Maine Antique Digest April 2015

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8-A Maine Antique Digest, April 2015
AMERICAN
PAPERWEIGHT CIRCLE
The fourth annual session
of the American Paperweight
Circle is scheduled for March
28 at the Museum of American
Glass (MAG), 230 Main Av-
enue, Weston, West Virginia.
There will be at least a dozen
makers and dealers to exhib-
it and sell, coming from as far
away as New York. Executive
director Dean Six said, “Many
of the glass artists make weights
just for this show and will be
introducing new techniques
and designs.” Both old and new
American-made weights will be
featured.
Attendees will have the op-
portunity to network and learn
from one another as well as see
the museum’s impressive col-
lection of over 400 weights, in-
cluding an extensive group from
the Cambridge, Ohio, Degenhart
Museum, which is now closed.
A special event this year
will be the dedication of a new
home for the Great Pumpkin in
a pumpkin patch. Already the
pumpkin patch has a small se-
lection of glass paperweight
pumpkins surrounding the Great
Pumpkin.
The show and sale is from
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Setup for the
sale is free, but tables must be
reserved in advance with MAG.
The event is free and open to the
public. For more information,
contact (304) 269-5006, <glass
>, or visit
).
year’s auction will contain more
than 500 Wallace Nutting pho-
tos, books, and furniture as
well as other early 20th-century
hand-colored photos by artists
such as Charles Sawyer, Fred
Thompson, David Davidson,
and many more and is open to
the public.
Saturday’s agenda begins with
a sale/trade/exhibit at 7:30 a.m.
Club members set up at tables
and bring their most unusual pho-
tos and furniture pieces to sell or
trade. There will be hundreds of
items for sale. Next is the annual
club meeting, several interesting
presentations by club members,
and a show and tell. This year’s
convention will include a pre-
sentation by Charles T. Lyle,
“Wallace Nutting: Preservation
Pioneer.” Lyle is the execu-
tive director of the Webb-Deane
Stevens Museum inWethersfield,
Connecticut. Following that will
be a tour of the Webb, Deane, and
Stevens houses.
The annual club dinner will be
held at the hotel Saturday eve-
ning, where friends can mingle
and enjoy a relaxing meal. The
hospitality suite is open through-
out most of the weekend with
complimentary snacks and bev-
erages, and it is a great place
to meet and network with other
collectors.
For more information about
this convention, check the Web
site )
or e-mail >
or >.
PEWTER COLLECTORS’
CLUB OFAMERICA
The spring national meeting
of the Pewter Collectors’ Club
of America (PCCA) will be held
May 15 and 16 at the Avon Old
Farms Hotel, Avon, Connecticut.
It will include a special visit to
the Connecticut Historical So-
ciety and to a member’s superb
collection of British and Amer-
ican pewter.
Friday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.,
Introduction to Pewter, an ori-
entation session to the world
of pewter, will be open to the
public at no charge. A Meet and
Greet reception will precede the
evening program.
Friday evening, president
Dwayne Abbott will give his
opening remarks. Jody Blanken-
ship, executive director of the
Connecticut Historical Society
and our featured speaker, will
welcome the group and provide
introductory remarks about the
society and its holdings. The
always popular show-and-tell
session, where members bring
pewter for identification and/
or discussion, will complete the
evening.
Saturday morning, the group
will view a special display of
pewter at the Connecticut His-
torical Society with honorary
member Wayne Hilt leading the
discussion. In the afternoon, at-
tendees will visit a member’s ex-
ceptional collection of rare and
significant 18th-century British
and American pewter.
Following the evening meal,
honorary member Dr. Melvyn
Wolf will moderate a session
called “Nineteenth-Century
New York City Lighting Devic-
es.” Members are encouraged to
bring in marked and unmarked
examples for attribution and dis-
cussion.
The PCCA comprises over
400 individuals and institutions.
Membership offers the opportu-
nity to learn about pewter and
its manufacture, makers, and
marks. American, British, and
Continental pewter are included.
For membership information,
contact John and Fran Latch,
membership chairpersons,
PCCA, P.O. Box 536, Intervale,
NH 03845-0536. Dues are $60
annually and include the Bul-
letin , a semiannual scholarly,
well-illustrated publication and
semiannual newsletters that in-
clude information about region-
al meetings, auction prices, and
current news here and abroad.
For more information, check the
Web site
orsclub.org).
2015 TRENTON CERAMICS
SYMPOSIUM
The Potteries of Trenton So-
ciety (POTS), the New Jersey
State Museum, and the Trenton
Museum Society will present the
12th annual Trenton Ceramics
Symposium on Saturday, April
18. This year, speakers will ex-
plore the city’s importance in the
history of the sanitary industry
in the United States. “Sanitation
and Civilization” will be held in
the auditorium of the New Jer-
sey State Museum. Registration
and light refreshments will begin
at 9 a.m.; the program will start
at 10 a.m.
The keynote speaker will be
professor Daniel Gerling of Au-
gustana College in Sioux Falls,
South Dakota. Dr. Gerling will
explain the evolution of sani-
tary technology and show how
the move from “outhouses” and
“backhouses” to indoor toilets
was enormously important in
the late 19th and early 20th cen-
turies in terms of public health,
shifting gender roles, and archi-
tectural trends.
Bill Liebeknecht will inves-
tigate Trenton’s sanitary inno-
vations by examining over 40
patents granted to the city’s in-
ventors during the latter part of
the 19th century and opening
decades of the 20th century. Pat-
ents range from bowl designs
to water tanks, flushing mecha-
nisms, seat designs, and covers.
They also include coupling de-
signs, which allowed the tanks
to be mounted directly behind
the toilet and firmly to the floor.
These seemingly insignificant
patents had an enormous impact
on our lives.
Sally Lane will explore the
Trenton origins of a legendary
White House bathtub, “Rub-
a-dub-dub, Four Men in Taft’s
Tub.” Ellen Denker, POTS board
member and program chair, will
offer a brief discussion of the
potters’ unions and the strike
that had such an impact on labor
relations in Trenton, transform-
ing the city’s ceramics industry.
Richard Hunter will end with an
overview of the sanitary manu-
facturing sites and how they fit
in with the other manufacturing
sites in the city.
The day will finish with a
closing reception sponsored by
the Trenton Museum Society to
be held at Ellarslie, the Museum
of the City of Trenton, in Cad-
walader Park. Participants will
be able to view the Trenton Cen-
tral High School exhibit, which
includes examples of Thomas
Maddock’s Sons Company san-
itary ware that was used to out-
fit the high school. Additional
sanitary ware in the museum’s
collection will be brought out of
storage especially for this event.
The Trenton Ceramics Sym-
posium is open to the public. The
registration fee is $35 if paid by
April 3. Members of the Potter-
ies of Trenton Society, Friends of
the New Jersey State Museum,
and Trenton Museum Society
may attend for $30, if paid in ad-
vance. Everyone who pays at the
door will be charged $40. Reg-
istration includes all lectures, re-
freshments, lunch, and a closing
reception. A mail-in registration
form may be downloaded and
printed from the POTS Web site
) or
interested parties may contact
POTS president Patricia Madri-
gal at (609) 695-0122 x 100 or
society.org>.
MIDWEST ANTIQUES
FORUM
The fifth annual Midwest An-
tiques Forum will be held at the
Golden Lamb hotel in Lebanon,
Ohio, April 24-26.
The lecture schedule includes
“Willkommen and Bienvenue!
European Traditions in 18th-
and 19th-Century Indiana Fur-
niture” by Andrew Richmond,
vice president, Garth’s Auctions,
Delaware, Ohio; “Spatterware:
patterns, forms, colors and the
art of collecting,” Tyler Thomp-
son, independent scholar, col-
lector, and dealer, Lexington,
Kentucky; “Collecting Leather
Trunks & Boxes. The Construc-
tion & Use of Early 18th &
19th Century Examples,” James
Leach, artisan and independent
scholar, Williamsburg, Virginia;
“Frontier Artistry: The American
Long Rifle,” John Kolar, inde-
pendent scholar, collector, and
dealer, Hudson, Ohio; “‘...every-
thing which can be made out of
clay.’ The Raab Family Potters
of Iowa,” Michael Smith, retired
curator, State Historical Muse-
um of Iowa.
Also included are: “Evolving
Collecting Patterns in Kentucky
Furniture&Accessories” byTay-
lor Thistlethwaite, antiques deal-
er and decorative arts researcher,
Glasgow, Kentucky; “Glazed
and Confused: The Market for
American Stoneware,” Hollie
Davis, senior editor,
es4antiques.com); “The Cutting
Edge: Cincinnati Art-Carved
Furniture and Interiors,” Jenni-
fer Howe, author of Cincinnati
Art Carved Furniture and Interi-
ors, and decorative arts special-
ist, Cowan’s Auctions; “Dating
America’s Antique Quilts: Tips
from a Long-time Collector,”
Merikay Waldvogel, quilt histo-
rian, author, and curator, Knox-
ville, Tennessee; and “Research-
ing Antiques in Your Own Area:
Tips & Case Studies,” Deward
Watts, independent scholar, col-
lector, and dealer.
The mission of the Midwest
Antiques Forum is to encourage
and support scholarship of the
understudied area of Midwest-
ern decorative arts and material
culture.
The fee for the forum is $280
if submitted by March 31; $315
after. For more information and
a complete schedule, see the
Web site
forum.com).
Help
Help Wanted
Stolen
HISTORIC HUGUENOT
STREET REQUESTS
EXAMPLES OF DUTCH-
STYLE KASTEN
Historic Huguenot Street in
New Paltz, New York, seeks
documentation of fine exam-
ples from private and museum
collections of 18th- and early
19th-century Dutch-style cup-
boards known as grote kasten
(singular kast). The documen-
tation and study of these kasten
will be part of an exhibit, sym-
posium, and fully illustrated
compendium planned for 2016.
Although variations exist, the
typical kast is a large, free-stand-
ing cupboard or wardrobe with
two paneled doors surmounted
by an overscaled, molded cor-
nice. The cupboard usually sits
on a base with a single drawer
or drawers and ball-shaped feet.
Some simpler versions made by
country craftsmen feature cutout
or stylized feet and may or may
not have drawers. The planned
study, exhibit, and compendium
will feature both styles.
Historic Huguenot Street ex-
hibits one of the largest collec-
tions of Hudson Valley kasten
in the country. In bringing more
kasten to light, the exhibit will
expand public knowledge re-
garding the historical uses, con-
struction, and conservation of
these important pieces of mate-
rial culture.
To submit photos or informa-
tion about kasten, please contact
the curatorial department at His-
toric Huguenot Street at (845)
255-0180 or
guenotstreet.org>.
ARTIST SOUGHT
I hope someone can identify
the signature and perhaps tell me
a little about the artist. The paint-
ing is oil on canvas, large (24½"
x 40½" sight size), and seems
to be of a scene in the Alps or
Pyrenees. The date looks like but
may not be 1911. I’d appreciate
any information. Please e-mail
me at >. Rick
Ames.
LEE BUTTON
This button has been in a
friend’s family, and we are seek-
ing information as to who might
have made it and when. It is 2½"
in diameter and has a brass lapel
pin on the reverse. There are no
markings other than Gen. Robert
E. Lee on the face. Any informa-
tion would be greatly appreciat-
ed; please send information to
>.
NEBO, NORTH CAROLINA
Investigators need the public’s
help identifying a man who al-
legedly stole electric train equip-
ment from Lake James Antique
Mall on Harmony Grove Road
in Nebo, North Carolina.
The suspect was caught on sur-
veillance video at the business at
1:36 p.m. on Friday, February
27. He allegedly took two elec-
tric Lionel locomotives and an
electric Lionel tender car worth a
total of $300. He is described as
a white male with short, straight
gray hair and a beard.
Anyone with information con-
cerning the alleged perpetrator
or the crime is asked to call De-
tective Billie Brown of the Mc-
Dowell County Sheriff’s Office
at (828) 652-2237 or McDowell
County Crimestoppers at (828)
652-7463. With Crimestoppers,
your identity remains anony-
mous, and you could receive a
cash reward.