Maine Antique Digest March 2015

6-A Maine Antique Digest, March 2015

Seminars

ASIAN GLASS

The Cape Cod Glass Club

(CCGC) will meet on Tuesday,

March 3. The meeting will be

held in the Hirschmann Theater

at the Sandwich Glass Museum

in Sandwich, Massachusetts, be-

ginning at 1 p.m.

“Asian Glass” will be the topic

for the speaker John Schofield,

president of the R. C. Eldred

Co., East Dennis, Massachu-

setts. Schofield began working

in the auction business while still

in grade school. Throughout col-

lege at St. Lawrence University,

he developed his interest in art

history and especially Asian arts.

In 1968 at the age of 19 he was

asked to catalog a collection of

Japanese netsuke. In researching

these pieces he began exploring

various other Asian art forms

and thus came to love these ob-

jects.

One area that became a spe-

cial interest was snuff bottles,

which can be made of, among

WEDGWOOD

INTERNATIONAL

SEMINAR

The Wedgwood Internation-

al Seminar (WIS) celebrates its

60th seminar and will do so with

a conference at the Birmingham

Museum of Art in Birmingham,

Alabama, which houses the larg-

est public collection of Wedg-

wood wares outside of England.

For decades it has been the home

of the famed Beeson Collection

of 18th-century Wedgwood, and

in 2008 it acquired the distin-

guished Buten Collection that

spans more than two centuries of

Wedgwood manufacture. Wedg-

wood from other sources, along

with the massive Elizabeth

Chellis Collection of Wedgwood

books and manuscripts in the li-

brary, also are part of the BMA’s

holdings. The event takes place

April 22-25.

Featured will be 11 lectures

from leading Wedgwood and ce-

ramics scholars as well as from

key collectors. BMAsenior cura-

tor Dr. Anne Forschler-Tarrasch,

the conference cochairman,

will speak on “The Swinging

Sixties: Wedgwood Studio Pot-

ters”; Margaret Carney, founder

and director of the Dinnerware

Museum, on “Great Moments

in Ceramic History: Wedgwood

for Example”; and Robin Em-

merson, curator emeritus, Lady

Lever Art Gallery, England, will

present two papers, “Wedgwood

Jasper Chimney Pieces” and

“Wedgwood in the Empress’s

Bedroom.”

Ellen Gerth, curator of col-

lections at Odyssey Marine Ex-

ploration, will talk on “The Blue

China Shipwreck: Staffordshire

Ceramics for the U.S. Market”;

Graham Boettcher, BMA chief

curator of American art, on

“China Painting onWedgwood”;

Texas A & M English professor

Susan Egenolf on “Expedition-

ary Wedgwood: The Aesthetic

Collapse of Time and Space”;

Wedgwood Society of Washing-

ton founder Adele Barnett will

present “Shell-Shock: Centuries

of Wedgwood’s Shelly Fancy-

ing”; editor and writer Harwood

Johnson on “Wedgwood &

Bentley Medallions: Identifying

Unknown Subjects”; collector

Colin Jones on “Wedgwood in

Australian Public Collections”;

and collector Sandy Olubas on

“Wedgwood and Wine: From

the Cellar to the Table.”

Also addressing the audience

will be Gail Andrews, BMA di-

rector, and Anthony Jones, CFO

of the Waterford, Wedgwood,

Royal Doulton firm, headquar-

tered in Barlaston, England.

Wedgwood was founded 256

years ago and is still in operation

today. Its U.K. home is undergo-

ing much expansion to include

a new visitor center and the re-

nowned Wedgwood Museum.

The four-day conference will

offer a number of other on-site

activities ranging from a ceram-

ics conservation laboratory visit

to hands-on sessions and soap

making. Attendees will have

the convenience of purchasing

Wedgwood wares from member

dealers.

NEWYORK FURNITURE

The Sewell C. Biggs Winter-

thur Furniture Forum, “From

New Netherland to Empire

State: New York Furniture,”

opens Wednesday, March 4, and

closes Saturday, March 7, with

five optional object workshops

and an exhibition tour each day.

Eight lectures will be offered

on Thursday, March 5, and six

lectures and three object presen-

tations on Friday, March 6. All

lectures will be held in the Cope-

land Lecture Hall inWinterthur’s

Visitor Center.

In assembling his furniture

collection, Henry Francis du

Pont created a world-class des-

tination for viewing New York

furniture in all of its splendid va-

riety. Russell Shorto, one of the

expert lecturers who will speak

at the Furniture Forum, said New

Yorkers created a place “unlike

any other, either in the North

American colonies or anywhere

else” through the landscapes

they shaped and the buildings

and furniture they made.

The conference, sponsored

in part by Freeman’s, is $375

for members of Winterthur and

nonprofit professionals; $435 for

nonmembers; and $250 for stu-

dents and graduates within the

past five years with valid student

ID. The fee includes Thursday

and Friday lectures, lunches, and

coffee breaks, plus a Thursday

evening reception. Wednesday

and Saturday workshops and

tours are an additional $75.

Registration forms, available

other things, glass. As one thing

followed another, this led to an

interest not only in glass snuff

bottles but in a wide variety of

Chinese glass items as well as

in the history of glass in China.

Having run the Asian art depart-

ment for Eldred’s since the ear-

ly 1970s, he has encountered a

wide spectrum of this art form

and looks forward to discuss-

ing and demonstrating this sub-

ject with others interested in the

field.

The CCGS is a not for profit

chapter of the national Ameri-

can Glass Club. It is dedicated

to the study and appreciation of

glass with an emphasis on Amer-

ican glass. The club meets from

October to December and from

March to June. Activities in-

clude formal lectures, study ses-

sions, and visits to museums and

working glassmakers. The club

is always open to new members,

and membership is not limited to

Cape Cod residents. For further

information, contact program

chairman Betsy Hewlett Lessig

at (508) 776-9098 or e-mail her

<bheapg7@comcast.net

THE DECORATIVE ARTS

OF THE CHINA TRADE

Historic Deerfield in Deer-

field, Massachusetts, will pre-

sent a museum course, “The

Decorative Arts of the China

Trade,” from March 11 to March

25 at the Flynt Center of Early

American Life.

This museum course will ex-

amine how Western merchants

transacted business under Chi-

na’s unique set of rules and reg-

ulations, called the Canton Sys-

tem. The various export items

produced by Chinese craftsmen

(often toWestern specifications),

such as paintings and drawings,

silver, fans, lacquerware, and

porcelain, will be discussed.

Each session will be divided into

a lecture and a study session with

objects from the Historic Deer-

field collection as learning tools.

On the final evening, specialist

Ned Lazaro, associate curator of

textiles and collections manager,

will present information on Chi-

nese silks, silk embroideries, and

durable Chinese cottons called

“nankeens.”

The course schedule is as fol-

lows: March 11, lecture, “Mer-

chants and Mandarins: An Over-

view of Western Commerce in

18th- and 19th-Century China,”

and study session: maps, paint-

ings, watercolors, and drawings;

March 18, lecture, “China for

the West: Chinese Export Porce-

lain,” and study session: Chinese

export porcelain (manufacture,

decoration, and European influ-

ences); and March 25, lecture,

“Novelties for Sweethearts and

Wives: Lacquerware, Fans, and

Silver,” lecture, “Chinese Tex-

tiles,” and study session: lac-

querware, fans, silver, silk, and

nankeens. Each session will be

held in the evening, from 7 to 9

p.m.

For more information and reg-

istration, contact Julie Orvis at

<jorvis@historic-deerfield.org

or (413) 775-7179.

on line at (www.winterthur.org/ furnitureforum), may be mailed

with payment to Winterthur In-

formation and Tours Office,

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur,

DE 19735. Registration forms

may be faxed to (302) 888-4953,

and may also be completed by

calling 1-800-448-3883.

The lectures, receptions, ban-

quets, lunches, tours, and other

activities are all inclusive under

the registration fee. The host ho-

tel, the Sheraton Birmingham,

is offering a special conference

rate. To obtain more information

on this milestone seminar, reg-

istration, the hotel, and to make

your reservations, visit the Web

site

(www.wedgwoodinterna

tionalseminar.org) or contact by

e-mail

<wismembers@aol.com

WIS, founded in 1956, con-

ducted its inaugural gathering

in Philadelphia. Subsequently,

it has held its annual events in

major cities around the U.S.A.,

Canada, the U.K., and beyond.

These conferences offer the op-

portunity for Wedgwood enthu-

siasts around the world to gain

expanded insight into the related

topics, visit private and public

collections, and network in an

informal forum. WIS members,

whether in attendance or not, re-

ceive a bound copy of the pro-

ceedings. Annual membership

fee is $35 per individual and $50

per family (+ $10 for outside

U.S.A.). PayPal payments are

accepted for membership and for

seminar fees.

FOUR CENTURIES

OF MASSACHUSETTS

FURNITURE

On Monday, March 2, the

Greenwich Antiques Society

presents “Four Centuries of

Massachusetts Furniture,” a lec-

ture by Brock Jobe, professor of

American decorative furniture,

Winterthur Museum, Garden and

Library, Wilmington, Delaware,

at 1:15 p.m. at the Bruce Muse-

um in Greenwich, Connecticut.

TRANSFERWARE

COLLECTORS CLUB

The Transferware Collectors

Club (TCC) is pleased to an-

nounce that the Paul and Gladys

Richards Charitable Foundation

has doubled its funding in sup-

port of the club’s research grant

program for 2015. Start planning

your projects now! Applica-

tions must be received by May

4, 2015. To download an ap-

plication and view descriptions

of past projects, visit (www.

transcollectorsclub.org/research/

index.html).

A valuable new resource, the

Image Gallery, has been added

to the TCC Web site. The gal-

lery is intended to serve as a

resource for TCC members and

site visitors to learn more about

the production of British ceram-

ics. The first images made avail-

able in the gallery are the result

of a project completed by Paul

and Kath Holdway of Stoke-on-

Trent, Staffordshire, U.K., fund-

ed by a TCC Richards Founda-

tion Research Grant.

The gallery now contains more

than 2100 historically import-

ant digitized slides and black-

and-white negatives related to

Spode’s production processes,

the Spode Works buildings and

the adjacent area, archaeological

discoveries, as well as images

retained from the late Robert

Copeland’s lectures on these and