The Marquis is at The Alice

When Alice Miner planned her Chazy museum, the initial architectural sketches revealed an environment resembling a gallery with skylights and a very open floor plan. The design she finally chose, however, was akin to the layout of a wealthy Colonial home. That decision was likely significantly influenced by the nationalistic ideas flourishing in the early 20th century. Her collecting was also a product of her era. She acquired many of the hallmark items of what is now referred to as the Colonial Revival Movement; objects and documents associated with our founding fathers and notable citizens, American-made decorative arts, engraved representations of the American Revolution and its keys players, needlework, textiles, memorabilia and more.

There were a few individuals who were particular favorites of Alice and her husband William, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Ulysses S. Grant. Along with fascinating letters and other assorted pieces associated with those luminaries, Alice gathered a collection of objects associated with Gilbert du Motier, better known as the Marquis de Lafayette. Our second floor hallway holds portraits, miniature portraits, a bust, transfer-printed pottery, and even a pair of French polychrome bisque figures representing Lafayette and his wife Adrienne.

Lafayette Memorial Ribbon, 19th Century

It seems obvious that Lafayette was a hero to Alice and William, and books about his life are abundant in their personal collection. In all there are over 30 objects or documents in this Lafayette collection, not including books. They range from a lovely pair of ladies kid-skin gloves transfer-decorated with an image of Lafayette and the words "Welcome Lafayette", to a fragment of hand embroidered French fabric from a dress worn by a Mrs. Prescott of Boston at a ball given for the Marquis de Lafayette in 1824. In The Alice archives we have a letter that General Lafayette wrote in his later years from La Grange, his mother-in-law's estate. He wrote to a Citizen Armand, or perhaps Arnaud, in Paris, attempting to gain restitution for some property or paintings lost from his father-in-law's estate. The letter is undated but was probably written in the early 1800s.

Clews Pitcher, Landing of General Lafayette, Blue Transfer Print, Circa 1825 (front)

Framed Tinted Lithograph, Published by Villian, Early 19th Century (back)

One of my favorite Lafayette objects in the collection is small, in very worn condition, and easy to overlook. Like the letter written by him, Lafayette may even have held this object in his hands at one time. It is a very well-used silver watchcase delicately engraved on the inside and back. The object is also interesting for it's association with another hero of the American Revolution and later Secretary of War, General Henry Knox. The engraving says, "Presented to General Knox by DeLafayette 177..." with the last number obscured. There is also engraving on the inside front that is partially obscured. All that can be read is "DeLaFa... A Paris", engraved below a diamond and some numbers that may be a maker's mark.

On the second floor of The Alice, one can also find five miniature portraits of Lafayette at various stages of his life. Some show him as a young man with a powdered wig, and two are more life-like images with dark hair. One of the two is a very small and delicate engraving depicting the Marquis in his later years - as he probably looked when he visited the United States in 1824, at the age of 67.

When he returned from France in 1824 to visit the land he felt great love for, the Marquis de Lafayette strongly stirred American sentiment, finding his way into the hearts of the citizens of a fledgling United States. Many of the objects in The Alice collection would never have been created if it weren't for the sentimental journey Lafayette made through the young states. We have some beautiful blue and white transferware commemorating his visit, including a large Clews pitcher showing the "Landing of General Lafayette at Castle Garden, New York, 16 August, 1824". The handle is decorated with the fleur-de-lis, in honor of Lafayette. Another pattern is a blue transferware image of Lafayette standing before the tomb of Washington, and yet a third shows him at the tomb of Franklin, a true hero of many French citizens.

Miniature Engraved Portrait of Lafayette, 19th Century

The majority of these Lafayette pieces are on display in the second floor hall of the museum, where the letter written by the Marquis is also occasionally exhibited. In order to view this wonderful collection within a collection you will need to wait until our museum tours start again. We will be closed for tours for the months of January, February and March, with tours in April by appointment only. Keep an eye out for upcoming event announcements though, including an astronomy lecture this January 19th at 7:00pm.

Happy New Year!

A Sampling of Platters

As Thanksgiving and other holidays fast approach many of us are well into planning our holiday meals - either by purchasing the myriad ingredients or by deciding which dinner invitations to accept. Whether cook or guest, our holidays often seem to be centered around the feasts we are all so fortunate to partake in. I am one who loves to cook, especially the elaborate preparation of a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings! I enjoy all aspects of the meal, from going out to purchase the ingredients, to the preparation and coordination of the meal itself, mulling over how each element will be prepared, and finally, how to serve it all in a pleasing way.

Since I prefer to let the food speak for itself, my style of hosting does not require a lot of fancy presentation, but it is really helpful to have access to the proper tools! Occasionally I look around The Alice ballroom and think how fun it might be to utilize a few of the objects exhibited there to assist in serving a fabulous meal... Now that is the sort of collecting I could sink my teeth into!

Recently I was studying a Staffordshire blue and white platter with a very clever gravy-well design. There are a few platters at the museum with this smart design - clearly created with the chef in mind. When I did a search for "platters" in our catalog I found that The Alice holds more than 20 ceramic platters! When I study the age and history of the pieces I can't help but wonder if they were ever actually used, and if so, how did they survive the meals they held over the many years before coming to reside at The Alice? Now that they're here, they are all safe from the wear and tear of use in a kitchen like mine! I'll tell you about a few of my favorites.

Most of our pieces are transferware - made by transferring an engraving onto the pottery from a printed sheet of tissue paper... one of Alice's platters, however, is a fine example of sponge ware - created, as you may have guessed, by applying the pigment design directly to the pottery with a sponge. This particular sponge ware platter was created in England circa 1840, and it also has a transferred design in the center depicting a spread eagle and colonial shield. The sponged border is blue while the transferred design is a grey pigment. The simple decoration of this platter contrasts with the rest of the pieces, which are usually covered in bucolic scenes with floral borders. These ornate designs are clearly meant to be displayed (when not covered by a sumptuous turkey or roast!)

One such fancy design was made by Enoch Wood & Sons between 1829-1846 and printed with a scene familiar to most of us. Our early catalog of the porcelain collection, written by Emma Hodge in 1917, describes the piece: "Platter. Medium size. Decoration, central medallion in blue transfer of 'Niagara Falls, on the American side'. Heavy woods to the left of the falls. Figures in the foreground viewing the landscape. Shell border around rim."

Another transferware scene is on the piece I referred to previously with its handy gravy-well shaped into the porcelain. It is a Staffordshire blue and white chamfered rectangular well and tree platter, also decorated with a bucolic view. This octagonal Stubbs piece was made circa 1825 and has a romantic landscape with ruins, cattle and sheep in blue transfer print.

Along with the sponge ware platter, another piece stands out from the many blue and white transferware objects. It is a lovely Swansea or Cambrian Pottery platter of heavy porcelain with scroll motifs and isolated transfer decorated flowers in enamel colors. Emma Hodge described it: "Swansea porcelain 5th period 1825. Platter. White porcelain. Medallions in low relief, in which are bunches of flowers in polychrome. Irregular edge finished off in gold, circa 1815."

There are hundreds of wonderful pieces of pottery in The Alice collection for you to experience. If platters per se don't exactly float your boat, we do have gravy boats! ~ along with creamers, tea cups and saucers, plates and pitchers, as well as many other forms of decorative arts collected by Alice Miner in the early 20th century. The Alice is open through the end of December - Tuesday through Saturday - with the exception of Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Eve. Come in for a tour and gather ideas for your holiday entertaining!

Transferware in The Alice Collection

The story written by past Director/Curator Nell Sullivan suggests Alice T. Miner may not have become a collector but for the urging of her dear friend Emma B. Hodge. Nell Sullivan was the last of the Directors hand-picked by Alice to lead her museum. According to Mrs. Sullivan, Emma gave Alice a box holding a variety of china, with the intent of interesting her friend in the lovely things she could be collecting. Eventually this trick worked and Alice began collecting porcelain and glass, eventually expanding her interests well beyond what I will cover in this article. (Scroll down to previous blog posts to learn more!)

Alice Miner did not merely gather beautiful objects, she was also very interested in the history and background of the objects she acquired. Because of her voracious reading and self-education about the decorative arts, the museum's reference library relating to the collection is extensive. Many of the books the staff refers to regularly have the Miner bookplate in the front, and many have notes written in Alice's own handwriting. She also looked to her friend Emma Hodge for guidance and assistance, and in the summer of 1917, before the museum was even a drawing on paper, Emma B. Hodge came to Heart's Delight Farm to catalog Alice T. Miner's growing collection of pottery and porcelain!

Many of the pieces Emma catalogued that summer are referred to as transferware. This is a method of decorating on pottery, perfected as early as the 175os in England, in which copper plates are engraved with designs and printed on tissue paper. While the print is still wet the paper print is then transferred onto pottery which is in turn fired at low temperature to permanently affix the design. The most durable method was to transfer the design on to the pottery before glazing. Once the glaze was applied and fired it then served to further set the transferred image on the plate, cup, tea pot, etc. Before the development of this method of design, pottery had been laboriously painted by hand and thus was much more expensive to produce.

The early pieces of transferware were printed with black ink on white porcelain. It was soon found, however, that the color blue was both more attractive and less expensive to produce. Around 1835, as the popularity of blue transfer designs waned, other colors such as light blue, pink, green and purple became more prevalent.

One such blue and white transferware plate in The Alice T. Miner Museum collection is decorated in what is called the "States" design. In her 1917 inventory for Alice, Emma describes the plate - "Tea plate. This is what is known as the "States" plate design. Decoration, central medallion in blue transfer, of three story building in the distance and sheep in the foreground. To the left is the figure of "Justice" blindfolded, holding a portrait of Washington. On the right is the kneeling figure of "Independence". Festoon border containing the names of the fifteen states in the Union, with the stars above. Irregular lace border around edge. Mark "Clews warranted Staffordshire" in circle with crown impressed."

The figure Emma Hodge refers to as Justice is actually Liberty holding a staff with the liberty cap on top. The two figures stand or kneel on a short pedestal. Under Justice the pedestal says "AMERICA AND" and the pedestal on which Liberty kneels says "INDEPENDENCE", hence the confusion about what the figure represents. Included in the plate design is the Masonic symbol of the square and compass pictured on an apron worn by Justice, perhaps in honor of Washington, who was a Freemason. The plate was made circa 1820 in Staffordshire, England by Clews Brothers. James Clews was one of the best known of the Staffordshire potters here in the United States because he actually attempted to make his pottery in Indiana for a short time in 1836, but was not successful, ultimately returning to England.

In the Ballroom of the museum, Alice's collection of glass and porcelain is beautifully exhibited in cases built into the walls. The blue and white transferware pieces catch one's eye upon entering the room. Along with the "States" design one can see another popular Clews design of the Landing of Lafayette. This pattern depicts Lafayette's ship landing with great ceremony in Castle Garden, New York on his second and final visit to America, in 1824. Other makers' designs are represented, including views of Niagara Falls, unknown buildings, and various bucolic scenes. Alice Miner also collected red, black, light blue, green, purple, and brown transferware of all shapes from various manufacturers. Do come to The Alice for a tour of the museum, and examine and enjoy the Ballroom pottery!