The Clarion (Spring/summer 1985)

AMERICA'S FOLK ART MAGAZINE The Museum of American Folk Art New York City SPRING/SUMMER 1985

Lancaster County Amish bars quilt, 72" x 76". Superb quilting, circa 1890.

Terrific examples of classic Amish patterns always in stock.

KELTER-MALCE A•N•T•I•Q-U•E•S 361 Bleecker Street / New York City 10014 212-989-6760 IN•GREENWICH•VILCAGE

We are always interested in purchasing exceptional quilts and textiles.

STEVE MILLER • AMERICAN FOLK ART

Exceptionally Rare "Steeplechase Horse"by A.L. Jewell & Co., Waltham, Massachusetts.

Green Verdigris patination with traces ofthe original Gilding still intact.

Third quarter ofthe 19th Century.

17 East 96th Street, New York, New York 10128.(212)348-5219 By appointment only

SOTHEBY'S FOUNDED 1744

'4.* 4

Establishing landmarks for American Folk Art. In 1944, we sold the George Horace Lorimer Collection, starting a tradition of American folk art auctions. Since then Sotheby's has been offering important single-owner collections including those of Colonel Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Stewart E. Gregory, Thomas G. Rizzo and Frank and Karen Miele.

Sotheby's, the only international art auction firm with regularly scheduled auctions of American folk art and 100 years of experience in America, offers the most expertise and the finest auction facilities in the world.

You can participate in four specialized auctions of American folk art at Sotheby's every auction season. For more information, please contact Nancy Druckman at (212)606-7225. Sotheby's, 1334 York Avenue at 72nd Street, New York, New York 10021.

Molded and gilt copper Statue of Liberty weathervane, late 19th century, from the Collection of Thomas G. Rizzo, sold at Sotheby's in 1982 for $82,500.

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BONNER'S BARN 25 Washington Street Malone, NY 12953 Phone: 518-483-4001 PHOTO BY: ROB1DEAU STUDIOS

Century, Important Black American Folk Art Masterpiece, N.Y. State, Late 19th 29" High, 28" Wide, 12" Deep, Depicting a Minstrel Show A Mechanism is behind the top flap and down the left side to a foot pedal, which when operated, makes the Jointed and Clothed Black Figure Dance.

Clothes.

Completely Original and in wonderful, untouched condition, including the Paint and

BLANCHE GREEN STEIN

AMERICAN cANTIQUES6&QUILTS

THOS. K. WOODARD

AppliquĂŠ Album quilt. Maryland,circa 1860.85 x 87 inches.

We are always interested in purchasing exceptional quilts, collections or individual pieces.

Mail or telephone inquiries invited. Photos returned promptly 835 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10021(BETWEEN 69TH AND 70TH STREETS)TELEPHONE(212)988-2906

THE CIA ION

Cover caption: Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog; Ammi Phillips; New York, probably Amenia area; 1834-1836; Oil on canvas; Promised gift, private collection.

The Clarion is published three times a year by the Museum of American Folk Art, 55 West 53rd St., New York, NY 10019;(212) 581-2474. Annual subscription rate for MAFA members is included in membership dues. Copies are mailed to all members. Single copy $4.50.

The Clarion, America's Folk Art Magazine.

SPRING/SUMMER 1985 Published and copyright 1985 by the Museum of American Folk Art. 55 West 53rd Street, New York, New York 10019.

The cover and contents of The Clarion are fully protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any manner without written consent. Opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the Museum of American Folk Art. Unsolicited manuscripts or photographs should be accompanied by return postage. The Clarion assumes no responsiblity for the loss or damage of such materials.

CONTENTS

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE:

SPRING/SUMMER 1985

by Cynthia Elyce Rubin

28

by Arthur B. and Sybil B. Kern

40

by Joseph Sciorra

48

by Susan Larsen-Martin

54

One Curator in Search of an Exhibition

BENJAMIN GREENLEAF: Nineteenth Century Portrait Painter

REWEAVING THE PAST: Vincenzo Ancona's Telephone Wire Figures

PIONEERS IN PARADISE

Change of Address.

Please send both old and new addresses and allow five weeks for change.

Advertising.

The Clarion accepts advertisements only from advertisers whose reputation is recognized in the trade, but despite the care with which the advertising department screens photographs and texts submitted by its advertisers, it cannot guarantee the unquestionable authenticity of objects of quality or services advertised in its pages or offered for sale by its advertisers, nor can it accept responsibility for misunderstandings that may arise from the purchase or sale of objects or services advertised in its pages.

The Museum is dedicated to the exhibition and interpretation of folk art and feels it is a violation of its principles to be involved in or to appear to be involved in the sale of works of art. For this reason, the Museum will not knowingly accept advertisements for The Clarion which illustrate or describe objects that have been exhibited at the Museum within one year of the placing of the advertisement.

Letter from the Director

13

Current Major Donors

18

Museum News

70

Membership

74

Index to Advertisers

80

5

Janet Fleisher GALLERY 211 South 17th Street PHILADELPHIA 1 9 1 0 3 545• 7562/7589

William Schimmel Eagle Fine Early Example Circa 1865-70 With No Restoration Carved and Polychromed Wood 17 1/4"x 10 3/4"Height

Offering exceptional examples ofart

by American self-taught, and visionary artists ofthe late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Major works available by: Edmondson, Hawkins, Hunter, Finster, McCarthy, Morgan, Pickett, Pierce, Pippin, Tolson, Traylor, and Yoakum.

JOHN KEITH RUSSELL 11W. SPRING STREET, SOUTH SALEM,IV. 10590 • (914)763-8144

American Gameboard-19th Century.

OPEN TUFS-SUN,10-5:30,55 MILES NORTH OF N.Y.C.

Johann Rank 1796

This chest stands at the forefront of examples of American folk art. Clearly signed in the center vase in three lines in script: Johann/Rank/1796. From Jonestown, Pennsylvania.

Star and rectangle design on top. Pine case with till inside. No repairs, no restoration, no in-painting. Original feet and blocks. Original key, escutcheon, lock, and hinges.

It was featured in the pioneering articles on the Selzer and Rank chests in ANTIQUES in 1927. Illustrated in Nutting, No. 114. Fine provenance.

I also have a chest by Christian Selze4 signed and dated 1783. Same impeccable condition, it rivals specimens in several major museums.

THOS. B.RENTSCHLER BLUE HILLS FARM ANTIQUES 1030 New London Road Hamilton, Ohio 45013 (513) 863-8633 By appointment only.

8

PHYLLIS HADERS

BY APPOINTMENT (212) 832-8181 (203) 535-2585 MAIL ADDRESS: 136 EAST 64TH STREET NEW YORK, NY 10021

Schoolhouse, Ohio, circa 1880.

Cotton, 73" x 80".

9

ROBERT F NICHOLS Santa Fe Americana—Decorative Art—Indian Art

Quilt top, Virginia, 1840's or 1850's.

8'4" wide, 7'5" high.

Exhibiting at the Baltimore Antiques Show, Baltimore, Maryland, May1985 Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital Antiques Show, Denver, Colorado, June 1985 Theta Charity Antiques Show, Houston, Texas, Sept. 1985

652 Canyon Road (Across from the Compound Restaurant) Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 (505)982-2145 Associate: John C. Newcomer, Route], Box 35A, Keedysville, Maryland

?'us ametra, 121,1 jolkart mismiftiftsid bettie mintz

Painted slant front desk; Connecticut; c. 1700-20 I()

P.O. box 5943 bethesda, maryland 20814 near Washington, D.C. 301-652-4626

EAGLE WALL PLAQUE BY

JOHN HALEY BELLAMY carved, gilded and polychromed wood 8/ 25 inches date: circa 1900

R.H. LOVE FOLK ART GALLERY 106 EAST OHIO STREET, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60611 3126649620

SHELDON PECK: Detail We are interetcd in acquiring \mcrican folk art of this quality.

David A.Schorsch P.O. Box 413 South Salem, N.Y 10590 Telephone: 914-234-9556 By appointment only Consultants and Brokers of Fine Americana

Letter from the Director Dr. Robert Bishop

The Museum of American Folk Art is proud of the alliances it has forged with major corporations whose public-spirited generosity has become the single most significant factor in permitting the American museum community to present exhibitions of enduring importance. It is with great appreciation that I record the generous underwriting by Philip Morris of the Museum's next exhibit, "Southern Folk Art:' which is scheduled to open on May 15. Among American corporations, Philip Morris has carved out a special place for itself as a supporter of the arts. Without its commitment and interest, "Southern Folk Art:' a landmark presentation drawing from the richly diverse and wonderful folk heritage of the American South, simply could not have been presented. We warmly applaud Philip Morris for this demonstration of confidence in the Museum and for bringing "Southern Folk Art" to a large public.

"Southern Folk Art" has been organized by guest curator Cynthia Elyce Rubin, who traveled widely in a quest for previously unknown and exciting folk art discoveries that not only would enlarge our understanding but provide a visually appealing record of the South.

We hope you will want to come to the Museum and see how successful her efforts have been. The folk art heritage of the South is well documented, not only in the exhibition but also in Mrs. Rubin's new book, Southern Folk Art, published by Oxmoor House, Inc. in conjunction with the exhibition. The book is available at $35 in our Museum shops and other fine bookstores.

This seems to be an especially important month for the Museum and its family of friends. Not only will we celebrate the opening of "Southern Folk Art:' but on May 21 the opening at the American Festival Cafe at Rockefeller Center of "Terrapins, Tortoises and Turtles:' a loan exhibition of folk sculpture from the collection of George

H. Meyer. Immediately prior to the exhibition's opening, a gala dinner dance will be held the evening of May 20 in the summer garden at the American Festival Cafe,through the generosity of Restaurant Associates, Inc. I encourage all members and friends of the Museum to participate in this benefit evening, which is described in the "Museum News" section of this issue of The Clarion. Our thanks to everyone at Restaurant Associates, Inc. for making the event possible.

This message provides an opportunity for me to report on the inauguration on March 18 of the Burt Martinson Gallery, our first endowed gallery.

Through the generosity of the Joseph Martinson Memorial Fund,this gallery at 125 West 55th Street will answer a long-felt need for regular presentations from the Museum's permanent collection. It is anticipated that this new facility will be transferred to the institution's permanent museum building when completed. Highlighted in the first presentation in the Burt Martinson Gallery is "Girl is Red Dress with Cat and Dog:' the masterpiece by Ammi Phillips, which is the cover illustration for this issue of The Clarion. Acquired by a dear friend of the Museum long interested in its growth and development, the great work of art is a promised gift to the Museum and represents the most significant addition to the institution's growing holdings.

I am delighted to report that The Jewish Heritage in American Folk Art, the catalogue published in connection with our joint exhibition of the same name with The Jewish Museum, has been nominated for the prestigious National Jewish Book Award, one of three nominees in the visual arts category.

This major exhibition, organized by the Museum's Assistant Director, Gerard C. Wertkin, and by Norman L. Kleeblatt, Curator of Collections at The Jewish Museum, is soon to open at the

National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia and will later travel to the Spertus Museum in Chicago and the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles.

As I write these words to you, the Museum is in the process of formulating plans for "The Great American Quilt Festival:' to be presented at the Passenger Terminal Pier from April 2327, 1986. The culmination of a yearlong quilt contest, the Festival will bring together thousands committed to the perpetuation of one of America's great art forms. Built around the themes of liberty, freedom and the heritage of America, "The Great American Quilt Festival" will commemorate the centennial of the Statue of Liberty and the reopening of this great American landmark. This very significant event is under the sponsorship of 3-M/Scotchguard Products.

It promises to be the most important event ever staged in the world of quilts and will include exhibitions from the Museum's permanent collection, a presentation of the state finalists and winning quilts produced in "The Great American Quilt Contest" and an imposing array of symposia, workshops, lectures and other educational events relating to quilting in America. For those planning to come to New York for the Festival, a toll free telephone number has been established for travel and lodging arrangements. Please telephone 1-800-833-5483.

A recurring theme of these remarks has been one of gratitude to the many good friends in the corporate community who have supported our efforts.

To these expressions of appreciation should be added a warm "thank you" to our members, without whose continuing encouragement the Museum would not be able to take the strides that have marked its progress over this and the last several years.

Thank you, one and all.

13

RAYSSON WIGGINS & Period Interiors • Fine Antique Paintings

(603) 286-3046 •(603) 286-8117 N-77

Recently Discovered: "Elle Fox," (.1850, a dramatic example from the New England folk tradition

FOR SALE: Beautiful federal brick home in southern New Hampshire with walls by

RUFUS PORTER

Wall detail from upstairs bedroom. According to Nina it He, tei did ,,ome of his most interesting work on the walls" of this house. Jean Lippman calls the fres( os exemplified here "unique in Porter's work."

Contact David Wiggins, RFD 2 Hale Road, Tilton, NH 03276(603)286-3046

Museum of American Folk Art Administration Dr. Robert Bishop, Director Gerard C. Wertkin, Assistant Director Charles Salamey, Controller Alexander Tosto, Accountant Lillian Grossman, Assistant to the Director Jeanne Bornstein, Administrative Assistant Richard Griffin, Clerk Jerry Torrens, Assistant Clerk Collections & Exhibitions Elizabeth Warren, Curator Mary Ann Demos, Associate Curator Joyce Hill, Consulting Research Curator Mary Black, Consulting Curator William C. Ketchum, Jr., Curator ofSpecial Projects Cynthia Elyce Rubin, Curator ofSpecial Projects Rohini Coomara, Gallery Receptionist Joseph Minus, Gallery Assistant Howard Lanser and Joseph D'Agostino, Installations Departments Anne Minich, Director ofDevelopment Marie DiManno, Museum Shop Manager Nancy Doter, Curator ofEducation Diane Finore, Director ofSpecial Events Susan Flamm, Director ofPublic Relations Joan G. Lowenthal, Director ofPublications Claire Hartman Schadler, Registrar/Exhibitions Coordinator Edith Wise, Librarian Sara Robinson Farhi, Publications Associate Adrienne Krug, Development Associate Daniel N. Pagano, Development Associate Francine Flynn, Assistant Registrar/Assistant Exhibitions Coordinator Nancy Mead, Assistant Shop Manager Carleton Palmer, Staff Photographer Norbert Wills, Security Head Charles Elliot, Guard Raymond Scott, Guard Programs Irene Goodkind, Nancy Brown, Co-Chairwomen Friends Committee Dr. Marilynn Karp, Director, New York University Master's Program in Folk Art Studies Dr. Judith Reiter Weissman, New York University Program Coordinator Lucy Danziger, Susan Klein, Docent Program Consultants Kennetha Stewart, Exhibitions Previews Coordinator Sallie Nelson, Junior League Liaison Nancy Higgerson, Outreach Coordinator The Clarion Joan G. Lowenthal, Editor Sara Robinson Farhi, Senior Editor Faye Eng, Anthony Yee, Art Directors Ira Howard Levy, Design Consultant Craftsmen Litho, Printers Ace Typographers, Typesetters Museum Shop Staff Diane Browning, Sheila Carlisle, Elizabeth Cassidy, Rick Conant, Sharon Cortell, Camilla Crist, Anne De Camp, Elsie Dentes, Lucy Fagot, Irene Feuerstein, Lisa Haber, Caroline Hohenrath,Pat Hough, Claire Hulton, Elena Gordon, Annette Levande, Nancy Mayer, Laurie McClendon, Janet Moranz, Sally O'Day, Pat Pancer, Fran Phillips, Rita Pollitt, Ellen Renck, Eleanor Seymour, Myra Shaskan, Claire Spiezio, Caroline Smith, Laurie Thorsey, Mary Wamsley, Doris Wolfson, Helen Zimmerman

Jon Serl(1894represented by

Ethnographic Arts Inc. Important Folk, Outsider & Tribal Art Randall Morris

by Appointment (212) 334-9381

Shari Cavin Morris

56 Crosby Street New York, New York 10012 15

Shelly Zegart

••••••

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Fine quilts bought and sold Lectures Exhibits Appraisals 12-Z River Hill Road Louisville, KY 40207 (502) 897-9766 By appointment.

• For offices and corporate spaces • For city and country settings • For collecting

Quilts

Reception Area, Louisville Bank for Cooperatives; Brown St Williamson Tower.

*OUTHERN FOLK ART I1Q-'.:.: ., °

SOUTHERN FOLK ART

Edited by Cynthia Elyce Rubin.

This handsomely illustrated volume offers the first definitive indepth study of the back-country cultural heritage of the South.

Noted authorities contribute chapters on pottery, furniture, 76 , textiles, painting and sculpture. < ` .''

Southern Folk Art will serve as . , .r ;:-.;• the catalog for the exhibition of 1. 7 . j. the same name, being held at the Museum of American Folk 'a,(' • v Art, New York, May through for which Cynthia Rubin August, i r i, curator. is .-fr4 m• r. 'c Available at the Museum of American Folk Art Book & Gift Shop and other , 1•finebookstores. $35.00 — -C1 11(111 r '-'7 ?ling twviti ii, oi a cr,,,!,Oar.1 -

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Oxrnoor House®

Naive woolwork picture with large house in background, wonderful colors and condition, original frame and glass.

Early 19th century. English or American.

W c-as ms2 et 6 Maine 04578 1 SHEII A & EDWIN RIDEOUT 12Summer St(207)-882

AtIVI JAMES BROOKS

AMERICAN & INTERNATIONAL COUNTRY & FORMAL FURNITURE & ACCESSORIES Now at our new location.

AMERICAN ANTIQUES 3 Curtiss Road â&#x20AC;˘ Woodbury, CT 06798 203-266-4446

New England carved and painted wooden seahorse weathervane in Old white paint, mid-19th century, length 221 / 2", height 15".

PROVENANCE: The Howard & Jean Lipman Collection,

I7

Museum of American Folk Art BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Executive Committee Ralph Esmerian President Frances Sirota Martinson, Esq. Executive Vice President Lucy Danziger Vice President Karen S. Schuster Secretary George E Shaskan, Jr. Treasurer Judith A. Jedlicka Margery G. Kahn Theodore L. Kesselman Susan Klein

Members Mabel H. Brandon Catherine G. Cahill Karen D. Cohen Barbara Johnson, Esq. Alice M. Kaplan Jana Klauer William I. Leffler Ira Howard Levy Cyril I. Nelson Cynthia V.A. Schaffner Kathryn Steinberg Bonnie Strauss

Maureen Taylor Helene von Damm Robert N. Wilson Trustees Emeritus Mary Allis Adele Earnest Cordelia Hamilton Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr. Marian W. Johnson Louis C. Jones Jean Lipman

NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL Frances S. Martinson Chairman Mary Black Gray Boone David Davies Howard M. Graff

Lewis I. Haber Phyllis Haders Barbara Kaufman Anne Baxter Klee

Robert Meltzer George Meyer Paul Oppenheimer Alfred R. Shands, III Hume R. Steyer

DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE Jeanne R. Kerr, Vice President, Corporate Contributions, Time Incorporated Robert M. Meltzer, Chairman of the Board, Miami-Carey Corporation

Richard G. Mund, Secretary and Executive Director, Mobil Foundation Marian Z. Stern, Assistant Vice President, Community Programming, Chemical Bank

Dee Topol, Manager, Shearson/American Express Contributions Program

CURRENT MAJOR DONORS The Museum of American Folk Art thanks its current major donors for their generous support: Over $20,000 Mr. & Mrs. Frederick M. Danziger *Ethan Allen Inc. Mrs. Eva Feld Estate of Morris Feld Margery G. Kahn Foundation Krikor Foundation Tarex *General Mills Toy Group Institute for Museum Services 18

*IBM Corporation Japan-United States Friendship Commission Mary Kettaneh Jean and Howard Lipman Joseph Martinson Memorial Fund National Endowment for the Arts New York State Council on the Arts *Philip Morris Incorporated *Shearson/Lelunan American Express Inc. *United Technologies Corporation Estate of Jeannette B. Virgin

$10,000—$19,999 Adele Earnest Margery & Harry Kahn Philanthropic Fund

J.M. Kaplan Fund, Inc. Ira Howard Levy Frances Sirota Martinson, Esq. New York Council for the Humanities Rockefeller Brothers Fund Mr. & Mrs. George Shaskan Mr. & Mrs. Thomas W. Strauss

$4,000—$9,999 Amicus Foundation *Bankers Trust Company Bernhill Fund *Campbell Soup Company *Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A. Mr. & Mrs. James D. Clokey, ifi

CURRENT MAJOR DONORS

Mr. & Mrs. Edgar M. Cullman *Federal Document Retrieval Colonel Alexander W Gentleman *International Paper Company Barbara Johnson, Esq. *Kallir, Philips, Ross, Inc. Mrs. Ruth Kapnek Mr. & Mrs. Robert Klein Larsen Fund, Inc. *Mobil Corporation *Seligman & Latz, Inc. Herbert and Nell Singer Foundation, Inc. Swedish Council of America *3M Company *Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., Inc. *Time Incorporated Norman & Rosita Winston Foundation $2,000—$3,999 *Bristol-Myers Fund Catherine G. Cahill *Chemical Bank *Coach Leatherware Joseph E Cullman 3rd *Exxon Corporation *Grace Foundation *Gulf + Western Foundation *E.E Hutton Foundation *Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies Patricia & Richard Locke *Manufachwers Hanover Trust *Marsh & McLennan Companies Helen R. & Harold C. Mayer Foundation *Metropolitan Life Foundation *Morgan Guaranty Trust Company *Morgan Stanley & Company *New York Telephone Company *Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation *The Rockefeller Group, Inc. *Schlumberger Horizons, Inc. Mrs. Richard T. Taylor *Warner Communications, Inc. William Wiltshire III Robert N. Wilson *Xerox Corporation $1,000—$1,999 *American Stock Exchange *American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. Anonymous *Arthur Anderson & Co. Babtkis Foundation *Bank of New York *Bill Blass, Ltd. *Bloomingdale's *Bozell & Jacobs *Bunge Corporation *Chesebrough-Pond's Inc. *Citibank, N.A. Mr. & Mrs. Peter Cohen *Con Edison Joyce & Daniel Cowin

*Culbro Corporation *Daily News John K. Davenport *Echo Scarfs Mr. & Mrs. Walter B. Ford II *General Foods Corporation Emanuel Gerard Justus Heijmans Foundation *Hilton International *Institutional Investor Judith A. Jedlicka Theodore L. Kesselman Kriendler Berns Foundation Susan Kudlow *Lever Brothers Company *Lord & Taylor *Macy's New York Mr. & Mrs. Christopher Mayer Estate of Myron L. Mayer Meryl & Robert Meltzer *N.L. Industries Foundation *The New York Times Foundation *Polo/Ralph Lauren *Restaurant Associates Industries, Inc. *Reader's Digest Association *Reliance Group Inc. Mrs. Dorothy H. Roberts Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III Jon and Sue Rotenstreich Foundation Rev. & Mrs. Alfred R. Shands Ill Mrs. Joel Simon Arman & Louise Simone Foundation Robert & Kathryn Steinberg H. van Ameringen Foundation David & Jane Walentas Robert N. & Anne Wright Wilson $500—$999 Louis Bachmann Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Frank Barsalona David C. Batten B.E.A. Associates Robert & Judith Boies Edward J. Brown Robert & Judith Burger Colgate Palmolive Corp.

Cowen & Company Mr. & Mrs. R.W. Dammann Mr. & Mrs. Richard Danziger Mr. & Mrs. James DeSilva, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Alvin Deutsch Count & Countess R.M. Douglas Doyle Dane Bernbach John L. Ernst Richard C. & Susan B. Ernst Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Edward Gardner James Havard Joyce & Stephen Hill Victor & Joan Johnson Theodore & Shirley Kesselman Jana K. Klauer Mr. & Mrs. Ronald Lauder

Wendy & Mel Lavitt Manhattan Life Insurance Mr. & Mrs. Robert Marcus Robin & William Mayer Mr. & Mrs. Murray Mondschein Louis Newman—in Memory of Paul Roberts Pandick Press, Inc. Richard Ravitch Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Moe Rosenman Mrs. Vera W. Simmons Sotheby's Carolyn E. Stewart Mrs. Elizabeth Farrar Wecter

The Museum is grateful to the Co-Chairwomen of its Special Events Committee for the significant support received through the Museum's major fund raising events chaired by them.

Cynthia V.A. Schaffner Karen S. Schuster

The Museum also thanks the following donors for their recent gifts to the Permanent Collection and Library: Anonymous Gift Robert Bishop Stanley Burns Mr. and Mrs. James D. Clokey III Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Feist Abby and B.H. Friedman General Foods Corporation General and Mrs. Sherman V. Hasbrouck Mr. and Mrs. James 0. Keene Harry 0. Lee Jean Lipman Ken and Asa Miller Mr. George Meyer Cyril Irwin Nelson Dorothy and Leo Rabkin Mrs. Charlotte Friedman Safir Sanford L. Smith Nancy and Gary Stass Mr. & Mrs. William B. Wigton

*Corporate Member A portion of the Museum's general operating funds for this fiscal year was provided by a General Operating Support grant from the Institute of Museum Services, a Federal agency that administers to the nation's museums, and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.

19

London's Centre for British Folk Art and Americana'

Portrait of Child with Rockinghorse Oil/Canvas; c. 1840; 191/2 W x 25" h

Molded Three Dimensional Cockrel Weathervane English; c. 1840; 22w x 21" h (overall)

CLIP OFF AND SAVE OUR ADDRESS

Come and visit us when you're in London. It will be worth your time.

CRANE GALLERY 171A SLOANE STREET (First floor) LONDON, SW1 Tel: 01-235 2464 Daily 10-6 Sat 10-4

(3 mins. from Harrods)

Associated with Crane Kalman Gallery, 178 Brompton Road, London, SW3 Tel: 01-584 7566 Important C19 and C20 sculpture and painting.

MARNA ANDERSON GALLERY 40 east 69th street, new york 10021 (212) 249-8484 by appointment

IMPORTANT MAINE STEPBACK 2-part cupboard in old blue paint c 18401860. An almost identical cupboard from "Bourgoin" Family of Frenchtown, Maine,is in Museum in Alberta, Maine.

2"D. 1 82"H x 44"W x 21/ Shown in cupboard is sample ofa large collection of fine Canton.

Photo

Ruth Bigel Antiques

Schecter Lee 1984

Exceptional Liberty weathervane, 40" in height, copper with a verdigris patina, maker unknown Monday thru Saturday 11AM-5PM or by appointment.

743 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10021 /(212)734-3262

FRANK MARE SCA AMERICAN SCULPTURE

Primitive American Venus18" high, wood and polychrome. circa 1920-1930.

236 West 26 Street • New York, New York • 212 •620•0955

By Appointment

;

DEXVIVE LEMON

AMERICAN ANTIQUES IOLA'11RT

1933 Peachtree Road, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30309, (404) 355-0106 Hours: Monday-Saturday 10 a. m.-4 p. m.

Walnut slab (huntboard) with the initials J.B. carved in relief on the center drawer.

Georgia, circa 1800-1830.

481 / 2 wide (body), 531 / 4"wide (top), 18" deep, 40" high.

23

ey/ gallery ofinternationalfolkart Depot Plaza, Scarsdale, NY. 10583,(914) 723-4417 Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30-5:30 p.m.

Opening Exhibition April 20-June 1 Mr Amos Ferguson

Pr/0, 4E41,ES NW BY 1,PENOP FEReugor

R. McNeil Stahl Deerfield, Dalton PA 18414 Fine and Decorative Arts Telephone: 717-563-1370

The Swimming Pool Floreta Emma Warfel (1916) Pennsylvania Artist 45"wx 34"h

24

AMERICAN PRIMITIVE GALLERY Aarne Anton (212)239-1345

Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. or by app!.

242 West 30th St., N.Y., N.Y. 10001

Blacksmith's trade sign of forged 42 x 31 inches iron horseshoes and tools IN ADDITION TO OUR GALLERY OF EARLY AMERICAN FOLK ART WE OFFER COMPLETE SERVICES IN THE DISPLAY AND MOUNTING OF FOLK AND PRIMITIVE SCULPTURE. BASES IN METAL, WOOD AND LUCITE ARE INDIVIDUALLY DESIGNED TO DISPLAY YOUR WORKS OF ART.SERVING DEALERS,COLLECTORS,AND MUSEUMS.REFERENCES AVAILABLE.WE SHIP NATIONWIDE.

LONDON

English Provincial and Primitive Paintings, Furniture,Ceramics and Folk Art

A whalebone and whale ivory swift, American, mid-19th century, height 43 cm.

An outsize teapot shop sign, English, circa 1900, height 76 cm.

English Provincial School, The Fleet OffShore: A Review at Spithead, circa 1790, oil on panel,41 x 165 cm.,from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Andras Kalman.

Auction in London: Wednesday,July 17.

Illustrated catalogue available at our New York Galleries, 1334 York Avenue at 72nd Street, New York, NY.10021 and at our galleries and offices worldwide.

Inquiries:In New York, Nancy Druckman,(212) 606-7225; In London, Richard Charleton-Jones (Pictures) and Hilary Kay(Works of Art),(01) 493-8080.

Sotheby's, 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1A 2AA.

SOTHEBY'S 26

FOUNDED 1744

SINGULAR • VISIONS LONG ISLAND FOLK ART FROM THE LATE 18TH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT Alyce Assael, Guest Curator

Bel[port Bathing Beauty, maker unknown, ca. 1920s.

Whirligig, carved and painted wood, I. 161 / 2" Collection of Joanna and Ronald Badami, Lloyd Harbor, N.Y.

26 MAY

7 JULY 1985

GUILD

Illustrated Catalogue postpaid

$7.00

HALL MUSEUM

• 158 MAIN STREET • EAST HAMPTON, NEW YORK •

AMERICAN COUNTRY IN NEW YORK CITY

GE PETER AMERICAN ANTIQUES 390 BLEECKER ST 212-691-9418

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SOUTHERN EXPOSURE: ONE CURATOR IN SEARCH OF AN EXHIBITION Snake Maker unknown South Carolina c. 1900 Wild grape vine, tape, wire and paint 55" long Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village The Southern sculptor often used "found" objects which he might encounter on a walk through the woods or along the road. Because ofthe abundance offorests in the South,it is not surprising that wood and vines became favorite media. Vines, in particular, with their tendrils and squiggling shapes, suggested images to the artist, who would add detail and tame or bend the material to his liking. This snake illustrates the inventiveness of one Southern folk artist.

BY CYNTHIA ELYCE RUBIN Many people have asked me how one goes about planning a landmark exhibition such as "Southern Folk Art:'There is no pat answer. Often the project begins with only the hint of an idea, one whose seeds have been planted quite by accident. Momentum grows, and the hunch takes on a life all its own. A little bit of luck helps. A great deal of perseverance will be the determining factor, however. All the folk art on view in "Southern Folk Art" â&#x20AC;&#x201D; paintings, sculpture,pottery,textiles and furniture â&#x20AC;&#x201D;arrived there as the result of arduous exploration. Sometimes, an object had been hidden in an attic for generations before I appeared on the scene. Sometimes it was hanging in the hallway, but the owner had no idea that it was folk 28

art or even noteworthy. But we are getting a little ahead of our story.

The truth is that a project can begin with something quite innocuous, such as a notice in The Magazine Antiques, announcing the 1981 session of the Summer Institute at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in cooperation with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The thought of my attending such a program seemed novel; the South was so ...so foreign.

Having traveled quite extensively and lived in Europe over a number of years, I was perfectly at home in many other countries, but the Old South was another story. As a born and bred Bostonian, I had never been below the

Mason-Dixon line.

So offI went to spend the summer of 1981 living on the grounds of Salem Academy near what is today the restored 1766 Moravian congregation town of Old Salem. Each day while walking to classes, I would pass handhewn timbers of buildings that have stood for two centuries and step onto brick-lined sidewalks from that era.

Here I would not only learn about back country Southern living, I would encounter it.

On one hot summer day, a field trip with Terry Zug of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill took us to visit Burlon Craig of Lincoln County. With fascination I watched him ply his trade on the treadle wheel.

Pair of Pottery Lions Signed, "S. Bell & Sons, Strasburg" on each foreleg and "S. Bell Sons" in script on one front leg Strasburg, Virginia c. 1882-1900 Green, brown and yellow glazes applied to earthenware bodies 15" x 8" x 20" Renfrew Museum; Waynesboro, Pennsylvania The heritage of the Shenandoah Valley remains alive in the works of the Valley potters who, mainly of German descent, had established themselves and their trade in other communities prior to settling in the Shenandoah region.

The most outstanding group of potters was the Bell Family, who moved from Hagerstown, Maryland to Winchester, Virginia. Peter Bell, the first of the noted pottery-making dynasty, was born in 1775 to parents who had moved to Hagerstown from Wiesbaden, Germany prior to 1767. Peter sold earthenware as early as 1805, but moved to Virginia in 1824 where he made his first stoneware.

Three of his six sons, John, Samuel and Solomon, became well-known potters. John moved to Pennsylvania in 1827 where he continued producing fine pottery. Samuel moved to Strasburg, Virginia in 1833 and concentrated on producing utilitarian wares but, like John, also made molded specialty pieces for friends. In 1837, Solomon Bell moved to Strasburg to work with his brother, Samuel. Solomon was to become chief potter. After his death in 1882, the Bell pottery began stamping its wares, "S. Bell & Sons, Strasburg': This mark was used until the pottery closed in 1908.

The two lions pictured bear the stamp,"S. Bell & Sons, Strasburg': Also, one of the lions is signed in script on the front leg,"S. Bell Sons': It seems unlikely that Samuel,at seventy-one years of age, when the mark was first used, created these denizens of the wild. At some point in the 1880s, his two sons, Charles Forrest and Richard Franklin, assumed management of the pottery, and it is possible that one or both of these men produced these lions.

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Quilt with Snake Motif (detail) Maker unknown Piedmont region, North Carolina Date unknown Cotton 76 x 72" Collection of Ron and Gwen Griffin Nothing is known about this unusual quilt except that its sellers attributed it to a black woman.The strip quilt is a form of pieced quilt that is particularly favored by Afro-American quilters. The snake motif is well-suited to the strip technique; indeed, here, they are one in the same as the design runs along the entire length of the quilt.

Given the presence of serpents in folk tales and beliefs, it is not surprising that snake images appear on many objects in the South. Since the land is less populated and more countrified than its northern counterpart, snakes are more commonly seen by people living in the area.

In the old, long-lasting tradition, using the materials and methods of his predecessors, he continues to produce alkaline-glazed stoneware in his authentic groundhog kiln.

I also met Minnie Reinhardt, the painter known as "Catawba Valley's Grandma Moses:' a woman of great folksy charm and wit who led me through her home, all the way describing the "memory" pictures on the walls.

Those visits were the catalyst for what has become my full-time avocation; their fruits have ripened into the content of this exhibition. During my free time, I searched for books and articles on the folk art of the South, only to find little. Later, upon my return to Boston, convinced by now that the whole subject would make an intriguing exhibition, I wrote a preliminary proposal and submitted it to the Museum of American Folk Art. The subject was fascinating. Even the term, Southern folk art, seemed a misnomer. After all, many authorities had doubted that anything worthy of an exhibition had been produced in the Old South. Itemsfrom a craft tradition, such as baskets and carved canes, had 30

been acknowledged, but fine pieces of quality folk art were another story.

Today, some three years later, I beg to differ. Even though I realize that only the surface has been scratched, I can say unequivocally that arts worthy of mention did indeed exist south of Baltimore and that with more investigation, undoubtedly more will be discovered.

But when I first began, I had to ask the most fundamental questions. What area is the South? How do I define it?

What are its boundaries?

Eudora Welty never had to grapple with such basics. She could immediately sense the difference.

Crossing a river, crossing a county line, crossing a state line â&#x20AC;&#x201D; especially crossing the line you couldn't see but knew was there, between the South and the North â&#x20AC;&#x201D; you could draw a breath and feel the difference.'

But,ofcourse,there have to be some geographical perimeters, and I ended up defining the South according to its settlement patterns rather than by any distinct barriers. The South, for me,

extends from Maryland and Virginia to eastern Texas, including the Eastern Seaboard, the Deep South of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi as well as West Virginia and Kentucky. But these boundaries are a curious ephemeral distinction and can always be a subject for debate.

And then there are the South's people, who defied generalizations. They included planters, riverboatmen, mountaineers, musicians, plantation owners, yeoman farmers, slaves, pioneers, revivalists, statesmen, hillbillies, and so on. They came from England, France, the Canadian province of Acadia, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the Germanspeaking cantons of Switzerland, Germany, Africa, etc. Southerners spoke English,French, German and their own local dialects. In other words,the South is diverse. It is in the heterogeneity of its rural past that I probed looking for Southern folk art.

However, the South does not easily yield up its cultural harvest. With the exception of a few large cities, such as Charleston, Baltimore and New Orleans, the South has always been an agricultural area with the Tidewater re-

Chest Johannes Spitler Shenandoah Valley, Virginia c. 1800 Southern yellow pine with walnut battens on ends 49" long, 23V4" high, 22" deep Private Collection Johannes Spitler, born in the Massanutten region ofShenandoah County, near what is now Luray in Page County, Virginia, was a product of the Swiss and German settlement of that region. Because he was somewhat isolated by the topography of the area, his decoration on furniture reflects not only its Germanic connections but also a distinct individuality.

Spitler's painted designs have been found on clocks and chests. They range from geometric patterns to representations of flowers and animals. Some of the geometrics are grid-like in form, balancing symmetrical sets of star-like motifs;others are more complicated, with columnar shapes, fylfots and a broken arched pediment device. The common denominator is the adherence to the balance of shapes, spaces and motifs.

His pieces are made of yellow pine, as is this chest, with walnut battens used on the lid probably for added strength. Both sides have a swirled decoration painted blue on a white ground.

Spitler moved to Fairfield County, Ohio between 1805 and 1809, and died there in 1837. His work forms a body of painted and decorated furniture that demonstrates the importance of the Shenandoah Valley in the interpretation of Germanic culture in American decorative arts.

Fraktur (Parrot Motif) Taufschein for Peter Rolar, born March 31, 1799 Peter Bernhart Rockingham County, Virginia 1804 Watercolor on paper 13 x 16" Collection of Dr. R. Lewis Wright In the hamlet of Keezletown in Rockingham County, teacher Peter Bernhart painted and penned numerous fraktur. This display of colorful birds in a multicolored garden is a Taufschein, or birth and baptismal certificate. It was executed in 1804, five years after the actual birth of Peter Rolar.

Many fraktur, illuminated writings, pen drawings and water colors have been produced in the Valley of Virginia where Germanspeaking inhabitants, mostly from the upper Rhine area ofGermany, Alsace in France and the German cantons of Switzerland, predominated. According to Klaus Wust, researcher and historian, "It has become evident that the Shenandoah Valley was one of the major fraktur-producing regions in America, rivaling both in number and in quality some of the better known fraktur centers of Pennsylvania:' Virginia fraktur range from strict adherence to the traditional lettering and symbolism of Europe to the incorporation of American iconography, such as the patriotic image of the eagle. Virtually all fraktur were religious in nature, probably because the church was a center of the rural community.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; â&#x20AC;˘ a â&#x20AC;˘ ;7ntil Nut wiltruckv ()V,09 oek loN

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This group picture was taken in 1904 at Decker's Keystone Pottery. Only the man at the left rear was not a Decker family member. From left to right: William Decker,the hunchback; Duncan,a helper (first name unknown); Charles E Decker, Jr.; a grandson; Charles F Decker, Sr., seventytwo years old; and two grandsons, who worked at carrying freshly-turned pieces of pottery to the drying racks. Note the stack of clay balls in different sizes, ready for "throwing:' and the various pieces already turned and ready for firing on the table. Photograph courtesy of Beverly S. Burbage.

Grotesque Jug Charles E Decker Washington County, Tennessee 1875-1900 Stoneware 101 / 2" high Tennessee State Museum While the major forms of Southern pottery were utilitarian, the folk potter still found time to exercise his sense of play with the grotesque jug or face vessel. These were often produced at the end of the day when the work was finished, and in many cases were made as light-hearted gifts. Since this type of jug is unusual and not strictly utilitarian, it is rare and considered highly desirable by folk art enthusiasts.

Charles F Decker, born in Germany in 1832, emigrated to America in his late teens. He lived in Philadelphia and Virginia, eventually purchasing land around 1872 in the Nolichucky River Valley near today's Johnson City, Tennessee. After uncovering clay deposits, he reopened the Keystone Pottery where he fashioned stoneware drainpipes, jars, churns,jugs and pitchers, which sold for ten cents per gallon capacity. Decker's three sons and about twenty-five employees made countless utilitarian objects in the largest pottery in East Tennessee from 1875 to 1900.

However, some of their finest works are highly ornamental or whimsical pieces, giving a whole new dimension to the creative skill of the Southern folk potter.

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Portrait of Elizabeth Jane Caruthers Artist unknown Talladega County, Alabama Dated 1835 Oil on canvas 20 x 24" Collection of Barbara S. Grabhom The portrait of Elizabeth Jane Caruthers depicts her at just three months of age. Born in Talladega County, near Silver Run, Alabama in a four-room log house on December 29, 1834, she lived through three marriages; to Fletcher Glagner who died in the Civil War, William Kelley and William Chancellor. She moved to Chancellor's home in Shelby County and lived the rest of her life there. It was in that house, still belonging to the family, that this painting was found not long ago. Although childless, she raised the children of the previous marriages of her second and third husbands. Fondly called "Aunt Nin:' she survives in the family members' hearts through this charming folk art portrait owned by her great-great-grandniece.

gion's aristocrats always more sophisticated than the back country's farmers.

Primitive roads, low population density and the lack of cohesive townships perpetuated rural cultural and artistic isolation.

Many objects still reside in private homes; others have been preserved in local museums. The difficult part is uncovering them. This was my mission.

In order to carry out that goal, I decided to spend the summer of 1983 on the trail of Southern folk art. Three months prior to my departure I began the task of trying to figure out where to start. With the directory published by the Association of American Museums in hand, I read through all the listings for each Southern state. Eventually, I devised a plan which consisted ofintroductory telephone calls, followed by letters and then emphasized with another telephone call. I was to learn that asking about folk art did not always yield results. Many people were not even aware of what I would call folk art. But people try to be helpful, and often they would recommend someone who they felt would have what I was looking for. The law of averages came

into play, and after a while, my itinerary devised itself. I mapped out a plan of cities and then of dates. Definite dates and times gave focus to my search and often helped to orchestrate the myriad details of such a trip. Word of mouth becomes extremely valuable, since museum personnel are likely to know area collectors who might own objects of particular interest. They can not only direct you, but also make necessary introductions. Luck,too, has its place. Being in the right place at the right time and asking the right questions are important factors.

My travels have taken me throughout most of the Southern states by train, plane, car and Greyhound bus. During my drive from Jackson to New Orleans, I learned about the vagaries of Southern temperatures and the differences in topography. From the city of Memphis, I traveled through the Delta lands by bus and watched the cotton fields and an occasional bottle tree in a backyard breeze by. Sometimes the sun would shine on a bottle tree, and those colored bottles, of blue, orange and green would shine in the sun like glistening jewels.

The landscape influenced the culture and customs of the people. It was through the Valley of Virginia, also called the Shenandoah, that the German and Scottish-Irish settlers made their way. To the west, there appeared the narrow mountain pass called Cumberland Gap through which early pioneers crossed into the rich farm land of "Kaintuck:' Across the Mississippi into Texas, a belt of black soil, prior to the Civil War, blazed white with cotton.

The plantation system found its roots secured in the economic and social conditions ofthe Colonial period. Profits from the cultivation of staple crops, particularly tobacco, rice and indigo upheld the system. Natural resources were also important;in North Carolina, the chief export was naval supplies, turpentine, tar and pitch. Hence, the name of "Tarheels" for the state's inhabitants.

In the Tidewater, a region possessing plantation wealth, higher education and close connections to Europe, the life of the Southern aristocracy is firmly perpetuated in a vision of whitecolumned mansions surrounded by 33

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Quilt Sallie E. Hasson Rogersville, Tennessee c. 1870 Cotton 93 x 76" Collection of Joan H. Selfe Sallie Hasson was born at Locust Hill, Albermarle County, Virginia, on June 4, 1848.

As a young child, she moved to Rogersville, Tennessee, where she was active in civil affairs and the local Presbyterian church. With her sister Minnie, she owned Hasson's Millinery Shop. Why she fashioned this quilt with its Masonic motifs is a mystery.

There is no evidence that she made it for a family member, but we do know that she was proud of it, as her name is so prominently appliqued onto it.

This quilt is a particularly outstanding example ofthe wide range of Masonic symbols and their translation into the art of the quiltmaker. The symbols were born in religion and the intellectual environment of seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe.

Through the years they have developed into standard images seen not only on ritual, but also on simple, household objects. The Ionic, Doric and Corinthian columns represent wisdom, strength and beauty. The pillars topped with globes represent the entrance to King Solomon's Temple, and its black and white floors, good and evil; the prominent letter "G" stands for geometry and science as a whole; the beehive, industry; the anchor, hope. Death and immortality are inherent in the ark and the hour glass, while the five-pointed star speaks of friendship. The square and compass foretell the triumph of justice.

34

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magnolias, however rare the actual incidence of such an image. In the back country, however, the folk came from diverse ethnic stocks. Instead of adapting English culture to the American environment, they evolved their own distinct lifestyle and artistic expressions based on their own "old country" traditions.

My diary reads like a hodgepodge of Sherlock Holmes explorations and the ramblings of Charles Kuralt.

July 12, 1983 Drove around Arkansas for two days. Couldn't find a quilt that wasn't polyester! Hope this project isn't a mistake...

July 27, 1983 I'm really liking Jackson. Spent all day going through the quilts in the storage room ofthe Mississippi State Museum with the curator. Some had never been examined. One with an original pattern named "Patches:' was fascinating. Its material had

Self-Portrait ofthe Artist Observing an Indian Maiden at her Bath Pierre Joseph Landry, signed twice "P.J. Landry" Louisiana c. 1825 Magnolia wood 18% x 146/16" New Orleans Museum of Art Pierre Joseph Landry, born in 1770 in the French village of St. Servan on the coast of Britanny, arrived in Louisiana in 1785. The family settled in Iberville Parish. During the War of 1812, he served as captain under General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans and would later become a successful plantation owner. He began carving when illness confined him to a wheelchair, and his sculpture datesfrom the 1820s and 1830s. It is interesting to note that at his death, Landry's estate was valued at over $24,000, with an inventory listing all the important assets, including land, slaves, livestock, cash, books, bars of soap and coils of rope. Nowhere is there mention of any artwork.

While Landry was certainly a man of means,he had no formal art training and carved with ordinary knives. He had a simple way of looking at life, which is reflected in his work. Many of his pieces depict historical or symbolic events. His largest surviving sculpture, the "Wheel of Life;' owned by the Louisiana State Museum,consists of nine groups of figures representing the different stages of man's life. Another piece, "Seaman's Allegory:' commemorates the death of Napoleon I on the island of St. Helena.

This piece, however, seems to be a humorous departure. We watch the sculptor, fully clothed (even with hat on his head) as he, in turn, watches a naked Indian maiden complete her bath.

been purchased as a bundle of remnants for 10¢ in 1935. The backing and binding, of white sack cloth, still bore the Pillsbury logo. Another, made by a Mrs. Nancy Stuard in the 1860s, was probably the most utilitarian textile!have ever seen.It had been made of plain homespun; the old shirt materials and even the shirt pocket were visible and part of the pattern. Family history tells us that the family grew cotton. The maker had spun it into thread, dyed it with indigo and a red rock shefound in the hills, and then wove it into this cloth.

Her very life ispart and parcel ofthis artifact.

August 1, 1983 Discovered the Manship House, a built Gothic Revival "cottage in 1857. What a striking contrast to other local Jackson architecture.

Charles Henry Manship, a Mayor of Jackson during the Civil War, was an ornamental painter. The house features many examples of his decorat-

ing and wood graining techniques.

The dining room appears to be paneled in oak—an effect he achieved by grainingfrom floor to ceiling. What a delighffulfind!

August 10, 1983 Spent the entire day at The Historic New Orleans Collection.I toured the entire building, but my biggest thrill was seeing the "Nita Yuma Pasties:' truly gems in the world offolk art.

They are tucked away in the library, and can be easily missed.

August 20, 1983 Last stop — Atlanta. A ton of mail from the Museum has arrived. One letter is in response to one of the queries I placed in a number of different publications stating that! was lookingfor examples ofSouthernfolk art. The writer says he and his wife have a great deal offolk art.I've never heard of them before. Hope this isn't a dead end.

August 22, 1983 So glad!had an extrafew days here.

Spent one whole day with this couple. They do, indeed, have a very good collection offolk art. I hope to include a sampler and crazy quilt in the exhibition. This was no dead end.

Sherlock Rubin wins again.

April 19, 1984 I've been traveling for three days through Alabama. Long-time collector and dealer Howard Smith has already shown me every piece of North Carolina pottery in existence.

Now he wants to show me every piece ofAlabama pottery. Today, however, we are on our way to Tuscaloosa to see quilt collectors Robert and Helen Cargo.

Poor Dr. Cargo will have a week's worth of reorganizing to do after showing me all his quilts.(The Cargos collect only quiltsfrom Alabama.)We spent hours looking carefully at each one.I must admit!got a little "quilted-out' I want to borrow his Album quiltfor the exhibition. It's a beauty.

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Courier's Pouch Maker unknown Doddridge County, West Virginia c. 1900-1920 Tooled leather / 2" 10 x 11 / 2"deep; Strap to flap 201 The Huntington Galleries The leather worker who made this pouch transformed a utilitarian object into a work of art. With skilled hands and creative eyes, he rendered a prancing horse whose vitality and strength almost transcend the perimeters ofthe bag. This is one ofthe very few documented folk art objects from West Virginia.

Left the Cargos rather hurriedly when we heard there were tornado warnings. The air became still, and I kept waiting for something to happen. On the way back to Montgomery, I saw road signs to Lawley and decided on the spur of the moment to visit Norman Smith, the last of the Alabamafolk potters.

Born in 1904, he continues to make pottery, although on an irregular basis, in a log shop he built in the 1930s. Ofcourse we had no address, but we weren't going to let a little thing like that stop us. Finding an open general store, we asked the proprietor if he knew Smith. Sure enough, he did, and so we looked up the telephone number and called.

Smith's daughter answered and explained that the tornado had hit about fifteen minutes earlier and knocked out all their electricity. She didn't think it was a good time to visit. I had to agree, although I knew I wouldn't be in Lawley anytime again soon. Win afew, lose afew.

December 23, 1984 How many people, dear diary, can say that they uncovered afolk artist.

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This is what curatorial sleuthing is all about. While searching the research files at MESDA (Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts), I found reference to an early Virginia landscape which looked interesting.

Since MESDA's policy is not to divulge the names ofowners,I wrote a letter of inquiry which was forwarded to the owner. Figuring there was a fifty-fifty chance of a reply, I promptly forgot about it and was pleasantly surprised sometime later to receive a long letter identifying the watercolor and providing information on the artist, who was a relative.

Born in 1804, the artist, Gustavus Richard Brown Horner, was a medical officer in the U.S. Navy until he retired. During his travels, he sketched and wrote on medical topics, including a book Medical Topography ofBrazil and Uraguay with Incidental Remarks with his own illustrations. The landscape that!had seen was painted in 1830 of Warrenton, Virginia. It will be a part ofthe exhibition, as will a posthumous portrait ofhis daughter who died in 1865 before the age of one year old. It

astonishes me that a man of medical skills, with not one art lesson, has left us such a wide range offolk art.

Folk art often related to popular culture and embodied forms and motifs from everyday living. Some folk artists were craftsmen with an aesthetic bent; others were self-taught professionals.

Most made only a portion of their livings from art. House and sign painters painted portraits. Blacksmiths fashioned artistic andirons. Stonecutters made sculpture. What most had in common was that their works were aesthetically pleasingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;alive with vigor and originality, often with a strong emphasis on color, rhythm and design. Folk art's appeal is direct and intimate.

Even though much of the folk art created today is mainly produced by Southerners, it is only recently that attention has been drawn to the South's rich heritage in traditional folk art.

This seems unusual because before the recent "modernization" and popularity of the Sunbelt, the lack of industry and the agricultural focus of the society tended to uphold the time-honored fashion of doing things. Southern folk

Landscape "A Part of Warrenton, Va" Gustavus Richard Brown Homer Warrenton, Virginia 1830 Watercolor on paper 2" / x 141 Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Chilton H. McDonnell Portrait of Josephine Edmonds Horner Gustavus Richard Brown Homer Executed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Completed July 4, 1865 Oil on canvas 2" / 19 x 171 Collection of Mrs. William Randolph Hearst Gustavus Richard Brown Homer, son of William and Mary Edmonds Homer, was born June 18,1804 and died August 8, 1892. As Surgeon U.S.N. and later Medical Director of the U.S. Navy, he traveled throughout the world, living for a time in Philadelphia and eventually retiring to Warrenton, Virginia, his birthplace. He wrote books on medical topics, including: Medical Observations on the Mediterranean;Diseases and Injuries ofSeamen: With Remarks on Their Enlistment, Naval Hygiene and the Duties ofMedical Officers; and Medical Topography ofBrazil and Uruguay with Incidental Remarks. He illustrated some of these volumes with his own engravings. His 1830 landscape,"A Part of Warrenton, Va" shows his family home, Winchester Street and a view from Alexandria Pike. A fire in 1907 gutted most of these buildings, but they were rebuilt and still stand. Over thirty years later, he painted this tender posthumous portrait of his daughter. Pencilled on the back of the canvas is the following: "Josephine Edmonds Homer borne June 4, I864/died May 21,1865/finit July 4,1865:'

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artists were often just people "doin' like grandaddy did!'

Clearly, this landmark exhibition, "Southern Folk Art:' presents an extraordinary array of objects, all fullydeveloped art forms containing that quality of unselfconscious natural beauty that folk art enthusiasts savor.

You will be amazed by their rich diversity, by their original forms and by their vitality and color.

Although people may formulate their own images of what the South is, until now few have had a comprehensive picture of Southern folk art. This exhibition begins chronologically with a sampler made in 1743 in Charlestown, South Carolina by Elizabeth Hext at age nine and continues with an unusual fraktur recording the death of Margreth Stuart of Staunton, Virginia in 1773. It was uncovered in a collection of family documents and memorabilia by the staff at the Valentine Museum in Richmond, Virginia. The verse is as timely today as it was in the eighteenth century: Swiftly see each moment flies; See & learn be timely wise.

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Ev'ry moment shortens day; Ev'ry pulse beats time away.

Thus thy ev'ry heaving Breath; Wafts thee onto certain Death, Therefore lay your Vices by; Know to live & learn to Die. Through the recording of birth and baptismal certificates, homespun textiles, quilts, furniture and pottery used in people's daily lives, and the bits and pieces which record the life of a civilization, we bear witness to a South that has gone largely unexplored. "Southern Folk Art" uncovers many pieces formerly tucked away in private collections and begins a whole new era of investigation in folk art scholarship. As we all will undoubtedly look more closely at distinctive regions and cultural characteristics, this exhibition will redefine American artistic expression as it offers an unprecedented opportunity to examine a wide range of this little-known world of the Southern heritage.

Too often the South has been pictured as a land of serene white mansions with moonlit gardens and fireflies darting about in humid summer evenings. Far more accurate and thrilling

has been its role of change in a rapidly moving world. That the South has changed less and at a slower pace than the North is part ofits strength; those of us who love and appreciate continuity and tradition cherish Southern distinctiveness with its eccentric individuality and down-home magic. Proud and stalwart as homespun, folk art reflects the very soul of the South.

NOTES I. Welty, Eudora, One Writer's Beginnings (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), P. 44.

Cynthia Elyce Rubin, Guest Curator of the exhibition "Southern Folk Art:' is the author of the book of the same title. Ms. Rubin is a Ph.D candidate in the Folk Art Studies Program jointly sponsored by the Museum and New York University and Curator of Special Projects at the Museum.

Southern Folk Art will be on view at the Museum from May 15â&#x20AC;&#x201D;August 25, 1985. A 240 page hardcover book in full color entitled Southern Folk Art by Ms. Rubin, published by Oxmoor House, accompanies the exhibition.

Hauling The Whole Weeks Picking (The Nita Yuma Pasties) William Henry Brown Nita Yuma Plantation, north of Vicksburg, Mississippi c. 1842 Collage of watercolor and paper, mounted on heavy paper Total offour panels: 193/8 x 1083A6" The Historic New Orleans Collection Sarah Pierce Vick on Horseback (The Nita Yuma Pasties) William Henry Brown Nita Yuma Plantation, north of Vicksburg, Mississippi c. 1842 Collage of watercolor and paper, mounted on heavy paper 1611 / 46 x 20W The Historic New Orleans Collection

This exhibition is made possible by generous grants from Philip Morris Incorporated and the National Endowment for the Arts.

William Henry Brown of Charleston, South Carolina is recognized as the most important American silhouette cutter.

He cut not only head profiles but also full-length bodies and entire family units. Beginning his career when he fashioned Lafayette's likeness in 1825, he is best remembered today for his book, Portrait Gallery of Distinguished American Citizens. The term "pasties" refers to a rare nineteenth century artform in which color and scenery are added to a silhouette.

Brown led an itinerant's life;from newspaper accounts and advertisements we know he worked throughout New England and the South. During his travels, Brown is believed to have met Mr. and Mrs. Vick in New Orleans where they invited him to visit their home, "Nita Yuma': Just north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, the house is named for the Vicks' ancestors. Most probably, the Nita Yuma Pasties were given

by Brown to the Vicks as a gift.

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Benjamin Greenleaf, a nineteenth century painter of portraits on glass, was originally brought to the attention of the American folk art world by an article by Jean Lipman in the September 1947 issue of The Magazine Antiques.

In that study, which included a checklist of the ten paintings known at that time to have been painted by Greenleaf, Mrs. Lipman identified him as the

renowned educator and author of mathematics textbooks from Bradford, Massachusetts.

Except for occasional rumblings of disbelief from Bradford historians',this identification was accepted without question for thirty-four years. At that point, our article on the life and work of Benjamin Greenleaf in Antiques World's September 1981 issue not only

Fig. 1 Lady in White Mob Cap (see checklist 1.)

Benjamin Greenleaf: Nineteenth Century Portrait Painter

by Arthur B. and Sybil B. Kern 40

Fig. 2.

Robert GooId (see checklist 2.)

added thirty portraits to the checklist, but also established, without doubt, the true identity of the painter.

In the three-and-a-half years since the publication of our findings, we have uncovered an additional sixteen portraits by Greenleaf, bringing the total of his known works to fifty-six. At this point it is necessary to bring the checklist up to date, and to call attention

again to the identity of the painter. It is hoped that this study will finally establish the fact that the artist and the educator, although bearing the same name, were two different people, and erase all traces of the former confusion.

Our interest in Greenleaf was born in 1977 when we obtained a pair ofreverse paintings on glass, "Caleb and Hannah Perkins Fuller:' which were attributed

Fig. 3 Mary Lincoln Goold (see checklist 3.)

to William Matthew Prior. These were not by Prior, but by Greenleaf, and are now in the permanent collection of the Museum of American Folk Art. In consulting Groce and Wallace's Dictionary of American Artists, we found Greenleaf described as a portrait painter on glass, with the biographical material derived from the Lipman article and from the Dictionary of Amer-

Fig. 4 Woman of the Goold Family (see checklist 4.)

ican Biography by Johnson and Malone. The latter, however, included no mention of his activity as a portrait painter, and the Lipman article gave no reason for the conclusion that artist and educator were one and the same.

Puzzled and intrigued, we plunged into an investigation of the mysterious Mr. Greenleaf.

Greenleaf the educator was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1786, entered Atkinson Academy in 1805, remained there for two years and taught school before entering Dartmouth College in 1810, at the age of twenty-four.

He graduated in 1813, became principal of a Haverhill grammar school and,after one year, was appointed head ofthe Bradford Academy. He remained there until 1836, was principal of Topsfield Academy from 1837 to 1841 and, finally, became head of the Bradford Teachers Seminary, his last position before he died in 1864.

Nowhere in the extensive biographical literature is there mention of this Greenleaf's being a painter. Nowhere in the Bradford community where he lived and taught for about fifty years is there a trace of his activity as a portrait painter. The years 1814 to 1817 were particularly busy ones for the educator, as indicated by the fact that the number of students at Bradford Academy increased from ten to one hundred fortyseven during that period. Those same years were the ones in which the painter was producing his greatest number of portraits while traveling through Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Nothing seemed to be able to support the hypothesis that educator and artist were one and the same.

Why, then, had it been thought that they were, in fact, the same? In 1946, more than a century after the portraits had been painted, owners of two of the paintings said that their works had been produced by Benjamin Greenleaffrom Bradford Academy. Since he was the only well-known Benjamin Greenleaf, 41

it is easy to understand why they might assume that he was also the artist.

But if the painter was not the educator, who was he? A clue was found in Clara EndicottSears'book,SomeAmerican Primitives. In it is reproduced a 1940 letter from an historian in which reference is made to the portrait painter Benjamin Greenleaf of Phippsburg, Maine. Also, a 1956 letter from Carl N. Schmalz, Jr., then Curator of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine, included the following: "The only information which we have uncovered is undoubtedly familiar to you—namely that Benjamin Greenleaf, painter of primitive portraits,is said to have lived in Phippsburg —down the river from Bath,about 1810 to 1817'.'

Turning next to the Maine Census Index we learned that in 1810 a Benjamin Greenleaf did live in Wiscasset, a town close to Phippsburg, and that in 1820 not one but two Benjamin Greenleafs—father and son—resided there.

A published genealogy for the Greenleaf family then disclosed that Benjamin had been born in 1759 in Westport, which was close to Wiscasset, married in 1784,lived with his wife in Wiscasset and had ten children. Benjamin,Jr. was born in 17862.

Since the Greenleaf portraits we then were aware of had been painted between 1804 and 1818, either father or son could have been the artist. Wiscasset town and probate records indicated that the elder Greenleaf was an active farmer and landowner from 1784 to 1842. Busy running his farm and buying land, while at the same time raising his ten children, this Greenleaf seemed an unlikely choice. His son, on the other hand, owned no property and had no apparent means of support, and therefore, was much more likely the itinerant artist for whom we were searching.

The hypothesis that the young Benjamin Greenleaf of Wiscasset was the painter seemed sensible, but, nev42

ertheless several aspects of it bothered us. The first problem was that, in 1804, when the portrait of Cotton Tufts was painted, Greenleaf was only eighteen years old. Tufts was an extremely important person in Weymouth, Massachusetts, a leading physician and one of the founders of the Massachusetts Medical Society'. We were not sure that a person so young and living in

Wiscasset, Maine, would receive so important a commission in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Secondly, we had been unable to find a single piece of nonanecdotal evidence to indicate that the Greenleaf of Maine was a painter.

It was the discovery of the 1803 portrait of Jacob Goold that led to our finally establishing the correct identity of the artist. Goold was born in 1720 in

Fig. 5 Rev. James Wheelock Woodward and Sarah Partridge Woodward (see checklist 6. and 7.) Photograph courtesy of Richard A. Bourne Co., Inc.

Fig. 6 Young Man With Masonic Pin (see checklist 8.)

Hull, Massachusetts, and lived for most of his life in nearby Weymouth.

His grandfather, Robert Goold, had a son, Joseph, who was a half-brother to Jacob's father, John. Joseph's son, also named Joseph (Jacob's cousin), married Hannah Binney, and,in 1768,their daughter, Mary, married John Greenleaf of Boston" The first child of John and Mary Greenleaf was born in Hull

Fig. 7 Sarah Holt Wiggin (see checklist 9.)

in 1769 and named Benjamin'.

This Benjamin's father died prior to July 1781,for on July 26 of that year his mother married Lt. Nicholas Phillips, Jr. of Weymouth, who also left her a widow, in 17976. A search of probate records'disclosed two bonds,one naming Mary Greenleaf Phillips as guardian of the children, another which stipulated that the signers were respon-

Fig. 8 Mrs. Benjamin Fletcher (see checklist 10.) Photograph courtesy of Richard A. Bourne Co., Inc.

sible for her carrying out her duties properly. The latter reads as follows: "Know all these men by these Presents, That we Mary Phillips, Widow, Elnathan Bates, Gentleman, both of Weymouth and Benjamin Greenleaf, of Dorchester, Painter, all in the county of Norfolk, etc. etc' To support the contention that he was indeed a painter of portraits is the fact that a typical Greenleaf portrait, of Elnathan Bates, one of the co-signers, was painted in 18158.

Further support is that Greenleaf's signature on the bond is identical to that on the label of his portrait of Mary Ann Cushing Nichols. The painter we were seeking had,in fact, been born in Hull, Massachusetts, on January 13, 17699.

He married Abigail Greenleaf-Rhodes on November 20, 1799 and died, childless, of apoplexy,in Weymouth on January 10, 18211!

In our first article on Greenleaf, we pointed out that biographical and genealogical studies of the forty subjects painted by the artistrevealed a continuing series starting with two Weymouth residents. Jacob Goold, a prominent Weymouth citizen and relative of Greenleaf, was painted in 1803. Cotton Tufts, a friend of Goold and equally prominent member of the community, was painted in 1804. Following these two are twelve other known portraits of people living in that town and in the neighboring towns of Hingham, Braintree and Newton,painted between 1806 and 1812. They include the Saffords, Jones, Hobarts, Lydia Waterman, the Richmond girls and Sarah Prentiss; genealogical study of these subjects showed that intermarriage was the connecting link between them. In 1813 Greenleaf was active in New Hampshire, where he completed the portraits of the Chase boys, the Littles and perhaps Miss J.L., in Hopkinton, and the Wheelocks and Popes in Hanover.

Again, marriage is the link between subjects, as the Chases and Littles were related to the Greenleafs and to each 43

44

exhibition catalog which does not record the placement of the figure. In eleven of the others the subject is presented in profile, while in four, the sitter is seen in three-quarter view.

The typical features of Greenleaf's painting techniques are seen in these newly discovered works. They are of bust length, fill most ofthe support and stand out sharply against the black, dark green or brown background. In the

profiles one generally observes a prominent nose with the rim of the nostril outlined distinctly, a diagonal line at the corner of the mouth and a more vertical one extending down the front end ofthe lower eyelid, narrow,tightlycompressed lips, a round, slightly receding chin, a definite line marking the inner edge of the rim of the ear and a heart-shaped ear opening. The threequarter views, in addition, demon-

Fig. 10 Unidentified Baby Girl (see checklist 14.)

uottuota tJaqolt ,(ct Oar

Fig. 9 Hannah Minot Moody (see checklist 12.)

Photograph by Stephen Rabic= Photography

other, while Mrs. Wheelock was related to the Hobarts of Hingham. The Popes undoubtedly knew the Wheelocics through their son, who,like Rev. Wheelock, was a professor of Divinity at Dartmouth. In 1816, Greenleaf was active in eastern Maine as evidenced by his portraits of Dr. Samuel Adams, Rev. and Mrs. Ellingwood, the Fullers and Benjamin Willis, Jr., painted in Bath, Paris and Portland. Once again marital connections seem to have played a major role in his getting these commissions. Early in 1817 he was in the Boston area, and it was there that he did the portrait of Mary Ann Cushing Nichols, Miss Crowninshield and "Girl with Flowers:' The Nichols family had strong ties to both Maine and Hingham, through marriages. Later in 1817 and 1818 he was back in Maine, for during this period he painted the portraits of Dummer Sewall, a resident of Bath, who was associated with or related to many of Greenleaf's earlier subjects; Dolly Ripley, whose minister husband was the grandson of the Ripleys of Hingham; Nancy Wyman Houghton; Mark Langdon Hill (who was connected in town affairs with both Sewall and Dr. Adams); and the McCobb's, who were related to Mark Langdon Hill.

The sixteen portraits now to be added to the checklist include five members of the GooId family, two others related to the Wheelocks, two to Dummer Sewall and to Dolly Ripley, one related to the Chase and Little families, one who may have been a member of Sarah Prentiss' family and one who was possibly related to Nancy Wyman Houghton. In only four instances, in two of which the subject is unknown, is there no known marital link between that subject and other people painted

by Greenleaf.

Of the sixteen, thirteen are reverse oil paintings on glass; two are oil on wood,and one is an oil on canvas. One of the paintings is known only from an

strate heavy eyebrows, a rounded chin and a line running from the rim of the nostril downward toward the corner of the mouth, producing fullness of the upper lip.

When one takes into account that Greenleaf's portraits, with few exceptions, were painted on glass, it becomes apparent that the fifty-six portraits presently known represent only a fraction of his total output. Because of

the fragile nature of the support used, undoubtedly a great many of his works have not survived the nearly two centuries since they were painted. During the fifteen years in which he was active, 1803 to 1818, Greenleaf not only produced a considerable number of portraits in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, but produced works of such high quality that he truly deserves to be ranked among New England's fore-

most nineteenth century folk artists.

Arthur and Sybil Kern are collectors, researchers and writers in the field of nineteenth century American folk art. Previous publications have been on Benjamin Greenleaf, J.A. Davis, Ahnira Edson, Joseph Stone and Warren Nixon. They have lectured at universities, museums,historical and preservation societies.

CHECKLIST

1. Lady in White Mob Cap;Attributed to Benjamin Greenleaf; ca. 1803-1804; Oil on canvas; 14 x 10/ 1 4"; From the Collection of American Primitive Paintings given by Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, National Gallery of Art. The style of the subject's clothing and the fact that the painting's support is canvas, like that of the portraits of Jacob Goold and Cotton Rifts, suggest that it was done about the same time as they. The identity of the subject is not known, but it is possible that she is Mrs. Goold or Mrs. Tufts. (Fig. 1.)

2. Robert Goold; Benjamin Greenleaf; ca.

1810; Oil on wood panel; 18 x 24"; Collection of Evelyn Dodge. A paper label on the reverse bears the following ink inscription (probably not done by the artist): "Robert Goold/ Born May 29, 1759/ Picture painted/ in 1810/ by Greenleaf' Robert, the son of John Goold and his second wife,Jane Loring, was born in Hull, Massachusetts, May 29, 1759 2 He was the first cousin of Benjamin Greenleafs mother and the nephew of Jacob Goold, the subject of Greenleaf's first portrait? On February 20, 1783, Robert Goold married Mary Lincoln of Hingham. They resided at first in Hull and later in Hingham where, in 1796, he served as a town selectman. He died February 26, 1832 (Fig. 2.)

3. Mary Lincoln Goold; Benjamin Greenleaf; ca. 1810; Oil on wood panel; 18 x 131 / 2"; Collection of Evelyn Dodge. A paper label on the reverse bears the following ink inscription (probably not done by the artist): "Mary Lincoln/ wife ofRobert Goold/ born July 22, 1763/ Picture painted/ in 1810/ by Greenleaf' Mary, the daughter of Josiah, Sr. and Mary Holbrook Lincoln of Hingham, was

born July 22, 1763, married Robert Goold of Hull February 20,1783,and died in Hingham on November 4,1847. She had nine children, four born in Hull between 1784 and 1789 and five in Hingham between 1792 and The Lincolns and Lorings(her husband's mother was a Loring) were prominent Hingham and Maine families and were related to several other Greenleaf subjects. (Fig. 3.)

me

4. Woman of the Goold Family; Attributed to Benjamin Greenleaf; ca. 1810; Oil on glass; 14 x 10"; Private collection. This portrait came down through the same family as did those of Robert and Mary Goold. On this basis the subject is believed to be a member of the Goold family. (Fig. 4.)

5. Daughter of Woman of the Goold Family; Attributed to Benjamin Greenleaf; ca. 1810; Oil on glass; 14 x 10";Private collection. This portrait came down through the same family as did Woman of the Goold Family; because of the two women's resemblance to each other, they are believed to be daughter and mother.

6. Rev. James Wheelock Woodward; Attributed to Benjamin Greenleaf;ca. 1810; Oil on glass; 13/ 3 4 x 9/ 3 4"; Private collection. Inscribed in pencil on the backing board, "James Wheelock Woodward/ b Feb 6, 1781/ d 18467 Also painted on the reverse of the bottom of the glass, "Rev. James W. Woodward Norwich Vt:' It is believed that both inscriptions were made at a later date, not by the artist. James Wheelock Woodward was born July 6, 1781 in Hanover, New Hampshire, the son of Bazaleel and Mary Wheelock Woodward? His father came to Hanover with the Wheelocks and served at Dartmouth College as tutor, trustee and professor of

mathematics and natural philosophy. His mother was the daughter of Eleazar Wheelock, first president of Dartmouth College, and the sister of Rev. James Wheelock' The latter's portrait was painted by Greenleaf in Hanover around 1813. James Wheelock Woodward graduated from Dartmouth College in the class of 1798, was ordained an Evangelist in 1802, preached in New York and Pennsylvania for two years and on September 5, 1804 was installed as pastor of the Congregational church in Norwich, Vermont? Four years later, on October 4, 1808, he married Sarah (Sally) Partridge of Norwich? About 1821, at his own request, he was dismissed from the church in Norwich and moved to Brownington, Vermont, where he served in the double capacity of preceptor of the Academy and pastor of the church. After leaving Brownington, he continued his work in the ministry until he suffered a paralysis which affected his speech and left him helpless to a great degree. He remained in this condition for twelve to fifteen years until his death in Waterbury, Vermont, on July 20, 1847." He is buried in the Norwich cemetery.'(Fig. 5.)

7. Sarah Partridge Woodward; Attributed to Benjamin Greenleaf; ca. 1810; Oil on glass; 131 / 2 x 9/ 1 2"; Private collection. Inscribed in pencil on the backing board: "Sarah Partridge Woodward/ b Jan 4, 1785/ d March 2, 1827/ m Oct 4, 1805/ Painted in 1810:' It is believed that this is a late inscription and is not by the artist. Sarah (Sally), the daughter ofElisha and Margaret Murdock Partridge of Norwich, was born January 4, 1786.n She married James Wheelock Woodward October 4, 1808 in Norwich and had three children: Margaret, William and James, born in 1816, 1820 and 1823, respectively. She died 45

March 2, 1827 and is buried in the Norwich cemetery!' Following her death, the children were placed in the homes of relatives since her widower husband was physically unable to care for them"(Fig. 5.)

8. Young Man With Masonic Pin; Attributed to Benjamin Greenleaf; ca. 1812; Oil on glass; 10 x 8"; Collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center. The obviously Masonic insignia he wears is a Past Masters jewel, while the triangle is a Royal Arch insignia. The identity of this subject is unknown. However, only three other Greenleaf portraits are as small as this one: that ofSarah Prentiss and those of the Wheelocks. The similarity in appearance between Sarah and this young man suggests that he may have been a member of the Prentiss family of Newton, Massachusetts. (Fig. 6.)

9. Sarah Holt Wiggin; Benjamin Greenleaf; 1813; Oil on glass; 15 x 11"; Collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center.

Inscribed in pencil on the backing board: "Mrs. Sarah Wiggin/ AE 55/ Painted by Benjamin Greenleaf/ October 4, 1813:' Also inscribed at a later time: "Mrs. Sarah Wiggin/ Age 55/ Painted by/ Benjamin Greenleaf/ Oct 1813:' Little has been discovered concerning the subject. As Mrs. Sarah Holt, presumably a widow or divorcee, from Milford, New Hampshire, she married Benjamin Wiggin of Hopkinton, New Hampshire.

His first wife, Elizabeth Clement Wiggin, had died October 31, 1824, at sixty- five In addition to this October 10, 1813 portrait of Sarah Holt Wiggin, Greenleaf, also in October 1813, painted the portraits of Benjamin Wiggin Chase and Samuel Greenleaf Chase, grandchildren of Benjamin Wiggin and his first wife. In March of that same year, also in Hopkinton, he had painted the portraits of Elizabeth Wiggin Little and Mary Eliza Little, daughter and granddaughter of Benjamin Wiggin and his first wife (Fig. 7.)

10. Mrs. Benjamin Fletcher; Attributed to Benjamin Greenleaf; ca. 1813; Oil on glass; 161 / 4 x 111 / 2"; Private collection. According to a previous owner, Benjamin Fletcher was from Westminster, Vermont. However, The Vermont Gazetteer' has a lengthy report on Westminster with no mention of a Benjamin Fletcher. The Vermont Census Index for 1810 has no listing for a Benjamin Fletcher, while that for 1820 records him as a resident of Woodstock.(Fig. 8.)

U. Benjamin Fletcher; Attributed to Benjamin Greenleaf; ca. 1813; Oil on glass. It is assumed that such a painting has existed on the 46

basis of the fact that the portrait of his wife was accompanied by a matching frame Present whereabouts unknown.

12. Hannah Minot Moody; Attributed to Benjamin Greenleaf; ca. 1817; Oil on glass; 16 x 11"; Collection of Charles E. Burden.

Hannah, daughter of Captain John and Hannah Bradstreet Minot, was born March 20, 1736'in the fort at Richmond!' about ten miles from Bath. She grew up in Brunswick, Maine, and on February 7, 1758 married Samuel Moody, a commissioned officer in the Army!'Her husband was born August 11, 1730 at Fort George, Brunswick, the son of Dr. Samuel and Mary Wheelwright Moody.

After their marriage they moved to Boston and later to Bath. They had eleven children, many of whom were active in the building !Their and command of ships built in Bath! daughter, Esther Wheelwright Moody, married Henry Sewall, nephew of Dummer Sewall. The connection between the SewalIs and the Moodys goes back even farther,to the marriage of Rev. Samuel Moody, Esther W. Moody's great-grandfather, to Hannah Sewall!" A son of Hannah Minot Moody, John Minot Moody, had a daughter, Mary, who, in 1887, presented the Sagadahoc Historical Society in Bath with a "mourning ring" worn by her grandmother, Hannah, after the death of her husband, whom she outlived by twenty-three years!'It is believed that Hannah Minot Moody is buried in the old Sewall Cemetery (now know as the Dummer and Beacon Streets Cemetery) in Bath, along with her husband and children!'

(Fig. 9.)

13. John Minot. This portrait is known only through its listing in the WPA Inventory of Paintings for Massachusetts:" "MINOT, John, 1783-1861, Boston. Died in Farmington, Maine. Married in 1806 Calla Smith.

Oil on glass, attributed to Benjamin Greenleaf, c. 1817, 171 / 2 x 121 / 2'.' White ruffled shirt and collar, yellow waistcoat, dark blue coat with yellow buttons. Half-length, profile, OWNER: Rev. Glenn Tilley Morse, West Newbury, 1936:' Both Hannah Minot Moody and John Minot are descended from Thomas Minot of Saffron Walden, Essex, England ! !

John,the fourth often children ofGeorge and Eunice Billings Minot!' was born November 16, 1783 in Dorchester, Massachusette On November 27, 1806 he married Calla, the daughter of Joseph and Calla Allen Smith.'

John Minot does not appear in the 1810 Massachusetts Census Index, but in the Boston Directory for 1813 we find "John Minot, painter, Bromfield Lane' In the 1816 directory he is listed as a painter at Common

Street, and in the 1820 directory there is a John Minot recorded as a Custom house officer at Battery-march Street. This information places him in Boston in 1817, which is where and when his portrait was painted, according to the WPA Inventory. There is no evidence at all, however, to support the Inventory's contention that he died in Farmington, Maine. A John Minot did die in Farmington, but that was in 1814. The John Minot of the portrait did, in fact, die in Boston on March 5, 1861 at the age of seventy-seven years, three months and seventeen days. His residence at the time was 1 Bradford Street; the cause of death is recorded as influenza and exhaustion!'

14. Unidentified Baby Girl; Attributed to Benjamin Greenleaf; ca. 1817; Oil on glass; 141 / 2 x 10/ 1 2"; Private collection. Of the fifty-six known Greenleaf portraits, ten are of children. They include those of the Richmond sisters, the Chase brothers, Mary Eliza Little, Henry Bromfield McCobb, Miss Crowninshield, Mary Ann Cushing Nichols and Girl with Flowers. Of all, Unidentified Baby Girl appears to be the youngest. The flowers she holds are almost identical to those held by the child in Girl with Flowers and in the picture of Mary Ann Cushing Nichols, but she most closely resembles Miss Crowninshield, Little Girlfrom Boston, who is also represented in profile. (Fig. 10.)

15. Joseph Goold; Benjamin Greenleaf; 1818; Oil on glass. Inscribed on the backing board: "The portrait of my Unkle (sic) Joseph Goold/ Born at Nantasket Aged 71 in July the 7 1817/ Painted by Benjamin Greenleaf at Bath/ Feb. 19, 1818"; Private collection of Mr. and Mrs. Horton Foote. Joseph, the son of Joseph and Hannah Binney Goold, was born in Hull(then Nantasket) July 27, 17454 ! .

His father was the first cousin of Jacob Goold, the subject of Greenleaf's first portrait, while his sister, Mary, married John Greenleaf and was the mother of the artist, Benjaminl' In March 1759, at thirteen years of age, he is listed as a member of the Hull Foot Company"and served in the French and Indian War as a "mess boy'46 The family moved from Hull to Bath some time between 1760, when the youngest child, Stephen, was born and 1769, when Joseph Goold's name is listed among those residing in the Second Parish of Bath"' He married Mary (or Polly) Coombs of Brunswick, Maine. They had six children, all born in Georgetown(now West Bath, Maine) On May 30, 1795,the name of Joseph Goold is recorded in parish records as voting against a Mr. Wallis, while the names of Dummer Sewall (painted by Greenleaf

December 30, 1817) and Samuel Moody, Jr. (his wife's portrait painted by Greenleaf ca.

1817) are listed as having voted for Mr. Wallis." Joseph Goold's portrait was painted February 19, 1818, the day of his death?'

16. Abijah Wyman Thayer; Benjamin Greenleaf; 1818; Oil on glass. This portrait is known only from the catalog for the "Exhibition of American Folk Painting" at The Harvard Society for Contemporary Art, October 15 to 31, 1930. It is listed as "Oil on glass, 1818, by Benjamin Greenleaf, Boston, Mass., lent by Mr. and Mrs. John W Ames' Abijah, the first child of William and Abigail Wyman Thayer, was born in Peterborough, New Hampshire in January 1796?' Until the age of fourteen he attended school in Peterborough and was then apprenticed to Lincoln and Edmunds of Boston to learn the printer's trade. In 1817 he was employed by the book printers Flagg and Gould of Andover, Massachusetts but soon bought an interest in the Concord(New Hampshire)Gazette where he served as editor. In January 1821 he was engaged to superintend publication of the Haverhill Gazette, but in May 1822 moved to Portland, Maine, where he was editor of the Independent Statesman until 1826. In October 1826 he moved back to Haverhill and edited the Gazette, which he purchased in February 1827, changing its name to the Essex Gazette and assuming its entire control.

In 1835 he sold the newspaper and was subsequently connected with papers in Philadelphia, Worcester and Northampton, Massachusetts. On November 9, 1824, he married Susanna Bradley of Andover and subsequently had seven children. He died in Northampton on April 24, 1864 2 Inscribed on his tombstone is: "For the greater part of his life a journalist at Portland, Haverhill, Philadelphia or Northampton, he was a brave and devoted advocate of the temperance reform and of the abolition of slavery at times when these services brought upon him obloquy, suffering and lose"

NOTES 1. Jean S. Pond, private correspondence, 1949; Donald P. Wright, "Was Benjamin Greenleaf, Bradford Academy Preceptor and Arithmetician, Also a Portraitist?" Library Notes, Friends of Haverhill (Massachusetts) Public Library, No. 35, July 1964.

2. James Edward Greenleaf, Genealogy of the Greenleaf Family (Boston: Frank Wood, Printer, 1896), pp. 339, 361.

3. Dumas Malone, Dictionary ofAmerican Bi-

ography(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936), Vol. XIX., p. 49.

4. George M. Gould, Genealogical Data Concerning the Descendants of Robert Goold, 1888-1889; Charles J.F. Binney, Genealogy ofthe Binney Family(Albany: Joel Munsell's Sons, 1886), p. 24.

5. Vital Records of Hull, Massachusetts to the Year 1850(Boston: N.E. Historic Genealogical Society, 1911), p. 21.

6. Vital Records of Weymouth, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Boston: N.E. Historic Genealogical Society, 1910), Vol. II., pp.

139, 312.

7. Records of the Norfolk County Probate Court, Dedham, Massachusetts.

8. The whereabouts of this painting is unknown. A photograph of it is reproduced in the Bates Bulletin (The Bates Association, September, 1909), pp. 10-11.

9. Vital Records of Hull, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, p. 21.

10. Dorchester Births, Marriages and Deaths to the End of 1825 (Boston, 1890), p. 245.

11. Vital Records of Weymouth, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, p. 274.

12. Vital Records of Hull, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, p. 20.

13. Gould.

14. History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts (Hingham: Published by the Town, 1893), Vol. II., p. 276.

15. Ibid., p. 276.

16. Town of Hanover Vital Records, pp. 35, 68.

17. Walter T. Wheelock, The Wheelock Family in America, pp. 33-34.

18. Obituary, Vermont Chronicle, Windsor, Vermont, August 11, 1847.

19. Norwich, Vermont Town Records.

20. Obituary, Vermont Chronicle.

21. Private Correspondence, Kenneth C. Cramer, Archivist, Dartmouth College Library, Hanover, New Hampshire.

22. Ibid.

23. Norwich, Vermont Town Records.

24. Cramer correspondence.

25. From letter dated February 4, 1827, sent by Eliza Woodward to Maria Malleville Allen.

26. C.C. Lord, Life and Times in Hopkinton, N.H. (Concord: Republican Press Association, 1890), p. 492.

27. Arthur B. and Sybil B. Kern, "Who was Benjamin Greenleaf'?" Antiques World, September 1981, pp. 38-47.

28. Rev. F.J. Fairbanks, Vermont Historical Gazetteer(Brandon,Vermont: Mrs. Carrie E.H. Page, Publisher, 1891), Vol. V,pp. 561-670.

29. Auction catalogue, Richard A. Bourne Co., Inc., May 26, 1982, Lot. # 502.

30. Joseph G. Minot, A Genealogical Record of the Minot Family in America and England (Boston: privately printed, 1897), pp. 21-22.

31. George Augustus Wheeler and Henry Warren Wheeler, History ofBrunswick, Topsham and Harpswell, Maine (Boston: Alfred Mudge and Son, 1878), p. 844.

32. Minot, pp. 21-22.

33. Parker McCobb Reed, History of Bath and Environs (Portland: Lakeside Press, 1894), pp. 348-353.

34. Charles N. Sinnett, The Sewall Genealogy, pp. 13, 20, 21.

35. Herbert A. Moody, Historical Notes Concerning the Moody Family (Turners Falls, Massachusetts, 1947), p. 9. Her obituary in the Eastern Argus of Portland recorded her death as occurring on October 13, 1826.

36. There are no records for people buried in this cemetery. Among others there are stones for Hannah's husband, Samuel, her son, Minot, and several grandchildren. There are obviously many stones missing; it can be reasonably assumed that Hannah's is one of these.

37. The Historical Records Survey, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Works Progress Administration: American Portraits 1620-1825 Found in Massachusetts(Boston, 1939), Vol. I., p. 272.

38. Minot, p. 5.

39. Ibid., pp. 37, 46.

40. Dorchester Births, Marriages and Deaths to the End of 1825 (Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, 1930), p. 196.

41. Minot, pp. 37, 46.

42. Deaths Registered in the City of Boston, for the Year 1861, Vol. 149, p. 29, State Archives.

43. Vital Records of Hull, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, p. 19.

44. Gould.

45. N.E. Historical and Genealogical Register (Boston: Samuel G. Drake, 1850), Vol. IV , p. 75.

46. Helen Gould Raffensperger, I Remember, p. 18.

47. Henry Wilson Owen,History ofBath, Maine (Bath: The Times Company, 1936), p. 95; Vital Records of Hull, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, p. 20.

48. Raffensperger, p. 18.

49. Owen, p. 415.

50. Gould.

51. Bezaleel Thayer, Memorial of the Thayer Name(Oswego: R.J. Oliphant, 1874), p. 621.

52. Albert Smith, History of the Town ofPeterborough, New Hampshire (Boston: George H. Ellis, 1876), p. 310-314; George Wingate Chase, The History of Haverhill, Massachusetts (Haverhill, 1861), pp. 498 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 505, 654-656.

53. Eleanor Bradley Peters, Bradley of Essex County (New York: The Knickerbocker Press, 1915), pp. 124-125.

47

In a little room in Brooklyn, Saint George rides his mighty steed and slays the fabled dragon, while farmers work together to gather the annual grape harvest. As a cowherd milks one of his animals, Romulus and Remus, mythic founders of Rome, are fed by the shewolf. These are a few of the scenes and characters depicted by Sicilian-American folk artist, Vincenzo Ancona. Relying on traditional weaving techniques learned in his native Sicily, Ancona weaves these miniature figures out of the multicolored discarded wires used to install telephones. Ancona has not only created a new art form, but he continues to practice the craft of handmade basketry, a rarity in contemporary Italy. By drawing on the themes of Sicilian agricultural practices and the historical and mythological figures of oral tradition and folk ritual, this artist reworks past events and images,encapsulating the cultural experiences of his Sicilian-American audience.

Vincenzo Ancona was born in 1915, in the coastal town of Castellammare del Golfo, in the province of Trapani.

This area of western Sicily has long been one of the poorest, most neglected regions of Italy, and the world.

Widespread poverty, depression, illiteracy and unemployment were rampant well until the 1960s'This region is the home and stronghold of the repressive and violent mafia. Due to these difficult conditions, local peasants took to the mountains of western Sicily to form bandit groups after World War II, while others were forced to immigrate'.

Ancona was born into what he humbly describes as "a poor working fam-

eweaving the Past: Vincenzo Ancona's Telephone Wire Figures

By Joseph Sciorra

Saint George and the Dragon Vincenzo Ancona; April 1982; wire, wood and various metal objects; 15 x 13x 13" deep.

This is one of Ancona's most recent sculptures, and was completed in less than one month. Note the inverted baskets used as dragon wings.

48

All

r.ph h

Martha Cooper

ily:' His father was a farmer, and his mother came from a fishing family. The eldest of eight children, the thirteenyear-old Vincenzo was taken out of school by his father after he completed the compulsory fifth grade. It was time to devote his energies to working with, and for, the family. He worked on the tonnara, the tuna traps enclosing the schools of fish with boats and nets as men harpoon and haul in the large game. Ancona also worked alongside his relatives in the local wheat fields, olive groves and vineyards. Plowing, sowing, harvesting, transporting and refining the raw produce were the cyclical activities shaping the man's life. As part of his work Ancona learned the craft of basket weaving.

The baskets, or ceste, were used to carry the produce from field to town.

Local plants, such as cane, palm, willow and olive branches, were used to weave the containers. In a time-consuming process of preparation and production, the raw materials were first shaved with a knife and made as

smooth and uniform as possible. The dry, stiff olive branches were then soaked in water to render them soft and pliable. Employing the traditional wickerwork technique, weaving started at the basket's base, and by continual turning, the construction was built up to the desired shape and size. Finally, the handles were added, and the basket was left to dry.

A skill passed down from generation to generation, basketry was learned and practiced by all. Speaking in Italian, Ancona explains: In my town, we would make[the baskets] during the summer months of August and September. My father made them, my relatives made them, almost everyone made them. There were those that were better than others. Some could take that cane and make a better, prettier weave. But everyone had to work.

After World War II, these arts, as well as the agricultural way of life of Sicily's rural population, were to un-

dergo drastic changes. With the introduction of manufactured products for the home,Sicilian basketry was greatly undermined. Ancona recalls: After the war, other materials were introduced to make these things.

Plastic destroyed everything. This art is dead. This doesn't exist anymore, even in Sicily where it was born. Now, only the old people know of these things.

By the time Ancona immigrated to the United States in 1956, this tradition was a thing of the past.

Upon his arrival in America, Ancona, his wife and their children set up their new home in Brooklyn. First, he worked in a broom factory, and when the company folded, Ancona moved to ajewelry workshop. He remained at his second, and last, job in America until his retirement in 1979. He lived in the predominantly Italian neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Ridgewood, and, since 1965, he and his wife have been living in their present home in Ben-

Four Baskets Vincenzo Ancona; date unknown; wire;the smallest basket on the left is 3" tall.

In addition to having taught a Brooklyn neighbor how to weave baskets such as these, Ancona has sparked new interest in this dying art in recent visits to his Sicilian hometown.

49

sonhurst. His extended familyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;of brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces, children and grandchildrenâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; all live within walking distance of the Ancona home.

Obviously,in New York there was no material need to continue weaving baskets. In fact, it had been some time since Ancona had made baskets in Sicily before he departed for America. In a modern city, the day's schedule did not include long, quiet periods needed to make the traditional ceste. Also, the natural materials normally used were unavailable in the urban environment.

In New York, there was no need for large panniers because there were no kilos of grapes or grain to harvest and carry. Any other type of container could be easily found and cheaply bought in the local shops.

In 1965, as Ancona remembers, a compatriot showed him baskets made in the old Sicilian way, here in the United States. In lieu of cane and willow, Ancona's friend had woven his baskets from the multicolored wires used for indoor telephone service.

These were not the large ceste used to carry goods, but smaller receptacles used to hold fruit, bread or nuts. These containers left a vivid impression on Ancona, who says, "It was beautiful.

The wires were different colors. The colors were alive:' Here was a craft destroyed by the arrival of plastic to rural Sicily, and ironically, revived in urban America, due to the abundance of these discarded, plastic, industrial products. Ancona was offered the opportunity of working with his hands again, as he and his paesani had not done for years. The recreation of those objects linked him again to his homeland.

Ancona began weaving his own baskets out of wires brought to him by friends. While he was out of practice and his first attempts were not to his liking, Ancona renewed his skills by creating containers for the table. These new baskets, woven with colored strands, were truly wonderful to see.

Color was not the only difference between these fibers and the ones Ancona once used in Italy. Unlike palm and

cane, the telephone wires were more pliable than any soaked olive branch could ever become."The wires were so soft, so sweet' Ancona states, "Where you put them, they stay. The wires obey!'

Lastly, this industrial fiber was a fine, thin and uniform object, unlike anything found in nature. A tighter weave was possible now; in fact, the material demanded closer interlacing.

Soon, Ancona was making baskets smaller than any made previously in Italy; some were as tiny as an inch and a half in height. It was obvious that the properties of the telephone wires allowed for greater creativity. The wires themselves suggested new forms, and in the hands of a master like Ancona, they came to life.

Ancona lost many nights' sleep trying to create the images he saw in his mind. After several attempts, he succeeded in shaping the wires in new directions and weaving them into the forms of animals and people. By employing the old Sicilian weaving techniques and making the most of the

The Old Well Vincenzo Ancona; ca. 1976-1980; wire, wood and coffee can; 11½x 16x 16" deep.

Once an important place for fresh water and local gossip, the town well has become outmoded in modern times.

50

The Grape Harvest Vincenzo Ancona;ca. 1976-1980; wire, wood, plastic cups and artificial grapes; 1 x 15 x 15"deep.

Ancona learned the traditional art of basket weaving for the labor involved in activities like this harvesting scene.

wire's attributes, Ancona moved from basket making to producing intricate and detailed figures. This artistic leap still astounds and amazes this urban weaver: When you do something and you don't know where to start, what to do, and you have only the idea, you have to exploit the intellect. I believe man's intellect has no limit. How is it possible tofind the method, the system to make wires do these things?

No one said, "Do this:' or "do that:' You have to discover it yourself and then it is you who will teach it to others because you have found the method to make these things. These are things I created. This is allfrom my own experience.

Commenting on his first figure, Ancona acknowledges, "It was a sad sight (`Faceva pena:). It wasn't good, but it wasn't bad either:' Eventually, Ancona worked out two procedures to meet this new challenge. In the first, the weaving started from the head (as if it were the

base of the basket)and continued down to the neck and torso. Afterwards, the arms and legs would be attached, like the basket's handles had been in the old technique. With the second method, which was often used to construct animal figures, Ancona began with the torso, later adding the head and limbs.

Ancona would sometimes support and shape the body around a piece of cardboard and manipulate the strands so that his figures were recognizable representations of the animals. Portrayal and proportion now became important concerns.

Many of the first figures were animals: a whole menagerie of wire beasts came into being. Domestic animals such as dogs, cows, mules, horses and oxen appeared. A turtle, a dove, various other birds, deer, buffalo, a tiger, and even a crocodile were born from Ancona's imagination. In his opinion, Ancona has not successfully reproduced either the sheep or the goat, two animals with which he is familiar from his life in Italy. He feels that he is

unable to satisfactorily duplicate the fleece and hair of these livestock vital to Sicilian culture. Ancona has given many of these animals, as well as his wire baskets, away to relatives and friends.

Combining the farm animals with the figures of people, Ancona began creating scenes of his hometown. According to the artist, his first multi-figured work,"The Old Well!' was completed in the Bicentennial year of 1976. A second version of this piece (Ancona gave the first away as a present), depicts the heartbeat of a Sicilian town. The town well was the source of precious and often rationed water, and a gathering place where one could learn the latest "news!' Another aspect of the daily routine of country life is seen in "The Cowherd:' These scenes, or quadri, as Ancona calls them, show recurring events associated with work and food production, paramount activities in a society which experienced the misfortune of unemployment and famine. "The Hunter" and "The Fisherman" represent the seasonal occupations which were important sources of food and work in Sicily until the 1950s.

The different stages of the farming year are traced in Ancona's "The Sower!'

"The Grape Harvest" and "The Threshing:' With an eye for detail, the artist supplements his weavings with plastic grapes and packing straw for wheat. The bullet shells found in the hunter's cartridge belt are made out of small, clipped carpenter's nails.

To hear Ancona speak about the subjects of his work is to see his quadri live. He taps knowledge of animal husbandry to explain the strength and behavior of the work animal. The traditional apparel, tools and types of baskets are documented in these scenes, while their functions are described by the artist. In pointing out each specific item, he uses their Sicilian names; the mosto, unfermented grapejuice, and caciocavallo, a type of cheese, are fondly remembered.

Events which preceded or followed those shown in the quadri are also recalled: Life was hard. In that time we often didn't sleep, especially when there was the grape harvest. Then it was a 51

feast, afeast!After wefinished working, we ate and then we made a big fire in the country. There were games, with boys who would jump over the fire. It was really a delight.

Ancona's synopsis of his visual art provides a natural setting and stimulus for the performance of stories, folk songs and his own poetry composed in the Sicilian vernacular'.

It is no wonder that Ancona has chosen his early life in Castellatnmare for the source of his art work. Nor is it surprising that these images should be conjured up in old age or that Ancona's art should blossom in retirement. Much of contemporary folk art is the work of middle-aged or elderly people who draw upon their remembered past for inspiration. Greater free time allows for moments of reflection, recollection and creativity'. Ancona says: lam no longer young and I'm at the age where I don't have many worries. I have the time to do this and when I get bored,Ipick up some wire and start.

Free time alone cannot fully explain the desire to recreate and reshape the past. In old age, there is a need to sum up one's past experiences and to find the connection between them and the present self. Anthropologist Barbara Myerhoff, in her excellent book on elderly Jews living in California, addresses the problems which confront the elderly and the solutions they create to overcome them. Through discussing ritual and its effects, her insights can be helpful when applied to folk art.

Personal continuity is something not automatically given by experience.

It must be achieved. The sense of being the same person overtime,despite great change, and sharp disruption in social and cultural experience does not happen easily or inevitably.

For this personal coherence, this sense of psychological integration to take place, the individual must be capable of finding and reliving parts of his/her history. And often, the most important, charged pieces of personal history come up from the remote past, from the numinous events and experiences of early childhood!

52

The artist's works are markers tracing past to present and providing continuity.

Ancona's past cannot be separated from the history of rural Sicily. Along with the inexpensive containers, the post-war era brought new farm machinery which disrupted the island's traditional agricultural system. Describing the activities he portrays in wire, Ancona often uses the Italian word tramontato, which can be translated as "faded:' "vanished;' "outmoded;' or "forgotten!' As a result, the social fabric and its network of relationships, as well as the values of the culture, went through a period of confusion and transformation. For the immigrantâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; living in a new countryâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;this loss is heightened by the actual distance from the "old country" and its gradual changes through time. In many ways Ancona's work represents the life experience of a generation of SicilianAmericans. It is this primary audience of appreciative relatives and paesani who respond to Ancona's miniature

worlds with words of praise and understanding.

By 1980, the Sicilian quadri were completed. In the following two years, Ancona began work on a series of different figures. These included Romulus and Remus, Jesus and Pontius Pilate, La Befana (the witch who brings gifts to Italian children on January 6, the Day of the Epiphany)and Saint George and the Dragon. These characters represent historic figures for Ancona and stretch beyond the agricultural customs of Castellammare to ancient history and mythology. They are the heroes and religious figures of various folk tales and performances popular not only in Sicily, but in the entire Western world.

Characters such as La Befana make their yearly return at Christmastime.

During Holy Week, the arrival of Jesus, Pontius Pilate and others on the streets of Sicilian towns was made possible by the live actors who reenacted Christ's martyrdom in the Passion Play of Holy Friday. The English Saint George, as Ancona points out, is a cav-

The Threshing Vincenzo Ancona; ca. 1976-1980; wire, wood and packing straw; 51 / 2 x 18 x 18" deep.

This scene illustrates yet another aspect of agrarian life in Italy.

Romulus and Remus Vincenzo Ancona; ca. 1980-1982; wire and wood;5 x 7 x 3" deep.

Ancona gives a new twist to this classic scene of Rome's twin founders and reaffirms his connection to the mythic past of Italy.

Christ and Pontius Pilate Vincenzo Ancona;ca. 1980-1982; wire, wood and metal; 7/ 1 2 x 9/ 1 2x 51 / 2" deep.

This is the first of the Fourteen Stations of the Cross, a project that has occupied Ancona in recent years.

aliere, and belongs to Europe's chivalric legacy. In Sicily, the epic tales of Charlemagne and Roland, themselves slayers of dragons and monsters, were well known through the art of the cantastorie, or ballad singer, the island's puppet theater and the elaborately decorated carts. It is interesting to note that Ancona's use of multicolored wires echoes the color preferences of the Sicilian folk painters.'

For Ancona, his work is also a source of beauty and pride: The passion wins over everything. You feel so rich of the spirit when you do something that is so beautiful, that is so nice to look at. Youfeel as ifsomeone had given you a million dollars.

Though they are an important part of his life, Ancona, not having found a

viewing place for his work, stores the objects in a little room in his basement.

After completing a piece and showing it to a few neighbors and other visitors, he relegates it to the storage room, where it remains. Due to limited space and the small number of admirers, Ancona has not yet completed all the Fourteen Stages of the Cross as he had planned. For their beauty and life, for their documentation of Sicilian folkways and as landmarks of ethnic identity, Ancona's objects constitute a unique and valuable art form.

Joseph Sciorra is a master's degree candidate in the Performance Studies Department at New York University. He is a student ofItalian folklore and is currently working on a project examining "front lawn shrines:' a form of religious, urban folk art, in the New York area.

NOTES 1. Danilo Dolci, Sicilian Lives(New York: Pantheon Books, 1981), P. xx.

2. Gavin Maxwell, The Ten Pains of Death (New York: Longsmans, Green and Co., Inc., 1959). This study (now out of print) of post-war Sicily contains a chapter on the town of Castellammare.

3. Vincenzo Ancona can be heard singing several folk songs on the recording,In Mezz'una Strada Trovai Una Pianta di Rosa, compiled and edited by Anna L. Chairetakis,Folkways Records, FES 34041. His poetry has been published, and he has received awards both in the United States and Italy. Ancona has also recited his works with Arba Sicula, an American-based organization dedicated to Sicilian language and literature.

4. Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr. and Julia Weissman, Twentieth Century American Folk Art and Artists(New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1974), p. 18.

5. Barbara Myerhoff, Number Our Days(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), p. 108.

6. I would like to thank Anna L. Chairetakis for this observation.

53

Detail ofthe upper portion ofthe Protestant Ladder.

Protestant Ladder; Rev. and Mrs. Henry Spalding; 1845-6; Courtesy Oregon Historical Society, Portland Oregon.

54

PIONEERSIN PARAdiSE

by SUSAN

LARSENfrMARTIN

Montesano, Washington Territory; Mary E. Achey(Active ca. 1880);1883; Oil on canvas; 2"; Courtesy Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma, Washington.

1 2x 26/ 1 18/

"Pioneers in Paradise: Folk and Outsider Art of the West Coast 1844 — Present" presents a broad survey offolk painting and sculpture, demonstrating that there is even more to see and know about this part of the country than the marvelous Watts Towers or the haunting, enigmatic wooden dolls of Calvin and Ruby Black's rural "Possum Trot!'

It is the firstexhibition ofits kind to trace the development offolk and outsider art of the West Coast from the earliest days of settlement to our own times. The exhibition of some 125 works drawn from three states—California, Oregon and Washington—was organized by Susan Larsen-Martin and Lauri Robert Martin, working with Kent Smith, Curator ofthe Long Beach Museum of Art

in Long Beach, California.

It begins with the work of Eliza Hart Spalding, wife of Protestant missionary Henry Spalding, who, along with Narcissa Whitman, wife of Dr. Marcus Whitman, was the first white woman to cross the Rocky Mountains. They arrived with their husbands in the Oregon Territory in 1836. Eliza Spalding's need to communicate clearly and graphically with local Indian tribes led her to paint "The Protestant Ladder" of 1844, a virtual parody of the Catholic Ladder used by rival Jesuits as a visual aid in the conversion of the Indians to their own faith. In Eliza Spalding's highly imaginative work, Martin Luther suddenly appears in the sixteenth century on the graphic timeline;

in response, those devoted to the Cult of Mary and the Pope suddenly take flight, careening headfirst towards Purgatory. "The Protestant Ladder" is an important and revered document of early Oregon history, but it is also a highly original work of art, non-traditional in its religious content.

A traditional format preferred by the self-taught artist was the topographical landscape—a portrait of a place—which reveals a pride in community and an appreciation of the beautiful natural terrain of the West Coast. These qualities were, of course, also admired by the well-known painters of the American West, such as Bierstadt and Moran.

Mary Achey, Elizabeth Kimball and Sulie Hartsuck Wilson of Oregon and 55

When Mama's Away;Effie Johnston(18681964);1898;Ink and colored pencil on paper; 8/ 3 46 x 513/16"; Courtesy Calaveras County Historical Society, San Andreas, California.

Washington produced works of a striking and quiet intensity typical of American nineteenth century painting but with a directness of brushstroke and incongruity of perspective that reveals their non-academic origins. They did not seek transcendental, bold vistas but the smaller-scaled wonders of a new home,entrancing enough to record and to keep within the homestead itself.

The surprising and high-spirited images of Effie Johnston, daughter of a Calaveras County, California, gold miner, are found amidst her delicately tinted drawings of angels and flowers.

Strangely garbed children engage in an exotic game dressed in their parents' clothing. Was this fact or fantasy in 1898?

56

Centralia Library Totum;Alan Van Hoecice(1892-1970);ca.

1960; Varnished wood;66 x 20 x 14"; Courtesy CentralialTimberland Library, Centralia Washington.

Holiday;Peter Mason Bond(18801972); Oil on canvas;47x 683A"; Courtesy The San Fransisco Art Institute, San Fransisco, California.

In Washington State, Allen Van Hoecke, a retired logger from Belgium who had immigrated to the United States, worked for several decades from the 1950s to the 1970s, creating elaborate wooden towers to celebrate his love for America. Inscriptions on the towers dedicate them to the children of the towns, the infirm, the aged and those who frequented public libraries in his own city of Chehalis and in surrounding communities. As he worked on each tower he kept a precise record of the hours of labor required, the exact origin of the individual pieces of wood and his thoughts while he carved. His gifts were unsolicited and received little thanks at the time. Van Hoecke's art was born from his own need to express

the kindest and deepest qualities of his character and his hope for the bright future of his adopted country.

The Peace Garden created by San Fransisco folk artist and activist Peter Mason Bond became a rallying point in the 1960s. Bond, or PEMABO as he was called, was a retired sign painter in his eighties. He became a living link between the pacifists of World War I and those of his later years. Bond's entire property was filled with signs decrying the futility and evil of war. He loved the city of San Fransisco, especially Golden Gate Park which he celebrated in his painting, "Holiday:' a work of fantasy combining all the park's scenic attractions and buildings, families and urban picnics and flying

angels into one glowing view of Bond's earthly paradise.

Towards the end of his life, during the 1950s and 1960s, Romano Gabriel's home in Eureka, California, was regarded as a cultural landmark by the citizens of Eureka. In fact, it was so designated on the very day he died and later restored and reassembled in the town square where it now stands.

Gabriel had filled his front yard and virtually obscured his home with colorful, animated wooden figures, flowers, animals and totemic flower-trees. As the garden grew in size and notoriety, Gabriel found himself to be a very public figure, even if his original desire had been to express a private dream. What motivates a person to build his dream in 57

Untitled Lighthouse;Sanford Darling(1894-1973);ca.1960; Oil on wood;46/ 1 2x 31"; Courtesy Whiteley Gallery, Los Angeles, California.

Untitled Dolls; Morton Riddle(1909— ); ca. 1975;203/4 x 63/4 x 3/ 1 2", 17/ 1 2x 5/ 1 2x 31/8"; Private collection.

his own front yard? Is it to share his vision, to validate it by displaying it publicly or simply to "beautify" the environment?

Sanford Darling covered his Santa Barbara, California, home with bold and exotic scenes of the South Pacific, the castles and mountains of Switzerland and the Japanese sea islands. Retired, a widower, having exhausted the attractions of fishing, golf and travel, he found he could express himself through painting. People came from all over the country—indeed, the world—to see his remarkable house during the 1960s.

It was a visual travelogue, an abstract construction in space to rival the beauty and spareness of much modern art.

58

There is also the bittersweet story of Calvin and Ruby Black who bought, sight-unseen, a piece of property in Yermo, California. Once they arrived at their new homestead, the middleaged couple were heartbroken and confused to find it a worthless desert plot.

Out of these discouraging circumstances they created the oddly compelling environment "Possum Trot;' populated by the dolls Cal carved and Ruby dressed. Each doll had a name and a role to play in the "Fantasy Doll Show" they created to persuade passing motorists to stop for a cold soda, see the show they staged in their home and perhaps examine the carefully polished rocks and minerals they sold by

the roadside. Calvin and Ruby Black were isolated, but their artistic enterprise enabled them to reach out to other people, to ease their solitude and even to provide a sense offamily life through the large outdoor dolls and smaller indoor dolls who became familiar creatures in their household.

Among the ranks of the self-taught on the West Coast are many individuals who found in art the means to play out the drama of their lives in symbolic form, to speak of the pain, confusion, loneliness,joy and religious longing of their lives. The troubled spirit of Martin Ramirez who lived much of his life at the DeWitt State Hospital in Sacramento, California, is too opaque for us

Scenes from the Book of Revelation; Andrew Block(1879-1969); ca. 1960-69; Oil on board; 25/ 1 2x 430"; Courtesy Marshall Thomas, Solvang, California.

Mourning at Mineral Springs; Frank Day (1902-1972); ca. 1972; Oil on canvas;24 x 36"; Courtesy Pacific Western Traders, Folsom, California.

to enter, but his art reveals an inner life capable of envisioning vast, unearthly landscapes, winding tunnels and heraldic beings on horseback. He worked on a large scale, piecing together bits of discarded paper, with an astonishing ability to prefigure and plan his grand pictorial schemes.

The life of Russell Childers of Lebanon, Oregon, was transformed by his art. He was institutionalized at the age of ten in 1925 and diagnosed as retarded, deaf and mute. Sometime during his mid-twenties, he began to carve objects out of wood with a sharp piece of metal. His carving grew in intensity and precision as he matured; eventhally, Childers attracted the inter59

Boy with Shoes #54;Russell Childers (1915— ); Wood and pigment;6 x 7/ 1 2x 9/ 1 4"; Courtesy Willamette Valley Rehabilitation Center, Lebanon, Oregon.

Swan;David Rust(1908— ); ca. 1980; Painted wood;17 x 32 x 7/ 1 2"; Courtesy Folk Craft Gallery, Portland, Oregon.

est of artists, university art faculty and a broad public. By 1964, no longer an anonymous ward, he was retested after some thirty-eight years in the institution and found able to hear, speak and acquire basic skills of communication.

His work records memories of a happy childhood before the age often, details of costume, gesture and the face of his mother who died before he was twelve.

Now seventy years old and a celebrated figure in the cultural life of Oregon, Childers is a model for other handicapped people who may be encouraged to do as Childers did: to focus upon capabilities and desires rather than upon disability.

A handful of West Coast figures have made their way into the larger history of 60

folk art in America. The visionary cities of Alexander Maldonado of San Fransisco are beloved by artists and collectors for their bold and optimistic predictions about the future and buoyant, colorful style. Now eighty-four, he is a handsome, self-confident man who says, "I paint mostly the future:' while clearly he is someone who thoroughly enjoys the present.

Jon Serl of Elsinore, California, now ninety, is a powerful and prolific painter, a former gardener, vaudevillian and writer. His paintings are lush and bold. His art embraces the raw realities of the inland California deserts, the ironies of small town life and his own deeply-felt bond with the wild and domestic animals who share his environ-

ment.

Harry Lieberman, celebrated for his vivid, exuberant scenes of Jewish life, spent most of each winter in Los Angeles with his daughter Rose. She recalls how much he liked to paint alongside the schoolchildren at Fairfax School during the 1950s and 1960s. Jim Colclough, Louis Monza, John Roeder and others are also recognized by scholars and collectors on both coasts.

The geography of the West Coast is so vast and varied—its people so numerous and different from one another —that it is virtually impossible to characterize this area of the country or even to treat it as a distinct cultural region.

"Pioneers in Paradise" took this human and geographic diversity as its central

Gr._M

Westport Goat House Family;Jim Colclough (1900— ); ca. 1970-75;Painted carved wood;10 x 13/ 1 2x 12"; Courtesy Ted Wimmer, Arcata, California.

Signs Seen: Sun Moon and Stars;PM. Wentworth (Active 1950-60); 1952; Mixed media on paper;29/ 1 2x 259/m"; Courtesy Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, New York.

theme and attempted to gather the most vibrant, revealing and personal works from each state. Works in the exhibition depict the logging camps of Oregon and Washington, the Golden Gate Bridge, commercial barges along the Columbia River, the rapidly developing urban landscape of downtown Los Angeles and the life of the inland deserts. Some are macabre, like Jim Colclough's wooden corpse in a child's coffin, or ecstatically religious like P.M. Wentworth's visions of celestial beings inhabiting the planets of Venus and Mars. They are all somehow a part of the ongoing cultural tapestry of these three states.

A number of artists in this initial survey merit further study. Subsequent

exhibitions will surely bring more material to light. It is hoped that "Pioneers in Paradise" will stimulate scholars and collectors to recognize the West Coast as a promising area for investigation. Many ofour folk art environments are gone before they can be properly studied. Important paintings and sculpture are lost through sheer neglect.

Recognizing and enjoying this work is an important step toward preserving it for posterity.

Susan Larsen-Martin is Associate Professor of American Art at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She and her husband, Lauri Robert Martin, are the co-curators of "Pioneers in Paradise!'

"jFFM

1417/rwrZ''

"Pioneers in Paradise: Folk and Outsider Artists of the West Coast" has been funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. A catalog of the exhibition, published by the Long Beach Museum of Art, is available. The exhibition (which originated at the Long Beach Museum of Art and then traveled to the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle) will be on view at Marylhurst College, Marylhurst, Oregon from April 15—June 15, 1985 and then at the San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California from November 17, 1985— January 5, 1986.

61

--A Thrrnin9ton Weekend 507 EXHIBITORS ppm.,â&#x20AC;&#x201D; many under tenting June 8-9 and Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Sat. 10am-6pm Sun. 9am-4pm Free parking Admission: $2.00

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Early admission (no passes valid) Saturday 8am - $5.00

Farmington(CT)Polo Grounds Exit 39 off 1-84, 9 miles west of Hartford Don Mackey Shows, Inc.

62

Suffield, Connecticut

The Booksfor Quilt Lovers PT1HE QUILT DIGEST 3 has arrived! This stunning new volume is larger, with more pages and 93 glorious color photographs. Leading quilt authorities present challenging new ideas, important research and memorable writing in a book that, like ourfirst two volumes, is exquisitely designed and printed on the highest-qualityfine art paper.

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Her story, which spans nearly a century, is told with the aid of her quilts and rare family photographs.

An extraordinary rendering of rural American life in the nineteenth century; Barbara Bradman, quilt author and historian, introduces intriguing old quilts that flout convention and tradition in "Out of Control: Quilts that Break the Rules." Accompanied by full-page color photographs;

Collector" series. Profusely illustrated with on-location color photographs of the quilts and historic Charleston; Marianne Fons, well-known quiltmaker and teacher, offers "Crazy Quilt; a short story about extraordinary dreams, a wife and husband and their quilt. An ingenious work of fiction, beauti-I, fully illustrated in full color; 13/,; "Roderick Kiracofe, co-founder of The Quilt Digest and publisher of Homage to Amanda, introduces twenty-three never-before-published contemporary and antique quilts in "Showcase." Fullpage color photographs of remarkable quilts from twelve states are presented, including the most recent works of Rhoda Cohen, Linda MacDonald, ork Ruth McDowell, Terrie Hancock Mangat, Judy F sy Mathieson and Joan Schulze.

All our books are available in fine quilt, antique, book and museum

shops around the world,or directly from the publisher by using the order form below. If you are a quilt lover, you won't want to miss any of these fine books. Order today.

$15.95

Lacy Folmar Bullard, writer and editor, highlights the Charleston (South Carolina) Museum quilt collection in "Once Out of Time," the third in our annual "The

88 pages

We are happy to send gift copies directly to recipients. Depending upon the season of the year, allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.

93 color photographs

Wholesale information available upon request.

%Ivo \ 14,

: 1 06,

Ifikfik #1

1. Homage to Amanda. Ninety-six pages with 71 color photographs. A great quilt collection bountifully illustrates this concise guide to the first two hundred years of American quiltmaking. $16.95.

2. The Quilt Digest 1. Seventy pages with 48 color and 19 black-and-white photographs.

Articles by Sandi Fox, Jonathan Holstein, Michael James, Michael Kile, Rod Kiracofe, David Pottinger and Susan Einstein,and Julie Silber. $12.95.

3. The Quilt Digest 2. Eighty pages with 6o color photographs and r7 black-and-white photographs and illustrations. Articles by Elizabeth Akana, Michael Kile, Rod Kiracofe, Linda Lipsett, Penny McMorris and Patsy Orlofsky. $11.95.

*16k

COMING IN SEPTEMBER! 4. Remember Me: Women & Their Friendship Quilts by Linda Otto Lipsett. Our readers praised Linda's remarkable article, "A Piece of Ellen's Dress," in The Quilt Digest 2. Now,she returns with a full-length book. In Remember Me, Linda lovingly recreates the lives of several nineteenth-century quiltmakers, their families and friends. This is a book about beautiful Friendship quilts, and much more; it will transport you back into the lives of these women.

In August, advance information will be sent to persons whose names are on our mailing list.

THE QUILT DIGEST PRESS 955 FOURTEENTFI STREET SAN FRANCISCO 94114 Send us: Your name Address City

State

THE QUILT DIGEST 3 copies at $15.95 each THE QUILT DIGEST 2 _____ copies at $12.95 each THE QUILT DIGEST 1 copies at $12.95 each HOMAGE TO AMANDA copies at $16.95 each Postage & handling ($1.5o for the first book and $1.00 for each additional book ordered) California residents add 6% sales tax Total amount

Zip

$

$

Enclose your check made payable to THE QUILT DIGEST PRESS for the total amount shown, and mail it to Dept. H,955 Fourteenth St., San Francisco 94114.

Available in September 1985.

63

Ames Gallery features American folk art & artifacts.

Concurrent with the changing exhibits, our extensive collection of tramp art, cookware, quilts, contemporary folk painting, and sculpture are always on view.

For current exhibit information, hours, or for an appointment, phone us or write to: Ames Gallery 2661 Cedar Street Berkeley, CA 94708 415 845-4949

AMESâ&#x20AC;˘GALLERY

EPSTEIN/POWELL 22 Wooster St., New York, N.Y. 10013

By Appointment(212)226-7316 Jesse Aaron Steve Ashby Peter Charlie William Dawson Uncle Jack Dey Antonio Esteves Howard Finster Victor Joseph Gatto S.L. Jones Sister Gertrude Morgan Inez Nathaniel Old Ironsides Pry Nellie Mae Rowe Jack Savitsky Mose Tolliver Luster Willis and others

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The Association for Gravestone Studies, an organization with international membership devoted to the study and preservation of burial grounds and grave markers, welcomes the Museum of American Folk Art as Co-Sponsor, and the New Jersey Genealogical Society as Guest Participant to its Annual Conference.

The Proceedings will take place at Rutgers University, New Brunswick Campus, New Jersey, starting on the evening of Thursday, June 27th, and lasting until Sunday, June 30th.

Dr. Allan I. Ludwig, Photographer and Author of 'Graven Images', and Dr. Robert Bishop, Director of the Museum of American Folk Art, will be the principal speakers, along with other leading scholars and lay experts in the various aspects of gravestone study and preservation.

The Conference Program, featuring the 18th century carving tradition of New York and New Jersey will also cover gravestone studies from all over the country and Canada, and will be highlighted by tours of historic burial grounds in New York City and New Jersey. Exhibits of photographs, rubbings, and replicated stones will be augmented by the extensive collection of epigraphic recordings of the New Jersey Genealogical Society.

The Conference Planning Committee and the Board of Directors of the Association for Gravestone Studies welcome all interested persons to register. One registration fee entitles attendance to all sessions, tours, exhibits, and refreshments. Membership in the Association is encouraged, but not required.

Full details regarding the Program and Registration can be obtained by writing to: AGS Conference '85, c/o Education Department, Museum of American Folk Art, 125 West 55th Street, New York City, New York 10019

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Museum News

MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART'S GALA SPRING BENEFIT Terrapins, Tortoises and Turtles Coming May 20th, 1985 is "Terrapins, Tortoises and Turtles;' the Museum of American Folk Art's gala spring dinner dance featuring a special guest of honor, George the Tortoise. Once a member of Queen Victoria's court, this venerable creature is celebrating his 184th birthday this year. George now resides in New Jersey, with Barbara Johnson, a member of the Museum's Board of Trustees. Though generally a homebody, he will be making a rare public appearance for this occasion.

The benefit will be held under the stars in the Summer Garden at Rockefeller Center.

The Chairman of "Terrapins, Tortoises and Turtles" is Museum Trustee Susan Klein, whose committee includes Trustees Karen Cohen, Cynthia V.A. Schaffner, Karen Schuster and Bonnie Strauss. The dinner dance will include a supper provided by Restaurant Associates, who operate the American Festival Cafe, the SeaGrill and Savories at Rockefeller Plaza. Guests will kick up their heels to the tunes of Blackwater, a group with a repertoire ranging from country and western to the latest popular music.

A highlight of the evening will be the introduction of Geoffrey Holder's new dance, entitled appropriately the "Tortoise Wamble:' Everyone will be invited to join in the fun and "wamble" the night away.

The benefit will also inaugurate the Museum's new exhibition of nineteenth and twentieth century folk art turtles and tortoises of different media. Installed at the American Festival Cafe and opening to the public on May 21st, the exhibition is corn70

posed of objects generously lent by George Meyer of Birmingham, Michigan.

Festivities will begin at 8 p.m. Ticket prices are as follows: benefit patron, $250; non-member, $150; member, $100. A limited number of tickets are available. For further information please call the Museum at 212-581-2474.

FOLK ART AT THE VISTA INTERNATIONAL HOTELS' AMERICAN HARVEST RESTAURANTS The Museum of American Folk Art is currently highlighting the eclectic, rich folk art collection of Helaine and Burton Fendelman at the World Trade Center in New York City, and the sculpture of contemporary craftsman William Jauquet in Washington, D.C. This continuing series of

exhibitions is coordinated by Cynthia Elyce Rubin, Curator of Special Projects at the Museum of American Folk Art. The Fendelman collection is the product of eighteen years of pioneer scouting for American art and antiques. Helaine, formerly a member of the staff of the Museum of American Folk Art and founder of the Museum's Friends Committee,is the author of Tramp Art/An Itinerant's Folk Art and Silent Companions:Dummy Board Figures of the 17th Through 19th Centuries. She is currently a principal in her own public relations firm and a partner in Fendelman & Schwartz, a fine arts and antiques appraisal firm. Burton is Vice-President and Associate General Counsel with Drexel Burnham Lambert in New York City.

William Jauquet, born and raised in Wisconsin, began carving for a living in 1981 after his wife asked for a swan to deco-

Eddy Florijn (center), General Manager of the Vista International Hotel with Helaine and Burton Fendelman at the American Harvest Restaurant, World Trade Center in New York City.

tempting to locate the portraits of this nineteenth century pastelist for a forthcoming exhibition and catalogue raisonne of the artist's works. Mrs. Bascom made profiles for her extensive family and friends in north-central Massachusetts and in southern New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.

Any information about the whereabouts of Ruth Henshaw Bascom's profiles would be greatly appreciated. Please send any such information to: Mrs. Lois S. Avigad Guest Curator Museum of American Folk Art 125 West 55th Street New York, NY 10019

Colonial Williamsburg Searching for Information on the Black Portrait Painter Joshua Johnson

William Jauquet installing his carving ofNoah's Ark at the Vista International Hotel, Washington, D.C.

rate her newly opened antique shop. Using twelve-year-old cedar logs from a swamp in northeastern Wisconsin, he carves and paints his figures, hand rubbing them to simulate age.

QUERIES "The Images" Indian Sought I am looking for a carved indian in a canoe which once was a part of"The Images': the water propelled environment created by Killingworth farmer, Clark Coe. This figure, whose arms acted as paddles and rotated in a fashion similar to those of whirligigs, has been referred to as "Moses in Canoe" and was exhibited in the 1960s at the Willard Gallery in New York City, and at the Stony Point Folk Art Gallery in Stony Point, New York. The piece is last known to have belonged to Mr. David McCullough, who resided in Brooklyn at the time when he owned the indian.

Please address any information to: Diane Finore Museum of American Folk Art 125 West 55th Street New York, NY 10019

"Lookingfor Liberty" As the Guest Curator for an upcoming exhibition at the Museum of American Folk Art, "Liberties with Liberty;' I am looking for American folk art, past and present, representing the evolution of the female figure symbolizing America. She appears in the shape of the Indian Queen,Indian Princess, Goddess of Liberty, Columbia and the Statue of Liberty.

American folk art in all media— maps, atlases; engravings; oil and watercolor paintings; needlework, including samplers; weathervanes; sculpture, such as ships' figureheads, circus and carousel carvings, cigar store figures; ceramics; scrimshaw; cake molds; printed, woven and quilted textiles; fire engine paintings etc.—are of interest.

Please send all information, photographs, slides or transparencies to: Nancy Jo Fox 301 East 53rd Street, 1-B New York, NY 10022

Profiles by Ruth Henshaw Bascom (1772 —1848) The Museum of American Folk Art is at-

The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to research and plan a major exhibition and catalog devoted to early American black artist Joshua Johnson. Johnson, the earliest black artist whose paintings can be identified, worked from about 1789 to 1825 in Baltimore and other parts of Maryland, and, possibly, in Virginia and West Virginia. Past scholars have suggested that Johnson was a slave who was trained as a blacksmith. Johnson, who advertised his services as a limner during the late eighteenth century, described himself as "a selftaught painter': Although some research has been done on Johnson, there are still many important questions which remain, for the most part, unanswered. Who was Joshua Johnson?

Where, when and how did he learn to paint portraits? How successful was he? What competition did he receive from other portrait painters of the period? And what is the nature or character of his work?

The staff at the Abby Aldrich Center would welcome any information on Johnson, and anyone having information or paintings by him should write to: The Joshua Johnson Project Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center P.O. Box C Williamsburg, VA 23187 71

Custom Made Stretchers for displaying Quilts & Hooked Rugs Rag Carpets sewn together for Area Rugs

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73

Our Increased Membership Contributions September—December 1984

We wish to thank the following members for their increased membership contributions and for their expression of confidence in the Museum: Didi & David Barrett, New York, NY Paula Bennett, New York, NY Mrs. Robert Bernhard, New York, NY John E. & Ruth L. Bilane, Union, NJ Thomas & Marilyn Block, New York, NY Robert E. Booth, Jr., M.D., Haddenfield, NJ Edwin Burrows & Pat Adamski, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. James D. Clokey Pleasant Valley, NY Jeffrey N. Cohen, Washington, DC Ms. Sandra Alwin Coyne, New York, NY Moya Glyn Crespo, Glen Rock, NY Mr. & Mrs. Alvin Deutsch, New York, NY Elizabeth Doviak, Menands, NY Mrs. Norma Dreiding, Herrliberg, Switzerland Julia & Thomas Duane, Bedminster, PA Mary Jaene Edmonds, Long Beach, CA Mr. & Mrs. Albert Efron, Staten Island, NY Mrs. J. Diamond Eskwitt, Tenafly, NJ Mr. & Mrs. S.M. Feder, Scarsdale, NY E.R. Feinour Family, Roanoke, VA Suzanne Feldman, New York, NY Christopher Forbes, New York, NY

Richard Gachot, Old Westbury, NY Ms. Gregor A. Gamble, Topsham, ME Mr. & Mrs. Stephen M. Gans, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. Edward Gardner, Larchmont, NY Mr. & Mrs. William L. Gladstone, Larchmont, NY Francoise C. & Martin P Graf, Larchmont, NY Bonnie Grossman, Berkeley, CA Richard E. Guggenheim, Cincinatti, OH Mr. & Mrs. Alvin P Gutman, Elkins Park, PA S. Revelle Gwyn, Birmingham, AL Mr. Charles Hagler, Ypsilanti, MI Mr. & Mrs. MI. Hamburg, New York, NY Cathy M. Kaplan, New York, NY Patrick & Chris Kehoe, Malibu, CA Rus Kindrick, Centerville, OH Mr. & Mrs. E. Kohn, Waban, MA Ramona Lampe11, Meadow Bridge, WV Robert & Aurora B. Larribeau, Jr., Saratoga, CA Dr. & Mrs. Lloyd Lateiner, Greenwich, CT Mrs. Bertram K. Little, Brookline, MA Mrs. Patti MacLeod, Santa Monica, CA Mrs. Harris McCarthy, Buffalo, NY Sam McCullough, Minneapolis, MN Mr. & Mrs. Christopher G. McManus, New York, NY Arthur Moebius, Aurora, OH William B. Nicholson, Short Hills, NJ

Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Otchy, Bayhead, NJ Ms. Terry C. Pelster, New York, NY Florence Petruchik, Windham, CT Virginia Pope, Dorset, VT Mrs. Pete H. Rhymes, Houma, LA Mr. & Mrs. Lester Robbins, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. Philip Scheffler, New York, NY Mrs. Rosalie K. Schwartz, Riverdale, NY Beverly Siegel, New York, NY Joanne H. & Frederick Siegmund, New York, NY Francisco E Sierra, New York, NY Milton Simpson, Newark, NJ Mr. & Mrs. Herbert Singer, New York, NY William W. Stahl, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. G.I. Starr, Champlain, NY Mary & J.B. Stein, Summit, NJ Sheila Steinberg, New York, NY Randall Ian Stempler, New York, NY Cindy Stewart, New York, NY Christine E Taylor, Lincoln, VT Phyllis A. Tepper, Valley Stream, NY Mr. & Mrs. Raymond Troubh, New York, NY Susan Unterberg, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. H.S. Vander Poel, Oyster Bay Cove, NY Paul & Jeanette Wagner, New York, NY Inez S. Weinstein, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. Haskell Wotkyns, Jr., Austin, TX

Our Growing Membership September—December 1984

The Museum trustees and staff extend a special welcome to these new members:

Apple-Hill Antiques, Roaring Spring, PA Susan Apsley, Jersey City, NJ Janet Lynch Aravena, Brooklyn, NY

Carol Aaronson, Washington, DC Mrs. Albert Abdou, Farmington Hills, MI Judy & Howard R. Adamson, Bryan, OH Mrs. Alice K. Adesman, Brooklyn, NY Elaine Ahlberg, New York, NY Gary P Aigen, New York, NY Mrs. C. Robert Allen, Port Washington, NY Donna J. Allen, Pompton Lakes, NJ Mr. & Mrs. Douglas E Allen, Swampscott, MA Allen Alperton, Massapequa, NY Richard M. Altman, Weston, CT Richard C. & Ingrid Anderson, Kenilworth, IL Dr. & Mrs. Richard Anderson, Wallingford, CT

Marcia Babbidge, Hartford, CT Mrs. Vose Babcock, Sarasota, FL Nancy Cloos Babin, Falmouth, MA Mildred Bachrach, Pittsfield, ME Carlyle Backstrom, Belgrade, ME Carol S. Baer, Reading, MA Kathleen Bailey, San Antonio, TX Mrs. William A. Banks, Rome, GA Helen Barclay, Bedminster, NJ Carolyn Barrett, Jackson, MS Elizabeth Baum, Merrick, NY Mr. Christopher B. Bausher, Reading, PA Mrs. James P Baxter, South Bristol, ME Mrs. Berkeley V. Bayne, Darien, CT Bob Beard, Roanoke, VA Helen L. Beck, Shawnee Mission, KS

74

Mr. & Mrs. Charles Bell, Donna, TX Jennifer Bennell, Woollahra, Australia Richard M. Berman, New York, NY Heidi L. Berry, Washington, DC Julianne Bettini, Camarillo, CA Cynthia Blum, New York, NY Rene Boisi, Manhasset, NY Pena Bonita, New York, NY Nancy Bostwick, Berwyn, PA Nancy Bowler, East New York, NY Pat Bown, Columbus, OH Lorraine Brady, Blackhawk, CA Ms. Cherry Bragg, Homewood, AL Mary Bragg, Westlake Village, CA Kristine Breunsbach, Clackamas, OR Tracy Taylor Bridges, Omaha, NE Hank Brockman, Nashville, TN Patricia M. Brooks, Manakin-Sabot, VA Mr. & Mrs. Fred E. Brown, Morristown, NJ Mr. & Mrs. K.J. Brown, New York, NY

UM.

Our Growing Membership

Marjorie A. Brown, Ridgefield, CT Mrs. Robert W. Bruce III, Pound Ridge, NY Jane M. & Robert M. Buchman, Maplewood, NJ Christyn W. Burkham, Reno, NV Harriet 0. Burnett, New York, NY R. Burnett, Westport, CT Nancy Burton, Dallas, TX Mrs. Richard Bury, Morrisville, NY John Butler, Orange, NJ William P Camacho, San Diego, CA Jim Campbell, Austin, TX Emily S. Caputo, Bronx, NY Carolyn's of Matthews, Matthews, NC Linda Carr, Fort Walton Beach, FL Mrs. John Cawood, East Lansing, MI Deborah A. Cecere, White Plains, NY Leonard J. & Cheryl Cerullo, River Forest, IL Deborah M.& Andrew B. Chacos, Maplewood, NJ Dr. John Chadbourn, New York, NY Cynthia & Paul Chaliff, Great Neck, NY Sandy Chapin, Huntington Bay, NY Barbara Charlton, Edison, NJ Rosalynd Chell, Tenafly, NJ Mrs. S.W. Chiasson, Youngstown, OH Childs Gallery, New York, NY Melba Chodosh, Hillside, NJ Ron R. Chrislip, Fairmont, WV Anthony Cibelli, Staten Island, NY Judith Claire, Washington, DC Joan Cleveland, Pottstown, PA L. Winifred Clevenger, Brooklyn, NY Ms. Keni Cochran, Celina, OH Maggie Cohen, New York, NY Maria Colletti-Gleason, Bronxville, NY Neil & Sue Connell, Southfield, MA Mrs. Jean L. Cook, Short Hills, NJ Lorraine Cook, New York, NY Mrs. Raye Cook, Greenwich, CT Elizabeth J. Cooper, New York, NY Hope P Copeland, Santa Monica, CA Mary Corcoran, Ontario, Canada Judy Corman, New York, NY F Bruce Corneal, Washington, DC Richard Cornell, Lunnenburg, MA Michael Council, Columbus, OH Corinne Covey, Storm Lake, IA Lone Cowen, New York, NY Ms. Jackie Coyle, Greenwich, CT Crawford & Orem, Inc., Glen Allen, VA Theodore Cross, Princeton, NJ Fifi Crowley, Piedmont, CA Mr. & Mrs. M. Cuesta, Dix Hills, NY Mrs. Jean M. Curtin, Bridgeport, WV Kyle Curtis, Champaign, IL Paul D'Ambrosio, Cooperstown, NY Barbara A. Daggett, Englewood, NJ Mr. Edwin A. Daniels, Jr., Columbia, MD Agnes W. Dawson, Los Angeles, CA Lucy B. Dayton & Mark D. O'Keefe, Helena, MT

Ann B. De Marco, Mendham, NJ Barbara D. DeWitt, Isle au Haut, ME Mr. & Mrs. Donald DeWitt, Beverly Hills, CA H. Deffebach, Park City, UT Fenita & Vincent Della Rocca, New York, NY Donata Delulio, New York, NY Jane E. Denninger, Hackensack, NJ Colleen M. & Al Desmond, Greene, ME Carole A. Dmytryshalc, New York, NY Al Dodson, Knoxville, TN Mary Doebbeling, Hurst, TX Ralph H. Donnell, Park Ridge, NJ Darlene Drach, Plainfield, NJ Bernie Dreher, Lehighton, PA Nancy Druckman, New York, NY Penderel B. Dubois, Virginia Beach, VA Susan S. Early, New York, NY Ms. Joyce C. Eddy, Toccoa, GA Mrs. Matthew Eddy, Toccoa, GA Karen S. Edwards, Columbus, OH Edward B. Effrein, Oak Brook, IL Isabel Egan, New York, NY Alissa Eluenlcranz, New York, NY Barbara Eig, Essex Fells, NJ Charlene Pereida Eley, Reno, NV Cathleen S. Ellenberger, Kennebunkport, ME Sandra Elliott, Los Angeles, CA Gretchen Ellis, Evanston, IL Robert P Emlen, Providence, RI Susan Eshelman, Orrville, OH Maura C. Esler, Oradell, NJ Fred & Mary Estanich, Newnan, GA Nancy Eubanks, Brownsville, TN Mr. & Mrs. Curtis G. Eves, Scotch Plains, NJ J.E Fadel, Ivyland, PA Susan & Michael Faeder, New York, NY Spring Fairbank, New York, NY Mike Falco, Studio City, CA Rebecca S. Feeman, Astoria, NY Sidney I. Feldman, Birmingham, MI Mary Ann Feldstein, New York, NY Mrs. Carley A. Ferguson, Mound, MN Mrs. Francis E. Fisher, Ann Arbor, MI Brigitte Fletcher, Atlanta, GA Joan H. Fontaine, Colchester, CT Mr. Paul M. Ford, Bridgeport, CT Philip Ford, Croton-on-Hudson, NY Pamela L. Foster, Birmingham, AL Mr. Billy W. Francis, Houston, TX Mrs. John Francis, Jr., Far Hills, NJ Mr. & Mrs. Laurence Franklin, New York, NY Linda Campbell Franklin, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. A. Bernard Frechtman, Armonk, NY Sara K. French, Exeter, NH David N. Friedman, Washington, DC Ms. Arlene Fuchs, Brooklyn, NY Marion R. Fuchs, White Plains, NY Frank Gaglio & Kathleen Molnar, Wurtsboro, NY Elizabeth A. Gall, New York, NY

The Garbisch Collection Reproductions, Chesterdon, MD Ronald J. Gard, Dallas, TX Dr. & Mrs. John U. Gardner, South Dartmouth, MA Lee Garrett, Columbus, OH Mary E. Garvin, New York, NY Ruth George, Larclunont, NY Marianne Gerschel, New York, NY Barbara Giebler, Gray Summit, MO Elaine Gilbert, New York, NY Lynn Tendler Gilbert, Riverdale, NY Elizabeth E Gilkey, Cincinnati, OH Mary Gillaspy, North Wales, PA Stanley C. Gillette, New York, NY Linda H. Glasgow, Pleasantville, NY Alicia Glass, New York, NY Mr. Dale C. Godby, Dallas, TX Cindy Goldberg, Coral Grove, FL Sherwood Goldfein, New York, NY Arnold L. Goldstein, New York, NY Frederic Gordon, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY Mr. Richard Gordon, New York, NY Susan E Gordon, Tenafly, NJ Therese Gorry, Flushing, NY Mrs. William E Gow, Jr., Atlanta, GA Diane C. Grant, Califon, NJ Carolyn R. Gratton, Washougal, WA Rose Ellen Greene, Coral Gables, FL Jane Greengold & Ken Stevens, Brooklyn, NY Charlotte Greenwood, Schenectady, NY Gussie A. & Peter L. Greer, New York, NY Ann E. Gresham, Richmond, VA Henry S. Grew, Newport, RI Diane Griswold, New York, NY Don Guy, New York, NY Terri & Dan M. Guy, New York, NY Shuku & Rick Hahn, New York, NY John Halbreich, New York, NY Bradley Hale, Atlanta, GA Mr. & Mrs. Richard D. Hall, New York, NY Michael W. Halle, New York, NY Bob Hamilton, Ephrata, PA Patricia Hammel-Schneider, New York, NY Jefferson J. Hammer & Rita Ann Arthur, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. William Harder, New York, NY Mrs. Mary Ann Harris, Princeton, NJ J. Clyde Hart, Tavares, FL Elaine Hartman, Grosse Pointe Farms, NJ Mrs. M. Stratton Haskell, East Patchogue, NY Pat Hatch, Harvard, MA Linda M. Hausz, Santa Barbara, CA James Havard, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Heerdt, Pound Ridge, NY Darlene Heidtke, Wyckoff, NJ Mr. Fred Henkel, Chicago, IL Robert Herman, New York, NY R.E. Herzstein, Washington, DC Mr. & Mrs. Robert A. Heuerman, New York, NY Wendy Fleyman, Westport, CT Diane Higgins, West Islip, NY (Continued)

75

HAND PAINTED CARPETS 11+ ilARTA,

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Center natt&ally known will-fliesg 4 ( sajoertbr pally assembled-by 2.3 deilPrs iromAew *gland to Cayonua,and beautffull:y displayed in zbuildinsfs, cme aka/idsome itiagederal hosie. ou will seyine /046o ear* i9 alitury inuttivixiatte4 countrye6zdjormaliiirndure, an ezating Vane&5"ehOtee accessories owl/An'9u1114 stoneware, igyierbrimfik art, earlysg1z54 baskets, paintOs:is rare tools looked and Ofientar nip, clocks and the unusual, to deli:Of yow ye and enjoyi irr-years. to conicj BARBARA E. MILLS, MANAGER ROUTE 5 HARTLAND, VERMONT 05048 2 MILES NORTH OF EXIT 9 ON INTEFLSTATE 91

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For a catalog of designs send $2.00 to Box 387F, Dublin, N.H.03444 OR Visit our shop, Good Stenciling, at the Carriage Depot, Rte. 101A, Amherst, N.H., open daily-603-880-3480

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76

Country Pie â&#x20AC;˘ Box 100 â&#x20AC;˘ Olema,CA 94950 "Spinning Dreams"

by M.J. Newton Newton's art adds a new dimension and life to nostalgic scenes from the past. A must for the serious country and Americana collector. Printed in editions of 2500 on museum quality paper. Each is signed and numbered by the artist. Image 16" x 20". $40.00 plus $3.00 shipping and handling. $2.00 brochure available,free with order.

Check, money order, Visa, or MCard accepted. VA residents add 4% sales tax. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Availablefrom: Country Peddler Dept. CN1 6428 Blarney Stone Ct. Springfield, VA 22152 (703)569-3564

77

Our Growing Membership

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"Still Life with Watermelon"

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