TCC Sponsored Videos

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.

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. 

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.

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.