Shards2016spring

WINTER/SPRING 2016

GREETINGS FROM OUR PRESIDENT Dear Members, What an amazing year 2015-2016 was for our group! We were able to locate and move into a new meeting space at the King’s Chapel Parish House on Beacon Street. Not only does the space work well for us but with it came an infusion of interest on the part of the Beacon Hill Seminars and we were delighted to welcome Seminar attendees to our meetings as part of their schedule of offerings.

One of the best parts of being a member of the club is the opportunity to step outside of the box from a ceramics perspective and attend talks that might not normally fall into one’s area of interest. Last year brought us several interesting talks from members and outside speakers that certainly opened my eyes and piqued my interest. The April field trip to the Peabody Essex Museum to see the exhibition “Asia in Amsterdam,” with a special tour hosted by Karina Corrigan was the icing on the cake.

We also received our first major donation which enabled the club to purchase our own digital projector and will provide assistance with speakers’ expenses in the future, enabling the diverse and high-quality lectures to continue. At the Annual Meeting in May, a new board position was created and Jim Kaufman was nominated to fill it. The essence of the position will be to secure the financial future of the club. The by-laws change which created the position will need to be ratified at the September 2016 meeting.

Also at the Annual Meeting, the historic vote was taken to change the name of the club from the China Students’ Club of Boston, Inc. to the Ceramics Study Club of Boston after a long and Page 1

thoughtful process with lengthy discussions and opportunities for members to voice their opinions. In the end, we wanted to keep some of our long history present in the new name but also to update it to reflect a wider range of ceramic interests than present in the current interpretation of the word “China.” I think we have succeeded.

I look forward to the new program year and hope to see as many of you as possible at the meetings.

The Blue Books with the program schedule are forthcoming, but please continue to check the club’s web site and Facebook page for updated information.

Best wishes, Carolyn Parsons Roy

A NEW LECTURE SEASON BEGINS WITH A VISITOR FROM “DOWN UNDER” On a bright, wintry afternoon, our 2016 lecture program began on a very enthusiastic note when contemporary Australian ceramic artist Stephen Bowers addressed a packed room of CSC members and guests from the Beacon Hill Seminars. Speaking on the topic of Ming Goes Bling, Stephen discussed his creative philosophy and his own body of work in a warm, entertaining manner that the audience found as engaging as his ceramics.

Born in 1953 in Adelaide, Australia, Stephen introduced his work by explaining that he is entirely self-taught. He is neither an academic, nor ceramic historian and it is without academic credentials that he has approached the field of ceramics. Stephen started in the 1970s at a large governmentsponsored local ceramics studio in Adelaide. Unlike today where the emphasis seems to be heavily on “design”, back then the emphasis was on hand craft and so, his education was indeed very hands on. While getting his hands dirty, he also thought about what intrigued and fascinated him so about ceramics. He discussed with us the idea of a simple bowl. He believes it to be one of the greatest and most fundamental inventions of all humankind. He believes a bowl is one of the most complex abstract objects ever produced. Turned on a wheel, a bowl is a circle. A circle implies geometry. Geometry implies volume, which, in turn, implies containment. This indicates a need to carry things, which infers a movement to place to place, a society needing to “shift” things about.

Add to those observations, the fact that the bowl is made up of earth, a material and a place to which we shall all return, and you get the idea: this a fellow who looks way beyond the basic form of the object he’s creating.

Some of the initial images of Stephen’s work shown introduced us to a theme that he sees as something that runs throughout all his work and that is tension. No matter what form or Page 2

decorative scheme he’s exploring, it always involves a tension between highly detailed fragments against a chaotic background. Fragments, breakages, mosaics, “bits and pieces” all juxtaposed with each other tend to appear in his work.

A second influence upon Stephen’s work appears to be references to earlier styles of ceramics, as well as historical and literary allusions. A third theme that appears with great regularity are references to his homeland, Australia. Whether through flora or fauna, images of home abound; especially parrots…he loves parrots! And last, but not least, a great influence upon his work are Chinese ceramics. He sees Australia as located upon the “balcony of Asia” and draws upon that continent’s long historical and cultural influences.

He studied early Chinese ceramics, such as celadons and tried to emulate their carving and glazes, often making his own tools and mixing his own glazes. He soon became enthralled by the Chinese export porcelains of the 17th and 18th centuries; he admired both the formalism of the designs, and yet, the freedom of decoration within those designs, something that one can readily observe in his work where there are reserves of great detail and control, juxtaposed to areas of freedom and chaos.

Stephen’s work encompasses everything from plates, bowls and production wares, such as tea and coffee sets, to monumental pieces for private and museum commissions. The larger pieces are produced by a colleague of his who can make some very large pots. Whatever the size, Stephen emphasizes that everything is hand-painted directly on to the biscuit ware and then fired under the glaze. He uses a combination of commercially-produced glazes and stains as well as mixing his own colored slips with which to paint. Pieces can take as long as six to eight weeks to decorate as he does not work on a single object, but on a number of pieces at once, going from one to another, to avoid the tedium. Objects are fired for about six days. No matter what the size of the piece, the same attention to detail is attempted, some brilliant show of dexterity with a brush has to be made.

As Stephen readily admits he likes to be a “smart ass and show off a bit”. As mentioned, this elaborate detail often shows itself in some literary allusion such as Alice in Wonderland, or some playful use of historic transfer-printed patterns which have been tweaked to include a view from Adelaide, or, of course, a beloved parrot, all against a perfectly recognizable William Morris print in the background! It’s all about the juxtapositions……

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WORK BY STEPHEN BOWERS

Left: William Morris Camouflage Plate 2010. Right, Pair of ‘William Morris’ and French Toile’ Camouflage Dogs with burnished gold, 2013.

Left: Blue Kangaroo Antipodean Plate 2010. Right: Cockatoos and Shards Plate 2010

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BITS ‘N’ PIECES FEBRUARY 2016 The CSC convened in February for one of its most popular programs of the year, the annual “Bits ‘n’ Pieces meeting where members and guests bring objects from their personal collections for discussion or identification. It is always a delight to see real objects and to be reminded of the scope of interests that comprises our membership. It is also a pleasure, as well, for the editor as there is no lengthy lecture to transcribe, but an array of objects that can speak for themselves! Here is sampling of the fine pieces we all enjoyed:

A mocha ware reproduction beaker by Don Carpentier; Miniature copies of Italian Renaissance majolica by CSC member Lee-Ann Wessel; and a contemporary red glazed earthenware jar from a North Carolina pottery.

A rare, complete black basalt ware inkstand, circa 1805-1820 along with a miniature feather-edged plate and a miniature tureen stand, late 18th century; a Spode fruit basket and stand in the “Gothic Castle” pattern, circa 1820; and a Fenton’s Works milk jug, Bennington, VT. Circa 1840-1850.

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A Chinese Tang Dynasty earthenware jar, circa 600-900 AD; a Chinese export saucer made for Nicholas Brown, Jr., benefactor of Brown University in Providence, RI, circa 1800; and a Chinese export leaf-form dish with famille rose decoration, circa 1770.

A Chamberlain’s Worcester tea set, circa 1795-1805; examples of hand-painted French faience, circa 19201940; and a Chinese Kangxi period dish in the “Aster” pattern, circa 1690.

A “Gurgling Cod” jug, made by Wade of England for Shreve, Crump and Low, Boston, Circa 1920; a Chinese Kangxi period scroll weight in the form of a garden seat, circa 1690; and the piece that stumped everyone…what is it?

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PORTUGUESE FAIENCE SERVED UP IN MARCH Our March meeting convened at the King’s Chapel Parish House for the Vivian Hawes Memorial Lecture. This annual event celebrates the contributions former member Vivian Hawes made to both our organization and to the scholarship of ceramics. It was made more special as our speaker, Steven Pendery, personally knew Vivian and shared some fond memories of her; he was honored to have been asked to speak on this occasion. Steven is an Adjunct Member of CELAT, Universite Laval in Quebec City and was also city archaeologist for Boston in the 1980s and 1990s. His subject was Portuguese Faianca in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Archaeology has made enormous contributions to our knowledge of how ceramics were produced and traded across the North Atlantic in the 17th century; this period exhibiting unprecedented levels of production both for domestic use and for export globally. Archaeology is an especially helpful tool to illustrate the story of trade and domestic consumption of ceramics as British mercantile records from this period are rather poor. Portuguese fianca, or faience is one of those stories.

Prior to 1980, these wares were known mostly through museums and private collections.

Portuguese faience is basically an earthenware made from local clays, covered in a lead and tin glaze and decorated in cobalt blue. The glaze doesn’t have the thick white opacity that AngloDutch faience does, and is less shiny, and the glaze doesn’t chip off the body as it does so readily on northern European wares. The wares are seldom dated, so archaeology has aided in this process by finding shards in datable contexts.

What Steven finds odd is that so little of these wares show up in New England today, and yet, if you lived in mid-17th century Boston you would have been quite familiar with them. They were not only shipped to Boston, but also re-packed and shipped from Boston wharves to the plantations along the Maine coastline. Fortunately, the Big Dig project in Boston revealed many 17th century sites through archaeological digs, especially in Charlestown, during the 1980s. Coupled with existing probate inventories of the period, Steven and his colleagues were able to establish a picture of trade and domestic use of these ceramics in Puritan Boston. Research revealed the owner of one Charlestown residence also had a residence in the Azores where he was involved in trans-Atlantic trade. As all parties benefited from the trade, the fact that a staunch Puritan was living and dealing in the Roman Catholic Portuguese Azores was a fact that was apparently tolerated. Vessels reconstructed from shards in a cellar at the Charlestown site reveal a large number of tin-glazed wares, over half of which were used for food service and preparation, and of those, a large proportion were Portuguese faience, mostly small plates of about 8”-9” in diameter. Most were highly decorated. Attempts were then made to date and categorize them stylistically based upon Page 7

extant whole examples “above ground” in museums. The earliest examples were attempts to imitate the pattern on Chinese export kraakware of the Wanli period (late 16th- early17th century) with their paneled borders and uses of Chinese decorative motifs. As time went on, there was a fusion of styles where these Chinese motifs were interpreted more for western European tastes, as well as the incorporation of simple geometric and even abstract designs. There are also a few examples using armorial devices which, again, is curious as to why Puritan Bostonians would want to be dining off the coats-of arms of Catholic aristocrats and kings.

Shards of 17th century Portuguese fianca found in Boston.

As for the preponderance of plates, Steven speculates that it could have been the migration of European dining habits to New England where a dinner “course” consisted of many small plates of foods from which diners chose what they wanted. Think today of Portuguese tapas.

Steven concluded with observations about our conceptions of early 17th century New England; the hard life on the fringes of wilderness, dining off wooden trenchers. Perhaps in rural areas that was true, but perhaps a re-interpretation should be considered as the evidence suggests life in urban areas like Boston had its share of material comforts and luxuries.

LUXURY IN APRIL FOR CSC MEMBERS On the last day of April, CSC members were treated to a much-anticipated field trip when they visited Asia in Amsterdam: The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age at the Peabody Essex Museum.

The exhibit was co-curated by our own CSC member and past president, Karina H. Corrigan, the H.A. Crosby Forbes Curator of Asian Export Art at the Peabody Essex. The exhibit opened at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in last October before moving to the PEM.

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The exhibit comprises 170 amazingly beautiful Asian and Dutch works of art, each superlative on its own, but together telling the fascinating story of the transformative impact that Asian luxury goods had upon Dutch life in the 17th century.

The PEM is well-known for its imaginative exhibits and, as Karina explained, they wanted these luxuries to be a treat for all the senses, so, the antechamber of the exhibit was heavily scented with large containers of spices: nutmeg and cinnamon, cloves and pepper. It was an appropriate note to begin with as these spices were the very impetus that drove the Dutch to Asia in the first place. It was Europe’s insatiable demand for spices (and the huge profits from their sale) that instigated these epic voyages to the Far East. As these ventures were also dangerous and risky, the Dutch conceived the idea of the joint-stock corporation, the famous Dutch East India Company or, VOC. The company spread the risk, and profits, amongst many investors. The company was so successful that the value of its stock rose close to 600% over the course of the 17th century. The dividends to the initial investors were actually paid in pepper. The VOC became the world’s first global corporation and “brand”, their initials appearing everywhere they conducted business.

The exhibit winds through a series of galleries telling this remarkable story through the luxurious trade items imported, through the history of some of the major players involved, and the trade’s impact on Amsterdam and its arts and culture. It also deals with the darker side of this success story; the horrific suppression, enslavement, and even extermination of indigenous peoples carried out to establish this empire (the Dutch didn’t leave Indonesia until 1948). This trade network stretched from India to Indonesia, to China and Japan, not only straight back to the Netherlands, but everywhere in between as the Dutch did a lot of business just within the Far East. They were brilliant and meticulous record-keepers and with their market research they knew exactly where best to sell each cargo.

Ships returning to Amsterdam unloaded not only the sought-after spices, but a plethora of luxury goods the likes of which were never seen before. There were Indian cottons. These sound so mundane today, but in the 17th century these lightweight, washable, and highly-decorative handpainted fabrics (they were extremely labor-intensive to make) caused a sensation and were a considerable status symbol. There were also diamonds from India and Borneo, the only known sources at the time (no need to explain their appeal) as well as luxurious silk, and wondrously beautiful lacquerwares. And then there were the porcelains! Trading in both China and Japan, the Dutch returned home to unpack these virtually unknown hard-paste porcelains and they created a fascination that has lasted for centuries.

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Images from the previous page, top row from left: After the arrival of Asian porcelains, Delftware manufacturers rushed to create wares made to imitate hard paste porcelain. Here, a pair of very large tulipieres, bearing the arms of William and Mary, commissioned by the queen for the Water Gallery at Hampton Court Palace (1690-1694) from the “Greek A� Factory. To the right, one of the display cases from the exhibit, demonstrating the impact of Dutch trade on Asian porcelain as many of the forms are based upon Dutch and European models.

Second row left: a truly luxurious corporate presentation gift-a calamander wood chest with silver mounts containing Japanese Arita spice oil bottles (1680-1700). Items such as these, bearing the VOC insignia, were gifted to trading partners, the spice oils most likely more valuable than the bottles and box. Right: an example of one of the sought-after status symbol Indian cotton palampores so much in demand in Europe (1725-1750).

Bottom left: Works by contemporary Dutch artist Bouke de Vries, born 1960, from his Memory Vessel series; a glass jar following the forms of its contents-a covered jar containing pieces of 17th and 18th century Chinese porcelain jar fragments, and a glass jar in the form of a tobacco jar, containing fragments of Delft tobacco jars and clay pipes. In the background a work by de Vries, Homeland, Blue and White 2015, in which a 17th century map of Amsterdam is composed of fragments of 17th and 18th century Delftware and Chinese export porcelains.

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LECTURE ON KUTAHYA POTTERY FOR OUR ANNUAL MEETING AND TEA The Club concluded another varied and brilliant program year with a talk by one of own, CSC member and past president, Nic Johnson, whose talk was entitled “Up from the Vaults: How a Growing Interest in Kutahya Pottery Led to Discoveries at the MFA” .

Nic’s interest in these small colorful wares was piqued over two decades ago with a visit to National Ceramics Museum in Sevres, France where he first saw them. A product of Turkey, the Katahya wares he discussed, dated primarily to the 18th century, and differed from the more refined and well-known Turkish wares from Iznik that we all recognize from the 1500s. Nic’s talk focused upon polychrome wares, although both Kutahya and Iznik produced tiles, as well wares in just blue and white.

The map of Turkey shows the court-administered pottery at Iznik only about a day’s journey from Istanbul. It was supplied by designs by the court calligraphers from the 1400s through the middle of the 1500s, by which time orders from the court leveled off and potters designed their own decoration with potential markets in mind. Iznik wares initially closely copied designs from chargers newly traded from China, mostly in blue and white, including kraak ware. After a generation or two, Chinese designs were largely abandoned replaced by a beautiful, technically adept but rather stiff, Iznik style. The remaining Chinese elements were dubbed Hatayi (from Cathay) while elements derived from the renaissance West were called Rumi (from Rome). Little Iznik pottery was produced after 1650.

Kutahya is about 200 miles from Istanbul. Its kilns may have been operating since around 1500, but there is no convincing evidence of continued production until the 1700s. There then seems to be a lull from around 1800-1875 and then a revival of production. The fifty or so potteries working in the mid-1700s were chiefly run by Armenian Christians. They most likely migrated this far west over generations, probably with stops in pottery-making centers such as Tabriz and New Julfa in Iran. They are the most ancient of Christians and speak an independent branch of the Indo-European language family.

“Kutahya” is a fritware, first fired with a white slip coating, then decorated in an advanced palette not unlike Prattware, and finally glazed and fired again. The fabric is lushly white at its best, and potted quite thinly. The wares are generally small (coffee and sherbet wares) and decorated in a wide color palette with fine black outlines featuring floral, animal and human motifs, rendered with great individuality. The decorators, most likely including women family members, adapted designs from Persian pottery, chintzes from the Coromandel Coast, and traditional embroidery Page 12

designs. Peculiar to Kutahya ware wild flower designs, often with small dots of red pigment, and small dishes displaying women in traditional costume. Since it hails from the extreme west of Asia or “Asia minor”, auctioneers and scholars seem not to know how to classify it. In addition, due to the tragic history of the Armenian genocide and expulsion in the early 20th century, the wares of Kutahya are celebrated largely by wealthy Armenian expatriates, while Turkish museum displays and catalogs never mention the Christian Armenian connection.

As for Nic’s “discoveries” at the MFA, his dogged interest and research into this field led him to find a small group of these wares in the museum’s holdings that the institution was unaware that they had. The pieces were most likely given by two donors. One was a Mr. Henry Ware Wales, brother of a prominent Boston businessman, George Washington Wales. Henry graduated from Harvard and its Medical School, but apparently never needed to practice a profession and spent most of his short life abroad studying and collecting fine things. The other donor is most likely a Mr. Denham Ross, a Harvard Professor of Art and MFA Trustee who collected from dealers in New York, Paris and London at the end of the 19th century. Nic’s research and interest caused him to be invited to volunteer at the museum where he and curator Laura Weinstein went through parts of storage and located about twenty two pieces of Kutahya. There were seven small plates, three bowls for sherbet, six tea or coffee cups, four saucers, a rosewater sprinkler, a coffee pot and a pilgrim flask. One of the interesting features remarked upon was a tall style coffee cup whose foot fit into a deep depression in the saucer (similar to European trembleuses) a form which seems to have originated with Kutahya. One of the best examples was saved for the last, a small bowl or cup from the Ross donation; besides having a superlative white glaze and painted plant designs, it had a double wall construction with a pierced decoration, useful feature when imbibing very hot tea or coffee.

Nic concluded with the refrain we hear from most of speakers that “more work needs to be done”, in which, we do not doubt, he will persist. He is hoping for a small exhibition of these wares, and invites anyone interested in further information to contact him via email, his address is in the Blue Book. Below: A Kutahya mug, a figural plate, and a rare silver-mounted water sprinkler, all 18th century.

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A REMINDER…MARK YOUR CALENDARS: FIRST LECTURE OF THE FALL SEASON

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 1:00 pm KING’S CHAPEL PARISH HOUSE, 64 BEACON STREET, BOSTON

TUCKER PORCELAIN: INDUSTRY FOR A NEW NATION CAROLINE COLE, The Ellyn McColgan Assistant Curator of American Decorative Arts & Sculpture, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Coffee & Tea Preceding the Talk

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