Shards2010september

A Newsletter of the China Students’ Club of Boston Volume 14, Issue 1 www.chinastudentsclub.org September 2010 A Message from Our President Dear members, Welcome to a new and exciting season of China Students’ Club meetings! As I write this message to you I am in the midst of canning tomatoes—a sure indication that we are nearing the end of summer, which in turn means that we can look forward to a new season of CSC events. We kicked off the season with a field trip to Old Sturbridge Village on September 11th for the Collectors’ Forum, Ceramics in New England. More than thirty CSC members turned out for this event on a beautiful September day, and everyone shad had a wonderful time. Thank you to all who joined us that day to get things off to a fine start! (full report in the next issue).

Anne Lanning has once again arranged a great roster of speakers for the year. You should have your Blue Books in hand soon with a complete list of the upcoming programs and dates (see also page 5). If you have not yet renewed your membership for this year, please send a check to Greg Lovell, Club Treasurer. I urge you try to get to as many meetings as possible in the coming months. We love seeing a good turnout for our

programs and it really helps us to stay in touch with your interests. I always enjoy chatting with members before and after our program lectures. Our first regular meeting in Boston will be October 28th with Stuart Slavid of Skinner, Inc., speaking on “New Trends in Collecting Wedgwood.” For those of you who are Board Members, our meetings this year will be held following the programs in October, February, and April.

If any members are interested in helping out with the planning for our anniversary exhibition on the ceramic trade in New England, please contact either Deborah Bassett or me. We are also interested in hearing from you if you would like to contribute examples from your collections. Some of you have already submitted photos for this project some time ago, so we will likely be contacting you as plans progress. We hope to have an exhibition up and ready by September/October of 2011 so it is none too soon to make plans. We will need your help and input to make this a success! I look forward to seeing you all in the coming months.

Best wishes, Nan Wolverton, President

Ron Fuchs on “A Hidden Treasure: The Reeves Collection of Chinese Export Porcelain at Washington and Lee University” Reviewed by Jeff Brown We regret that we were unable to obtain appropriate illustrations for this report.

The CSC convened for its penultimate lecture in April to hear Ron Fuchs, Curator of the Reeves Collection at Washington and Lee University, speak on the Reeves Collection of Chinese export porcelain located at the university. The university was founded in 1749 and boasts a fine art collection started around 1875 that contains an unparalleled group of early American portraits, some of which hung at Mount Vernon, including

the earliest known portrait of George Washington. Robert E. Lee married a great step-granddaughter of Washington, and when the Civil War general retired to the school after the war as its president, his wife’s family inheritance came with him. Upon his death in 1870 the school, originally Washington College, became Washington and Lee University to honor Lee. One of the larger but lesser known collections of Chinese Export porcelains in the United States can be found at WashContinued on page 2

We apologize for the lateness of this issue of Shards. We won’t even try to offer any excuses!

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Ron Fuchs on the Reeves Collection Continued from page 1 ington and Lee. The Reeves Collection found its home in this upper Shenandoah Valley University as the result of a generous alumni bequest from Euchlin and Louise Herreshoff Reeves. Their collection contains some 3000 pieces of pottery and porcelain made in Europe and China between 1300 and 1900. As with most collections, there is some great story to be told, and this one is no different: the Reeves’ relationship seemed to have begun over a “passion for pots” and that passion continued for the rest of their lives. They actually met in 1940 at the Providence Pottery and Porcelain Club and despite a 30 year difference in their ages (Louise being the elder) they eloped the next year. They lived in Providence in a modest home that eventually became stacked with porcelain, and when that filled up, they moved into the house they bought next door and started to fill that up as well. Louise had already been collecting for years before she met her husband, one of her first pieces being a ca. 1743 Meissen platter from the dazzling “Swan Service” (she certainly didn’t start off in any small way!)

Louise actually studied painting in Paris in her youth and was apparently quite talented. The death of a beloved aunt in 1927, who had raised Louise, caused a nervous breakdown, her canvases were retired, and she never painted again.

The Reeves collected British and continental wares, but the main focus seems to have been on Chinese export as it satisfied Louise’s interest in color and pattern and her husband’s interest in American history. A family interest came into play as well: Louise’s great-great grandfather was John Brown of Providence, one of America’s greatest China trade merchants. One of the signature pieces of the collection reflects this China trade connection: a superb “Hongs of Canton” punchbowl depicting the trading offices or “hongs” of the various countries dealing with China, all ranged along the Canton waterfront, each country’s flag on display. This masterpiece dates to circa 1790-1810. And although they bought porcelain dating from 1600 to 1900, they were especially interested in things made for the American market between 1790 and 1820. Outstanding in this category is a piece bearing the insignia of the Order of the Cincinnati, a group of Revolutionary War officers who had

served with Washington. It belonged to a service commissioned in Canton by Samuel Shaw, one of the first American merchants in China, after a design by Pierre L’Enfant, who later laid out the city of Washington, D.C. Oddly enough, considering it was such a specialty item, the dinner service was ordered on spec and advertised for sale upon its arrival back in New York. It was purchased by Henry Lee on George Washington’s behalf and was used while Washington was President and, later, upon his retirement to Mount Vernon. Subsequent services in this pattern were ordered for other members of the society. Other pieces with American connections include a platter from the service made for DeWitt Clinton of New York, a punch bowl dated 1801 bearing the Great Seal of the United States that had belonged to a Van Rensselaer of New York, a part service having once belonged to Paul Revere, and a rare pair of cups bearing the arms of Gabriel Manigault of South Carolina, circa 1823, commissioned by his China- trading brother Charles and based on an engraved book plate.

The Reeves also collected Chinese export for the British and continental markets. There is an outstanding punchbowl decorated with foxhunting scenes based on period English engravings, as well as a dazzling spiraldecorated teapot, circa 1800, whose design source remains a mystery. All told, the Reeves collected about 3000 pieces and in 1967 the entire collection came to the university, both husband and wife, despite the difference in their ages, having died within a year of each other.

Following the establishment of the collection in a fine 1840 period house, it has continued to grow. Several gifts of early Ming and Qing porcelain helped fill gaps in those areas, including fine blue and white as well as a teapot with rare famille verte biscuit decoration.

Additions to Washington’s Cincinnati service include a cut-corner salad bowl, and there have been additions to the collection with Robert E. Lee provenances as well.

There are new pieces of a striking Chinese export neoclassically inspired coffee and tea service with a lemon yellow ground made for the Chew family of Philadelphia, as well as amusing “clobbered” wares such as a simple blue and white Chinese export teapot that was over-decorated after its arrival in England with all manContinued on page 3

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Ron Fuchs on the Reeves Collection Continued from page 2 ner of English-inspired chinoiseries to make it even more exotically appealing. Armorial porcelains are well represented by rare pieces made for the Portuguese market as well as one of the most famous English armorials ever produced in the China trade: a plate from the Leake Okeover service.

At present, the project consuming most of Ron’s time is a large collection of coffee cups of English, Irish,

Scottish, and American armorial export porcelain, a bequest from David Sanctuary Howard, the author of the definitive volumes on armorial porcelain made for the English market. The collection spans the period of 17101860 and will be an invaluable teaching tool, as the Reeves Collection is primarily a teaching collection. And on that note, Ron extended a kind invitation to us all to visit Washington and Lee and view and learn from this gem of a collection.

The Vivian Hawes Memorial Lecture: Amanda Lange on “Ivory, Cream Color, or Queensware?: English Creamware at Historic Deerfield” Reviewed by Jeff Brown On 27 May the Boston China Students’ Club was welcomed to its annual meeting and tea at the College Club by President Nan Wolverton. After the business of the Club was attended to, our speaker, Amanda Lange of Historic Deerfield, was introduced. Amanda is not only a noted curator and author but also a past Club president and longtime member and friend. She spoke on “Ivory, Cream Colour, or Queensware?: English Creamware at Historic Deerfield.”

In 2006 Historic Deerfield was fortunate to acquire Alistair Sampson’s personal collection of 162 pieces of English creamware—making the museum a significant site for the study of this important pottery in the United States. While the museum has long been known for strengths in Chinese export porcelain and English delftware, the English creamware collection, while representative, had never been considered outstanding.

Alistair Sampson (1929-2006) was a prominent British antiques dealer. After his death, the firms of Alistair Sampson Antiques and Jonathan Horne Antiques merged to form Sampson and Horne Antiques.

Sampson had been assembling a private collection of creamware for many years. As a collector he was interested in illustrating the stylistic evolution and great formal diversity of the earthenwares first produced in Staffordshire in the 1740s. His collection ranges widely in terms of forms with several representative pieces in the rococo style, but most of the wares reflect neo-classical design. The majority of the collection consists of

plain, undecorated creamware with the exception of a partial tea and coffee service that is transfer-printed with “exotic birds” and enhanced with green enamels and gilding, circa 1775.

“Ivory,” “Cream colour,” “Queensware,” or “creamware” are all names for a type of earthenware made from a combination of ball clay and ground calcined flint which when fired burned to a white color. A once fired body (biscuit) is then coated with a layer of liquid lead glaze and fired again. Enoch Booth (1717c.1745) of Tunstall, England, is credited with the invention of this ware in the 1740s. Thomas Whieldon utilized the creamware body and decorated it with metallic oxide colors to produce his tortoiseshell and cream-colored wares as early as 1749. But it was Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) who perfected and successfully marketed the ceramic body. He embarked on a series of experiments between 1759 and 1765 to try and improve this standard body. The creamy yellow color of creamware is due to iron impurities in the lead source which made the glaze vary from a deep cream or buff color to paler shades. By 1762 Wedgwood had developed a light, sturdy, refined, yet inexpensive cream colored earthenware body. It could be left plain or elaborately decorated; the ceramic provided the perfect surface for hand-painted or transfer-printed decoration. The ware was often called “Queensware” because in 1765 England’s Queen Charlotte ordered a complete tea set decorated in green and gold from Wedgwood. So deContinued on page 4

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Amanda Lange on English Creamware at Historic Deerfield Continued from page 3 lighted was she that she allowed Wedgwood to title himself “Potter to Her Majesty.” Such advertising one cannot buy! Equally fashionable with the aristocracy and the middle-class on both sides of the Atlantic, creamware transcended its status as an earthenware body and was often valued as the equal of porcelain. The rush to purchase creamware brought the popularity of both delftware and salt-glazed stoneware to an end. Estimates suggest that more than 150 factories throughout England manufactured the wares.

Some of the creamware pieces in the Sampson collection are purely ornamental (in the 1760s Wedgwood was experimenting with the creation of ornamental vases), but a great many other wares are decidedly utilitarian, including a strong group of vessels for drinking both hot and alcoholic beverages. Drinking wares range from simple mugs to stirrup cups to elaborate jugs. Dinner and dessert wares are another specialty of the collection. Dessert in the 18th century was largely decorative with an emphasis on fruit and sugar.

This course provided an opportunity for elaborate, artistic displays of desserts in expensive glass, ceramic, and silver vessels. The popularity of hot beverages such as coffee, tea, and chocolate is also amply recognized in the Sampson collection, as well as lighting fixtures such as candlesticks.

Plate, manufactured in Staffordshire, printed in Liverpool, England, c.1780 Lead-glazed creamware with black enamel

In addition to this wonderful, comprehensive collection, Historic Deerfield has continued to “fill in the gaps” since 2006 with the acquisition of some choice and rare examples of creamware such as a fine transferprinted punch pot, a three-footed salt with tortoiseshell colors, and a creamware dish decorated with a rare satirical engraving lampooning the British government’s mismanagement of the war in America and England’s subsequent humiliation.

Amanda concluded with a warm invitation to all of us to visit these marvelous new treasures at Historic Deerfield. (more pictures on page 5)

Candlestick, attributed to James and Charles Whitehead Factory (w. 1796-1813), Hanley, Staffordshire, England, 1796-1800.

Creamware with lead glaze

Covered Tureen, probably Yorkshire, England, c.

1780. Creamware with lead glaze

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Upcoming Ceramics Events CSC Meetings All meetings at 1 PM at the College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 10/28/2010: New Trends in Collecting Wedgwood; Stuart Slavid, Vice President, Skinner; CSC member 11/29: Pueblo Mothers of Mother Earth: Pueblo Pot Making; Jonathan Fairbanks, Independent scholar 1/27/2011: Chinese Export Ceramics: New Research and New Research Techniques; William Sargent, consultant, CSC member 2/24: Bits and Pieces; Members are invited to bring an object or two for discussion 3/24: A Discussion of Characteristics of Qing Blue and White Porcelain Useful in Discriminating Early from Later Pieces; David Stevens, CSC member 4/28: Dutch Interest in Asian Ceramics—the Long History; Julie Berger Hochstrasser, Associate Profrssor, University of Iowa 5/26: The Vivian Hawes Memorial Lecture and Annual Meeting and Tea: The Legacy of the Jones Museum; Louise Richardson, CSC member.

fairyland luster, Emile Lessore decorated wares, and a blue jasper mounted ormolu, wood, and cut glass figural mantel clock 10/22, Sotheby’s, NY (English) 10/26, Sotheby’s, NY (19th century) 12/7, Christie’s, London.

Exhibitions At the Sackler Gallery, Washington, DC: Contemporary Japanese Porcelain At the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC: Chinamania: Whistler and the Victorian Craze for Blue-and-White (until 8/7/11) Cornucopia: Ceramics from Southern Japan (until 1/9/11) Ancient Chinese Pottery and Bronze Arts of the Islamic World (including ceramics) Korean Ceramics At the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA: The Emperor’s Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City (until 1/9/2011).

Auctions Asian: 10/7-8, Sotheby’s, Hong Kong (Chinese) 11/9, Christie’s, London (Chinese) 11/10, Christie’s, London (Japanese) 11/10, Sotheby’s, London (Chinese) 12/1, Christie’s, Hong Kong (Chinese).

European: 10/1, Skinner, Boston: the Kadison collection of Wedgwood. Includes 232 lots and features numerous examples of Wedgwood and Bentley 18th century jasper including a pair of tea urns and covers, and a wide variety of black basalt with plaques, wine and water ewers, stirrup cups, busts, tea wares and other ornamental wares. Variegated wares, cane ware and queen’s ware are also included. The majolica encompasses over 70 lots including many figures and figural groups featuring a large Isaac and Rebekah group, a hefty model of a bull, and many ornamental and tea wares. Also worth mentioning are a fine pair of moonlight luster crater urns,

Creamware from Historic Deerfield (cont.): Left: Vase, attributed to the Wedgwood Factory (1759-2009); Burslem, Staffordshire, England, c.

1767. Creamware with lead glaze Right: Toby Jug, Staffordshire or Yorkshire, England, c. 1800. Creamware with lead glaze

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Contents A message from our president .............................................................................................................................

Ron Fuchs on the Reeves Collection, report by Jeff Brown ..............................................................................

Amanda Lange on creamware at Historic Deerfield, report by Jeff Brown .....................................................

Upcoming ceramics events ...................................................................................................................................

This is a quiz! Can you identify this object? If so, and you were not present when the object was made, send your solution to the Editor at doryon@rcn.com.

Solution in the next issue

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