Volume 10, Issue 3
A Newsletter of the China Students’ Club of Boston
April 2007
A Message from Our President Dear Members, The China Students’ Club of Boston is coming to the close of another great year of programming. We had some fantastic ceramic lecturers to warm us up this winter at the College Club. These talks have focused on widespread topics from Yuan Dynasty Chinese porcelain to 19th and early 20th century tiles. This year our revamped “Bits and Pieces” session brought together a wonderful array of ceramic artworks as well as interesting insights from our members. Many thanks to all of you who brought pieces and/or attended the session. Our final two lectures of the year will be presented by Barbara Veith of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on “Edward Lycett,” and CSC’s Recording Secretary Yon Bard will speak about England’s Lady Charlotte Schreiber at the annual meeting in May. I hope that many of you will be able to join us. We certainly appreciate recommendations for speakers or suggestions of topics for future lecturers. We also want to encourage our members to share their knowledge and collections with the rest of the group. If you are game to present a program or host a visit to your collection, please contact Program Director Anne Lanning at 413-775-7208 or email lanning@historic-
deerfield.org. On another matter, member James Mattozzi has been volunteering his time to create a website for the China Students’ Club. Text for the various pages is being finalized and edited now, and we hope to launch the site by June 2007. When active, the site’s address will be www.chinastudentsclub.org. This website will make it easier for members to access information about programs, membership, and 75th anniversary activities, as well as a way to reach potential new members. I sincerely thank Jim for contributing his time to this worthy project. Finally, within this issue there is information on Historic Deerfield’s acquisition of Alistair Sampson’s collection of English creamware. The entire collection of 162 pieces is on view in the Flynt Center of Early New England Life. I hope that all of you will make a trip to Deerfield to see this collection as well as our latest exhibition, “North by Northeast: Five Centuries of New England Maps.” I look forward to seeing you! Best wishes, Amanda Lange President
Planning CSC’s 75th Anniversary Celebration The anniversary committee met after the March lecture. One estimate for publishing a catalog to accompany the anniversary exhibition has been received and we will seek two more. Since the Concord Museum was recommended as a site for the exhibition, a small group will visit the museum before the next meeting to assess the facility. A list of possible topics for
essays and/or lectures has been developed, and can also be used as a guide for submitting ceramics for the exhibition. Members will receive information on the submission process with the membership renewal notice. Anyone interested in serving on the committee should contact me at the number listed in the box below. Louise Richardson.
Request for information: If anyone has knowledge of dinner services or tea sets in blue transfer ware which have a New England family history, whether in museums or private collections, please contact me. I will be speaking at the Northern Ceramic Society’s summer school in Chester, England, this August on blue transfer for the American Market. Louise Richardson, 603-436-5125.
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Robert Mowry on “Chinese Porcelain: The Yuan Revolution� Reviewed by Jeff Brown Robert D. Mowry, the Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art at the Harvard University Art Museums, spoke to a sell-out crowd at the College Club for our first lecture of 2007. We have welcomed him before and this time he addressed our group on Chinese Porcelain: The Yuan Revolution (1279-1368). The lecture surveyed the evolution and development of Chinese blue and white porcelain during the Yuan dynasty which was a period of Mongol domination. Blue and white porcelain appeared almost out of nowhere in the 1320s, although the basic elements necessary for producing blue and white wares were already in place at the Chinese kilns by the end of the Song dynasty (9601279). And when they did appear they were by no means considered high-end or imperial wares. Blue and white was originally a ceramic for the middle class, while the sophisticated tastemakers of the time still preferred the monochromes of the previous Song dynasty, and considered blue and white wares vulgar and garish. In China, the latter did find a small market decorating Buddhist temples and Daoist shrines, which in the Yuan period were not held in the highest regard. The other place where blue and white was truly popular was in the Near and Middle East. So the early blue and white wares were really made for export and it is most likely that it was the driving demand of the marketplace that brought blue and white porcelain to the fore all of a sudden. As for forms, there were interesting cross-currents at work here. From the Neolithic period up until the Han dynasty most forms were of native Chinese origin. By the time of the Han dynasty (206BC - 220AD) ceramics were imitating the forms of bronze vessels which were revered objects used in funerary ceremonies. These were considered then and still are today the most important of all Chinese art forms. Some of these forms were decorated to resemble lacquer, which was also highly prized during the Han period. But after the fall of the Han, new influences came into China from the West, primarily from Rome and Persia. The Chinese were interested in two things in particular: Persian silver and Roman glass. Objects made of these materials were coming into China along the Silk Route and influencing the form and decoration of the ceramics. Professor
Mowry illustrated a typical classical Roman glass ewer with its oval body, pedestal base, long neck and arching handle—precisely the shapes in glass and silver that the Chinese looked to when shaping their ceramics. This form, with minor variations, appeared again and again over the centuries. When it comes to decoration, in the 14th century the surface of a blue and white vase tended to be broken up, divided into horizontal registers of patterns. This seems to be a carry-over from the way ancient bronze vessels were decorated. The blue in the best pieces is very deep, almost blackish at times. These pieces are considered some of the finest blue and white ever made. In earlier Song celadons and monochromes, decoration is restrained and limited: an incised floral design, the classic dragon, etc. This practice changes in the 14th century when you start to have human figures, sometimes on horseback, traveling through a partial landscape, often with willow boughs draping overhead. There is a direct correlation between these designs and the appearance of enormously popular plays performed by itinerant troupes in market squares all over the country. These Continued on page 3
Below: Yuan plate Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Right: Yuan temple vase, dated 1351 Percival Davis Foundation, London
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Chinese Porcelain: The Yuan Revolution Continued from page 2 plays and their stories were soon published with accompanying woodblock illustrations, and it is these illustrations that were used as the direct inspiration for the pictorial decoration on early blue and white wares—right down to the overhanging willow branches. The blue and white wares, like any of the ceramics produced at the Chinese kilns, were not the product of any one person. It has been estimated that about 75 different artisans could be involved in the production of a major piece. There was a high degree of specialization in large workshops. From the 14th century, on into the Ming period, as blue and white became more popu-
lar, experimentation continued with new ways of decorating and forming objects. And, in one of the great turn-abouts in all of art history, by the end of the 14th century blue and white porcelain went from being the despised and garish wares of foreigners and lower classes to the highly prized wares worthy of the Imperial household. Professor Mowry’s hypothesis is that the first Ming emperor, having been raised as an orphan in a Buddhist monastery was exposed to the blue and white porcelain used on the altars. It was here that he developed his taste for blue and white and when he became Emperor he ushered in one of the greatest periods of Chinese porcelain production.
Wendy Harvey on “Tiles—Commonplace, Yet Sublime” Editor’s note: Wendy provided the following summary of her talk and pictures of some of her tiles. Tiles; commonplace yet sublime: borrowed from Millet’s definition of art, the lecture’s title refers to the combination of artistic merit and widespread availability of tiles made and used during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is the time period focused upon at the lecture held on 3/22/07. Beginning with a myopic, biased, and admittedly fractured historical look at the preceding millennia, several examples of favorite tiles were mentioned: the Ishtar gate of Babylon, Roman mosaics, and the floor of the Westminster Abbey chapter house. The main body of the lecture focused on the factors that contributed to the popularity and availability of tiles starting in mid 19 th century. These factors included the ability to produce tiles by machine rather than by hand; a burgeoning middle class; increased awareness of sanitation, germs, and health, as privies were moving from outdoors to indoors; desire for more fire resistant and easier to clean building materials (coal fuel made the skies and cities very dirty); the popularity of the Gothic Revival style; and a global marketplace. At the forefront of all that was happening in the pottery world, Herbert Minton was an established industrialist and manufacturer who anticipated the upcoming marketplace and purchased a patent for dust-pressing tiles. His refinement of this process enabled the mass production of tiles. This, combined with his masterful
marketing skills, wealthy clients, and perhaps a wee bit of being in the right place at the right time, helped establish Minton’s as the preeminent tile company of its time. As popularity and use of tiles increased, other existing pottery manufacturers began producing tiles, and new companies specializing in tiles sprang up. Tiles were available at every price level and were widely used inside and outside buildings, around fireplaces, in hallways, foyers, and in furniture. Huge public buildings sported, in their public rooms and/or directors’ offices, decorative tile panels often created by noted artists. American businessmen, sensing an opportunity, imported English and European potters to start American tile producing firms which flourished until the Great Depression. The first American tiles were stylistically similar to their English counterparts, but soon American tile manufacturers developed their own glazes and styles. Tiles were mass produced by the hundreds, thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, and widely distributed throughout the world. Many tiles were decorated with stories or pictures of morality tales, popular literary subject matter (e.g., Dickens, Shakespeare, Scott), children’s stories and/or romanticized farmyard scenes. Tiles were used for moral and/or historical instruction of children gathered in the evening around the fireplace. Their beauty, practicality, and availability made tiles a prominent decorative element within most homes and businesses of that period. Continued on page 4
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Tiles—Commonplace, Yet Sublime Continued from page 3 Antique tiles are undergoing a resurgence in current decorating popularity. This is due to many of the same factors that made them popular in the 19th century. Tiles remain durable, practical and beautiful. Many of today’s users incorporate antique tiles in bathroom or kitchen installations, around fireplaces, and in less traditional ways such as over windows, atop radiators, combined with other collectibles, framed as art, etc. Antique tiles offer many possibilities for collectors. Prices start at around $35 each so there is something for every pocketbook and aesthetic. Made by well known English, Continental, and American companies (Wedgwood, Meissen, Grueby to name just a few), tiles
offer expanded collecting possibilities. Tiles are often less expensive than comparable pieces of pottery or porcelain, although this is changing—especially in the American art pottery market. To illustrate the subject, a variety of tiles were shown and passed around to the audience. Examples were shown of different glazes, countries of manufacture, styles, and subject matters. A brief discussion on distinguishing new from old tiles finished the lecture. A short bibliography, list of tile organizations and copies of a brief article, Tiles; Good, Better, Best, which appeared in the New England Antiques Journal, were distributed. Copies are available from the author at www.antiquearticles.com.
Top left: 6" English ship tile by Pilkington in their Royal Lancastrian glaze Center: Matte-glazed American faience tile by the Mosaic Tile Company, Zanesville, OH Right: 8" Wedgwood transfer tile from the Fresco Head series Bottom left: 6" handpainted tile, probably English Right: Dust pressed German tile in Art Nouveau style
Please send comments/contributions to: Yonathan Bard, 6 Holland Street, Newton, MA 02458; telephone (617) 244-7688, fax (617) 965-2897, e-mail (the preferred venue!) doryon@rcn.com
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Historic Deerfield Acquires Sampson Collection of English Creamware Historic Deerfield in Deerfield, Massachusetts, has recently acquired Alistair Sampson’s personal collection of 162 pieces of English creamware. Sampson (1929-2006) was a prominent British antiques dealer, who specialized in the sale of ceramics, oak furniture, brass and metalwork, and needlework. According to his obituary, “Sampson was a collector almost all his life, beginning in school days with caterpillars, stamps, and war souvenirs, and graduating to Leeds creamware when he was a young lawyer.” Sampson had been assembling a private collection of creamware for many years, and displayed the collection throughout his St. John’s Wood, London, home. After his death, the firms of Alistair Sampson Antiques and Jonathan Horne Antiques merged to form Sampson and Horne Antiques. The Sampson Collection ranges widely in terms of forms, including such diverse objects as figures, vases and urns, tureens, sauceboats, mugs, teapots, food molds, shaving bowls, candlesticks, spittoons, and pierced dessert wares and baskets. The Sampson Collection has several representative pieces created in the rococo style, but most of the wares reflect neo-classical design. The majority of the collection is plain, undecorated creamware with the exception of a partial coffee and tea service transfer-printed with the “exotic birds” pattern and enhanced with green enamels and cold gilding, c. 1775. An extraordinary example from the collection is a silverform, rococo-style sauceboat molded with an elaborate female bust handle and a scene of “The Fox and the Crane” from Aesop’s Fables. A whimsical favorite in the collection is a c. 1800 creamware Toby jug, holding aloft a foaming mug of ale. The potter stippled the clay on the mug to simulate the effervescent froth. Another rarity of the collection is a matched set of four neo-classical style creamware candlesticks on vase-shaped stems with scroll handles and swags of husks, c. 1780-1800. While unmarked, these candlesticks bear a strong resemblance to those illustrated in James and Charles Whitehead’s 1798 pattern book. Enoch Booth (1717- c.1743) of Tunstall, England, invented creamware in the 1740s, but it was Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) who perfected and successfully marketed the ceramic body. Wedgwood’s version
of creamware resulted from many experiments with white clays and improved glazes. By 1762, Wedgwood had developed a light, sturdy, refined yet inexpensive creamcolored earthenware body. Wedgwood described his new product as “a species of earthenware for the table, quite new in appearance, covered with rich and brilliant glaze, bearing sudden alterations of heat and cold, manufactured with ease and expedition, and consequently cheap.” It could be left plain or decorated elaborately; the ceramic provided the perfect surface for hand-painted or transfer-printed decoration. Creamware was immediately popular on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1768, Wedgwood wrote that “The demand for this sd Creamcolour, Alias, Queen’s Ware, Alias, Ivory, still increases. It is really amazing how rapidly the use of it has spread allmost over the whole Globe, & how universally it is liked…. Dont you think we shall have some Chinese Missionaries come here soon to learn the art of making Cream-colour?” In the 18th and early 19th centuries, this ware was often called “queensware.” In 1765, England’s Queen Charlotte ordered a complete tea set made of creamware enameled in green and gold of Wedgwood’s manufacture. She was so delighted with the service that she permitted Josiah Wedgwood to title himself “Potter to Her Majesty.” Wedgwood took no time in rechristening his “ivory” or “cream-colour” ceramics as the newfashioned “queensware.” Middle-class consumers rushed to purchase creamware, bringing the popularity Continued on page 6
Creamware candlesticks and Whitehead illustration
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Sampson Collection Continued from page 5 of tin-glazed earthenware and salt-glazed stoneware to an end. In an effort to capture a segment of the creamware market, other English potteries also began to produce the ceramic. Estimates suggest that more than 150 factories in England manufactured the ware. Unfortunately most early wares were not marked, making attribution to a particular factory difficult. The Sampson Collection contains several marked examples of creamware from the Leeds Pottery and the Wedgwood Pottery. Trade catalogues created by Wedgwood and his competitors provide drawings of ceramic forms to retailers. Customers could chose between plates with varied decorated rims and varied prices. Equally fash-
ionable with the aristocracy and middle-class consumers alike, creamware transcended its status as an earthenware body, and was often valued as the equal of porcelain. Selections from the Sampson Collection are on view in the exhibition What’s New at Historic Deerfield: Recent Acquisitions at Historic Deerfield’s Flynt Center of Early New England Life. The remainder of the collection is on view in the Flynt Center’s attic. The acquisition of the Sampson Collection was made possible through a generous donation by Ray J. and Anne K. Groves. Anne Groves of New York City and New Canaan, Connecticut, has been a trustee of Historic Deerfield since 1991, and is currently the Chair of the museum’s Board of Trustees.
Bits and Pieces On February 22 CSC members gathered at the College Club for our annual session of Bits & Pieces. The session’s format was revised this year to a more show--tell-and-ask like format, with no officially designated panel. Each owner had three minutes to tell us what he knew about his or her piece and to ask questions about it, often leading to animated discussions by the audience. It came as no surprise that the experts
Above: Lusterware wastebowl, 1838 Right: Blue & white winepot decorated with Budhist emblems, Yongzheng (1723-1734) mark and period
who had served on our panels through the years were often called upon to express their opinions, which they did with knowledge and alacrity. Many other audience members came up with valuable information, as well as suggested references where further information could be found to shed light on the displayed pieces. Pages 6, 7, 8, and 10 contain a sampling of these pieces and what’s known about them.
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Left: Transitional (mid 17th c) vase; painted with a horse rolling in a grassy glade. According to Jeff Stamen, "this is one of the famous horses of the emperor Mu Wang. They were his prized possessions and very loyal to him. On a trip to be united with him they went into a poppy field and had a really great time rolling around and otherwise getting excited" Center: Blue, red, and white vase, Ming dynasty, Xuande (1426-1435) mark and probably of the period Right: Celadon meiping vase, largest known among pieces inscribed “Brothers’ kiln” (active 1180-1400)
Left: Japanese Imari plate, 1760s, with English shape and Dutch (Cornelius Pronk) inspired design Center: Large North Devon gravel-tempered “harvest jug” with inscribed poem, dated 1747 and dedicated to (?) Francis Clermont Right: Black-ground (iron-manganese slip) tall tankard, Staffordshire, probably 1720s
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“Brownware” pickle pots and jam jars Nottingham (small jar), Derbyshire (others), ca. 1800
Pickle dish; numeral 8 inside foot rim Lowestoft or Liverpool? 1760-1780
Chamberpot, Chaliner ironstone; “Lucerne” pattern, middle of 19th c. Inside: similarly patterned shards found under floorboard in old house
Large Chinese “Swatow” bowl; probably made for export to Orient or middle East.
S, North German bowl, perhaps Wellerware dated 1610
Small solid porcelain basket with relief molding probably Derby, 1760-1770
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Upcoming Ceramics Events CSC Meetings All meetings at 1 PM at the College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 4/26, Edward Lycett and the Faience Manufacturing Company; Barbara Veith. Research Associate, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 5/24, Annual Meeting and Tea; Lady Charlotte Schreiber: Collector Extraordinary; Yonathan Bard, CSC member. Auctions Asian: 4/14, Skinner Boston 5/2, Christie’s Amsterdam (Chinese, Japanese) 5/15, 5/18, Christie’s London (Chinese) 5/16, Christie’s London (Japanese) 9/18, Christie’s London (Japanese & Korean) 9/19, Christie’s NY (Chinese) British and/or continental: 4/17, 7/5, Christie’s London 4/19, Sotheby’s London 4/20, Christie’s NY 5/15, 6/26, Christie’s Amsterdam (incl. Dutch Delft) 7/18, Sotheby’s Milan (incl. porcelain & maiolica from the collection of Giampaolo Lukacs) Miscellaneous: 4/16, Christie’s Paris 4/20, Sotheby’s NY (19th c) 7/10, Christie’s London. Exhibitions: Alistair Sampson Collection of English Creamware, ongoing at the Flynt Center, Historic Deerfield, MA; see pp. 5-6 for details Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall, until May 20, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Rococo Exotic: French Mounted Porcelain and the Allure of the East, until June 10, Frick Collection, New York, NY Parades: Freer Ceramics Installed by Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, until November 30, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
Conferences and Seminars: Winterthur Ceramics Conference 2007: Earth and Fire: The Art & Mystery of the Potting Business, April 27 & 28, Winterthur Museum, Delaware. Speakers include Rose Kerr, Robert Copeland, Donna Corbin, Leslie B. Grigsby, Pat Halfpenny, James R. Koterski, Ronald W. Fuchs II, and David Rago; 800-448-3883 British Ceramics: The Development of Technical Genius in the British Ceramic Industry-1650-1850. June 22-24, Eastfield Village, East Nassau, NY; 518766-2422 or www.greatamericancraftsmen.org. There will be many artifacts salvaged from the grounds of the Spode factory on display. Lectures and Demonstrations will include: Beer Shops and Bread Riots, Miranda Goodby, Keeper of Ceramics, the Potteries Museum, Stoke on Trent, UK From Clay to Glost Oven, Robert Copeland, former historian of the Spode Factory and a noted member of the family that ran Spode for over 175 years The Development of Lathe Turning in the Potteries from the 18th century to the mid 19th century, Don Carpentier, practical potter and director of Eastfield Village Josiah Wedgwood, Master Potter and Marketing Genius, Nancy Ramage, professor of art history at Ithaca College The Influence of Chinese Export Porcelain on British Ceramics in the 18th to early 19th Century, Connie Rogers, author and lecturer The Rise and Fall of Slip, Jonathan Rickard, Author, collector and independent scholar Ceramics for Hyde Hall, Cooperstown, NY 18131834, Gib Vincent, independent scholar and former Director of the NY State Historical Society in Cooperstown, NY The Making of Potter’s Tools by Potters, Bob Nopper, practical potter from Salem. The Evolution of Polychrome-Painted Pearlware from the Late 18th to the Early 19th Century, Denise Carpentier, practical potter. Lecture and Demonstration Searching Through Spode, Don Carpentier.
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Contents A message from our president ................................................................................................ 1 Planning CSC’s 75th Anniversary Celebration ...................................................................... 1 Robert Mowry on “Chinese Porcelain: The Yuan Revolution;” report by Jeff Brown ....... 2 Wendy Harvey on “Tiles—Commonplace, Yet Sublime” ...................................................... 3 Historic Deerfield Acquires Sampson Collection of English Creamware ............................ 5 Bits and Pireces ....................................................................................................................... 6 Upcoming Ceramics Events .................................................................................................... 9
Seen at Bits & Pieces: Pearlware piggybank model of Weslleyan Chapel, Mexborough, South Yorkshire, 1830s