Dear Wedgwood Enthusiast,
We at Alexis Antiques and CollegePlates.Com are excited to bring you HOLIDAY GREETINGS with this issue of our enewsletter!
You are receiving this newsletter because as a customer or visitor of ours, we believe you requested to be included in our mailings. Please be assured that we never share addresses or other private information with other parties, and if you opt out using the links at the bottom of this email, you will be removed. Our "Want List", however, is separate, and will not be affected by your choice regarding our newsletters. Please email any time you'd like to add a product to your want list.
CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
Please see our Featured Items section for some nice Christmas merchandise, not a lot, just a little. And mention our enewsletter for 50% off any shipping charge for any order via US MAIL PRIORITY, Media Mail, First Class or Parcel Post during the month of December! We will be shipping for Christmas through 12/23 and will use UPS, FedEx or Express Mail at cost, no markup on shipping!
HINTS OF THINGS TO COME
The 51st Wedgwood International Seminar returns to southern California at the Long Beach Museum near the end of March. Please see the informational links on our website for more information. We will give a presentation tracing the westward migration to and settlement of the West through Wedgwood wares. Seems cowboy boots and denim jasper jewelry will be the dress of the day!
PALM BEACH (FL) JEWELRY & ANTIQUES SHOW FEBRUARY 17-21
This always delightful show sports at least one interesting piece of Jasperware, an oval plaque of Urania framed in what appears to be a black and brown wood neo-classical frame. www.palmbeachshow.com Holly Johnson, dealer
SKINNER, INC., Boston, MA January auctions will contain some good Wedgwood not recently seen for sale – keep your eye on www.skinnerinc.com for more information.
Already here, well in London, at Dulwich Gallery is a fantastic Beatrix Potter exhibition which still runs for another two months. She’s a favorite female of ours, as are her wares for Wedgwood – check out this early Peter Rabbit Nursery Ware (1950s) piece in our inventory by clicking here.
Familiarize yourself with ALEXISANTIQUES.COM
Something is ALWAYS changing!
Matt, our top-notch webmaster/designer/workhorse, has made some wonderful enhancements to the NEW & FEATURED ITEMS link. Click on the link from the left-hand dark blue bar to now see pix and links to the most recent items added to inventory, right alongside the Featured Item frames. It is automatically updated each time we add one or multiple items – an easy way to check back frequently to see if there is anything new to tempt you! Remember to use the List of Abbreviations to understand our “lingo” – our database does not allow for much freeform description, so being familiar with our abbreviations makes it oh so easy to use!
Non-Wedgwood Inventory
We currently have a great selection of historical china in stock by Wedgwood & other potteries. Click the American Historical China and Memorabilia category to see them. This category was new earlier this year and it has proven very popular. American history buffs that we are, there is almost always something new there!
WEDGWOOD in the NEWS
Those of you who know us personally know we are always on the lookout for interesting reading material regarding all aspects of Wedgwood® and Wedgwood collecting. Between our bookseller who brings us material from his store in Michigan to eBay, estate sales, our mailbox and often just plain dumb luck, we do tend to find great Wedgwood “stuff”. We offer this information in the hopes that those who share our fascination will have an easier time finding the things, or at least know they exist.
This month's Christmas magazine issues are always full of ads for various dinnerware, and the new products from Wedgwood® are prominent. We have had Vera Wang for awhile and now even Barbara Berry is getting in the act. Come early Spring Barbara will bring out a line of dinnerware featuring CHAIRS, yes, that says CHAIRS, in fabrics and china. Of course they will be her chairs! (Check the October House & Garden for a 2 page spread showing the plates.) A new Barbara Berry tea service collection was introduced this fall to honor her new relationship with Waterford Wedgwood. Check the china retailer in your area for more information.
Now that MARTHA is back, Martha Stewart Living is once again popping up with illustrations of pieces of her collection. The November, 05 issue has a great article starting on page 150 entitled Thanksgiving 101; it could easily have been entitled Queen’s Ware 101. The sumptuous food is photo’d on great old QW patterns which you will recognize if Queen’s Ware is your thing! If you are fond of the all cream look so popular today, check out page 166 of the September, 05 issue too, a gorgeous array of “Edme”, embossed and plain Queen’s Ware serving luscious goodies!
We like to give you these references to stimulate your imagination with ideas for using your beautiful Wedgwood® china and other wares! Sometimes a picture really IS worth a thousand words! Sometimes we spot Wedgwood® pieces that are really difficult to discern, like in the House & Garden September, 05 issue on page 133 where are shown gorgeous undecorated embossed creamware plates, a pattern we happen to have in stock! Be sure to check our Queen’s Ware category for additional great old embossed wares and some “Wellesley” pattern dishes that are old enough to be well-embossed, not thin and flat like today’s version of that old pattern.
And while on the topic of older china patterns, be sure to look for Robert Dawson’s new take on the venerated “Willow” pattern. He’s taken elements from the pattern (a Chinese junk and chunks of the border patterns for example) and almost geometrically placed them on plain white Lincoln Table Shape blanks for a spectacularly contemporary look! “After Willow” and “After Landscape” are two of his designs. Go to the browse box on our “Browse Inventory” link and type in the single word LANDSCAPE or go here to view the original pattern, then go to www.wedgwood.com to see Mr. Dawson’s fabulous reinterpretation! I spotted a new Jasper Conran pattern for Wedgwood, described as “…overscale pattern and a fresh take on traditional Asian colors.” To my eye it could be a chinoiserie "Liverpool Birds" if you can imagine that! The article doesn’t state the name of the pattern. (House & Garden 11/05)
Let’s stay with WHAT’S NEW for a bit. Georgina Godley is the newish Creative Director at Wedgwood and from an article in the UK publication Telegraph Magazine from this spring comes a look at her and some new china! Firstly, Georgina is a believer in the allure of tea and believes the carryout fad of rushing in and out with your coffee may be on the run. Wedgwood is planning to open teashops on Regent Street and Piccadilly, also locations of their stores so one would assume a look-see in those neighborhoods might bring great rewards! There is a new all white pattern called “Royal Icing” which mixes well with “Queen’s Plain” made since 1779. When Godley arrived QP hadn’t been available in Britain for 20 years and was about to be discontinued. Luckily she put a stop to that idea, and is introducing more and more ideas based upon historic patterns. She apparently is a modern girl who agrees Wedgwood’s strengths lie in its past, reviving hand-crafting techniques and reviving older patterns more and more. Let’s keep our eye on this dynamo and new and interesting Wedgwood® patterns! If anyone has the good luck to go to a Wedgwood teashop in London, we’d LOVE to hear about your adventure! Perhaps you’ll report for our next issue.
The gals are busting out all over the design world! Kelly Hoppen is featured in an article in the July, 05 House Beautiful – a bright energetic “London-based design dynamo” is taking the design world by storm with bed linens, furniture and luckily a gift collection for Wedgwood. We’ll be seeing her influence, and her goods, a lot in the coming new design season.
For those of you who keep your back issues of The Magazine Antiques, check the ad on page 13 of the July, 05 issue for artist Charles Burchfield’s painting “Fanciful Landscape” – you’ll do a double take when you see it, very much looks like a Fairyland Lustre design from Daisy Makeig-Jones! There is a great article on the Overbeck Pottery in that same issue which may be of interest to some of you.
I am not doing a very good job of keeping you updated on magazine articles in a timely manner! I need to get better at that! But I know many of you keep your magazines for at least awhile. In the September, 05 issue of Yankee you will find a short but interesting article, “Collecting Wedgwood”, by Stuart Slavid of Skinner, Inc., Wedgwood auctioneer par excellence. He enlightens us that contemporary artist-designed pieces are currently much in vogue, giving competition to the older products! Those of you in the California Wedgwood world already knew that though didn’t you!
If the subject interests you, check a great article on Mocha Ware at the Shelburne Museum in the gorgeous June, 2005 ENGLAND issue of The Magazine Antiques.
One little auction tidbit from February of this year is a sale of a pair of John Flaxman wax portraits of Josiah and Sarah which sold in Pennsylvania for a healthy $3,630. I loved the description of these as a Wedgwood “go-with”, what we frequently call Wedgwood “stuff”, but at that price I think the term “stuff” might be a wee bit light!
If you are going to be in Dallas, a MUST SEE is the Art Gallery at the historic Anatole Hotel. Recently my husband was there and was given a private tour of the Wedgwood items to bring me some photos. Their website is gorgeous, with fabulous photography of the art treasures held there. Unfortunately but one of the Wedgwood, but the website is definitely worth a look: www.wyndhampromotions.com/anatoleart/. I’ll be able to see it in person in August when I’m there for another purpose. If anyone wants to join me on a tour, let me know and maybe we can coordinate our visits.
One more article in a past magazine worth finding if you are interested in Staffordshire jugs. Check The Magazine Antiques January, 1996. A beautifully illustrated article tells about the jugs of Staffordshire being a major product and Josiah Wedgwood’s efforts in expanding the market for these wares. This is a particularly well-illustrated article, with one jug occupying a full page photo; an issue well worth the cost and trouble to acquire.
We have recently purchased several wonderful old magazines with Wedgwood-related articles. Also recently we moved our library and uncovered a huge stack of older magazines we forgot we had, so we’ll be mentioning them in coming issues a few at a time. Suffice it to say, these are hard to find, but again, a look on eBay or a mention to your favorite bookseller might help find them; even better might be your local antiques mall. We try to give information as to how relevant the issue is, a full page or full article, just a photo, etc. Obviously some issues are not worth the cost and/or trouble to get, but yet some certainly are. We always welcome inquiries on these articles, especially if one is working on a project with which the article will help. I try to mention the articles that I think or know will interest our own friends and clients; obviously not all will interest everyone. Please bear with us – it’s just so much fun to share and you never know where you’ll find a prize jewel!
The Magazine Antiques June, 1924
“Antiques Abroad Odds and Ends” by Arthur Hayden is an interesting view of the then-current record prices obtained for old English engravings. But further is an examination of Egyptian wares illustrated by several pictures of classic Wedgwood Egyptian pieces, and a redware tripod pastille burner in with sphinx supports is a special topic.
INTERNATIONAL STUDIO May, 1930
“Josiah Wedgwood, Prince of Potters” by Herbert Read is an article mostly discussing Josiah’s biographical information and a bit about some of his contemporaries such as Flaxman, Stubbs, Reynolds, Lady Diana Beauclerk and Lady Templetown, described as “outside artists of talent”. The large black & white photos are excellent illustrations of the article.
Old Furniture, A Magazine of Domestic Ornament October, 1927
This British magazine sports a gorgeous and unusual twisted reed handled jug in the collection of Miss Lily Antrobus on its cover. The article is entitled “Wedgwood Ware in the Collection of Miss Lily Antrobus” by Bernard Rackham with 11 illustrations. This article is geared more toward the manufacture and design of Wedgwood wares. Miss Antrobus collected creamware by Wedgwood, Leeds and other English potteries. Here is a snipet of information I found interesting: “Another interesting item in her collection is a marked vegetable-dish, undoubtedly made by Wedgwood, to the original painted borders of which an addition has been made at Doccia in the form of the coloured bouquets characteristic of the Italian factory; its mark of a star in red has also been added to that of Wedgwood.” Wonder if any of you have a piece decorated by this factory…. This magazine is printed on heavy paper and bound in are three beautiful frameable prints - of “William III’s State Bedstead in the great Bedchamber” , an historic silver ewer and a fabulous antique oriental rug – furniture aficionados will find a great deal of information in this magazine too! I note the original price of this was 2 shillings and found a sticky note reminding me I bought it in May, ’01 for a whopping $22.35! I don’t normally pay that much for back issues, but in retrospect, this one is worth every shilling.
The next treasure in the stack under my desk for weeks is more like a pamphlet than a magazine. It was a high quality magazine of its time, July, 1915, published twice per month by The Mentor Association (“Established for the development of a popular interest in art, literature, science, history, nature and travel.), whose Board included the then President of Princeton and a professor of the history of art at Rutgers. It has thick paper covers and heavy paper pages. The proper title of this wonderful pamphlet is THE MENTOR, China and Pottery of Our Forefathers by Esther Singleton Author and Collector. It is designated Volume 3 Number 10 Department of Fine Arts (15 cents a copy). Printed at top is “Learn One Thing at a Time”. An interesting concept in 21st century America! The text is an overview of various ceramic subjects. Staffordshire blue & white, Delft Potters, China in Dutch New York, China Mania in England, Franklin’s Taste for China, and many photos of Wedgwood wares. A section on English Pottery in America is very interesting too. A great lesson in ceramics for all levels of collector. Additionally, loose pages added in at back are one page “quick studies” of Wedgwood, Spode, Lowestoft and Luster Ware. Each sheet has a full page illustration on back. There are 85 listed categories of subjects which are covered in the series. Looks to me like The Mentor itself would be an interesting study.
A LIST OF MAGAZINES YOU MIGHT WANT TO LOOK FOR
--The Antiques Journal, June 1974 – cover article on Early Victorian Teapots and Late Commemorative China
--The Antiques Journal, May 1970 – Aesop’s Fables interpreted in Tiles and Old English Creamware
--The Antiques Journal, April 1969 – Contemporary book review of Wedgwood by Rathbone, edited by Harry M. Buten (the reprint of OLD WEDGWOOD by Rathbone) published by the Buten Museum
--The Antiques Journal July 1969 – Hubbard’s Roycroft – a publisher who you might know from their volume on the World’s Greatest Lovers, including Josiah and Sarah! Ceramic steins and silver also discussed in this issue
--The Antiques Journal December 1967 – Cover photo and article, Wedgwood Oddities by Harry M. Buten – MANY black & white photos; a good silver article too
--The Antiques Journal November 1966 – Fabulous Lithophanes and Their New Homes by Don Maust – including Wedgwood products in this category Also an article on Rhenish Stoneware, Staffordshire Figures and chairs for children
--The Antiques Journal September 1966 – cover article Old Blue In 1824 by Harriet A. F. Claflin – well illustrated thorough article
--The Antiques Journal August 1965 – “Lasting Chinaware Patterns”, a good comparison of various versions of Willow, Fitzhugh and Blue Canton patterns among others including reference to Wedgwood’s “Willow”.
--The Antiques Journal July 1965 – Wedgwood in New England, 1760-1800 – a must-read article about wares you’ll recognize, with many references to Jean Gorely and her collection and the Oster collection. See page 13 for a jug which is a definite forerunner of the now very popular London Jug. A good article on antique infant feeders too.
--The Antiques Journal September 1956 – Cover photo of a pair of Wedgwood & Bentley urns with a short article entitled “Wedgwood Museum” by Joan Ranzenhofer about the Wedgwood museum “tucked away in a quiet back room of the Wedgwood wholesale showroom on Wigmore Street in London…” Nice photos coupled with insight into the beginnings of today’s Wedgwood Museum Trust. Contact us to find out how YOU can donate to this worthwhile cause by the way!
WEDGWOOD SERENDIPITY
Wherein we shall share with you fun happenings that occur
when we are not even thinking about Wedgwood
Seems like my only good serendipitous story concerns more books! Sometimes we might read an article in the newspaper and not know why, then learn it is of personal interest or importance to us, or perhaps pick up a booklet like I did…the cover shows a gorgeous pair of pink roses and its title is “Folies-Bergere AH! Quelle Folie…”.. although I can speak and read French, I’m not particularly interested in French history or design. So why did I open this? Who knows, but turns out it is the program from a review in two acts and 40 tableaux by Michel Gyarmathy performed in Paris in the early to mid 1950s. Since I’m not familiar with any of the actors, I am judging by the type and style of the ads, the print style, etc. I can tell you that $400 was the approximate cost of 6,000 miles driving “your own” 4 CV Renault! At any rate, the first act, the Overture, consisted of ten characters, the next part The Smiles of the Spectators with The Stages of Love, 4 more actors. Then I spot in big block letters the title of the next tableaux, yep, WEDGWOOD and here are the characters:
La Faunesse played by Dominique, Lysistrata played by Inger, Les Faunes by Robinson and Hassel, Mercure by Jacky, Les Gladiateurs by The Folies-Bergere dancers, Les Guerrieres by the mannequins of the Folies, Les Trompettes, by the dancers of the troupe and Les Lyres by the mannequins. One has only to know a bit of French or a tad of Latin to realize that the characters seem to be sprigged figures lifted right from a jasperware vase! Can you imagine the costumes? Unfortunately for us, this program has no explanation at all, plenty of interesting ads but no explanation of the Folies... but it conjured up such beautiful blue & white images I couldn’t resist buying it! Talk about Wedgwood trivia!!! Ron Frazier are you reading this??
That's it for today. We do hope you will let us continue to drop into your email inbox and stay! We welcome your visits to our websites for purchase or information (we're always adding new informational links) or even just a fun browse through the wonderful production of our favorite potter!
Thank you for reading and visiting and merriest and happiest of holiday seasons to one and all!
Leslie, Matt, Kathlyn, John and all of us at Alexis Antiques and CollegePlates.com.
