Big Books, Little Books

Alice Miner collected books of all shapes and sizes, but in our current exhibit in the Weaving Room, we’re focusing on some of the biggest and the smallest books in the museum! Some are so big I can almost hide behind them...

...while others easily fit in the palm of my hand.

Old Wedgwood, by Frederick Rathbone (1898), just might be the largest book in the collection. It's 20 inches high, almost 15 inches wide, and a solid 2 inches thick! Rathbone was the foremost expert on Wedgwood china at the turn of the century, and the book is a comprehensive biographical and historical account of the company and its founder. But the highlight of the book is the 67 full-page colored engravings of beautiful 18th-century Wedgwood pieces—vases, plaques, coffee pots, urns, cameos, and statues.

Plate VIII: Three déjeûner pieces (1790s)

Plate XII: Vase in grey-blue jasper, with reliefs of the Muses, etc. (1782)

This particular copy of Old Wedgwood is signed by Frederick Rathbone and was given by him to Alice’s friend Emma Hodge and her sister, Jene Bell.

These next two books, at 4 by 3 inches, are pretty wee compared to Ol’ Wedgwood (but still not the smallest!). 

William B. Tappan, Poems of the Heart (1845)

Rev. William Bingham Tappan was (in the words of one of his contemporaries) “the most industrious and voluminous of our religious poets.” Tappan (1794-1849) was the Superintendent of the American Sunday School Union; most of his verses are religious in nature and many concern the work of missionaries (“The Missionary’s Grave in the Desert”) and the temperance movement (“Song of the Three Hundred Thousand Drunkards in the United States”). He was also a prolific writer of hymns.

A Lady, Teachers' Offering;
or Interesting Stories for School Children (1854)

Children’s literature as we know it today began to emerge in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. New ideas about the innocence of childhood along with new educational theories led to a burgeoning marketplace of entertaining and instructive books aimed at children. Many of these books were sternly moralistic; in one of the tales in Teachers’ Offering, a young boy is “deprived of the use of his feet” as punishment for carelessness. Children would have to wait until the later 19th century for more humorous and imaginative stories of fantasy and adventure.

These three books (3 1/4” by 2 1/4”) are all the work of John Stowell Adams (1823-1893), a writer of inspirational short stories and editor of numerous poetry anthologies. In each, Adams chose verses to suit the theme of the book. Floral Wreath (1851) concerns the “language of flowers”; The Crystal Gem (1853) celebrates the many forms and beauties of water; and The Seasons (1853) contains poems suitable for spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Little books like these were very popular in the mid-19th century as gifts or as tokens of affection.

Hardly bigger than a dew-drop!

And finally we have our very smallest book, Dew-Drops. At just 2 inches high and 1 1/2 inches wide, this miniature volume contains a short Biblical quotation for each day of the year. Its publisher, the American Tract Society, was founded in 1825 to produce and distribute evangelical Christian literature. Small books like this one could easily be carried in a purse or pocket, and consulted frequently.

These books, along with many other treasures large and small, are on view at the Alice Tuesdays through Saturdays.

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!

Emma and the Wedgwood Collection

In 1917 Alice and William were visited at their Heart's Delight Farm in Chazy by a dear friend from Chicago, Emma Blanxius Hodge. Emma had come that long way not just to relax, visit with her friends, and enjoy the fresh country air. She had also planned to catalog Alice's burgeoning collection of china. It was appropriate that Mrs. Hodge should offer her extensive knowledge of decorative arts to her friend in this way since she was responsible for getting Mrs. Miner started with the collection in the first place.

If one were to mention they collect Wedgwood, their statement might merely conjure some vague notion that they were interested in pottery. What the majority of us likely would not realize is the breadth of pottery designs such a collection might include. This is what I hope to illustrate with the newest exhibit at The Alice. My intent was to display some of the Wedgwood pottery Alice collected in the early 1900s, and in the process found a wide variety of the types of objects Wedgwood Manufactory sold starting in 1758.

Of the thirteen pieces I have chosen for our Wedgwood exhibit, ten are described in the 1917 inventory Hodge penned. Emma wrote descriptions, and labeled and numbered more than 350 objects for Alice that summer. Along the way she included information about each pottery type, and its style and manufacturer. The catalog consists of 116 typewritten pages of very detailed information about a collection now housed in the Ballroom of The Alice T. Miner Museum.

Emma wrote, "This compiled catalog is dedicated to my dear friends of Heart's Delight Farm, who, while they were laboring with the knitting needle for our soldiers at the front, permitted me to assemble these facts concerning the collection of pottery and porcelain in the Matilda Trainer collection, and furnished for me a summer of fragrant and unforgettable associations.

Emma B. Hodge.

Heart's Delight Farm,

Chazy, New York.

August, 28, 1917"

Alice Miner named her collection of British and American porcelain and earthenware in memory of her recently departed oldest sister Matilda, who passed away on February 14, 1917 - just weeks before her 65th birthday. Emma's visit probably helped to ease the acute loss Alice must have felt that summer. Twelve years older than Alice, Matilda was much more than a sister - she had stepped in to help raise the younger children after their mother died in 1870, followed too soon by their father in 1876.

The objects currently exhibited in the Dining Room of The Alice range widely in style, glaze and intended use, as well as in taste! Included is a handsome black basalt bust portrait of George Washington, circa 1790. It is the largest and most striking Wedgwood object in the collection. When you come for a tour you will also see an ironstone china teapot made by Wedgwood that once belonged to William Miner's grandmother Lydia that was given to Alice for her collection by his aunt Huldah Miner in 1917. One of the more whimsical objects is a small teapot shaped like a cauliflower, realistic enough that it made a docent who is allergic to cauliflower sneeze while helping to install the exhibit!

Another Chicago collector represented in this Wedgwood exhibit, Frank Wakely Gunsaulus, was a mutual friend of the Miners and Emma B. Hodge. Gunsaulus was a major collector of illuminated manuscripts, ancient texts, decorative arts, as well as Wedgwood, and his influence on Alice's collection can be seen in numerous extraordinary objects in The Alice's collection. Many of the objects he had gathered, including an Old Wedgwood collection, were donated to The Art Institute of Chicago. The Alice and The Art Institute each own one of a pair of matching flower vases once owned by Mr. Gunsaulus. He had originally donated both to The Art Institute, yet then removed one from their collection to give to Alice. They are Wedgwood jasperware vases described by Mrs. Hodge as; "Flower Holder. Light blue jasper with white figures in low relief of children playing blind man's buff. Classic borders and octagonal base with geometric border in white low relief. Circa 1785. From the Frank W. Gunsaulus Collection of 'Old Wedgwood' in The Art Institute of Chicago."

The Wedgwood jasperware flower holder at The Art Institute of Chicago,

photo used with permission.

The jasperware flower vase in The Alice collection.

There is truly something for everyone in this Wedgwood exhibit: from teapots to sculptures, plates to flower vases - with a variety of glazes - from wonderful green glaze, to black basalt, or merely "plain" white glaze. There are Queen's ware, jasperware, Flo Blue, daisies, cucumber leaves, cauliflower and crocus... I can see Emma Hodge, Frank Gunsaulus and Alice Miner gathered around the dining table admiring these beautifully made and lovingly collected objects. Come to The Alice, squint your eyes a bit, and find out if you can see those folks too... Or just come to enjoy the collection!