TCC Sponsored Videos
Videos made available here are from two vital resources:
The Transferware Worldwide Lecture Series - free monthly Zoom lectures open to all. Invitations are distributed to the organizations who have expressed interest in participating. These lectures are recorded and made available to current TCC members after the Zoom session. Member login required. A second source are the recorded presentations at TCC Annual Meetings, also available to members with login.
Transferware Worldwide Lecture Series ANNUAL MEETING LECTURES Other Films and Videos
Transferware Worldwide Lecture Series
Unraveling the Mysteries of Selling One’s Collection at Auction: Two Perspectives
Lecturers: Nick Routson and Ceramic Specialist Heather Cline in a discussion/presentation moderated by Leslie Bouterie
Description: In this program, guest presenters TCC Member and Transferware Collector Extraordinaire Nick Routson and TCC Secretary, Ceramic Specialist, and Auction House Professional Heather Cline will share the “ins and outs” of the auction process from two points of view: that of the collector-seller and that of the auction house sales team. In 2021, Nick Routson embarked on a monumental downsizing of his stellar and extensive collection of American Historical transferware along with much of his lovingly assembled collection of antique furniture, textiles, ceramics, and glass from his home in Phoenix, Arizona. He selected the prestigious auction house of Jeffrey S. Evans and Associates of Mt. Crawford, Virginia, to handle the multi-session sale. Nick worked closely with their Head of Ceramics Heather Cline on all aspects of the process. In a lively discussion, moderated by Leslie Lambour Bouterie, Nick will share his personal experiences of preparing and placing his treasures in the capable hands of the auction house professionals over 2,000 miles away, and Heather will explain the process of expertly accessioning, promoting, and selling his beautiful antiques. With their insights shared and Q & A opportunities offered, the “mysteries” of the auction process will be revealed.
Watch VideoThe wares that missed the boat: transfer-printed Ceramic Finds from Manchester Dock, Liverpool
Lecturer: Dr David Barker, archaeological consultant and ceramics specialist
Description: Excavations at Manchester Dock, Liverpool, yielded a large group of early 19th-century ceramics which had clearly been destined for export. They never made it!
Amongst the wide variety of ceramic types were numerous transfer-printed wares, some familiar, but others less so. In this presentation David will discuss these printed wares in the wider context of the assemblage and its deposition, and will consider what this tells us about the export trade in British ceramics at this time.
Our Speaker: Former City Archaeologist and Keeper of Archaeology for Stoke on Trent Museums, David Barker is a well-known researcher and author on the history of the ceramics industry, its processes and its products.
He has taught on Staffordshire University’s MA in Ceramic History and has lectured widely at all levels in the UK, Europe and North America. His publications include the books William Greatbatch, a Staffordshire Potterand Slipware in the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, as well as numerous journal articles. David is a past President of the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and has received an Award of Merit from the Society for Historical Archaeology.
Watch VideoThe Morse Collection of Historical ‘Old Blue’ Staffordshire at the American Antiquarian Society
In this lecture Professor Anne Anderson describes The Morse Collection of Historical ‘Old Blue’ Staffordshire.
From 1993-2007, Professor Anne Anderson was a senior lecturer on the Fine Arts Valuation degree course at Southampton Solent University, where she specialized in the Aesthetic Movement, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau and Modernism Academy, and at Christie’s. Anne published, The Cube Teapot! in 1999, and The Romance of Old Blue: collecting and displaying Old Blue Staffordshire China in the American Home c.1870-1930’, in Interpreting Ceramics, Issue 15, 2013. In addition, Anne has catalogued and written a guide to the ceramics at the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, published in 2022.
Anne has also curated four national exhibitions, most recently, Beyond the Brotherhood The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy in 2020. She has received Research Fellowships at the Huntington Library, California, Winterthur Library and Museum, Delaware, and the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. It was her grant of 2015, which enabled her to research the basis of her lecture today entitled ,‘The Morse Collection of Historical ‘Old Blue’ Staffordshire at the American Antiquarian Society’.
Watch VideoThe British Buzz: The Relevance of Beekeeping to 19th century British Ceramic Design
Title: The British Buzz: The Relevance of Beekeeping to 19th century British Ceramic Design
Lecturer: Leslie Lambour Bouterie, Independent Scholar, Visiting Curator of Ceramics at James Madison’s Montpelier and Visiting Scholar for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Description: Leslie Lambour Bouterie, an independent scholar specializing in British ceramics and transferware production, is also a dedicated beekeeper. She recently concluded an eight-year tenure in the apiaries at Monticello, the historic home of Thomas Jefferson, and she continues to serve as Associate Beekeeper at Highland, the historic home of fifth president James Monroe.
At the 2016 TCC Annual Meeting, Leslie shared her dual passions for transferware and beekeeping in a presentation exploring the history and importance of beekeeping in the 18th and 19th centuries and its strong influence on transferware production. Building upon this initial contextual research, she will share additional information and visually rich images focusing on bee and beekeeping motifs which were used in the decorative arts and in transferware design as pattern elements, maker’s marks, and as visual metaphors to teach moral lessons. Throughout the 1800’s, the “buzz” continued, as bee motifs enjoyed enduring popularity among British and American consumers.
Our Speaker: Leslie Lambour Bouterie, Independent Scholar, Visiting Curator of Ceramics at James Madison’s Montpelier and Visiting Scholar for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Watch Video19th Century English and Low Country Vessels Created by Makers Josiah Wedgwood, Enoch Wood, and Enslaved David Drake
Titled: 19th Century English and Low Country Vessels Created by Makers Josiah Wedgwood, Enoch Wood, and Enslaved David Drake
Lecturer: Scott Alves Barton, Faculty Fellow in Race and Resilience at Notre Dame
Description: Scott Alves Barton holds a Ph.D. in Food Studies from New York University, is a faculty fellow in Race and Resilience at the University of Notre Dame. He had a 25-year career as an executive chef and culinary educator. Ebony magazine named him one of the top 25 African American/Diaspora chefs. His research and publications focus on women’s knowledge, the intersection of secular and sacred cuisine as a marker of identity politics, cultural heritage, political resistance, and self-determination in Northeastern Brazil. Recent publications include “Radical Moves from the Margins: Enslaved Entertainments as Harvest Celebration in Northeastern Brazil,” in The Body Questions: Celebrating Flamenco’s Tangled Roots, “Food and Faith,” in Bryant Terry’s Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from the African Diaspora. His exhibition, Buried in the Heart: A Repast for Angels and Martyrs focusing on anti-black violence, funerary foods and African Diaspora ancestral worship opened in January at Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee as part of his ongoing Call & Response residency as public scholar. Barton’s previous residencies include Juba/Sanctuary, honoring the beginning of enslavement, 1619-2019. Barton is currently writing a companion manuscript for this exhibition, Reckoning with Violence and Black Death: Repasts as Community Ritual.
Our Speaker: Scott has been a fellow at Instituto Tepoztlán, Vanderbilt’s Issues in Critical Investigation, Fundação Palmares and has served as a board member of the Southern Foodways Alliance. Scott is a board member of The Association for the Study of Food and Society, Secretary/Treasurer of The Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition, Co-Chair of the African Diaspora Religions Unit within the American Academy of Religion, and a board member of The Indigo Diaspora Arts Alliance. Scott has been working as a curriculum consultant to the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, N.Y., the African Diaspora Heritage educational gardens at the New York Botanical Gardens, and the Center for Culinary Development. This autumn, Scott will continue at Notre Dame as a an Assistant Professor in Africana Studies.
Watch VideoPoetically Posh: Richard Briggs’s Longfellow Jug and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the American Home
Title: Poetically Posh: Richard Briggs’s Longfellow Jug and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the American Home
Lecturer: Elizabeth Palms, Robert and Elizabeth Owens Curatorial Fellow, Winterthur Museum Garden and Library
Description: In the talk, she covers the origin story of the 1881 Longfellow jug and Briggs’s partnership with Wedgwood to design it, and she explores how this one ceramic jug testifies to a complex web of economic conditions and social ideologies running through the eastern United States in the latter 19th century.
Our speaker: Elizabeth graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in History from the College of William & Mary, where she also completed the NIAHD Collegiate Program in Early American History, Material Culture, and Museum Studies. In Virginia, she was an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Curatorial Intern for Works on Paper at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and worked for over two years on a team documenting, researching, and writing a book on Eyre Hall, an 18th-century home on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. She has an article and various architectural drawings in the resulting publication, The Material World of Eyre Hall: Four Centuries of Chesapeake History. Continuing to cultivate her love of the material past, Elizabeth pursued her M.A. in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture from 2018 to 2020. She then spent two years at the Dallas Museum of Art in the Decorative Arts and Design curatorial department. During the summer of 2021, she did fieldwork as a Decorative Arts of the Gulf South Fellow with the Historic New Orleans Collection. Currently, she is back at the Winterthur Museum, Garden, & Library as the Robert & Elizabeth Owens Curatorial Fellow.
Watch VideoTwo Worlds in One Shipwreck
Title: Two Worlds in One Shipwreck
Lecturer: Wytze Stellingwerf, Archaeologist and Specialist of Late and Post-Medieval Material Culture, Archeologie West-Friesland.
Description: This lecture discusses the extensive archival research undertaken of the shipwreck of the Pieter Anthony in Dutch Wadden Sea, loaded with early 19th-century luxury items and tools related to slavery. The Pieter Anthony, which departed from Amsterdam in November 1822, sunk only a month later during a storm in the Wadden Sea near the isle of Texel. In his lecture, Wytze shall focus on the spectacular amount of transferware that was retrieved from the wreck.
Our speaker: Wytze Stellingwerf (1992, MA) graduated at Leiden University in 2017 for the Masters in Historical Archaeology and currently works as an archaeologist and ceramics specialist of the late- and post-Medieval period in the town of Hoorn in the northern part of the Netherlands.
Watch VideoA Trip to Edinburgh: Transfer-Printed Ceramics in the Collection of National Museums Scotland
Title: A Trip to Edinburgh: Transfer-Printed Ceramics in the Collection of National Museums Scotland
Lecturer: Claire Blakey, Curator of Modern Decorative Arts, National Museums Scotland
Description: This lecture explores the collections of British transfer-printed ceramics in the collection of National Museums Scotland which include wares made for export across the globe, as well as pieces which can be used to illustrate the technical processes of transfer printing on pottery.
Our speaker: Claire Blakey is Curator of Modern Decorative Arts at National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh. She has worked in museums across the UK, curating numerous exhibitions and publishing on topics including majolica, maiolica, the trade in Staffordshire pottery and East Asian ceramics.
Watch VideoBritish transferware for the Dutch Market, c. 1775-1850
Title: British transferware for the Dutch Market, c. 1775-1850
Lecturer: Wytze Stellingwerf, Archaeologist and Specialist of Late and Post-Medieval Material Culture, Archeologie West-Friesland.
Description: Wytze’s lecture explored British ceramics for the Dutch market. As part of this, he also discussed the wreck of the Pieter Anthony which perished in 1822 on the way to Surinam.
Our speaker: In 2017 Wytze Stellingwerf (1992, MA) graduated at the faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University with a study of late 18th-century politically charged ceramics and glassware in the Netherlands. This resulted in the publication of a book, called “The Patriot Behind the Pot: A Historical and Archaeological Study of Ceramics, Glassware and Politics in the Dutch Household of the Revolutionary Era.” He currently works as an archaeologist and ceramics specialist of the late- and post-Medieval period in the town of Hoorn in the northern part of the Netherlands. In addition, he regularly works at Museum Kaap Skil on the Dutch isle of Texel, where he documents finds from shipwrecks done by sport divers in the Wadden Sea and North Sea. Wytze has a great interest in the rise of the Industrial Revolution and its material and sociocultural impact in Western Europe and America, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. Furthermore, the maritime and colonial past of the Netherlands are among his greatest interests. During his internship at the depot of the Dutch National Institute of Shipwreck Archaeology in Lelystad in 2013, Wytze came into contact with 18th- and 19th-century British transferware retrieved from various shipwrecks. This led to a never-ending fascination for the beauty and fine quality of 18th- and 19th-century British earthenware which is still abundantly available at flea markets, thrift stores and auction houses in the Netherlands. He has been collecting British pottery ever since.
Watch VideoStaffordshire Hospitality: "Kept in the Best Style."
Title: Staffordshire Hospitality: An Exploration of Staffordshire Transferware Made for and Used by the Hospitality Trade
Lecturer: Ben Miller, Assistant Curator of Ceramics, The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, England
Description: Ben’s lecture explored the 300-year history of North Staffordshire ceramics created for the hospitality industry: Ceramics that have helped to quench the thirst and fill the bellies of inn and tavern patrons, cleanse hotel guests, supply banqueting halls, and cater for travellers on land, sea, and in the air.
Our Speaker: Ben Miller has worked with ceramics collections since 2012 starting his career at The Wedgwood Museum before moving on to The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery. He completed his BA at Keele University between 2006 and 2009 and his MA at Birmingham University’s Ironbridge Institute in 2010. From 2012 to 2015 he worked as a Museum Assistant at The Wedgwood Museum during which time was able to research a wide variety of topics across the Wedgwood collection and archive. In 2015 he joined the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery as Assistant Curator of Ceramics and has since worked on several exhibitions and given talks to a number of collectors’ groups. His passion lies in Staffordshire ceramics from the 18th century to the present with a particular interest in 19th and 20th century factory production, overseas trade, and design.
Watch Video"I saw three ships..." - the ship and related prints used at the Swansea Pottery - a reassessment
Lecturer: Jonathan Gray, Honorary Research Fellow at the Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales
Description: Jonathan’s lecture considers the range of ship prints used at the Swansea Pottery and provide a revised timescale for their introduction and development. Related prints - some found together with the ship prints - will also be discussed.
Our Speaker: Jonathan is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, focusing on the ceramic output from South Wales 1764-1934. He is also the meetings secretary for the English Ceramic Circle. Jonathan has written extensively on Welsh Ceramics, and published The Cambrian Company, Swansea Pottery in London 1806-1808 in 2012. He is currently finalising a book on the Art Potter Horace Elliott who was active 1880-1934 and had wares made at Ewenny near Bridgend in South Wales. Jonathan is an active member of the TCC - he presented to the group at the 2011 Baltimore meeting on Swansea's Printed Wares - A Re-assessment. His lecture is available in article form on the TCC website, read the paper.
Watch VideoOverglaze Printing on English Pottery 1750-1800
Lecturer: Robin Emmerson, Freelance Decorative Arts Curator, Shrewsbury, England
Description: The first printing on pottery was overglaze, and it was another three decades before pottery was printed underglaze. The study of overglaze printing presents a special intellectual challenge because an already glazed pot could have been printed hundreds of miles from where it was made, or in the same factory. The copper plate from which it was printed could also have been engraved somewhere else. Most printed pots do not have the signature of the engraver or printer in the print, but fortunately a few do, and these, together with documentary and archaeological evidence, enable us to trace the spread of the pottery printer’s skill from John Brooks and Henry Delamain at Battersea to Liverpool, Derby, Staffordshire and Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Our speaker: Robin Emmerson was Curator of the Decorative Art Department at National Museums Liverpool. Since retirement he was for six years Chair of the Northern Ceramics Society. He was one of the contributors to the TCC and NCS joint online exhibition on British Printed Pottery and Porcelain and wrote the essay on ‘Pottery and the Liverpool Trade’ in S. Robert Teitelman et al., Success to America: Creamware for the American Market (Antique Collectors’ Club, 2010).
Watch VideoSupplying the Present Wants of Our Yankee Cousins
Title: Supplying the Present Wants of Our Yankee Cousins
Lecturer: Dr. Neil Ewins, Senior Lecturer in Design History, University of Sunderland, Sunderland, England.
Description: In 1997, the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery of Hanley published my Supplying the Present Wants of Our Yankee Cousins: Staffordshire Ceramics and the American market 1775-1880. This lecture focuses on some of the themes covered by this publication which, it is hoped, will be of interest to British ceramic enthusiasts. My fascination with this subject has never diminished and my talk will also include more recent work on this theme. The process of learning continues, as does the research.
Our Speaker: Dr. Neil Ewins is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sunderland teaching Design History and Theory courses for BA and MA students studying design, ceramics and glass. He has worked at Sunderland for almost 20 years and is a Senior Fellow of The Higher Education Academy. He also acts as a PhD supervisor. Neil is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and sits on Editorial Board of the Journal of Business and Economic Development. His most recent book, Ceramics and Globalization: Staffordshire Ceramics, Made in China, was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2017. He is currently working on a chapter concerning 19th century ceramics and glass for a six-volume publication entitled A Cultural History of Craft, also to be published by Bloomsbury. Neil is a proud member of the Transferware Collectors Club, and the American Ceramic Circle.
Watch VideoFrom Rehe, China to Staffordshire, England; The Voyage of a Chinese Image
Title: From Rehe, China to Staffordshire, England; The Voyage of a Chinese Image
Lecturer: Ron Fuchs, Senior Curator, Reeves Museum of Ceramics, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA
Description: The “India Temple” pattern made by John and William Ridgway of Staffordshire depicts a temple at the Chinese imperial summer palace, Bishu Shanzhuang, or the Mountain Estate for Escaping the Heat. Reflecting the globalized world of the eighteenth century, the design is based on an illustration in The Emperor of China’s Palace at Pekin, published in London in 1753. It copied an engraving done in 1714 by the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ripa, who introduced Western-style copper-plate printing to China. It was based on a woodblock print by the Chinese engravers Zhu Gui and Mei Yufeng, who copied a preparatory drawing or painting done by the court painter Shen Yu around 1712.
Speaker bio: Ron Fuchs is the Senior Curator of the Reeves Museum of Ceramics at Washington and Lee University, where he has worked for the last 13 years.He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and the Winterthur Program in Early American Material Culture at the University of Delaware. He worked at Winterthur for ten years prior to moving to the Reeves. He is past president and chair of the American Ceramic Circle, and a member of the TCC.
Watch VideoTransferware at the End of the World: Archaeology of a 19th Century Shipping Cargo in the Cape Horn Route
Lecturer: Dolores Elkin. Dr. Elkin is an archaeologist with Argentina´s National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) based at the National Institute of Anthropology.
Description: Between 2016 and 2017 an archaeological rescue project was implemented after the accidental discovery on the coast of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina of what looked like a historic ship´s cargo. The assemblage was formed by a group of crates mainly containing 19th century English ceramics. Among the crates were transfer decorated pieces which allowed the first chronological and cultural assessment of the site. This lecture will provide a detailed illustration of the transferware items found and reveal various research strands related to the commercial exportation of British goods along the Cape Horn route.
Speaker Bio: Dolores Elkin graduated with a Doctoral degree from the University of Buenos Aires in 1996. That same year, she created the first Underwater Archaeology Program in Argentina. The goal was to initiate research of underwater archaeological sites as well as to create public awareness of their significant cultural heritage.
A professor at both the University of Buenos Aires and the National University of the Central Province of Buenos Aires, Dr. Elkin has lectured on both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. As an experienced diver, she engages with the sport and professional diving community and fosters joint efforts to preserve Argentina’s submerged cultural heritage.
Dr. Elkin has led several nationally and internationally funded projects involving shipwrecks from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries located in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Her work has resulted in an extensive publication record intended for both the academic community and the public at large. As an elected member and former president of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Body to the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, she has also organized and participated in numerous national and international scientific events.
Watch VideoBeyond Blue: Transfer Printing in Fancy Colours
Lecturer: Pat Halfpenny, Curator Emerita, Ceramics & Glass, Winterthur Museum
This lecture is co-sponsored by the Northern Ceramic Society
Description: After a brief glimpse of underglaze blue printing at the opening of this presentation, Pat goes on to introduce other late 18th century underglaze colour printing options including bi-colour printing which was undertaken on a small scale in the 1790s. The major focus of the talk is on the new colours and processes introduced from the 1820s, and which became a standard part of production by the 1830s. The story concludes with the introduction of multi-colour printing from 1835 and its widespread use after the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Speaker Bio: Pat Halfpenny specializes in the study of 18th & 19th century Staffordshire earthenwares. She began her career in 1967 at the City Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, England, where she was Keeper of Ceramics from 1980-1995. From 1995-2009 she served as Curator of Ceramics & Glass, then Director of Museum Collections Winterthur Museum, Delaware, USA. In 2013 she was made Curator Emerita, Ceramics & Glass, for Winterthur Museum in recognition of her contributions.
Pat is currently on the Board of The Friends of Blue and is Chair of the Northern Ceramic Society. As an independent ceramic researcher, she continues to curate, write, lecture, and contribute to websites about ceramics.
Watch VideoContextualizing Transferware from Drayton Hall’s South Flanker Well, Charleston, SC.
Lecturer: Corey Heyward Sattes, Wexler Curatorial Fellow, Archaeology, Drayton Hall Preservation Trust
Description: The South Flanker well site at Drayton Hall, an 18th-century plantation estate north of Charleston, South Carolina, provides a unique opportunity to examine the intentional refuse of those living on the property. Additionally, the contained nature of this context allows for us to observe relatively clear phases of trash deposits, each associated with different generations owning the house. The recovered transferware from this assemblage, and the research acquired in the Transferware Collectors Club database, has been invaluable for dating these contexts. This talk will examine the range of the recovered transferware ceramics, methods of analysis, and interpretations of their role in market accessibility and household use.
Speaker bio: Corey A. H. Sattes received her B.A. in both Archaeology and Art History from the College of Charleston, and her M.A. in Anthropology from George Washington University. Sattes currently works as an archaeologist and the Wexler Curatorial Fellow at Drayton Hall Preservation Trust, where she curates and catalogs the legacy archaeological collection at Drayton Hall using the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS). She researches the material culture of Native Americans, enslaved Africans, and African Americans in the southeastern United States during and following the colonial period. She focuses primarily on ceramics manufactured and used by Native Americans and African descendants, namely colonoware. Sattes also specializes in artifact photography and digitization.
Watch VideoTransferware in the Valley: Evidence of English Transferware in New England's Connecticut River Valley, 1820-1850
Lecturer: Daniel Sousa, Assistant Curator at Historic Deerfield
Description: In the early decades of the 19th century, Connecticut River Valley merchants and store owners acquired numerous amounts of English transferware to sell to local consumers. What transferware patterns were available in the Connecticut River Valley, and how did they get there? To answer these questions, this presentation will examine the life and career of Hartford, Connecticut ceramic importer Peter Morton (1800-1846), and extant examples of his wares, along with pieces of transferware found archaeologically throughout the Connecticut River Valley.
Speaker Bio: Daniel Sousa became the Assistant Curator at Historic Deerfield in 2019. Prior to joining the museum staff in 2017 as the Decorative Arts Trust Curatorial Intern, he worked at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and at Skinner Auctioneers. He has also served as an intern with the Boston Furniture Archive, a project of the Winterthur Museum, and has participated in the 2019 Winterthur Institute program. He holds a B.A. in history from Providence College, an M.A. in history from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University.
Watch VideoFrom Trowel to Table: Ceramic Sherds Inform History Detectives at James Madison’s Montpelier
Lecturer: Leslie Lambour Bouterie, Visiting Curator of Ceramics at James Madison’s Montpelier and Visiting Scholar for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
About the lecture:
Description: The interpretation of a historic property relies on a highly collaborative team of “history detectives” to bring both the site and the personal stories of its residents to life. Archaeologists, curators, historians, preservationists, and educators tirelessly mine every clue to ensure historical accuracy. In this presentation, we will view the fruits of this collaboration during an armchair tour of Montpelier, with a focus on the impressive collection of ceramics which includes a wide variety of wares and many British transfer-printed patterns.
Montpelier, a property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is located in central Virginia. It was home to James Madison, fourth president of the United States and his devoted wife Dolley, and also to a large enslaved community. The presidential home which has been meticulously restored and furnished, and the slave dwellings and outbuildings which have been carefully reconstructed and sensitively appointed after comprehensive research, skillfully illuminate the lives of those who lived and worked on the plantation.
Speaker Bio: Leslie Lambour Bouterie serves as the Visiting Curator of Ceramics at James Madison’s Montpelier and as a Visiting Scholar for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. A career educator and ceramic specialist, she provides consultation services to museums and historic sites; lectures, writes and enthusiastically shares her passion for British ceramics.
Watch VideoAnd His Little Dog, Too: The Enoch Wood Pottery Memorialized on a Mug
Lecturer: Angelika R. Kuettner, Associate Curator of Ceramics and Glass at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
About the lecture: A recent addition to the collection of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation provided the inspiration for this presentation about the prolific British potter, Enoch Wood. The charming child’s mug, transfer-printed in black, features an image of Wood and his son riding their horses, accompanied by their canine pet. Together, they view the family’s Burslem factory, humming with activity with smoke billowing from the bottle ovens, a testament to its success. This lecture discusses the production of this prolific maker who supplied many American consumers, and features several transfer-printed wares used by Williamsburg residents in the early 1800’s.
About the speaker: Angelika became associate curator of ceramics and glass at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (CWF) in 2019. She came to CWF in 2006 as a graduate student intern for the ceramics and glass department and joined the Foundation as an associate registrar in 2007. She was promoted to associate registrar for imaging and assistant curator of ceramics in 2011 and associate curator of ceramics in 2016. Prior to graduate school at William and Mary she worked for approximately three years as the curatorial assistant at the Reeves Center at Washington and Lee University. She is a proud fellow of the 2010 Attingham Trust Summer School and of the 2016 MESDA Summer Institute. Angelika was coeditor of the 2017 issue of Ceramics in America; she has published and spoken on many topics including the ceramic-manufacturing partnership of Benjamin Leigh and John Allman in 18th-century Boston, mended ceramics in colonial America, and silver lusterware in early 19th century America.
Watch VideoFloral Prints as Sources for Patterns on Porcelain and Transferware; the Botanical and Gardening Obsession
Lecturer: Patricia (Pat) Knight
In her talk she discusses the role of botany in the 18th century, the research at botanical centers and the popular interest in horticulture that led to books illustrated with botanical prints by Georg Ehret and to the Botanical Magazine published by William Curtis. As a result there was a profusion of botanical decoration on porcelain in the late 18th century. The second half of the lecture concentrated on the botanical and floral prints of the 19th century that were seen on transferware pottery inspired by various garden magazines and books on horticulture.
About the speaker: Patricia Darrell Knight was born in England, studied English and European history at Southampton University and emigrated to the USA with her husband in 1960. Always a keen gardener she gained a landscape certificate in Boston. In 1984 she founded Patrician Antiques in Los Altos specializing in 18th and 19th century porcelain, pottery, and silver. She continues to operate her business on the web. She is a long time member of the Transferware Collectors Club and the San Francisco Ceramic Circle. Her ceramic collecting interests include Staffordshire figures and wares, Regency period porcelains, Jugendstil and modern ceramics. As an enthusiastic gardener she has served on the Boards of the Western Horticulture Society and the Los Altos Garden club.
Watch VideoAestheticism on the Dinner Table: The ‘Etching Revival’ and Transferware
Lecturer: Jeffrey Ruda
In 1867-68, French artist Félix Bracquemond etched the transfer prints for Europe’s first table service in a new Japonesque style. The service was a huge critical and commercial success, and was quickly embraced by potters in Staffordshire. The design breakthrough has always been recognized, but not the choice and effect of etched transfer prints instead of engravings. The talk discusses the scope, look, and meaning of this unconventional medium when etching itself was an art-world fashion.
Jeffrey Ruda is Professor Emeritus of Art History at the University of California, Davis, where he headed the Art History faculty for twelve years. His publications include Fra Filippo Lippi: Life and Work, London & New York, 1993; and The Art of Drawing: Old Masters from the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, Flint (MI), 1992, as well as journal articles. He has been a ceramics fan and collector since grad school, and he was president of the San Francisco Ceramic Circle from 2013 to 2019. An active member of the TCC, he is also a contributor to the TCC Database of Patterns and Sources.
Annual Meeting Lectures
2023 Virtual Annual Business Meeting
This recording is of the Annual Business Meeting portion of the 2023 Virtual Annual Meeting held on October 28, 2023. It includes reports on the various activities of the club and information on plans for the April 2024 in-person Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. Prior to the Business Meeting, the Virtual Annual Meeting programing featured a video “Visit to the Michael Sack Collection in San Francisco” linked here and the video of recording of “A Trip to Edinburgh: Transfer-Printed Ceramics in the Collection of National Museums Scotland,” a lecture by Claire Blakey, Curator of Modern Decorative Arts, National Museums Scotland, linked here first presented at part of the TCC Transferware Worldwide lecture series.
Watch VideoA Visit to the Michael Sack Collection
A Visit to the Michael Sack Collection was presented by TCC president Scott Hanson at the TCC 2023 Virtual Annual Meeting. He visited San Francisco, CA, to see and hear about the wonderful and extensive transferware collection created by long-time TCC Board Member, Michael Sack, over the past 35 years. The collection is notable for its focus on Indian and Chinese scenes paired with the source prints they were inspired by. In the video, Michael talks about building the collection, writing the book, India on Transferware, and visiting the locations depicted in India. We also get to see some of the other themes included in the collection. A live Q&A session with Michael follows the video presentation. Link to Michael's book.
Watch Video2022 TCC Virtual Annual Business Meeting
This is the October 30, 2022 Virtual Annual Business Meeting. The link is for members only.
Watch VideoTransferware in Two Historic Maine Houses
Lecturer: Scott Hanson
Transferware in Two Historic Maine Houses was presented at the 2021 TCC Annual Meeting. Take a look at transferware collections in two historic Maine Houses, the Dow Farm in Standish and the Whitten House in Topsham. The Donald Essman/Dow Farm Collection resides in a 1760’s farmhouse with 19th century additions which has received a museum-quality restoration over the past 45+ years. Don Essman and his husband Mike Bendzela have partnered with Dow family descendants to restore the farm and along the way a collection of British transferware pieces in a variety of patterns has been assembled for display and use in the house. Some of the patterns are documented to have been in the house historically and others chosen because they are appropriate to the restored period rooms. This is a wonderful opportunity to see British transferware displayed in restored rooms as it was seen and used in the United States in the mid-19th century.
Whitten House was home to the family of a woolen mill owner for two generations, from 1830 to 1941. It then spent 60 years as the local public library before being purchased by TCC president Scott Hanson in 2003. While restoring the house, Scott unearthed numerous transferware shards under and around the house. He will show us what was found and then tell us of his efforts to identify the patterns and collect pieces in those patterns, returning the Whitten’s China to their house – while adding a few new themes of his own.
Watch VideoA Visit to Dennis & Dad Antiques
A Visit to Dennis & Dad Antiques was presented by TCC president Scott Hanson at the TCC 2021 Annual Meeting.
The TCC Annual Meeting has always included a transferware sale, with a number of dealer members offering a wide range of items for attendees to purchase. It was not practical to hold a sale with the online virtual Annual Meeting, but we did have a video taped conversation with Dennis about his 50+ years as an antique dealer specializing in transferware. We got a look at the astounding variety of transferware pieces in their stock and also saw the Berard’s personal collection of 500 transferware children’s cups.
Watch VideoA Visit to the Gestler Collection
A Visit to the Gestler Collection was presented by TCC president Scott Hanson at the TCC 2021 Annual Meeting. He visited Pittsburg, PA to see and hear about the wonderful and extensive Eleanor and David Gestler Collection. Dave and his late wife Eleanor built the collection over decades with annual trips to the UK to seek out additional pieces. The collection is notable for its breadth of themes, colors, shapes, and patterns. There is something for everyone to love in this collection! He talks with Dave and daughters Kim and Carol about Eleanor and the collection. We also get a glimpse of Dave’s extensive Early American Pressed Glass collection. A live Q&A session with the Gestlers follows the video presentation.
Watch VideoEngravers, artists, artisan, designers, authors, interpreters, life, the universe and everything...
Lecturer: Dr. Richard Halliday
Engravers, artists, artisan, designers, authors, interpreters, life, the universe and everything... - presented at the TCC 2019 Annual Meeting in Birmingham, AL
This lecture was made possible by the generous support of the Paul and Gladys Richards Research Grant Program for Studies in British Transferware.
Watch VideoOverglazed Printed Creamware; Sadler & Green of Liverpool & Their Association with Josiah Wedgwood
Lecturer: Gaye Blake-Roberts
Overglazed Printed Creamware; Sadler & Green of Liverpool & Their Association with Josiah Wedgwood was presented at the TCC 2019 Annual Meeting in Birmingham, AL. Gaye, now retired, was Curator at the Wedgwood Museum in Barlaston, England, is currently an honorary senior research fellow with the V&A Research Institute, and was recently awarded the M.B.E. This lecture was made possible by the generous support of the Paul and Gladys Richards Research Grant Program for Studies in British Transferware.
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