ȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢ July 31, 2020

INDEXES ON Newsstand Rate $2.00 Published by The Bee Publishing Company, Newtown, Connecticut PAGES 36 & 37 Thrown, Fired and Glazed The redware Tradition From Pennsylvania and Beyond

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Late-Eighteenth or early-Nineteenth Century -decorated red pitcher made in West Hartford, Conn., likely made at the Nathaniel Seymour . Collection of Vincent DiCicco. | Pennsylvania slipware shaving bowl. Collection of Her- shey Story. | Nineteenth Century Pennsylvania slip-decorated jar. Collection of Bradley & Deanne Hamilton. | Sgraffito-decorated plate, dated 1808, Andrew Headman (1752-1830), Rock Hill Township, Bucks County, Penn. Collection of Jeffrey Herb. | Sgraffito plate, Samuel Troxel (1803- 1870), Upper Hanover Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Collection of Bradley and Deanne Hamilton. Landis VaLLey ViLLage and Farm museum BY JUSTIN THOMAS rural crossroads village. The museum was founded es of pottery are included as part of the new instal- An outstanding pottery exhibit debuted in March by Henry Landis (1865-1955) and George Landis lation, largely symbolizing the ideas of function, of 2019 in the visitor center at the Landis Valley (1867-1954) in 1925. The brothers were active col- form and decoration, assembled by a group of people Village and Farm Museum in Lancaster, Penn., lectors in a wide range of antiques, including Con- including the museum’s curator, Jennifer Royer, and “Thrown, Fired and Glazed: The Redware Tradition estoga wagons, furniture, farm equipment, pottery guest curator, John Kolar. From Pennsylvania and Beyond.” This is a two- and other local decorative arts, which were put on The new exhibit is drawn from private collections year exhibit, made possible by a generous grant display. The museum was incorporated in 1941, and and the Landis Valley Museum’s collection, as well from the Richard C. Von Hess Foundation, an orga- today it is operated by the Pennsylvania Historical as other institutions, such as Winterthur, the nization created to help fund Susanna Wright’s and Museum Commission. Barnes Foundation, the Museum of the Shenando- (1697-1784) Ferry Mansion Museum, built in The first-half of the exhibit was installed in 2019, ah Valley, the Mercer Museum and the State Muse- Columbia, Lancaster County, Penn., in 1738, as with the second-half more recently debuted, opening um of Pennsylvania, among others. The exhibit well to further support art education and other to the public on Sunday March 8 and running until highlights the wares made in southeastern Penn- charitable purposes. June 30, 2021. Like many museums across the coun- sylvania in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centu- The Landis Valley Museum is one of the most try, the Landis Valley Museum was temporarily ry, but there are also wares that stretch production unique places to visit in Lancaster County, located closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak and has on 100 acres of farmland at the site of a former recently opened its doors again. More than 200 piec- ( continued on page 30 ) 30 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — July 31, 2020 Thrown, Fired and Glazed The Redware Tradition From Pennsylvania and Beyond

The visitor’s center at the Landis Valley Museum in Lancaster, Penn. This is where the exhibit, “Thrown, Fired and Glazed: The Redware Tra- Unglazed Pennsylvania head vessel. Collection of dition From Pennsylvania and the Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum, Penn- Beyond” is displayed. sylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

( continued from page 1C ) reflected the heritage of these glaze before it was fired in the potters, and the type of wares , creating wonderful throughout the American east- that were made in the coun- objects, patterns and images in ern seaboard, such as red earth- tries that they migrated from contrast. enware made as far north as to America. Religion and spiri- The sgraffito created in Penn- the Benjamin Dodge (1774- tual beliefs also influenced pro- sylvania in the Eighteenth and 1838) Pottery in Portland, duction. Nineteenth Centuries was Maine, to the vibrant slip-deco- Utilitarian red earthenware undoubtedly one of the best rated pottery manufactured in supplemented the everyday types of pottery manufactured the Shenandoah Valley in Vir- household needs of food prepa- anywhere in America. The ginia in the Nineteenth Centu- ration, cooking, storage and forms decorated with sgraffito ry. Many of the exceptional farm wares, as early as the displayed in the first-half of the objects have never been dis- 1600s, and was in the height of exhibit, included flowerpots, played publicly and are its production in Pennsylvania jars and plates, as well as a extremely rare to see today, rep- in the Eighteenth Century Colonial tea canister related to resenting pottery manufac- through the Industrial Revolu- a similar object owned by the tured in both urban industry tion. This type of production is Metropolitan Museum of Art in settings and by small country regularly found on archaeology Manhattan. The overall presen- potters, some of whom were sites throughout Pennsylvania, tation of the exhibit rivals dis- farmers, supplementing their often dating from the 1700s. plays of related material found An exhibit catalog has been published, Thrown, Fired and yearly income with pottery The designs varied from mun- at the Philadelphia Museum of Glazed: The Redware Tradition From Pennsylvania and sales. dane simple glazes on heavily Art, Winterthur and the Met. Beyond. It is available in the visitor’s center, and every The was typically dug in thrown pots to skillfully thrown But the display did not stop object from the two-year exhibit is published in the book. the area where the pottery refined wares decorated in there, either, drawing attention operated. It was less common vibrant colors, which allocated to the wares that were made for this type of clay to be more time to produce, and locally in the Lancaster area in imported, unlike some Ameri- sometimes were created with a the 1800s, in addition to whim- can manufacturers lot more meaning. In fact, color sical figurals or end-of-the-day who used a different type of is a major aspect of the exhibit, objects, also made in Pennsyl- high-fired clay that was not demonstrating a variety of vania, along with a late-Nine- easily accessible everywhere in beautiful single and multicol- teenth Century face jug made the country. Some American ored glazes, along with slip- by Carl W. Bach in Allentown, potters also imported kaolin, ware, created from copper, iron, Penn. Other notable objects used in the process to manufac- kaolin, cobalt and manganese. included a phenomenal exam- ture some slipware. But based I visited the initial install- ple of sgraffito from Hager- on the amount of slipware pro- ment of the Landis Valley stown, Md., great examples of duced in Pennsylvania in the Museum pottery exhibit twice production from Virginia, a Eighteenth and Nineteenth in 2019; my first visit happened soup bowl made by John Bell Century, potters must have had in June, although I was given (1800-1880) in Waynesboro, access to multiple kaolin mines. an in-depth private tour in Penn., for the Snow Hill Nun- Red earthenware or redware, October. The selection of pot- nery, as well as wares made in as it is referred to by American tery is magnificent. I was New England and as far away collectors, was brought to instantly mesmerized as I as Ontario. America in the Seventeenth entered the exhibit room in the However, the exhibit even Century, when English, Dutch visitor’s center, seeing dozens of focused on the academics of and German immigrant potters pieces of Eighteenth and Nine- pottery production, displaying settled in areas like Charles- teenth Century Pennsylvania a multitude of potters tools, as town (Boston), Mass., New York sgraffito, a technique created well as molds used by the Bell Nineteenth Century Pennsylvania slipware birdhouse. Col- City and Philadelphia. This by applying layers of color, and family in the Shenandoah Val- lection of Chester County Historical Society. early production typically then scratching off some of the ley on loan from the Renfrew July 31, 2020 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — 31

Nineteenth Century Pennsylvania tobacco Pennsylvania tea canister, inscribed on the base humidor in the form of a bulldog; the head is “Made by E. White March 22 1848 General Taylor Nineteenth Century red earthenware jar attrib- removable. Collection of the Pennsylvania Ger- Famous in the Battlefield of Mexico 1848.” Collec- uted to the Benjamin Dodge Pottery in Portland, man Cultural Heritage Center. tion of the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia. Maine. Collection of Vincent DiCicco. Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum

Nineteenth Century painted red earthenware whippet made by Samuel Slip-decorated pig made by J. Eberly & Company in Strasburg, Va. Collec- Bell in Winchester, Va. The base is signed “Samuel Bell / Winchester Sept. 21 tion of Ron Blunt, Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. 1841.” Photo Ron Blunt, Museum of the Shenandoah Valley.

Museum & Park in Waynes- made by Ned Folz, Robesonia ing pieces are alike; every piece boro. But unlike other parts of Pottery, Lester Breininger, Phil of pottery tells its own unique America, this area in Pennsyl- Richards, Tammy Zettlemoyer story, from its creation to how it vania continued its longstand- and Andrew Loercher is repre- was used and owned through ing history of pottery produc- sented. A selection of potters the years. Most of these surviv- tion into the Twentieth tools is also on display. ing wares originally existed for Century, representing red Some of the more exciting a household need, but at some earthenware manufactured by pieces of pottery to see include point in the late Nineteenth the Stahl family, Henry Gast additional examples of Penn- through the mid-Twentieth (1836-1924), Henry Chapman sylvania sgraffito and figurals, Century, private collectors and Mercer (1856-1930), as well as outstanding slipware adorning museums began to notice these other potters. Pennsylvania is plates and other forms, a objects beyond a simple use, one of the few locations in painted whippet made by and instead recognized a time America where the art form Samuel Bell (1811-1891) in and place in American history still thrives today, and modern- Winchester, Va., dated “Sep- that had passed, where this day craftsmen like Lester tember 21, 1841,” an incredi- production was now identified Breininger (1935-2011), Wesley bly rare pig made by J. Eberly as a work of art and a piece of Muckey, Bob Hughes and & Company in Strasburg, Va., living history. And the wares Denise Wilz displayed exam- as well as another Pennsylva- made in southeastern Pennsyl- ples of their production. nia face jug. There is even a vania are at the forefront of The second-half of this exhibit Pennsylvania tea canister, American red earthenware pro- is just as exciting as the first, inscribed on the base, “Made duction, combining skill, color drawing upon similar resources by E. White March 22 1848 and decoration. This exhibit and shedding a new light on General Taylor Famous in the represents all of this and more, the type of wares that were Battlefield of Mexico 1848,” and it is certainly worth seeing already exhibited. The focus along with a wonderful slip- for anyone interested in learn- remains with the pottery made decorated pitcher made in ing more about early domestic in Pennsylvania, but like the West Hartford, Conn., likely pottery production, the aesthet- first exhibit, red earthenware by Nathaniel Seymour (1763- ic appeal of utilitarian pottery, will be displayed from other 1849), among dozens of other along with the history of the areas, demonstrating regional must-see pieces. The exhibit Pennsylvania Germans. differences, but also how this is space ties it all in beautifully; There’s no need to worry if all tied together today with no matter where you stand or you did not view the first half of common clays found all over look, you are completely sur- the exhibit because the entire America, used to create low- rounded in all directions with two-part show has been pub- fired red earthenware. pottery representing nearly lished in a catalog available in Aside from the museum 340 years of production, dat- the visitor’s center at the Lan- objects and the wares on loan ing from the Seventeenth to dis Valley Museum, as well as from private collections, the the Twenty-First Century. the museum’s website: https:// second half of the exhibit con- An aspect of American red www.landisvalleymuseum.org/. Figural, circa 1852-80, Joseph K. Henne (1823-1902), tinues to recognize modern earthenware that I truly enjoy Unless noted otherwise, photo- Shartlesville, Upper Bern Township, Berks County, Penn. Pennsylvania potters. Pottery is the fact that no two surviv- graphs by Cynthia Kirby-Reedy. Collection of Jeffrey Herb.