Maine Antique Digest May 2015

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Maine Antique Digest, May 2015 7-A
STOLEN
CERAMICS TRAVEL
THE WORLD
This year’s Winterthur ce-
ramics conference, “From All
Points of the Compass: Ceram-
ics Travel the World,” focuses
on ceramics that were marketed
internationally—from China to
the United States to Mexico and
beyond. Upon arrival, some of
these world-traveling vessels
and dishes, in turn, inspired the
creation of new wares. Join us
for lectures presenting recent re-
search by Winterthur staff and an
international group of respected
visiting scholars. Attend hands-
on workshops offering up-close
access to the Winterthur collec-
tion.
The conference will be held on
April 23, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and
April 24, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.,
in the Copeland Lecture Hall in
the Winterthur Visitor Center
Museum and the Winterthur
Galleries in Wilmington, Dela-
ware. The ceramics conference
features tours of Chinese export
wares inWinterthur house rooms
and other tours of the Winterthur
Museum and collection.
For information or to register,
download the conference bro-
chure ) or
call (800) 448-3883.
CHRISTIE’S EDUCATION
SUMMER COURSES
Christie’s Education New
York will hold an updated edi-
tion of “Contemporary Art
Summer School,” June 22-26.
Christie’s Education will also in-
troduce three new short courses
this spring-summer season.
New this spring is “Global Art
in New York,” a compact and
comprehensive introduction to
the latest in contemporary art
for collectors and art enthusiasts.
The course packs lectures, pan-
el discussions, and gallery visits
into a one-day package, on Sat-
urday, May 16.
Connections between art and
architecture will be explored
in a four-day course, “Modern
Architecture: Space, Art, Mar-
kets and Social Politics,” May
18-21, that examines the major
figures of modern architecture
in relation to avant-garde artistic
practices, capitalist markets, and
progressive social politics.
From June 1 through 5, at-
tendees will learn about ca-
reer options in the evolving art
field during a one-week course,
“Mapping Career Opportunities
in the Art World.”
The courses are open to any-
one, without prerequisites, and
will meet at Christie’s Education,
11 West 42nd Street, 8th Floor,
New York City, along with some
field trips. Fees vary by course
from $350 to $1800. For more
information or to register, visit
MAGICAL HISTORY TOUR
Maine Historical Society’s
(MHS) biggest event of the year,
the Magical History Tour, will
take place on Saturday, May 9.
The Magical History Tour is the
key to unlocking 12 fascinat-
ing historical places in Portland,
Maine, that are not usually open
to the public. This event is guar-
anteed to amaze adults and chil-
dren. Attendees may travel around
Portland at their own speed on this
self-guided tour. The sites will be
secret until they are unveiled at
Mr. Longfellow’s Cocktail Party
on Friday, May 8.
The Magical History Tour
starts at 10 a.m. at MHS’s Brown
Library at 485 Congress Street,
Portland. The tour will end at 4
p.m. Tickets are $35 per person,
$25 for MHS members, and $5
for a junior ticket up to age 18.
For more information, contact
MHS at 489 Congress Street,
Portland, ME 04101, call (207)
774-1822, or visit its website
).
DISH CAMP 2015
The annual summer “Dish
Camp” will take place on Satur-
day and Sunday, June 20 and 21,
at Eastfield Village in East Nas-
sau, New York. This year’s topic
is “Four Centuries of Ceramic
Discoveries.”
Speakers will include Jacqui
Pearce of Museum of London Ar-
chaeology (MOLA), who will dis-
cuss 17th-century ceramic finds
from London sites; Bly Straube of
Jamestown Rediscovery, who will
delve into the rich archaeological
finds from Virginia of that peri-
od; Sam Herrup, a Massachusetts
antiques dealer, who will discuss
a slip-decorated red earthenware
jar and cover and its connection
to the potteries of 18th-century
Charlestown, Massachusetts; and
Mara Kaktins of the archaeolog-
ical research team at Ferry Farm,
George Washington’s Virginia
birthplace, who will deal with ex-
cavated creamware and Chinese
porcelain with homemade repairs.
Rick Hamelin, a redware
potter, will recount the lives
of 19th-century Massachusetts
country potters and will demon-
strate processes in his witty, flu-
id style; Allen Miller, curatorial
consultant, will reveal the ceram-
ics associated with Hyde Hall,
the lovely Neoclassical country
house at the head of Otsego Lake
in Cooperstown, New York; and
Jonathan Rickard, collector and
author, will remember Don Car-
pentier, founder and director of
Eastfield Village, and his contri-
butions to our collective knowl-
edge of the English pottery fac-
tory system and techniques of
manufacture as a 20th-century
self-taught potter and inventor.
Participants are encouraged to
bring pieces from their own col-
lections to show and discuss.
Dish Camp is a unique ex-
perience. Students at Eastfield
Village have come from as far
as London and Alaska as well
as from all over the U.S. and
Canada. Museum professionals
representing large institutions
such as Colonial Williamsburg,
the Cooperstown museums, Old
Sturbridge Village, Upper Cana-
da Village, and numerous other
restorations and museum facili-
ties have studied at the village.
The mixture of novices, whose
interests are their own old hous-
es, and museum professionals,
who are looking to expand their
special skills, provides a dynam-
ic opportunity to learn.
The lure of Eastfield is more
than its curriculum. Students
who enroll in the classes at the
village are encouraged to stay
there during their courses. This
offers a special opportunity to
understand the daily lives and
work of the tradesmen of the
preindustrial age. Meals may be
cooked in the late 18th-century
kitchens. Accommodations are
rope beds with straw and feath-
er ticks. Most evenings there are
gatherings in the Briggs Tav-
ern and lively conversations in
front of a warm fireplace. The
annual tavern dinner, prepared
hearthside at the Briggs Tavern,
will take place on Saturday eve-
ning for class participants.
Registration is on a “first
come, first served” basis. The
fee for Dish Camp is $330. All
payments may be made through
PayPal using the Eastfield
formation, call (518) 462-1264
(Bill McMillen), or write to
Eastfield Village, Box 465, Nas-
sau, NY 12123.
CCSC
In the early 1900s, a young
and clearly talented woman re-
set the fortunes of Wedgwood
potteries with her startling and
fanciful designs for the English
company’s decorative wares.
Her name: Susannah Margaretta
“Daisy” Makeig-Jones (1881-
1945), and her wildly popular
wares: Fairyland Lustre.
Come join the Connecticut Ce-
ramics Study Circle (CCSC) and
hear about this dazzling decora-
tive pottery when Stuart Slavid,
vice president and director of
fine ceramics, silver, and Euro-
pean decorative arts at Boston’s
Skinner auctioneers, explores
Fairyland’s history, techniques,
and themes. Slavid is a leading
expert on English ceramics, par-
ticularly of Wedgwood. His fre-
quent appearances on Antiques
Roadshow and his popularity at
the podium make him a speaker
in demand. The illustrated lec-
ture will begin at 1:15 p.m. on
Monday, May 11, at the Bruce
Museum, One Museum Drive,
Greenwich, Connecticut.
When Makeig-Jones joined
Wedgwood in 1909 as an ap-
prentice painter, the company
had 250 years of innovative
designs and techniques behind
it. Its solid-colored Jasperware,
which debuted in 1770, was still
solidly identified with the com-
pany as a form of artware. At
first, Makeig-Jones began to de-
sign tableware, but her attraction
to the fanciful became clear by
1913, and her Fairyland Lustre
design, released in 1915, rescued
Wedgwood from bankruptcy.
Was Makeig-Jones inspired to
create an antidote to the world
tearing itself apart in the first
year of World War I? In any case,
the key to Wedgwood’s survival
and reincarnation was a dazzling
range of new glazing techniques,
particularly one that produced a
multicolored iridescent finish.
The synthesis of Makeig-Jones’s
design and glazing technique re-
sulted in a tidal wave of popu-
larity with buyers and profit for
Wedgwood. Well into the 1920s,
department stores and the finest
boutiques clamored to obtain
Wedgwood’s Fairyland Lustre,
with prices being no object, es-
pecially in America.
Makeig-Jones’s work was
unique. The more you studied
her multicolored patterns, the
more was revealed: elves play-
ing leapfrog; spiders spinning
intricate webs; gaudy rainbows
over romantic castles—all hark-
ing back to traditional folkloric
tales and legends. Between 1916
and 1931, Makeig-Jones was
chiefly responsible for the cre-
ation and expansion of the Fairy-
land Lustre line. Yet, the toll ex-
tracted by the early Depression
years had a devastating effect
on demand and production. By
this time, the company had hired
a new art director who steered
Wedgwood into more austere
styles that were less expensive
to produce. Fairyland Lustre was
now unaffordable, and Daisy
Makeig-Jones was out of a job.
She left Wedgwood under duress
early in 1931 at the age of 50.
Today, ironically, of all of
Wedgwood’s wares, Fairyland
Lustre is the most highly prized,
the most keenly sought, and most
highly valued. A renewed de-
mand for Fairyland Lustre bowls,
jars, vases, and the scarcer plates
and placques has created price
peaks at auctions and shows.
This lecture concludes
CCSC’s eight-month lecture se-
ries, which runs from October
through May. Reservations are
not necessary. The fee for non-
members is $25, with refresh-
ments served, as always. An
exciting new series will resume
in October. For information:
>.
HELP
WHAT’S THE LOCATION
OF THIS HOUSE?
The signed (A.W. Fuller) and
dated (1893) oil painting is by
Albert W. Fuller (1854-1934), a
well-known Albany, New York,
architect. Fuller was born in
Clinton, New York, but practiced
institutional and domestic ar-
chitecture mainly in Albany. He
was the author of Artistic Homes
in City and Country, first pub-
lished in 1882. If you can identify
this house, please let me know.
Thank you. Leslie Koelsch,
>.
LEAD-LINED BOX
I would love some help with
identifying a little box. It is
about the size of a recipe box,
but it is lined with over 1/8" of
lead, almost hermetically sealed,
and it weighs approximately five
pounds. The Internet has not
helped me so far, but perhaps
M.A.D. readers might know. The
person who brought it to me said
his father was a mortician, if that
might be a clue. Lance Fromme,
Fromme Antiques, 23 Bur-
ton Farm Drive, Andover, MA
01810, phone (978) 475-7370.
Coffee Mills by Dr. Joseph E.
MacMillan (d. 2007), one of
the club’s founders; and ACME
publishes the quarterly Grinder
Finder newsletter.
Membership is open to all
regardless of the size of their
collection. More information,
including how to join, can be
).
THOMPSON’S STATION,
TENNESSEE
The Williamson County Sher-
iff’s Office in Franklin, Tennes-
see, is working to find a man
who broke into a Thompson’s
Station church and stole several
items of silver that are more than
100 years old. The burglary was
captured on video and shows that
the man entered the Thompson’s
Station Church of Christ at 4721
Columbia Pike in Thompson’s
Station, Tennessee, around 8:40
p.m. on March 24, and remained
inside the church until 9:50 p.m.
The stolen items include two
antique silver communion trays,
an antique silver pitcher, a silver
communion cup, and an antique
silver platter. These items be-
longed to the church’s original
congregation, which dates back
to the 1800s. The church consid-
ers these items priceless.
The suspect is wearing a
dark shirt, camouflage pants,
and a light-colored cap with a
dark band. Investigators believe
that the cap may be easily rec-
ognized. If you know this man
or have information about this
crime, call WCSO Detective
Tameka Sanders at (615) 790-
5554 x 3228 or call Crime Stop-
pers at (615) 794-4000. Crime
Stoppers will pay up to $1000
for information that leads to an
arrest and indictment.
WEATHERVANES WANTED
Robert Shaw, independent
curator, author, and editor, is cu-
rating a weathervane exhibition
that will open at the Fenimore
Art Museum in Cooperstown,
New York, in September 2017
and be accompanied by a book
published by Rizzoli, New York
City. The exhibition will travel
to other venues in 2018. Shaw
is the former curator of the Shel-
burne Museum and the author
of numerous books, essays, and
articles on folk art.
The exhibition and book will
include a broad range of hand-
made and manufactured vanes
made between 1700 and 1910.
Shaw is seeking best-of-kind ex-
amples as well as unusual piec-
es that may not have been pub-
lished before. Authentic surfaces
are key, and vanes with prove-
nance are of special interest.
Readers may contact him at
> or
(802) 734-2632.