and to the riotous colors and lush fabrics which composed the crazy quilts of the Victorian era. When and if the Amish woman borrowed design formats from her neighbors, a "cultural lag" was very much in evidence. Thus the opulent crazy quilts which flourished in American cities in the last quarter of the 19th century did not appear with regularity in many farm communities until the turn of the century, and few Amish crazy quilts have been documented before 1920, when the Amish seamstresses began to gradually deviate from their traditional quilt designs. This phenomenon may be explained in several ways: by the time non-Amish farm people began to sell certain quilts (perhaps in the Sunshine and Shadow or Crazy designs), these bedcovers may have been 20 or 30 years old, and their sale would have coincided with the relaxation of unwritten cultural restraints affecting the design and coloration of Amish quilts.

John Joseph Stoudt, in Sunbonnets and Shoofly Pies: Pennsylvania Dutch Cultural History (A. S. Barnes, 1973), has made a general statement about the development of Pennsylvania folk art which in the case of textiles could be directly applied to the Amish: "Pennsylvania folk art did not emerge full blown, all at one time; it passed through patterns and uncovered new forms, moving, it seems, from traditional but still individually made pieces to more traditional patterns." If one views this statement in light of John Hostetler's exhaustive study of Amish costume ("Amish Costume: Its European Origins," The American German Review, Aug.-Sept. 1956), as a symbol of cultural isolation, some logical conclusions can be drawn about the nature of Amish quilts.

Hostetler and a fellow Amish scholar, Don Yoder ("SecContinued on page 59 37

0

BO in the Sky

"Once a painter,Always a painter, Until the day they die.

Then they have ajob, UpYonder,painting, Painting,Rainbows, In the Sky." C.Kurt Dewhurst and Marsha MacDowell

Fig. 1. Ice Wagon by William Drain, carved wood, early 20th century, Muskegon, Michigan, 2".(Collection of the Con Foster / H. 101 Museum, Traverse City, Michigan) Born in Brooklyn, New York, William Drain moved to Shiawassee County, Michigan, with his parents when he was 4-yearslold. During much of his middle life he traveled through the midwestern states as an orthopedic specialist and Swedish masseur. He spent a lot of time visiting lumbering camps where he not only practiced his profession but also learned to carve. Confined in his later life to a wheelchair, he continued to carve, creating these tiny figures, all of which have articulated joints.

M

ichigan Folk Art: Its Beginnings to 1941," mounted in August of 1976 at the Kresge Art Gallery, Michigan State University, was the culmination of over two years of traveling in search of Michigan's folk art heritage. The Michigan Historical Museum; The Museum, Michigan State University; and the Kresge Art Gallery worked cooperatively in the planning, the search, and the preparation of this exhibition. It stands as the initial exploration of the subject of Michigan folk art and was extremely well received as it toured throughout the state. Not only was it critically acknowledged for its contribution in exposing a lost chapter of Michigan's cultural heritage, it also stimulated the interest of viewers from all over Michigan to explore their own local forms of visual folk-cultural expression. Certainly, Alice Winchester (writing in the introduction to the catalogue for the Whitney Museum show, "The Flowering of American Folk Art, 1776-1876") was prophetic when she declared: ".. . as interest continues to grow, more and more folk art related to that of the Northeast, but with its own regional accent, will be discovered in the South, Midwest, Southwest and Far West."

The exhibition was designed primarily to introduce the people of Michigan to a selection of folk art and artists who have contributed to the cultural heritage of Michigan and to let them experience the personal world of the individual artists. The work stands as a testimony to the individual experiences and the diverse roots of the artists in Michigan and America. And although folk art has long been dubbed the "art of the common man," only now is the work of the self-taught folk artist being finally recognized for its aesthetic values and not solely for the "folk" components.

Thus, the "art" in the term folk art has become the basis for judging its merits. This has finally enabled folk art to escape the constant association with sentimental rather than aesthetic values.

Diversity is the keynote when one examines Michigan's folk heritage. The combined ethnic, racial, economic, social, and religious heritage of the people of Michigan has had a direct influence on its folk art forms. Some of the various heritages were manifested in examples that were displayed in this initial exhibition of early Michigan folk art. The social and economic heritage is most recognizable in the decoy carving tradition of the early lumbering (fig. 1) and Great

Lakes marine industries and which still flourishes in Michigan. These are influences that have shaped the lives of the people of Michigan and consequently are reflected as subject matter for many Michigan folk artists.

When the items were chosen for the exhibition it became evident that Michigan's forms of folk art did not simply mirror those forms that were found in the northeast region of the country.

In Michigan a preponderance of woodcarving forms became evident, with the richest aspect of all woodcarving lying in the remarkable quantity and quality of decoys, both fish and fowl. It may be that in the years to come, of all Michigan's folk art forms, these decoys will prove to be the state's strongest contribution to the body of American folk art (fig. 2). Prompted by the annual appearance of the thousands of birds that migrated south via a natural flyway along the Detroit River, hundreds of carvers fashioned facsimiles in hopes of capturing not only the forms but in the end also the birds themselves.

Another Michigan natural resource, the hundreds of frozen winter waterways, provided the setting for the production of the fish decoys used in ice fishing.

Besides the carving of decoys, other works in wood were created by men associated with the lumbering industry.

With wood always close at hand, they whittled whimsies, whirligigs, small boxes (fig. 3), and intricate frames.

The initial exhibition was by no means the final word on the subject, even though great pains were taken to explore the various mediums utilized by

39

folk artists and the varied geographical areas of Michigan. It was determined that as a next step a more definitive analysis of a selected number of 20thcentury folk artists would be of the greatest value. The goal would be to provide a clearer understanding of the nature of folk artists and what constitutes the essence of folk art in the setting of the 20th century. By examining the creative process of these artists some conclusions may be drawn regarding the influences that have had impact on their work and also the shared conventions operating consciously or unconsciously. Indeed one can readily see that the line between folk art and high art has blurred as we have moved into the 20th century and the advanced technological age. An ever-expanding uniformity of culture has brought the folk and the fine artist closer to a "mass popular culture" which they must work in relation to or in reaction against. They now share an openness to new materials and common subject matter. Yet, even more importantly, they both retain a Continued on page 58

40

Above: Fig. 2. Goose decoy by H. H. Ackerman, carved and painted wood, mid-20th century, Lincoln Park, Michigan, L. approx.

30". (Private collection) Born in 1890 in Toronto, Iowa, H. H. Ackerman moved to Michigan in 1917, where he worked for Ford Motor Company Service for over 50 years.

Now retired, he continues to produce hundreds of these decoys. Acknowledging the bird attracting quality of his decoys, he is quick to warn that "You'd better be ready to shoot when you put that decoy in the water."

Below: Fig. 3. Box by Harris W. Hillyard, wood and inlaid bone, January 1866,4 3/4" x 9" x 4 3/4". (Collection of The Museum, Michigan State University) Hillyard carved and inlaid this cedar box while serving in Company C of the Third Michigan Cavalry stationed in Texas in 1866.

Opposite: Fig. 4. "Michigan Harvest" by Gertrude Rogers, oil on board, mid-20th century, Sunfield, Michigan. (Private collection) Gertrude Rogers, born September 4, 1896, in Ionia, Michigan, continues to paint regularly and always with fresh ideas. Although she did not begin her painting activity until 1946, it was encouragement from her family and critical support from a Michigan State University professor that spurred her on. Since that year she has continued and in her own words stated recently: "I am 80 years old and can't believe all the fantastic things that have happened to me and my paintings."

The United States Tobacco Museum Greenwich,Connecticut Jane Nobes Brennan,Curator

Lone Wooden Indian Where are thy kinsmen, lonely brave, Who erst adorned the city's walks, And raised above the thronging pave A row of hickory tomahawks?

Who stood in menacing array Along the border of the flags, And filled with swift, supreme dismay The owners of nocturnaljags! —Lines to a Wooden Indian

A

fter years of collecting and planning, a dream has become a reality in a pleasant white cottage on the Old Boston Post Road in Greenwich, Connecticut. The United States Tobacco Museum houses one of the world's great collections of antique pipes, as well as

42

a fascinating assortment of old tobacco shop figures, works of art, snuff bottles and boxes, old prints, and advertising art related to the tobacco industry.

Among the Museum's collection of tobacco shop figures is the Punch figure (fig. 1), attributed to the workshop of Samuel Robb of New York, that was exhibited at the Museum of American Folk Art. Robb set up his shop in New York in 1877. This figure was probably carved in his workshop closer to 1890.

Another outstanding carved wooden figure in the collection is a figurehead (fig. 2) attributed to William Rush or his workshop and carved for a New York merchant named Isaac Hicks. It is the figure of an Indian thought to be Tecumseh, the famous Shawnee prophet.

In the year that the Museum has been open, 4,000 people from 37 states and 22 foreign countries have visited. The collections are international in scope and so varied that they are of interest to all.

Folk art collectors find the tramp art (fig. 3) made from the wood of old cigar boxes particularly interesting, as well as the cigar box premiums and ribbons used to make patchwork quilts.

Advertising art enthusiasts will delight in the old cigar box labels, packaging, and posters (figs. 4 and 5). The Muse-

Left to right: Fig. 1. Cigar store figure "Punch." Attributed to the workshop of Samuel Robb.

New York City. Late 19th century. Wood.

Fig. 2. Figurehead "Tecumseh."

Attributed to the workshop of William Rush. Philadelphia.

Early 19th century. Wood.

Fig. 3. Tramp art chest made of old cigar box wood. Probably Massachusetts.

Circa 1907.

um's collection of cigar box labels is a testament to the craftsmanship of the lithographers who created them.

A different color litho stone had to be used for each color and the printer had to be highly skilled so that these color sections registered properly when printed together. The embossing was done by stamping the labels with a brass plate that was beautifully engraved.

The gold leaf or bronze decoration was then applied by hand. The finest labels date from the period 1860-1890, the heyday of the cigar.

The Museum is planning a series of changing exhibits which include: snuff boxes and bottles of the 18th and 19th centuries, from their own collection, those of some of the major institutions of the United States, and private col-

43

k

.E.RIGINSBURC A SCAS,

lections; advertising art of the 19th and early 20th centuries related to tobacco; and tobacco shop signs and show figures.

Also on the calendar is a lecture series dealing with such diverse subjects as snuff bottles and recent archaeological findings on the clay pipes of New York State.

The Museum has a small reference library which is open to the public by appointment, Tuesday through Friday from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. The exhibit areas of the Museum are open Tuesday through Sunday from 12 noon till 5 P.M. at no charge. Just a 45-minute ride from New York City, the United States Tobacco Museum is a perfect place to spend an afternoon either browsing on your own or escorted by a tour guide steeped in tobacco folklore.

44

Fig. 4. Lithographed cigar box label. Labels such as this were used on the inside of the box lid. E. Regensburg & Sons, New York.

Fig. 5. Lithographed cigar box

label. S. Fernandez & Co., Tampa, Florida.

Fig. 6. Trade card for "Old Gold" tobacco.

Clockwise from left: Fig. 7. Lithographed Caddy label. Circa 1870. A Caddy was a plug package. P.B. Gravelly Tobacco Co., Danville,

r:)

Fig. 8. Glass snuff bottle with red glass overlay. Chinese.

18th century.

Fig. 9. "Jo Davidson." Self-portrait. Carved Briar pipe.

1947.

P. B. GRAVELY TOBACCO CO. DAN, .,, I_LE,

VA.

45

NOTEWORTHY ITEMS

Installation of New Permanent Exhibit of Folk Art at Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan, has announced the installation of a new permanent exhibit of folk arts and crafts in a special Folk Art Gallery. Weathervanes, ceramics, decorative hinges, shop and animal figures, carvings of whale and walrus ivory, among other objects, will illustrate the common man's desire to embellish his otherwise drab surroundings. The exhibition includes works produced by amateurs and semi-skilled professionals.

"Folk-Songs of America" Recording Commemorates 50th Anniversary of Archive of Folk Song "Old Granny Hare, a-what you doin' there?

Runnin' through the cotton patch as hard as I can tear." is the first verse taken from the song "Old Granny Hare," one of the "Folk Songs of America": The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection, 1922-1932, edited by Neil V. Rosenberg and Debora G. Kodish.

In 1928, Robert Winslow Gordon became the first head of the Library of Congress's Archive of American Folk 46

Song. Mr. Gordon's active career as a folklorist began in 1917 and ended during the depression in 1933 when the donations which had sustained his position were terminated. Robert Gordon (1888-1961) pioneered folksong documentation at a time when the subject was appreciated by only a handful of specialists and aficionados. Carrying his heavy cylinder, he traveled to the San Francisco waterfront, the Appalachian mountains, and the Georgia coast in order to record the diverse singing traditions of this country.

The issuance of this recording dedicated to the memory of its first director is just one in a series of events marking the 50th anniversary of the Archive of Folk Song, along with a symposium and an exhibit on the archive's history, a special concert by folk musicians, and an article which appeared in the Library's October 1978 Quarterly Journal.

The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection begun in 1922 comprises the nucleus of the Archive of Folk Song, which now contains 230,000 pages of manuscript and 300,000 recorded songs, stories, and instrumental performances.

In one of the folk-songs, Ben Harney sings his own composition of 1894, "The Wagon," considered to be the first ragtime song ever written. Other songs on the recording range in styles from sea chanties and spirituals to blues and southern fiddle tunes. The album also includes a booklet with an illustrated biography of Robert Winslow Gordon as well as the lyrics and stories behind each song. Priced at $10 plus 50e postage if mailed, the recording (AFS L68) may be ordered from the Recording Laboratory, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540, or purchased in person at the Information Counter on the Ground Floor, Library of Congress Building.

City Walls and Con Edison Sponsor Mural on Con Edison Substation at South Street Seaport

City Walls, Inc., together with Con Edison, recently announced the completion of an illusionary architectural mural by Richard Haas, painted on the exposed wall of a Con Edison substation at Peck Slip in the historic South Street Seaport area of lower Manhattan. The wallpainting has been approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The design for the 90' x 45' facade is an imaginative treatment of the historic Federal structures that fill the surrounding area, with images of the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg Bridges in the distance.

In announcing the completion of the wallpainting, Doris C. Freedman, President of City Walls, Inc. and founding Chairman of the Public Arts Council, stated: "We are very excited about the Haas wall for it adds a new dimension to this historic landmark area and is a dramatic example of the impact of the artist's work in enhancing the urban environment."

Richard Haas's first imaginary facade was executed for City Walls, Inc. in 1975 on Prince Street in Soho, followed by commissions in Little Italy and Brooklyn.

His most recent wallpainting was unveiled at the Boston Architectural Center last spring as part of a national Bicentennial program in eight cities, co-sponsored by the National Paint & Coating Association.

A member of the faculty of Bennington College, Haas is currently completing a three-year appointment to the Art Commission of New York City. His works are included in the public collections

Boston, Denver, Kansas City, Oakland, and St. Louis. Programs of City Walls, Inc. have been made possible, in part, by support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and by foundations, business and private individuals.

City Walls, Inc. projects are now being administered by the Public Art Fund, Inc., a not-for-profit public service organization working with artists, architects, urban planners and communities to explore and develop programs which bring art directly into the public environment.

Historical Society of Early American Decoration,Inc. After the death in 1945 of Esther Stevens Brazer, the well-recognized authority on Early American decoration, 80 of her former students decided to form a society in her memory. They met on May 27, 1946, in Darien, Connecticut, and the Esther Stevens Brazer Guild was founded.

A permanent charter was granted by the New York State Board of Regents in March 1952 and the Guild became the Historical Society of Early American Trompe l'oeil mural by Richard Haas. The artist's imaginative treatment of the historic Federal structures of lower Manhattan adorn the exposed wall of a Con Edison substation. Brooklyn Bridge Decoration. viewed through the "arcade" is an interesting contrast to the actual Bridge in the background In January 1958, the Society conof the photo. cluded an agreement with the New York State Historical Association to make its headquarters in Cooperstown, New York. Mrs. Brazer's unequalled collection of patterns and research material and the comprehensive collection of tinware, raising in organization of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the public service and other decorated items furniture, urban Amerin art of public Yale University Art Gallery, the Library the profile the Society were put on by acquired enof its mandate to the Committed ica. of Congress, the Whitney Museum, in the various builddisplay permanent of quality the and humanizing riching San Francisco Museum of Contemporary the New York State by maintained ings the of integration the through life Art, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, urban at Cooperstown, Association Historical enurban into the and the Fort Worth Art Center among artist and his work York.

New sponsored has Inc. City Walls, vironment, others.

Early American Decoration is a term Since its formation in 1967, City over sixty walls in selected sites throughto the decorated articles that Atlanta, applied in and area metropolitan the out flagship a as Walls, Inc., has served 47

adorned the homes of our forefathers.

Some were brought to the New World by the colonists, some were imported later, others were made and decorated here. All are of historic interest.

Early American Decoration may be divided into the following classifications: stenciling on tin and wood, country painting, gold leaf painting, lace edge painting, freehand bronze, glass panels, and Chippendale painting.

In response to many requests from widely scattered areas for names of qualified teachers of Early American Decoration, the Society has instituted a Teacher Certification Program. In order to hold a Society Certificate to teach, an applicant must pass rigid standards of both craftsmanship and teaching methods.

Research by Society members has resulted in articles of lasting interest, not only for The Decorator, the official publication of the Society, but for many outstanding trade publications as well.

Publications of the Society include: The Decorator Digest, The Ornamented Chair, The Ornamented Tray, and the Illustrated Glossary of Decorated Antiques. The Decorator, published twice yearly, contains research articles on varied phases of the decorative arts, as well as those of historical interest.

Meetings and exhibitions of the Historical Society of Early American Decoration are held twice a year, in spring and fall. The exhibitions show the work of members as well as choice examples of the early craftsmen's art, thus enabling members to study antique originals.

Any earnest craftsman may request an application for active membership in the Society. The applicant is required to submit two decorative pieces which must be approved by the Standards and Judging Committee before admission to the Society. Associate membership is open to those interested in the history of Early American Decoration or skilled in allied arts. Membership is by election by the Trustees of the Society. Applications may be sent to the Business Manager, Miss Jean Wylie, Post Road, Darien Review Building, Box 894, Darien, Connecticut 06820.

48

Tray. Possibly by Goodrich and Thompson. Berlin, Connecticut. Circa 1845. Metal, painted.

L. 26". Shell designs are rare on painted trays, perhaps due to the extraordinary amount of work required in cutting the fine stencils.(Collection Museum of American Folk Art. Gift of Mrs. A.C. Howell).

New England Meeting House and Church:1630-1850

The Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife with the cooperation of The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, will present a Conference and Exhibition entitled "New England Meeting House and Church: 1630-1850." The combined conference and exhibition will explore the larger cultural, social, and sacramental world of the New England meeting house during the Colonial and Federal periods.

The conference will be held at the Dublin School, Dublin, New Hampshire, on Saturday and Sunday, June 23 and 24, 1979. The lectures and presentations will deal with architectural, sacramental, and social topics. Choral groups trained in 17th and 18th century psalmody and hymnody will be invited to perform accompanied by instruments such as the

bass-viol and melodeon. Interpretive field trips to meeting houses surviving in the Connecticut and the Merrimack valleys will be scheduled on the Friday of the conference weekend.

The exhibition at the Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, is designed to complement visually the lectures and presentations given at the conference. It will open May 19 and continue for approximately 8 weeks.

The Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, Inc., is a continuing series of conferences devoted to the study of vernacular and folk culture in the northeastern United States. It is jointly sponsored by the Boston University American and New England Studies Program and

by Dublin School, Dublin, New Hampshire. For additional information, write Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, Dublin, New Hampshire 03444.

Requestfrom Wildcliff Craft Center

The following letter has been received from Lorraine Chiaro, the resident leatherworker of the Craft Center of Wildcliff Museum, New Rochelle, New York. "I am writing on behalf of the Wildcliff Craft Center in the hopes that you would want to participate in a unique learning experience for young potential craftspeople.

"Several funding sources, including the National Endowment for the Arts, have generously funded us so that we may develop a comprehensive program for children of pioneer crafts. During that time in the United States, the leatherworker was employed as a saddle or harness maker, cobbler, tanner, or currier. My particular concern is to set up a studio which would allow me to teach about the craft of leatherworking and these trades with various tools necessary for each and with hands-on workshops, to be supplemented by historical information.

"If you or your organization could

Perspective on American Folk Art Continued from page 31 (molded in fiber glass and marine glue) of Mary, Joseph, and the Three Kings were periodically repainted and their body frames reclothed by the Dundee citizens who had first commissioned Dr. Bressler-Pettis to create them.

To Charles Bressler-Pettis we have a 19th-century counterpart: the Reverend Jonathan Fisher of Maine. Both were highly educated professional men, and neither considered himself a folk artist.

In fact, Alice Winchester in The Flowering of American Folk Art cites Fisher as one "who would undoubtedly be astonished to know he is thought of today as a folk artist." In Fisher's self

provide any of the following materials for this program, we would be most appreciative: printed information (historical or contemporary), actual artifacts including tools or leather pieces, charts, prints, photographs, etc. Should you have available any of these which can be borrowed or rented, we would be glad to discuss arrangements with you at your convenience.

"We also would welcome your suggestions and, of course, gratefully acknowledge your help. Our address is: Wildcliff Craft Center, 764 Pinebrook Boulevard, New Rochelle, New York 10804. Many thanks."

Do You Have Information to Share?

Robert Peckham, a Congregational minister and portrait painter by profession, was born in Petersham, New Hampshire, in 1785. In 1813 he resided briefly in Boston and subsequently in Northampton and Bolton, Massachusetts. By 1821

portrait of 1838 his strong well-lined face with steady piercing eyes, his balding head, and wrinkled hand give the impression of an earnest scholar beyond the 56 years noted on the painting.

Miss Winchester relates that he "read Hebrew, Greek, Latin and French,... wrote books, studied mathematics and natural history, and taught school."

Dr. Bressler-Pettis's widow has written that "as a physician and surgeon he was very exact as to bony structure, build etc., and when he did a head you can be sure that every mole, every wrinkle and frown was exactly as seen." She also refers to her husband's "love of people .. . his delight in working on features and structures and using his hands deftly." It is his love of people that shines clearly in the Dundee Nativity figures.

Peckham had settled in Westminster, Massachusetts. In 1834 he is known to have been working in Worcester and as late as 1848-52 is listed in the Worcester Directory. He died in 1877.

Laura C. Luckey, Assistant Curator of Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, would appreciate hearing from anyone concerning the location of paintings by Robert Peckham for her forthcoming publication on this artist. Write: Laura C. Luckey, Assistant Curator, Department of Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.

Betty Ferguson is also seeking assistance: "I am researching some small headstones found in our area, and would much appreciate any references you might have on this folk art. I am unable to find many references on this subject, but find the carvings totally fascinating.

Any information you might have on history, or method of producing these stones, would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the help. I am presently a student at Evergreen College, in Olympia, and am doing my research for a student paper." Ms. Ferguson may be contacted at 1013 Marshall, Richland, Washington 99352.

Mary's beautiful serenity, and the strong individual facial characteristics of each of the four men impress the viewer as masterpieces of American folk art.

This has been a necessarily brief review of many rich finds, well over a hundred, from Alaska to Florida, from Maine to Missouri, and on to California.

That so much evidence was "out there" exhibited for all who pass by to see, attests to the enduring will to create, to the inextinguishable flame within folk artists who work without patrons or collectors or curators. May we never again be blind to their "vigor, honesty, inventiveness, imagination and strong sense of design," however and whenever they may appear.

All photography, with the exception of Fig. 9,

by Nina Howell Starr.

49

RECENT ADDITIONS TO MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Laura Byers Exhibition Coordinator The holiday season seems to bring out the most generous tendencies in us all, not least in the friends of the Museum of American Folk Art. During the winter months the Museum has happily added nearly 80 gifts to its ever growing permanent collection.

The Museum's recent exhibition of Theodore Kapnek's glorious collection of American samplers coincided with gifts to the Museum of several smaller collections of samplers. Most noteworthy is Louise and Mike Nevelson's donation of 34 American and English samplers.

Several are quite rare, including one simple piece embroidered in 1836 by a young boy named Peter Emmans. The Nevelson samplers are joined by those from Alfred Rosenthal of Spring Valley, New York; Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Norton of Bedford Hills, New York; and Margery Kahn of New York City.

Complimenting the Museum's collection of domestic arts are Gertrude Schweitzer's donation of a generous array of wooden kitchen and eating utensils; Charles Gignilliat, Jr.'s presentation of a bottlecap basket; and Margery Kahn's gift of a hooked rug and a painted box. Interestingly enough, the rug was made in the third quarter of the 19th century from one of the very popular stencil patterns designed and marketed by E. S. Frost & Co. If the rug is an indication of the widespread availability of commercially manufactured craft supplies in 19th-century America, the pine box is testimony to the country craftsman's independence and originality. The box is painted a cheerful red with yellow sponged fanciful decoration.

A selection of earthen and redware pottery was added to Museum holdings 50

by Edgar Smith of New York and by Margery Kahn. Smith's gift includes two fine ceramic vases made by the Mississippi potter George Ohr. Another piece, given

by Kahn, is identifiable as the work of the Bell Pottery, circa 1900, Strasburg, Virginia.

With the help of friends Merle Glick of Pekin, Illinois, and Robert Eichler of Southwest Harbor, Maine, the Museum continues to build its already excellent collection of decoys. Robert Eichler additionally has promised to donate an emperor penguin woodcarving.

A variety of paintings, old and new, has recently been incorporated into Museum collections. From Merle Glick the Museum has received the oil entitled "Lincum Says We'll All Be Free" painted by the retired Methodist minister Walter Harding. A startlingly original contemporary folk painting, "A Day In The Country," by Mark Sabin, has joined Museum collections as the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Mark Sabin of New York. Cordelia Hamilton, of Stony Point, New York, has given a calligraphic drawing of the angel Gabriel and Margery Kahn has presented the Museum with an inked memento, circa 1850, a token of friendship from Susan Walker Beacher to one Miss Juliette Richards.

Joseph P. Aulisio was born in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, in 1910. He worked all his life in a drycleaners and painted in his spare time. His masterpiece, "Portrait of Frank Peters, the Tailor," has been given to the Museum by Arnold Fuchs of Miami, Florida. Mr. Fuchs has also donated Jack Savitsky's painting,"Monday Morning."

Henceforth gracing the permanent collection will be a group of delicately carved Puerto Rican santos donated

by Mr. and Mrs. Richard ValeIly of New York.

The Museum of American Folk Art extends its heartfelt thanks to each who has added something special to its collections.

Top: Pitcher attributed to S. Bell and Sons.

Strasburg, Virginia. Circa 1840. Yellow glazed earthenware with yellow and green splotched decoration. 9" x 5 3/4". Gift of Margery Kahn.

Above: Rolling pin. New England. Early 19th / 4"dia. Gift of century. Curly maple. 19" x 21 Gertrude Schweitzer.

Opposite, clockwise from lower left: Sampler by Hannah Staples. Possibly Connecticut. Circa 1786. Silk on linen.

10 3/4" x 101 / 2". Gift of Louise and Mike Nevelson.

Sampler by Hannah Staples. Possibly Connecticut. Undated. Silk on linen. 21 5/8" x 16".

Gift of Louise and Mike Nevelson.

Sampler by Peter Emmans. Possibly Massachusetts. August 6, 1836. Silk on linen. 9 3/4" x 8". Gift of Louise and Mike Nevelson.

Portrait of Frank Peters, the Tailor by Joseph P. Aulisio. Stroudberg, Pennsylvania. 1965.

Oil on canvas. 28" x 20". Gift of Arnold Fuchs.

Painted box. New York State or New England.

Circa 1830. Pine, painted. 22 3/4" x 9" x 12".

Gift of Margery Kahn.

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51

FOLK ART CALENDAR ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Current through April 29 THE WOMAN FOLK ARTIST IN AMERICA. This exhibition is designed to focus on those women who, without formal training and professional stature, nevertheless exceeded the traditional aspects of society in producing their art. Approximately 100 examples of folk art produced by identified women are displayed. Drawings, oils, pastels, and watercolors are accompanied by quilts, samplers, bed rugs, and other forms of needlework in a timely testimony to the variety and quality of women's art from the 17th century to the present.

Museum of American Folk Art, New York City.

Current through May 11 SIDEWALK SUPERINTENDENT — A LOOK AT BUILDING IN AMERICA FROM 1719-1830. This exhibition, cosponsored by the Early American Industries Association, gives the public an opportunity to be sidewalk superintendents at the construction of New York City houses during the 18th and 19th centuries. Viewers will see the gradual evolution of building crafts and the increasingly sophisticated tools that made them possible. Fraunces Tavern Museum, 54 Pearl Street, New York City.

Current through May 27 CARING FOR A COLLECTION. Methods currently used by conservators to preserve works of art are the subject of a one-gallery exhibit. Works of art on paper are the focus of the exhibit, but treatment of oil paintings and threedimensional objects is also shown. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.

52

Current through June 10 WILLIAM PENHALLOW HENDERSON (1877-1943): AN ARTIST OF SANTA FE. This exhibition of 46 pastels and oils includes the ceremonial dances of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, views of life in and around Santa Fe, and a dramatic painting of the Lenten procession of the Penitente sect—with scenes leading to the crucifixion. Illustrated checklist. National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 8th and G Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C.

Current through June 17 BO'JOU, NEEJEE. PROFILES OF CANADIAN ART. "Bo'jou, neejee" is an Ojibwa expression meaning "Hello, friend" and was a common greeting throughout the Canadian north in the days of the fur trade. This exhibition of 191 works, the majority dating from 1750 to 1850, represents Canadian Indian ingenuity and creativity, and is a tribute to their cultures. The objects— made of skins, bone, wood, bark, porcupine quills, and other materials—include the finest examples of Canadian Indian art and craft. The exhibition, with an accompanying catalogue, was organized by the National Museum of Man in Ottawa. The Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

Current through 1979 BAROQUE TO FOLK. Folk arts of the colonies of Spain as they relate to one another in content, form, and style.

Special emphasis upon 19th-century New Mexican folk art as a primary example of a regional style. Religious art from Spain and her former colonies of New Mexico, Mexico, Guatemala,

Columbia, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Goa (Portuguese) and Ecuador are among the approximately 150 to 200 objects on display. Decorative arts illustrating the variety and similarities of various colonial styles are also shown. Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Current through 1979 FANTASY AND ENCHANTMENT: SELECTIONS FROM THE GIRARD FOUNDATION COLLECTION. This exhibition aims to give the public an overview of a collection which is being donated to the State of New Mexico and will be housed at the Museum of International Folk Art. On display are toys and dolls, textiles, paintings and sculpture from many countries, installed in fun and imaginative settings designed

by Alexander Girard. Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

March 10-June 3 ARCTIC IVORIES — SELECTIONS FROM THE POTOSKY COLLECTION. These pieces come from a vigorous tradition of ivory and bone carving in the Alaskan Arctic. Gathered by collector Normon Potosky of Fairbanks, Alaska, before World War II, the carvings are from the collections of the Denver Art Museum and are being shown in a substantial grouping for the first time in 20 years. Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado.

April 8 through 1979 MUSEUM OF INTERNATIONAL FOLK ART'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION. Items from the collections of the Museum of International Folk Art will illustrate the variety of its holdings in celebration of the museum's Silver

Jubilee. Labels will inform the viewer concerning the history of the museum, its foundress Florence Dibell Bartlett, and the plans for the new Girard Wing scheduled for construction this year.

The folk art exhibited will consist of outstanding examples of sculpture, textiles, costumes, paintings, furniture, and decorative arts from many parts of the world. A small publication will accompany the exhibition. Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

April 20-21 NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RURAL PRESERVATION in Annapolis, Maryland, will focus on ways to protect the beauty of America's countryside, including farms, small villages and open spaces. Noted authorities on conservation, historic preservation, agriculture, planning and community development will participate. Information and registration forms are available from Samuel N. Stokes, National Trust for Historic Preservation, 740 Jackson Place, N.W., Washington, D.C.

April 29-June 22 THE WOMAN FOLK ARTIST IN AMERICA. This exhibition was initially presented at the Museum of American Folk Art, New York City. Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, New York.

May 10-13 ART AND ANTIQUES ONLY AUCTION. Donated property worth a minimum of $100 is sought by New York Public TV Station, WNET/THIRTEEN. a non-profit Because THIRTEEN is organization, all donations are tax deductible to the extent provided by law.

To insure a consistently high quality of items, all donations will be screened and their values reviewed by authorities in specialized fields. Those wishing to donate items to the 1979 THIRTEEN Collection should write the station at 356 W. 58th Street, New York City 10019 or call (212) 560-2700. They will be sent a form to complete, and based on that information, experts

will determine on whether to accept the item. Pickups can be arranged for items that are accepted. Co-chairmen of the 1978 and 1979 auctions are Lawrence Fleischman, John L. Marion, and Harold Sack. Karen Szurek, director of community events for THIRTEEN and executive director of the auction, stated: "We were thrilled with the success of the 1978 auction. We would now like to top a million dollars in 1979."

WNET, Channel 13, New York Public TV Station.

May 14-June 24 LESS IS MORE; NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN CHILDREN'S QUILTS FROM THE COLLECTION OF LINDA AND IRWIN R. BERMAN. Dena Katzenberg, curator of the show, will exhibit 45 quilts made for cribs or small children's beds. These unique textiles dating from 1820 to 1920 were collected by Dr. and Mrs. Berman.

Illustrated lectures by noted authorities in the textile field will accompany the exhibition. The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland.

May 15-June 24, AMERICAN FOLK PAINTING, SELECTIONS FROM THE COLLECTION OF MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM E. WILTSHIRE, III. The collection spans 100 years of folk art and includes portraits, landscapes, family scenes, religious, and genre scenes and several illuminated texts. Museum of American Folk Art, New York City.

May 19-July 15 NEW ENGLAND MEETING HOUSE AND CHURCH: 1630-1850. On display will be objects that were originally part of early meeting houses or were used within themâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;pulpits, pew doors, wainscotting, communion services, tithing sticks, and signal drums; paintings, prints, written records, or other period artifacts or documents which illustrate meeting houses; photographs and other contemporary visual resources. The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire.

June 23-July 22 QUINTESSENTIAL QUILTS: THE QUILT CONTEST. GREAT AMERICAN The Great American Quilt Contest was sponsored by Good Housekeeping Magazine, The U.S. Historical Society, and the Museum of American Folk Art. Thirty-seven quilts chosen from 10,000 national entries in the competition are touring the country under the sponsorship of SITES (Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service). Quilts representing every region of the country are included in this exhibition, from the "Ray of Light" National Winner in Virginia to the "Hats and Patches" quilt from Beaverton, Oregon. The exhibition is accompanied by text panels presenting the history of quiltmaking, quilts as art, and the different techniques of this craft. Mill Valley Quilt Authority, Mill Valley, California.

June 25-October 5 THIRD ANNUAL WORKSHOPS OF HISTORICAL AMERICAN TRADES at Eastfield Village. Dedicated to the preservation of Historical American Trades, all of Eastfield's resources will be available to workshop participants, providing an ideal historical atmosphere in which to study and work. Courses are offered in Tinsmithing and Housewrighting. For additional information write Eastfield Village, Box 145, R.D. East Nassau, New York 12062.

August 11-September 9 THE QUILTS: QUINTESSENTIAL GREAT AMERICAN QUILT CONTEST. Touring the country under sponsorship of SITES. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

September 29, 30 LOUISIANA WILDFOWL CARVERS AND COLLECTORS GUILD FIFTH ANNUAL WILDFOWL FESTIVAL. New Orleans, Louisiana.

Fall 1980 THREE CENTURIES OF AMERICAN FOLK ART. Forty painters will be included with 316 examples of their major work. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York.

53

crzi

Title

SCHEDULE OF MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS

Members' Private Preview

Public Opening

Closing

American Folk Painting: Selections May 14, 1979 May 15, 1979 June 24, 1979 From the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Wiltshire III 'Exhibition Coordinator: Laura Byers Mr. and Mrs. William E. Wiltshire III, of Richmond, Virginia, are proving that new enthusiasts with taste and interest can still assemble a comprehensive collection ofAmerican folk painting. Many of the stars of the Wiltshire constellation are portraits, the major production ofAmerican folk artists between 1785 and 1840. These, along with landscapes and genre scenes, effectively illustrate the heyday of the rural and town artists who worked for their peers within isolated 19th-century societies.

Hawaiian Quilts July 2, 1979 July 3, 1979 September 2, 1979 Curators: Thomas K. Woodard and Blanche Greenstein This exhibit of rare Hawaiian quilts marks the first time that many of these needlework gems, made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, have been shown outside the Hawaiian villages where they were first crafted. These unique quilts reflect an affinity of Hawaiian quiltmakers with their natural surroundings, expressed in bright, bold floral motifs and abstract symbols, enhanced with waves of quilting stitchery flowing gently around each detail. The Honolulu Academy ofArts and the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, as well as several private collectors, are loaning outstanding examplesfor this premiere showing on the mainland.

The Shakers in New York State September 13, 1979 September 14, 1979 November 21, 1979 Curators: C. Eugene Kratz, Karl Mendel and Cynthia Rubin This three-part exhibition will feature Shaker dwellings, artifacts including furniture and other decorative arts, as well as the crafts as developed and practiced by the Shakers in New York State. Through the years there have been numerous exhibitions devoted to Shaker works of art, but until this show, none have blended the arts with the crafts to produce a cohesive exhibition that truly represents the Shaker contribution to America's history.

The Art of the Weathervane December 5, 1979 December 6, 1979 February 24, 1980 Curator: Ralph Sessions The weathervane as a work of art will be exemplified by antique weathervanesfrom the Museum's permanent collection,from private collections, and from public institutions. In addition, the creation of a weathervanefrom the original design to a completed piece will be demonstrated by a craftsman who will use antique molds, tools, and techniques in "raising" a piece. The exhibition will be enhanced by panels detailing manufacturing techniques for mass-produced weathervanes. This exhibition is made possible through the participation and generous contributions ofKenneth Lynch & Sons, Inc., of Wilton, Connecticut.

Paintings by R. W.and S. A. Shute March 6, 1980 March 7, 1980 May 4, 1980 Curator: Helen Kellogg This is the first major exhibition of national scope to focus upon the work of R. W. and S. A. Shute. Helen Kellogg, curator of the exhibition, has carefully identified the artists and will present a compelling exhibition of their artistic genre.

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August 31, 1980 May 16, 1980 May 15, 1980 English Naive Painting Exhibition Coordinator: Laura Byers are to be featured English naive paintings rangingfrom portraiture to genre and dating from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries been exhibited has Collection Kalman The England.

London, in this exhibition from the collection ofMr. and Mrs. A. Kalman, Art. FollowFolk American of Museum the at be will extensively throughout Europe and its first appearance in the United States ing this initial presentation, it will tour throughout America.

September 9, 1980 September 10, 1980 October 26, 1980 Newly Discovered Paintings By The Borden Limner Curator: Robert Bishop exhibition devoted to The Borden In 1976 Robert Bishop mounted at the Museum ofArt, University of Michigan, a retrospective signed portrait shed new light keystone a and paintings Limner, now tentatively identified as John S. Blunt. Newly discovered on the Blunt paintings which will provide the basis for this exhibition.

AND CONCURRENTLY Whirligigs and Wind Toys: Promised Bequests From The Collection Of Leo and Dorothy Rabkin Curator: Patricia Coblentz their very exLeo and Dorothy Rabkin, longtime friends of the Museum of American Folk Art, have generously made much of segment of small a upon focus will tensive collection available to the Museum in the form of a promised bequest. This exhibition into built figures human have which of their holdings of whirligigs and wind toys from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, all their design.

January 18, 1981 November 7, 1980 November 6, 1980 Small Folk: A Celebration Of Childhood In America Curators: Sandra Brant and Elissa Cullman the 18th This major exhibition of over 300 objects in all media offolk art will be a comprehensive view of the life of children in and sculpture, paintings, in presented Depiction," Child's "A areas: four and 19th centuries. The exhibition will be divided into calligraphy; and needlework in represented Discipline," Child's "A playthings; prints; "A Child's Delight,"featuring children's including quilts and "A Child's Domain," illustrated in objects relating to the physical and psychological well-being of children, exhibition. this for scheduled tentatively is Japan of tour A and bedcovers,furniture, and birth and death certificates.

Dates to be announced Reflections of Faith: Religious Folk Art In America Curators: Kurt Dewhurst and Marsha MacDowell have produced The spiritual dimension offolk art is an important aspect that has received only limited attention. Folk artists spirit drawings, santos, frakturs, the most beautiful expressions of religious art in America's history in every medium, including artists, as unidentified many of visions personal the sculpture, gravestones, and schoolgirl art. This exhibition will bring together Pierce.

Elijah and Pippin, well as those of well known artists such as Edward Hicks, Horace 55

BOOK REVIEWS

Jack I Ericson Editor

Cuisenier, Jean.

FRENCH FOLK ART. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1978. 19p., 8 x 12 in., 24 black/white illus., paper, $2.75.

French Folk Art is the catalogue for a traveling exhibit of 125 French folk art objects which were assembled by the French National Museum of Folk Arts and Traditions and sponsored in the United States by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.

Jean Cuisenier prepared the brief introductory text. Those wishing a more indepth view of French folk and popular arts are referred to Jean Cuisenier's L'art populaire en France (New York, Harper & Row, 1977).

The Renwick Gallery Smithsonian Institution Pennsylvania Ave. at 17th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20560

Espejel, Carlos.

MEXICAN FOLK CRAFTS. Barcelona: Editorial Blume, 1978. 237p., 91 / 2 x 11 in., 57 color and 269 black/white illus., glossary, index, $30.00.

Pelauzy, M. A. SPANISH FOLK CRAFTS. Barcelona: Editorial Blume, 1978. 238p., 91 / 2 x 11 in., 48 color and 263 black/white illus., glossary, bibliography, index, $30.00.

These books are very similar in concept, both in the traditional crafts that are explored and in the type of illustrations. This similarity allows for a comparison between present-day traditional 56

craft production in Spain and Mexico.

It is interesting to see the cultural influence Spain had on the indigenous crafts of Mexico.

The books cover primarily the traditional crafts which are still produced.

The authors are interested in objects which are used for domestic needs, work, decoration, rituals, play, festivities, and dances. Crafts covered include textiles, pottery, glassware, baskets, metalwork, toys, leatherwork, popular theatre, religious figures and votive offerings, and in Mexico, lacquer work. Both authors make a strong point in urging that these traditional crafts and craftspersons be protected as national cultural treasures.

Both books are handsomely produced, with excellent photographs by F. Catal Roca.

Universe Books 381 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10016

Fabian, Monroe H. THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN DECORATED CHEST. New York: Universe Books, 1978. 230p., 8 x 10 in., 50 color and 200 black/white illus., list of illus., footnotes, notes to illus., bibliography, index. Foreword by Pastor Frederick S. Weiser. Vol. 12 of the publications of The Pennsylvania German Society. $25.00.

In precise and scholarly fashion Monroe Fabian has written an excellent study of the Pennsylvania-German decorated chest. His 56-page essay discusses the European prototypes, the use of woods, construction details, choice of hardware, surface decoration, and the use made of chests in PennsylvaniaGerman households.

Fabian finds the roots of the Pennsylvania-German Kischt (chest) in the

cabinetmaking traditions of the German speaking areas of Europe. These traditions as well as the chests themselves, were brought to Pennsylvania in the early years of the 18th century by German immigrants, particularly those from the Palatinate area. Gradually a process of Americanization overtook the Kischt. What resulted was a form of furniture which was neither German nor English, but rather a unique American form making use of German-style restrained decoration and English-style joinery. Chests continued to be made for many years, but by the beginning of the third decade of the 19th century Pennsylvania-German chests decorated in the classic form were a thing of the past.

Universe Books 381 Park Avenue New York, New York 10016

MIRAGES OF MEMORY: 200 YEARS OF INDIANA ART. Volume 1. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 1977.

142p., 81 / 2 x 11 in., 24 color & 74 black/ white illus., bibliography, paper, $10.00.

Mirages of Memory is the catalogue for an exhibition of Indiana art held at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Art Gallery, University of Notre Dame in 1976 and 1977. This catalogue is divided into two parts. Part I is devoted to painting and includes an essay by Marilyn Reed Holscher, "The First Hundred Years of Indiana Art;" artists' biographies; and catalogue entries. Part H contains three essays: Pamela E. Szabo, "Indiana Crafts in the 19th Century," Anne Peeler, "Photography and Its Beginnings in Indiana," and Margaret Doherty, "Three Indiana Cartoonists: Then and Now." Supporting materials include a bibliography, a checklist, and a glossary.

UM'

SEPTEMBER 30-DECEMBER 31,1978 The Museum trustees and staff extend a special welcome to these new members: Virginia Aceti, New Ipswich, New Hampshire Evelyn Ackerman,Culver City, California Mrs. L. Talbot Adamson, Wayne, Pennsylvania Rita F. Aid, New York, New York Mrs. R. Ansorge, New York, New York A. Aquino, Redding Center, Connecticut Elizabeth Asperslag, New York, New York Bruce P. Baker, Omaha, Nebraska James Beard, New York, New York Penny Berman, Westfield, New Jersey Hyla and Bernard Bertash, New York New York E. M. Blair, New York, New York Mrs. R. C. Bogen, New York, New York Mrs. M. Bonaelaar, Grand Rapids, Michigan Damon Brandt, New York, New York Mrs. Leslie Browder, Clemmons, North Carolina Anne T. Brown, New York, New York Robert Brown, Columbus, Indiana Frank and Theresa Caplan, Princeton, New Jersey Reginald Case, Montrose, New York C. E. Chadwyck-Healey, Manor Farm, Herts, United Kingdom Mrs. Lester B. Cohen, Los Angeles, California Michele Cohen, New York, New York Colette, New York, New York Debra J. Collins, Bay Shore, New York Susan G. Cone, Boston, Massachusetts Rubye Copus, Salt Point, New York Lorraine Cornwell, Massapequa, New York Mrs. F. C. Crain, Houston, Texas Wes Crocheron, Amador City, California G. Ernest Dale, Jr., Princeton, New Jersey Eloise David, Tucson, Arizona Josephine I. Dawes, Hightstown, New Jersey Mr. and Mrs. Richard K. Deer, New Carlisle, Indiana Michael D. Dingman, Exeter, New Hampshire Harry Dunn, West Chester, Pennsylvania Mr. and Mrs. Irving Eisenberg, Great Neck, New York Leslie Eisenberg, Brooklyn, New York Mary Emmerling, New York, New York Jean Taylor Federico, Washington, D.C. Rita Feigenbaum, New York, New York Betty Ferguson, Richland, Washington Mr. and Mrs. Peter Findlay, New York, New York Emily B. Frame, Clearwater, Florida Mr. and Mrs. John Fraser, New York, New York Joseph N. Freedman, Marion Station, Pennsylvania Steve Friesen, Littleton, Colorado Gregor A. Gamble, Topsham, Maine Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Gamson, Beverly Hills, California Marty Gilmore, New York, New York N. Ted Gossett, Rocky Mount, North Carolina Benjamin S. Greenberg, Brooklyn, New York Guild of Strawbery Banke, Inc., Portsmouth, New Hampshire Maryellen Heins, Kalamazoo, Michigan Rela Hammerman, Bayside, New York Penelope B. Hastings, New York, New York Robert K. Hastings, Reston, Virginia Mr. and Mrs. C. V. Henry Ill, Lebanon, Pennsylvania Margaret Hiatt, North Salem, New York Mr. and Mrs. Edward J. Higgins, Jr., New York, New York Enid Hofsted, Woodstock, New York Jean Holzman, New York, New York Eileen Hong, Greenwich, Connecticut Doris Hoover, Palo Alto, California Thomas W. Hopkins, Jr., Houston, Texas

OUR GROWING MEMBERSHIP Eliana and Alford Houstoun-Boswall, New York, New York Mrs. Joseph L. Hudson, Jr., Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan Joseph P. Hussey, New York, New York Ruby L. Hussey, Bowdoinham, Maine Israel Sack, Inc., New York, New York Sheila F. James, Honolulu, Hawaii L. Wun-Vu Jang, San Francisco, California Eugene Jennings, Hempstead, New York Mr. and Mrs. Corbett Johnson, Forest Lake, Minnesota Mrs. David V. Johnson, Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania Priscilla Johnson, Chappaqua, New York John S. Kartovsky, Bridgeport, Connecticut Elliott Kaufman, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Donna Kennel, Union Lake, Michigan Mr. and Mrs. Albert L. Key, Locust Valley, New York Jodi W. Klein, Waban, Massachusetts Mrs. Donald J. Klug, New York, New York Carveth Kramer, New York, New York Priscilla Lambert, Mamaroneck, New York Richard I. Landy, New York, New York Aya Lehavi, Tel-Aviv, Israel Mrs. Gregor Leinsdorf and Mary Irwin, New York, New York Mr. and Mrs. Peter K. Loeb, New York, New York Lee Lorenz, Easton, Connecticut Laura C. Luckey, Boston, Massachusetts David MacDonald, Kingston, Ontario, Canada Eleanor M. Mason, Baltimore, Maryland Laurie May, Beverly Hills, California Harold R. Medina Ill, Wallingford, Pennsylvania Judith Mellecker, New York, New York Robert Mihalik, New York, New York Eula P. Miller, Brentwood, Tennessee Mr. and Mrs. John C. Mollenkopf, Landgrove, Vermont Can Morgan, Yakima, Washington Sophie Morgan, Old Westbury, New York Lucia Murphy, Edison, New Jersey Joanne Nuckols, South Pasadena, California Louis L. Obletz, Williamsville, New York Joan Osofsky, Glen Rock, New Jersey Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Otchy, Tenafly, New Jersey Nancy-Lou Patterson, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence B. Pike, Scarsdale, New York Marnic Poms, Potomac, Maryland Suzanne Rauffenbart, New York, New York Riggans, Atlanta, Georgia Rudolph Rinaldi, Brooklyn, New York Verdery Roosevelt, New York, New York Fay Roth, New Rochelle, New York Juliette Huge, Blooming Grove, New York Mrs. Eugene R. Sage, Lyons, New York Fred R. Salisbury, Minnetonka, Minnesota San Antonio Museum Association Library, San Antonio, Texas William R. Sargent, Boston, Massachusetts Nell Wilson Sarnoff, Roslyn Heights, New York Mrs. Peter M. Saylor, Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania Sal Scalora, Storrs, Connecticut Douglas R. Schlicher, Botsford, Connecticut Jacqueline Schneider, Tucson, Arizona Dee Seeley, White Plains, New York Mrs. Daniel Shapiro, New York, New York Mrs. Richard E. Sherwood, Beverly Hills, California Kummer Sibyll, Zurich, Switzerland Elly Smith, Seattle, Washington Fannie Lou Spelce, Austin,Texas Susan Spiro, Madison, Wisconsin Lois W. Spring, Sheffield, Massachusetts Dorothea Stern-Straeter, Scarsdale, New York Sylvia Stewart, New York, New York

John W. Stoakley, Memphis, Tennessee Robert Sutter, White Plains, New York Mr. and Mrs. Peter Thompson, New York, New York Mrs. George W. Thorpe, Rocky Mount, North Carolina Leslie M. Tichenor, Louisville, Kentucky Judith R. Tishman, New York, New York Trepp, Thalwill, Switzerland Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Trouble, New York, New York Helen Sonnenberg Tucker, New York, New York Mrs. Leland Vance, Dayton, Ohio Richard S. Vogels, Pound Ridge, New York Richard Wagman, New York, New York Margaret Watherston, New York, New York Deborah Webster, Evanston, Illinois Carol Hauk Weiss, Denver, Colorado Brooke Weld, Woodbury, Connecticut Antoinette Wellman, New York, New York Joan Wenger, Denver, Colorado Kristi Wessenberg, Albany, Connecticut Carolyn Wheat, New York, New York Vivian B. White, Trenton, Michigan Elizabeth N. Wilds, Greenwich, Connecticut Mr. and Mrs. Chester T. Williams, Rye, New York Patricia M. Williams, Brooklyn, New York Elaine Wilson, London, England Morton M. Winthrop, Arlington, Massachusetts Eva-Maria Worthington, Chicago, Illinois Mr. and Mrs. Haskell Wotkyns, Jr., Houston, Texas We wish to thank the following members for their increased membership contributions and for their expression of confidence in the Museum.

James Apuzzo, Hopewell Junction, New York Mrs. W. L. Arthur, Wilton, Connecticut Mr. and Mrs. Darwin M. Bahm, New York, New York Richard Blodgett, New York, New York Mr. and Mrs. R. W. Dammann, Rye, New York Joy C. Emery, Grosse Pointe, Michigan John L. Ernest, New York, New York Mr. and Mrs. David Freedberg, New York, New York Richard Gachot, Old Westbury, New York Gallery of Graphic Arts, New York, New York Vira L. M. H. Goldman, New York, New York Michael Gross, Howard Beach, New York Lillian Hess, New York, New York Barbara Kastner, Grandview, New York D. R. Kowalski, Hoboken, New Jersey Herb Lubalin, New York, New York Mrs. Eugene B. Martens, Jr., Garden City, New York Bunny Mautner, New York, New York Mr. and Mrs. Robert Meltzer, Dallas, Texas Ethel Modrov, Northport, New York Joan Norman, Roslyn, New York One + One Studio, New York, New York Mrs. Paul M. Roberts, New York, New York Mr. and Mrs. Laurence Rockefeller, New York, New York Mrs. Peter Seamans, Marblehead, Massachusetts Daniel E. Slocum, Camden, Maine Carolyn E. Stewart, New York, New York Mrs. E. V.Thaw, New York, New York Mrs. Arthur R. Virgin, New York, New York Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Walker, New York, New York Earl W hitcraft, New York, New York Mr. and Mrs. James Wyeth, Wilmington, Delaware Arthur Yorkes, Orangeburg, New York

57

Rainbows in the Sky Continued from page 40

similar role by adhering to their own inner-directed personal vision.

Consequently, a follow-up exhibition of the work of between 20 and 30 Michigan folk artists working in the 20th century titled "Rainbows in the Sky, The Folk Art of Michigan in the 20th Century," was mounted in the fall of 1978 at Kresge Art Gallery, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, and is now touring Michigan art museums. The title for the exhibition is drawn from a piece by an underground mural painter who worked in Lansing, Michigan. The artist painted a truckload of artists waving their paintbrushes, while in the sky above them two large hands paint rainbows in the sky. Under the painting is the verse written by the artist, Clarence Hewes: Once a painter, Always a painter, Until the day they die.

Then they have a job, Up Yonder, painting, Painting, Rainbows, In the Sky. This verse captures the very essence of the attitude that most folk artists have toward their workâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;each is painting his own personal rainbow in the sky (fig. 4).

Photographs and taped interviews are an integral part of research and a series of video-taped interviews were conducted with working Michigan folk artists (fig. 5) to preserve their contributions for years to come.

The Michigan Folk Art Project is supported solely by local, state, and federal grants and currently is being supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Council for the Arts. Plans are now being made to establish a permanent center at The Museum on the Michigan State University campus for the study of folk art in the upper Great Lakes Region which will include Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and On58

Fig. 5. Photograph of Rev. E. K. Lund, taken in the summer of 1977 at his home in Maple City, Michigan. Photograph by Marsha MacDowell. In 1945, the Reverends E. K. and Orpha Lund were given land in Maple City, Michigan, to create an outdoor religious worship garden set in the woods. For years the pair worked together building and painting religious tableaus and attracting hundreds of worshippers. Even though Mrs. Lund died in 1965, Rev. E. K. Lund continues his mission.

Because the search is an ongoing tario. This center would be a component of a new program for the study of Amer- one information is still being sought; ican culture now being established if you have information to share regardat Michigan State University. An ex- ing folk art from this region, please write: tensive slide library has already been C. Kurt Dewhurst and Marsha Macestablished which focuses largely on Dowell, The Museum, Michigan State UnMichigan folk art material. The goal iversity, East Lansing, Michigan 48824. is to assist scholars and students interested in the folk art field. Special at- Editor's Note: The schedule of exhibitention will be given to assisting area tions for "Rainbows in the Sky" is as community groups in the search for follows: January 14-February 11, Meadlocal folk art forms and artists. The ow Brook Art Gallery, Oakland Univerexhibition program will concentrate on sity, Rochester, Michigan; February 25small exhibitions of work being done March 24, Walter Reuther Library, Wayne in the field and will treat newly dis- State University, Detroit, Michigan; April covered artists and their work. Major 8-May 13, Grand Rapids Art Museum, exhibitions of regional scope will be Grand Rapids, Michigan;May 27-June 24, undertaken on an annual or biannual Hackley Art Museum, Muskegon, Michigan. basis.

Design Origins of Amish Quilts Continued from page 37

tarian Costume in the United States," Forms Upon the Frontier, edited by Austin E. Fife, Utah State University Press, 1969), maintain that Amish costume, influenced to a certain degree by the garb of Quakers and other plain sects, nevertheless was fairly flexible from the early 18th to the late 19th century, undergoing gradual and practical changes as did the costume of most Americans. However, these two men observe a rigid formalization of Amish garb after the Civil War as the cultural autonomy and integrity of the Amish community were threatened by increased industrialization and by an encroaching non-Amish population. A strikingly similar "freezing" of quilt design is evident in this period, too. Thus, the few Amish quilts dating before the Civil War are quite plain and unpretentious but do not differ markedly from those crafted by other farmwomen, fig. 3 (see page 32). Then from approximately 1875-1925 the design of Amish quilts, especially in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania region, "hardened" to a few classical formats, including the diamond, center square, and bars, fig. 4(see page 36).

A note of scholarly caution: even though a general trend

is evident, certain individual Amish women have always deviated from the cultural norms, preferring red silk to purple wool, baskets to bars. And these creative deviations seem to have been largely tolerated by the Amish community, unless the seamstress overstepped other cultural boundaries or did so in too obvious a manner.

Gradually in the 1920s and 1930s, new patterns appeared in Amish quilts, especially in the Midwest, where pieced baskets, flower-gardens, tumbling blocks, and variable stars proliferated, fig. 5 (see page 35). Today many Amish women are fashioning, for the tourist trade, gay and gaudy quilts which are scarcely distinguishable from those of their neighbors.

Amish quilt design, then, seems clearly to be an outgrowth of several factors and multiple influences: the religious, social, and geographical climate of a given community produced a certain type of quilt, one which is becoming less unique in the 1970s as cultural boundaries, both concrete and symbolic, are relaxed. While one can occasionally find contemporary bar or diamond-patterned quilts, often they are fashioned of cotton and dacron blend, and the synthetic batting or filling does not permit 20-stitches-per-inch quilting. The refined elegance of the glowing, gem-toned wool quilts of the first quarter of this century is fast becoming a rare commodity.

The first major book on samplers in many years A GALLERY OF AMERICAN SAMPLERS filinerican(Sample6 tialkit Ka„,wk ./I • • 11C011111

c

The Theodore Kapnek Collection

by Glee F. Krueger The superb Theodore H. Kapnek Collection of American samplers dating from 1678 to 1865 is the basis of this exemplary study of the subject, which is also beautifully illustrated. The Kapnek collection provides the reader with a broad chronological and geographical range of Americana as worked by schoolgirls over a span of 200 years. Basically a method of teaching the essentials of both practical and ornamental needlework, samplers have become much sought and prized in recent years as particularly delightful examples of American folk art. Glee F. Krueger, well known for her expertise in the field of American needlework, provides a thorough study of the development of the sampler, with particular attention to the schools where this work was taught,the materials and the stitches used, the sources of the designs, and more. Illustrated throughout in full color. $19.95, cloth; $10.95, paper DUTTON,2 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016 Available at bookstores or use coupon to order.

NE NE

NE

Dept. A, E.P. Dutton 2 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016 Please send me A GALLERY OF AMERICAN SAMPLERS copy(ies) @ $19.95, cloth (111301) copy(ies) @ 10.95, paper (47515X) Payment is enclosed plus appropriate sales tax and 50c postage and handling per copy.

Name Address City

State

ZIP

59

JOI-1N C. NEWCOMER 1200 WASHINGTON ST., HARPERS FERRY, W. VA. 25425 304-535-6902

Full-bodied Copper Weathervane Circa 1870-44" overall length (ears and horns replaced)

Shop Hours.

Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p m. or by appointment

MULESKINNER ANTIQUES 10626 Main Street Clarence, New York 14031 15 miles east of Buffalo on Route 5 Ronald Korman Proprietor

716-759- 2661 716-759- 2495 We always have a fine selection of COUNTRY FURNITURE. FOLK ART. and other appropriate accessories Open 7 days a week.

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60

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W535-1930

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American Quilts and Textiles,Primitive Paintings and Folk Art 1 ,Nk‘A

DIAGONAL TRIANGLES Amish, Ohio, c. 1910, crib quilt.

STREAK 0'LIGHTNING Amish, Ohio, c. 1910 crib quilt.

JANOS AND ROSS MUSEUM QUALITY AMISH/MENNONITE PIECED AND APPLIQUE QUILTS CIRCA 1845-1940 ALSO AMERICAN FOLK ART

BARBARA S. JANOS— BARBARA ROSS 110 East End Avenue(5E)— New York, N.Y. 10028 (212)988-0407 by Appointment Only

61

Specialists in authentic and significant Early American Folk Art

JOHN GORDON â&#x20AC;&#x201D; AMERICANA 37 WEST 57th ST. NEW YORK TEL 212 832-2255

c. 1940 Peekskill, N.Y.

Sign from Sebago Lake, Maine

Kenneth & Ida Manko

117 Eleventh Street

Donora, Pennsylvania

412-379-9250

Theresa & Arthur Greenblatt Specializing in AMERICAN NEEDLEWORK, ANTIQUE PAPERWEIGHTS, AMERICAN SILVER Amherst, New Hampshire 03031 prior phone call advisable (603)673-4401

Wood, polyehramed.

Early 20th Century.

18" high.

411S1 J-WOF AMERICAN

Wood and cardboard, polychramed red, white, blue and green.

10"X14"

FOLK ART 303 No. SWEETZER I.A.,CA. 90048 (213) 658.8820 â&#x20AC;˘ BY APPOINTMENT

63

Antiques — Folk Art Graphic Textiles

UNDERGROUND ANTIQUES 269 West 4th St., New York, N.Y. 10014 Sandra Cliff 212-741-1164 Tues.—Sat. 12:30-7:30 pm.

Left: "Whig Rose Variation" red, green and orange on white ground. Nicely quilted with diamond and heart motif. ca. 1870's (80'x66') Right: "Trip Around the World" in reds, blues, whites and pink, ca. 1900. Striped backing.(80"x80")Pa.

64

•Fan Foal roul©a(K

2101 L Street, NW., Washington, D.C. 20037 Call(202) 223-0673 or (800) 424-8830 (Toll free)

UE12U FINE TS CE III SUR SPEC LISTS

• Collectors • Dealers • Museums

Adele-Bishop STL!1CILEA One offour outstanding Early American stencilfloor patterns.

18th Century Stenciled Floor, Farmer's Museum, Cooperstown, N.Y.

1979 COLOR CATALOG includes— Stencil Designs, Patterns, Paints, Brushes for Floors, Walls, Fabrics & Furniture Also, the definitive book —THE ART OF DECORATIVE STENCILING. Send $1.00 to: Adele Bishop Inc., P.O. Box 122, Dorset, VT 05251

65

"SALEM GIRL" Late 18th or early 19th Century American life-size ship figurehead—standing full length—ex. collection of Helene Penrose

James Abbe Jr. Oyster Bay, N.Y.

The White House Fine American Antiques Interior Design Consultants • Furniture Restoration Appraisal service for inheritance and insurance purposes Complete line of furniture restoration services including wood turning, carving, and refinishing.

Hand carved 19th century butter mold, maple, 15" long

215 Myrtle Avenue, Rte. 202, Boonton, N.J. Tuesday through Saturday, 10-4 (201) 335-4926 or 839-7258

66

F.0

UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

ANTIQUES SHOW April 24 through 28

DAVIS MATHER

Tuesday through Friday, Noon-9:30 p.m.

Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

103rd ENGINEERS ARMORY 33rd Street just north of Market Street (Two blocks west of 30th Street Stations)

PHILADELPHIA PENNSYLVANIA Admission 53.00

LOAN EXHIBIT "Samplers...Skills and Sentiment" PREVIEW RECEPTION AND DINNE Monday, April 23rd 5:30-9:30 p.m.

Advance Reservation only Tickets, $80.00 per person($60.00 tax deductible $275.00 for four persons($200.00 tax deductible) Make checks payable to: Board of Women Visitors Mail to: University Hospital Antiques Show 206 Almur Lane, Wynnewood, Pa. 19096 For information on Special Events and Tickets orfor Calendar ofEvents: The University Hospital Antiques Show 1813 Blackberry Lane, Gladwyne,Pa. 19035 Telephone:(215)642-6557

THE AMERICAN

ART JOURNAL is delighted to announce that, after 10 years of distinguished publishing, it will appear four times a year, beginning in January, 1979. This non-commercial publication is completely devoted to the presentation of important research by the nation's leading scholars in American art. There has never been a better time to subscribe.

THE AMERICAN ART JOURNAL 40 West 57th Street, 5th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10019 Published by Kennedy Galleries and Israel Sack, Inc. Name Address State City Published four times a year $25.00 for one year $45.00 for two years

Zip Bill me _Check enclosed Renew

67 A Benefit for the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

American Primitive Art & it ases Inc. FINE BASES IN LUCITE, WOOD AND METAL FOLK AND PRIMITIVE SCULPTURE

HANDCRAFTED WALLS Stenciling and Primitive Murals

VIRGINIA TEICHNER P.O. Box 368, New Canaan, Ct. 06840 Tel.(203)355-1517 AARNE ANTON

12 WEST 18TH STREET

BY APPOINTMENT

5T-1 FLOOR NEW YORK, N. Y. 10011

924-7146

STERLING

HUNT

AMERICAN ART AND ANTIQUES FROM THE SILVER FLAG GALLERY BRIDGE HAMPTON. L.I. NEW YORK 11932

* * ** 't7.

`:T

IC'

*

Kathy Schoemer An interesting and affordable collection of American country antiques offered for sale in our home. by appointment shield, toy and carved pipe head—original red, white and blue paint—turn of the century

(203) 966-0841 68

New Canaan, Conn.

PLEASE CALL FOR APPOINTMENT ,516)537-1096

THE FRENCH ANTIQUES FAIRS FOR SUMMER-1979 WOODSTOCK,VERMONT RECREATION CENTER 26th Annual Fair & Sale July 26th & 27th Thursday • ten a.m. to eight p.m.

• ten a.m. to five p.m.

Friday WOLFEBORO,NEW HAMPSHIRE KINGSWOOD REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL 26th Annual Fair & Sale August 15th & 16th Wednesday • ten a.m. to eight p.m.

Thursday • ten a.m. to five p.m.

PETERBOROUGH,NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN HOUSE 2nd Annual Antiques Fair October 13th, 14th Saturday • ten a.m. to eight p.m.

Sunday • ten a.m. to five p.m.

S.K. FRENCH Exeter, N.H. p.o. Box 62

Robert Sutter Antiques in Wood Good design &fine workmanship in Americanfurniture & wooden objects of the 18th & 19th centuries always on display in the store next door to my cabinet shop

AVE. MAMARONECK NEW YORK 10543

585 NO. BARRY

914-698-8535, shop: 914-948-1857, home By chance or appointment

I always have a wide assortment of city and country cabinetmaker's furniture to choose from. Whimseys, wooden toys. inlaid carved and painted boxes, desk boxes also on hand.

COUNTRY CURTAINS Wide Lace Ruffles

Applique Album Quilt, Pennsylvania, circa 1860,91"x 91" Ruffles of lace enchantment at your windows! The finest blend of cotton and polyester permanent press edged with four inch cluny lace ruffles, copied from an authentic Old World pattern Eggshell or white. All pairs are 90" wide.

Lengths of 45, 54" or 6.3, $25.00 pair. Lengths of 72,81' or 90. $30.00 pair. Valance, 10" x 80,$8.00 each. Add $2.00 postage and handling per order. Please specify eggshell or white. Send check, money order or use Mastercharge or Visa. Sorry no COD's. Mass. res. add 5% sales tax. Send for free catalog showing other curtain styles, bed ensembles and tablecloths. Satisfaction guaranteed.

COUNTRY CURTAINS

BY APPOINTMENT • SLIDES AVAILABLE

DARWIN D.BEARLEY

Quilts Etitii Tountrli Specializing in Strong Graphic Quilts, particularly Mid-Western Amish 19 Grand Avenue, Akron, OH 44303 • 216-376-4965

Dept 28. Stockbridge, Mass 01262

69

FINESSE IN AMERICAN FOLK ART Pa. rooster fraktur, Joseph Funk, 1829 Pair of red glaze redware spaniels, yellow slip and manganese splotches Seated Cat in Chair, red, white blue glaze Polychrome lacy redware handled basket, heart motif

iv

1 River St. Open Daily

Deposit, N.Y. 13754 Ph.607-467-2353

COUNTRY ANTIQUES,QUILTS COVERLETS,HOOKED RUGS,FOLK ART

Florence Schwartz 121 University Place Oakland, Pittsburgh Penna., 15213

q LA'

Flag Carpets sewn together for Irea Rugs ç(4,c \-\O Pie Gatinat 230 v.loll),5t.

4.,[N.toot4, 212- 744 - 3259 <>..

BROOKE WELD corner Main St. and Park Rd. Woodbury, Ct. 06798 Tel. 203-263-4898 Mon.-Sat. 10-9

Weds. 10-4 and by appt.

(412) 521-1005

Pictures sent on request 70

_

4 IntiQue Ouitt Restoration 'D V,A - also . '_ Custom nade ,5tretthers for dispt4ing Q,,uitts &.6 tkolsed Rugs

Pa

AXTELL ANTIQUES PRIZE PRIMITIVES

••

..

American Decorated Furniture, Samplers, Needlework

PHYLLIS and LOUIS GROSS 21 Walnut Ct., South Orange, NJ 07079

By Appointment ph#201-763-5851 AMERICAN FURNITURE & DECORATIVE ARTS

Smith Sanford & Patricia SCULPTURE

AMERICAN ANTIQUES—WESTERN 19 East 76 Street, New York, New York 10021 •(212)929-3121

American Folk Sculpture

19th Century American codfish weathervane.

Original color and condition.

Approximately thirty inches long.

Showing One of a pair Hudson River Valley Painted Window Shades c.1830, Framed.

39" x66".

A similar Window shade is shown on page 94, plate 113, "Techniques in American Folk Decoration" Lipman.

Exhibition March 5-April 28 American Folk Sculpture — Marine Paintings Western Bronze Sculpture — George Ohr Pottery

Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 11 to 4 Saturday, 11 to 5:00

(kr country cinaLutz

2", / 2"x201 / 19th c., sheet iron, 2-face, 151 salmon, ochre, black.

Trestle bench, possibly Delaware Valley, wonderful patina, 5 7' length.

7eu444rey fiatereza Atudizery clod Vacip ?&L44 74 eu , 44444,4

see,iletivooct

0)1 8y1 0,).1

Oecteviek, Z7 0,575ff

(20)459-2221

cyft-ftease 71

011-01/1/ Li _4•010 1 -fiD 4 .0) 44.

1• Dealers in IP :14 •Rare Shaker •ft. for Museums and 411:• di • LTD. Collectors Np.

Raup Road, Chatham, New York 12037 518-392-9654

For Impeccable Shaker

CM

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

Abbe, James Jr. 66 Ackerman, Paul L. 64 Albrecht, Gloria 71 America Hurrah 61 American Art Journal 67 American Folk Art Company 15 Anderson, Mama 72 Anton, Aarne, Bases 68 Axtell Antiques 70 Bearley, Darwin 69 Bishop, Adele 65 Block, Huntington T. 65 Country Curtains 69 Daniel, Allan 1 Diamant, H. & G. 7 Dutton, E. P. 8c Co., Inc. 15,59 French, S. K. 69 Fuller, Edmund L. inside front cover Galinat, Pie 70 Gordon, John ,Gallery 62 Greenblatt, Theresa 8c Arthur 63 Greenwillow Farm 72 Gross, Phyllis & Louis 71 Janos & Ross 61 Johnson, Jay inside back cover

72

Just Us on Court Avenue 8 Leech, Robinson,Associates 13 Manko, Kenneth & Ida 62 Mather, Davis 67 Muleskinner Antiques 60 Newcomer, John 60 Nineteenth Century Magazine 10 Schoemer, Kathy 68 Schwartz, Florence 70 Smith, Sanford & Patricia 71 Sotheby Parke Bernet 9 Sterling & Hunt 68 Straw, Steven,Company, Inc. outside back cover Sutter, Robert 69 Teichner, Virginia 68 Tewksbury Antiques 71 The New York and Pennsylvania Collector 11 The Thirteen Collection 12 The White House 66 Underground Antiques 64 University Hospital Antiques Show 67 Weld, Brooke 70 Whiteley, L.D. Galleries 63 Woodard, Thos K. 2 The Greater York Antiques Show and Sale 14

An Exhibition of Paintings by

ANTOINETTE SCHWOB (April 2nd - April 22nd)

Oil on Canvas 42" x 60"

"Road to Pembina" •

"ART NEWS" wrote of Antoinette Schwob that ". .. the artist goes right to the heart of her subject." Heart — aided by memory and imagination — accounts for the aura of happy nostalgia that pervades each of her carefully articulated canvases.

In childhood, a photographic eye captured and stored every face, place and artifact encountered. Today, an innate, totally untutored talent enables her to evoke those early days in North Dakota with poetic precision.

Spare and sweeping at first glance, the Schwob paintings reward the viewer by revealing unexpectedly exact, delightful detail. Once seen, her sharp, crystal-clear canvases can never be confused with those of any other artist.

•

JAY JOHNSON AMERICA'S FOLK HERITAGE GALLERY 37 West 20th Street, Room 706 New York, N.Y.10011

Weekends(except Easter Sunday) 1-5 p.m.

•

Weekdays by appt. only. Call (212) 243-4336

19th Century American View from Southbridge, Massachusetts John Annidown House / 4 inches Oil on board, 33/ 1 2 x 551 Circa 1800

Provenance Roger Bacon, Exeter, New Hampshire Recorded Nina Fletcher Little, American Decorative Wall Painting.

New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1972, pp. 26, number 16.

Note This is one of a number of overmantles done by the same hand.

Steven Straw Company, inc.

19TH AND 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN ART Thirty Green Street, Newburyport, Massachusetts 01950

Tel.(617)462-3171 Telex 94-7445 Hours: Tuesday窶認riday 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Saturday by appointment.

Our color catalog is available at $5.00, postage paid.