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STATE
MUSEUM TO HOST EXHIBIT OF DECORATED STONEWARE
ALBANY – Art for the People: Decorated Stoneware from the
Weitsman Collection will be on exhibit at the New York State
Museum, beginning January 5.
Located in the New York Metropolis introduction area
through the summer of 2009, the exhibition features 40 uniquely
decorated stoneware vessels, including jugs, crocks, pitchers,
jars and water coolers. The artful designs on the 19th-century
stoneware are today considered to be prime examples of American
Folk Art. Most pieces were created in cities and towns across New
York State. Many are “presentation pieces” – oversized and
frequently decorated with elaborate and unusual cobalt blue
designs. Tools used to decorate the stoneware are also included in
the exhibition, as well as broadsides, a rare portrait of a potter
and photos of potteries and their staffs.
Adam J. Weitsman of Owego acquired all of the
stoneware in the exhibition and loaned or donated the pieces to
the State Museum. Weitsman began collecting stoneware in 1980 when
he was 11 years old. Since then he has scoured New York State and
the East Coast, continuing to acquire rare pieces at antique
shows, estate sales and auctions. In 1996, he donated his
collection of 100 pieces to the State Museum to ensure that the
collection would be preserved, studied and appreciated for years
to come. Pieces acquired since then form the basis for the current
exhibition. Most have never been displayed before.
“We are enormously grateful to Mr. Weitsman for choosing the
State Museum as the repository for these outstanding examples of
American Folk Art,” said State Museum Director Dr. Clifford
Siegfried. “It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to showcase
these latest additions to one of the most important collections of
American decorated stoneware in the world.”
During the 19th century, stoneware was used primarily
to prepare, store and serve food and drinks. It was decorated to
make it more attractive. Weitsman focused on collecting the rarer
“presentation pieces” that were created for special occasions.
These include
a cylindrical
water cooler, displaying a portrait of a Civil War general and his
wife. It was purchased at an auction for $88,000, and set a
record for American stoneware sold at a specialty sale. It was
made by potters Fenton & Hancock of
St. Johnsbury,
Vermont. The general
depicted is Asa Peabody Blunt (1826-1889), who distinguished
himself in the 1862 Civil War battles at Lee’s Mill and Savage’s
Station in
Virginia. Blunt was a resident of St. Johnsbury, and the cooler
was undoubtedly made as a tribute from the community, and
presented to him when he returned from the war.
Also on display is a historically significant 1809 stoneware jar
made by Paul Cushman of Albany, which came from the personal
collection of PBS’ Antique Road Show host Leigh Keno.
A presentation piece that was likely created for a specific
customer, the jar may be the first piece that was made in
Cushman’s kiln. The jar is stamped 36 times in a crisscross
pattern with the mark of the potter “Paul Cushman’s Stoneware
Factory 1809/half a mile west of Albany Gaol (Jail).” Another
inscription reads “C.Russell/Pott/Sunday/1809.” Russell was an
Albany mason and may have assisted in building the kiln.
William Lundy &
Co. of Troy, c. 1824-1828, created a stoneware jug on display,
which depicts an amusing incised and cobalt blue caricature of a
merman (male version of mermaid).
The exhibition
also includes some of the most unusual decorations to be found on
stoneware. These are from potter William MacQuoid of Little West
12th Street, Manhattan. One crock displays a prancing
zebra and the other a camel, inspired by the traveling circuses of
the time. Another crock by this maker displays an American eagle
and shield. A crock by MacQuoid’s predecessor, L. Lehman & Co.,
c. 1860, is decorated with a Dutch or German-style church with a
gambrel roof and round tower, complete with a weather cock. There
may have been a similar church in the German neighborhood where it
was made. It resembles the late 18th-century stone
Palatine Church
in Stone Arabia, Montgomery County.
A two-gallon crock on exhibit, made by Charles W.
Braun of
Buffalo around 1870, is decorated with what appears to be a
caricature of Buffalo Bill. A humorous long-necked gooney bird
graces a six-gallon water cooler made by M. Woodruff of
Cortland,
c. 1860. This piece was acquired from the collection of Donald
Shelley, former director of the Henry Ford Museum.
A highly decorated five-gallon water cooler came
from the famous George S. McKearin collection. Julius and Edward
Norton of
Bennington, Vermont created
the piece, which features examples of three types of decoration
commonly associated with potteries at Bennington, Troy and Fort
Edward -- a house, reclining stag, and a basket of flowers.
One of the most
significant pieces, added to the Museum collection in May, is a
six-gallon crock made by Nathan Clark & Co., Rochester, c. 1845.
The rare piece is decorated with the phoenix bird of Egyptian
mythology. The painstaking detail used gives the bird a
three-dimensional quality.
A catalog featuring the Museum’s Weitsman
Stoneware Collection is being planned for 2008.
The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State
Education Department. Founded in 1836, it is the oldest State
Museum in the United States.
Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, it is open daily from 9:30
a.m. to 5 p.m., except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's
Day. Admission is free. Further information is available by
calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at
www.nysm.nysed.gov. |
