Shards2011january

A Newsletter of the China Students’ Club of Boston Volume 14, Issue 2 www.chinastudentsclub.org January 2011 A Message from Our President Dear fellow members, I look forward to seeing you in the New Year. In 2011 we can look forward to many excellent programs.

Last fall we enjoyed engaging presentations by Stuart Slavid on trends in collecting Wedgwood and by Jonathan Fairbanks on Pueblo pottery. Please join us for 2011 programs beginning in January as we explore new research on Chinese Export ceramics with Bill Sargent, a discriminating look at Qing blue and white porcelain with David Stevens, Dutch interest in Asian ceramics with Julie Berger Hochstrasser, and the legacy of the Jones Museum with Louise Richardson. And don’t forget to bring in your treasures in February for our annual Bits and Pieces program!

As many of you know, the China Students’ Club has been looking for a new location to house its archival materials. Club Historian Dorothy-Lee Jones has kept the eleven boxes of materials safe for several years at her home in Maine, but with her recent relocation we needed to find a new place for them. We have had a very positive response from the Boston Athenaeum in our search for a suitable home for the archives. My hope is that by the end of this summer the boxes of CSC papers will be safely housed at the Boston Athenaeum.

This will make the archives much more accessible for our members. It will not be necessary to be a member

of the Athenaeum to have access to the materials and we can continue to add to the archives as needed.

What’s in the CSC archives? Papers dating back to the founding of the club in 1934 include the original constitution and early bylaws. There are copies of most CSC Blue Books, guest books, scrapbooks, publications, and materials on early CSC ceramic exhibitions. I will keep you posted on how things progress with this project!

We have begun plans for our “75th Plus” Anniversary Exhibition in Portsmouth next fall. It will be held at the Discover Portsmouth Center in September and October of 2011. Plan to be in Portsmouth in September for the opening! Debbie Bassett, CSC member and Recording Secretary, is gathering materials on members’ pieces to be included. There is still time to contact Debbie if you have an item or items with some historical connection to New England that you would like to see included in the exhibit.

Finally, I regret to report that Yon Bard, our devoted Shards editor, and Greg Lovell, our diligent Treasurer, will be stepping down from their posts after this spring. We have benefited greatly from their work over the past several years and will miss their expertise. Thanks to you both for all your hard work!

Best wishes for 2011, Nan Wolverton, President

Ceramics in New England: A Symposium at Old Sturbridge Village Reviewed by Debbie Bassett China Students’ Club took a late summer hegira (September 11th) to Sturbridge Village and enjoyed participating in the program “Ceramics in New England at Old Sturbridge Village” (OSV). Three lectures on American market pottery were features of our morning.

Keynote speaker Patricia Halfpenny spoke on the topic of the American transfer printed creamware jugs and bowls of the S. Robert Teitelman Collection which is the major feature of Halfpenny’s recent collaborative book, “ Success to America: Creamware for the Ameri-

can Market.” Fifty pieces of the Teitelman Collection are now at Winterthur; Bob Teitelman died while this book was being completed and his generous bequest honored his collaboration with Pat Halfpenny and Ron Fuchs. Several images of his jug-filled apartment reinforced our sense of the enthusiasm that powered his collecting. The talk was replete with numerous examples of the pitchers that reflected the topical and timely transfer images first made mostly in Liverpool for the AngloContinued on page 2

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Ceramics in New England Continued from page 1 American market from 1760 to 1790 and later spreading to Staffordshire in the ensuing years of the early 19th century. Topical images included many celebrations of early America and her heroes and principles, even as she fought for freedom from the British. A fervent patriot, Teitelman was pleased by the content of these images. In the early years he researched many of the sources of the images, and later he was aided by Pat’s research and Ron Fuchs’s cataloging of the entire collection.

Patricia presented numerous examples from this study. For example, the dating of the jug advertising the ropeworks of the Cade Bros. on Boston wharf (extant from 1790-1804) is made easier by the intersection of the information on the jug’s face and its bottom. In this case, the appearance of the adjacent wharf and image of Boston in the background and the known dates of the Cade operations, establish the jug’s date with some accuracy. Another jug, dated 1765 and inscribed “Wilkes & Liberty No. 45,” celebrated British politician John Wilkes’ publication of the 45th edition of his newspaper North Briton in which he famously slandered King George III, for which he was subsequently arrested.

Wilkes became a rallying point for colonists in their struggle against the arbitrary power of the king. Note that the British manufactory reproduced the cartoon of this slanderous man’s work for its American pottery buyers. Other more visual images, such as cartoons from the press, also decorated jugs in that politically charged time.

After the revolution, images of George Washington and classical female figures representing heroism and the virtues of democracy vied for popularity with numerous ship images, inscribed with both the name of the ship and its owner. Also popular were patriotic slogans, such as “by virtue and valour, we have freed our country, extending our commerce, and laid the foundation of a great empire.”

The next speaker was our own CSC president, Nan Wolverton, speaking about “Purchasing Ceramics of the Early 19th Century in Central MA.” The full title of the talk began with the phrase, “Every Lady is Requested to Call” which was a phrase employed by the

merchant who was reaching out to the rural women who saved their small cottage industry earnings (butter and egg money, or straw-weaving money in this locale) to come and indulge themselves in viewing and purchasing the latest styles of tea wares. Nan’s talk was informed by research she had done on the purchases that yeoman Walker made for the marriage of three daughters over a span of eight years. The father meticulously described the type, cost, and source of the pottery he provided for each of his daughters’ weddings from 1803 to 1811.

Thus we see that “crockery” (refined English earthenware) was bought in the port of Boston, but “pottery” (local redware) was bought in Worcester. While a dozen pewter plates were purchased for the first two daughters, pewter was apparently out of style by the last wedding in 1811. Uncolored creamware and edged-ware dominated the everyday pottery of the Walker daughters.

Worcester County was a major producer of straw braid used in making stove-pipe farmers’ hats. At two cents a yard, an industrious matron could earn her way to a new tea set by the time she had tired of her wedding dishes. We saw numerous replicas of the distinctive early 19th century straw hats on OSV personnel during our day-long visit.

Don Carpentier followed Nan, and his talk was entitled “Early British Pots and the Remarkable Tools Used to Make Them.” Don, a New York potter, scholar, and archaeologist became involved in making pottery through his purchase of the William Briggs Inn in Housic, NY, many years ago. The restoration of the inn brought his archaeological skills to the fore. Much of his talk was about his recent trips to Staffordshire to the sites of the old potteries that made so much of the world’s English refined earthenwares and which are mostly closed or in decline. Numerous images of the potteries were shown, from the old beehive ovens and the long tables filled with molded forms, to the rack upon rack of the forms themselves, saved in attics now in danger of being torn down. Not surprisingly, Don has brought home many of these molds, as he turned his manufactory to reproductions of originals. Tales of dust and dirt and shipping miseries filled his remarks. He has singleContinued on page 3

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Ceramics in New England Continued from page 2 handedly moved a large number of these tangible archives to New York to preserve them for posterity. The scale of the project seems almost beyond imagination.

We were also shown a variety of the traditional tools used in various stages of the making of the pottery that Don has learned to use as they once were. This was an epitaph to an almost lost art that Don is keeping alive.

The subjects of this last talk of the morning were made more tangible by Don’s demonstration of working with clay and coloring in the afternoon, following a fine buffet lunch at the Oliver Wright Tavern, and a raid on the bookstore which did not have enough copies of “Creamware for the American Market.” We then went out into the balmy September afternoon to travel the paths of Sturbridge with several specific destinations in mind.

First, there was the OSV ceramics collection exhibited in the Fuller Center. This wide-ranging display of ceramics used in central Massachusetts in the late 18th to mid 19th century was amiably curated by OSV staff. Secondly, nearby, was a peek at a recent furniture

exhibition curated by Nan Wolverton, entitled “Convenient and Fashionable: Furniture of Inland Massachusetts, 1790-1830.” With little effort one could imagine the pottery of the morning occupying the same houses as these simple to elegant pieces of home furniture.

A walk to the Hervey Brooks Pottery Shop down a well-worn path with sun filtering through the trees presented additional treats. Luckily for us, the beehive kiln was being fired, a fairly rare occurrence. Adjacent to the kiln and its knowlegable tenders was the pottery shop where a demonstration of a potting wheel was taking place, and samples of the local products were evident in abundance. These modern reproductions, mostly of redware, were for sale in the shop at the central location.

Further ambling on the path led to many of the sites of Sturbridge Village from yarn dying to red-coated reenactors to barns with implements of harvest.

The late afternoon featured a book signing with Pat Halfpenny and a reception at The Brooks Pottery Shop. It was a marvelous day enhanced by the mild and sunny weather.

Top left: Don Carpentier applies slip decoration with salvaged tool Bottom left: Repaired jug from OSV collection Center: Stoking the kiln Right: Shaping the rim, with audience help

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Stuart Slavid on “New Trends in Collecting Wedgwood” Reviewed by Debbie Bassett The CSC convened on October 28, 2010 at the College Club to hear a lecture and presentation of slides

by Stuart Slavid who is the director of European Furniture & Decorative Arts, Silver and Fine Ceramics at Skinner’s, and a former collector of Wedgwood himself.

Early Wedgwood collecting favored the 18th-century creamware, jasper, and basalt pieces, and most collectors stopped with the early 19th-entury styles. From 1800-1850 the company also made utilitarian wares such as pipes, stoves and sinks just to keep the manufactory going. They copied other potters indisciminately. This changed in the latter years of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century when various artists contributed their designs.

In the last twenty years we have seen a growth in a new type of Wedgwood collecting, focusing on the wide range of styles and designs of the last century.

Wedgwood made a conscious choice to hire and endorse a range of artists to design their production.

Hence a heterogeneity emerges in 20th century collections that defies easy categorization. The idea that the name Wedgwood stands for a specific style is simply no longer true. More important to this new breed of collector is knowledge about the personality and range of work of a contributing artist. Here are some examples: Emile Lessore came to Wedgwood in 1860 after an earlier career at Sèvres and Minton. His prolific production of bucolic subjects created a strong following of his work.

Thomas Allen was a designer and artist at Wedgwood from 1875 to 1904. He was regarded as the leading Staffordshire painter in the 19th century. He was the first to fill the role of Art Director at Wedgwood.

His work often depicted scantily clad Romantic looking women.

George Marsden developed the slip-decorated “sgraffito” which has become known as Marsden ware, about 1881.

Courtney Lindsay’s wares, c. 1910, had an art nouveau look She designed a few new shapes, as well as the stylized designs of butterflies and leaf patterns.

Alfred Powell began working at Wedgwood in

1903 and remained there until 1943. He was an architect in the Arts and Crafts movement and also worked with his wife Louise Lessore. He is known as a hand painter and trainer of a generation of hand painters. He trained Millicent Taplin, who designed for Wedgwood from 1917 until 1962. Her work is characterized by a pleasant floral and lustre known as Rodian Ware.

Additional artists included John Skeaping and Daisy (Susannah Margaretta) Maekig-Jones. Maekig-Jones designed the highly collectible Fairyland lustre and was known for her eccentricity. She retired in 1931. Erling Olsen, a freelance designer from Norway showed the strong Art-Deco influence of the era. Keith Day Pearce Murray, an architect, glass-maker and potter from New Zealand brought his architectural sensibilities to his pottery, winning recognition at the Royal Academy in 1935.

In 1936, Victor Skellern took over management of Wedgwood. He was the first fully trained professional designer to be employed permanently by Wedgwood and the first Art Director in the true meaning of the term. He reinvigorated the business and brought in new artists. His motto “Beauty at modest cost” helped bring more freelance artists to the studios and further diversified the look. He was a designer in his own right, introducing a number of patterns, shapes, bodies, and glazes. He also worked closely with Keith Murray and Norman Wilson to make continual improvements to the range of wares produced. He also concerned himself with the application of advanced technology and promoted the Wedgwood name in England through a series of important exhibitions. Note some of the freelancers from this era: Alan Best, Doris Lindner, Arnold Machin (whose bas-relief of Queen Elizabeth II adorns the British postage stamp), and Norman Wilson, who succeeded Skellern as manager.

By the 1970s we have Glenys Barton, Colin Melbourne, Elwyn James, Frank Brookes, and David Puxley as notable artists. Eduardo Paolozzi completes our list of artists with his 1987 silk screen design bone china plates called “Variations on a Geometric Theme.”

His work is also seen in the Tottenham Court Road tube station in the form of mosaic walls.

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Stuart Slavid on “New Trends in Collecting Wedgwood” Continued from page 4 There is more! But time constrained this talk. Let Wedgwood no longer rest on 18th-century laurels with such fine standards and varied production coming up to the modern time!

Clockwise, from top left: Matte green glazed kangaroo by John Skeaping, ca.

1927 Terra Cotta “Hands of the Potter” by Colin Melbourne, ca.1978 Arnold Machin model “Country Lovers,” ca. 1941 Bone china Long John Silver by Montague Weaver-Bridgeman, ca.

1924 Desdemona charger by Thomas Allen, ca. 1888 Eduardo Paolozzi bone china “Variations on a Geometric Theme,” ca.

1987

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Jonathan Fairbanks on “Pueblo Mothers of Mother Earth: Pueblo Pot Making” Reviewed by Jeff Brown On November 29 the CSC convened at the College Club for its last meeting of 2010 to hear independent decorative arts scholar Jonathan Fairbanks speak on “Pueblo Mothers of Mother Earth: Pueblo Pot Making.” The meeting didn’t take the usual format of an illustrated lecture, but was very informal and anecdotal with Jonathan using as his talking points an amazing array of Pueblo pots from his personal collection that he was kind enough to bring in for us to view.

As many of you know, Jonathan was a curator at the MFA in Boston for many years and in that capacity he was given funds to travel to the Southwest and acquire pieces for the museum’s collections. What followed was a “trip to another world,” as he described it, where the outsider and visitor step completely into the pueblo culture. It was a world dominated by animism, a belief that all things—animate and inanimate—possess a spirit. He was present when a pot was unearthed from its pit kiln and it started to creak and crackle as it cooled, and the potter remarked that that was the sound of the spirit entering the pot. Jonathan asked how he knew that and the potter replied, “Because if you broke

Figural group in clay by Joyce Sisneros Gallegos, a Santa Clara Pueblo potter who now lives in Holbrook, AZ. This group depicts Pueblo women baking bread. The group was made and purchased in 1984 for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with funds donated

by Betsy and Dr. Wallace McMeel of Boston.

the pot, it makes the same sound when the spirit leaves it.” Such was the world that Jonathan entered, a place where people lived within both the Stone Age and the 20th century.

The pots are all made of local clays, fired in pit kilns. They are not thrown on a wheel, but rather built up and smoothed out of coils of clay, sometimes achieving remarkable thinness and delicacy. They are decorated with slips and painted with pieces of the yucca plant that have been chewed and frayed into brushes, basically sticks and twigs that are capable of rendering the finest lines. By tradition most of the potters are women, but some men have gradually been entering the field. Each pueblo and each artist have their own distinctive style. A lot of the decorative elements are geometric and symbolic in nature. These styles can best be described not through words, but images, so I shall end my article here and let the pottery speak for itself, just as it inspired Jonathan on the day he so generously shared his time and collection with us.

Captions by Jonathan Fairbanks.

More pictures on pp. 7, 8, 10.

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Pueblo Pot Making (cont.)

Acoma Pueblo pot with fine-line design by Lucy M. Lewis (1989-1992). Made in the early 1980s; collections of Sam and Alfreda Maloof.

Zia Pueblo pot made by Elizabeth (“Sepia”) Mediana (b. 1958) with images painted of dancers

by Marcellus Medina (b. 1954). Pot I purchased in the 1980s for the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. At the time this pot was made it was felt by the elders of Zia that the Indian dancers of sacred ceremonies should not be so faithfully recorded.

Marcellus has painted since childhood. His father was also a renowned painter. After his father died, Marcellus undertook painting seriously. He believed that his paintings honored the traditions of his Indian nation. However, he did ask that this pot not be shown or pictured until the “ image” issue was settled. After he became an elder in his pueblo, several years ago, there were no more objections to showing his painted imagery.

Message from the Editor Zuni Pueblo pot made by Randy Nahohai, acquired from the potter in 1986. Signed “R. Nahoha 198 .”

The Nahohai family is famous for a long line of potters and artists. At the time this was purchased, his mother was elderly but still producing pots. His older brother was producing remarkable pots featuring brilliantly spotted frogs.

After ten years of wielding the blue pencil, I am retiring at the end of the current season. I have had a lot of fun editing Shards, but it is time to retire!

We are looking for a successor to pick up the editorial duties. If you are interested, please contact Nan or myself .

Yonathan Bard

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Report from London

By Jeff Brown If any of you noticed my absence from our September field trip to Sturbridge it was because my lovely wife and I were taking a little holiday in London, and, among the capital’s delights was, of course, the Victoria and Albert Museum and its new Ceramics Galleries.

They are simply overwhelming! After a very long period of renovation during which most of the ceramics collection was put into storage, the V&A has put EVERYTHING on display in large, bright galleries full of towering cases. These large center cases are filled with phalanxes of ceramics organized by categories—row upon row of Worcester sparrow beak milk jugs, for example—which makes for good comparison studies. The problem is that some are at ankle level and others are on glass shelves so far above your head that you can only see the bottoms of pieces. Fortunately, everything is well numbered and you can access each item on computer terminals in each gallery, pull up the item with photographs, history and full descriptions. Cases along the walls of these large galleries, as well as in smaller antechambers between galleries, are less daunting and contain some of the most dramatic and interesting pieces.

They are beautifully arranged chronologically and by country of origin, and some cases are used to illustrate the progression of technologies and how ceramics developed stylistically. The scope and depth of the collection is, as I said, an overwhelming feast for the eyes; you will see things you’ve only seen in books or never even knew existed. Well worth a trip from anywhere!

I should also mention that joining us in London on

Pueblo Pot Making (cont.)

Right: Clay Story Teller with children made by Seferina Ortiz of Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico, c. 1984.

The Cochiti Pueblo was famous for its wonderful story teller clay figures. Some figures made in Cochiti and elsewere are rather sentimental or just plain kitsch — made to amuse the tourist trade. This example, however, is far from sentimental — made by a wonderful potter who passed away just a few years ago.

Her husband makes cottonwood drums. Her son ,Virgil Ortiz, who was a child making clay dinosaurs when this was acquired, has become a highly original clay worker who makes astonishing tattooed figures in the Chochiti tradition.

Jeff dazzled by V&A exhibits

this visit was Sean Blanchet, a recently joined member of CSC, and his fiancée Katie Gerbner. Sean had just proposed to Katie on holiday in Barcelona the week before meeting up with us, so besides the Ceramics Galleries at the V&A we had lots to celebrate that week.

Congratulations to Sean and Katie!

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Upcoming Ceramics Events CSC Meetings All meetings at 1 PM at the College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 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.

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) Ancient Chinese Pottery and Bronze Arts of the Islamic World (including ceramics) Korean Ceramics Auctions Asian: 1/25, Christie’s, NY, Chinese export 2/23, Grogan, Dedham, Chinese 3/23, Christie’s, NY, Japanese 3/23, Sotheby’s, NY, Chinese 3/25, Christies, NY, Chinese 5/10, Christie’s, London, Chinese 5/11, Christoie’s, London, Japanese 5/13, Christie’s, London, Chinese European: 1/21, Christie’s, NY, incl. English pottery 4/9, Skinner, Boston, incl. Meissen porcelain.

Last Issue’s Quiz In the last issue we presentd the picture on the left as a quiz; we asked readers to identify the depicted object, and cautioned people who saw it being made to abstain from submitting solutions.

We received only one correct answer; indeed it was the only answer! Nicholas Johnson wrote: “This fan-shaped slip decoration has the characteristic dendritic of a form of mochaware. The fern-like endings resemble those seen in moss agate, known formerly as “mocha stone.” To achieve this bleeding effect various substances were added to the dark “tea” used, such as urine and tobacco juice. Given the hint about “being present when it was made,” and since none of us is quite 150 years old, I would guess that this is the work of Don Carpentier, intrepid researcher of craft traditions.”

Indeed, Don Carpentier made this pattern in his demonstration following his talk at the Old Sturbridge Village symposium.

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

Ceramics in New England, report by Debbie Bassett .........................................................................................

New trends in collecting Wedgwood, report by Debbie Bassett .......................................................................

Pueblo pot making, report by Jeff Brown ...........................................................................................................

Message from the editor .......................................................................................................................................

Report from London, by Jeff Brown .....................................................................................................................

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

1 1 4 6 7 8 9

Photo c. 1900 of a Hopi woman holding a large clay pot for containing water. She is Fawn Navasie’s mother, who taught Fawn how to make her pottery. The mother’s Indian name translates as “Corn Pollen Blowing in the Wind.” The Navasie family were of the Water Clan who came from First Mesa or “Walpi.”

Fawn made, and her daughters still make, elegant traditional Hopi pottery.