Where The Southern Cross The Yellow Dog

"Where The Southern Cross The Yellow Dog"
by Carroll Cloar, 1965.
Casein tempera on Masonite.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
Image copyright estate of Carroll Cloar.

It is the 'Summer of Cloar' in Memphis with a series of events surrounding the exhibition "The Crossroads of Memory: Carroll Cloar and the American South" at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.  (For a previous post of The Devoted Classicist on the original architect of the museum, James Gamble Rogers, click here).  The show is a centennial retrospective covering about 45 years (he destroyed most of his earliest paintings) of the work of Memphis artist Carroll Cloar, 1913 to 1993, organized by the museum's Curator of European and Decorative Art, Dr. Stanton Thomas.


"The Artist In His Studio"
by Carroll Cloar, 1963.
Casein tempera on Masonite.
Collection of Dianne and Bobby Tucker.
Image copyright estate of Carroll Cloar.

Born on his family's cotton farm in Gibson Bayou, about three miles north of Earle, Arkansas, the sights and traditions of the rural South played an important role in his paintings.  The portrayal of people is predominant theme, along with the landscape.  But vernacular 19th century and early 20th century architecture is also a reoccurring subject, often presented in the background, but as a strong secondary theme.  White clapboard houses, weathered barns, or cubist-simple commercial buildings offer contrast with the bright color of the landscape.


"Sunday Afternoon In Sweet Home, Arkansas"
by Carroll Cloar, 1971.
Acrylic on Masonite.
Collection of Dianne and Bobby Tucker.
Image copyright estate of Carroll Cloar.

Although Cloar considered himself a Realist, some of his paintings fall into the stylistic categories of Regionalism, Pointillism, and Precisionism.  The events depicted in the paintings were often from memory although the settings still remain.  The painting of the Earle train station marked the artist's annual family trip to soak in the medicinal waters every morning and attend the movies every afternoon at Hot Springs, Arkansas, when he was a boy.


"Waiting For The Hot Springs Special"
by Carroll Cloar, 1964.
Casein tempera on Masonite.
Collection of Dianne and Bobby Tucker.
Image copyright estate of Carroll Cloar.

Although Cloar's paintings sometimes showed children of different races playing together, as was his own experience with his neighbor Charlie Mae which he documented in several notable works, paintings that featured adults were usually either all-white or all-black.  Perhaps it was a practice to avoid conflict with potential buyers, not wanting to bring up the issue of integration of adults;  the answer is not known.


"The Smiling Moon Café"
by Carroll Cloar, 1965.
Casein tempera on Masonite.
Collection of Dianne and Bobby Tucker.
Image copyright estate of Carroll Cloar.

The painting at the beginning of the post, "Where the Southern Cross the Yellow Dog" portrays a location in Moorhead, Mississippi, in the heart of Blues country.  The title comes from the W.C. Handy song, "The Yellow Dog Blues" which includes the line "He's gone where the Southern Cross the Yellow Dog", referring to the crossing of two railroad lines that made Moorhead an active passenger and freight connection for decades.  (To see Eartha Kitt sing it accompanied by Nat 'King' Cole on YouTube, try the link here).  The painting is representative of the impoverished locals of the Delta relocating to a place that, hopefully, offers a better life.

 

"Halloween"
by Carroll Cloar, 1960.
Casein tempera on Masonite.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
Image copyright estate of Carroll Cloar.

In "Halloween" an adolescent girl frolics in a field wearing a grotesque mask while hooded figures, "Klu Kluxers", emerge in the distance.  Are the occupants of the house asleep?  Or is it abandoned?  A comment on the future of the South as seen in 1960?  It's up to interpretation.  This one is more ominous than most in the exhibition.  Other paintings are more hopeful.  This is just a handful of the ones that have architecture playing a part of the message, an interesting vehicle for subtext in the mid-century work of Carroll Cloar.

 

The exhibition, which includes almost seventy paintings, includes loans from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Hirshorn Museum and Gardens, in addition to the collection of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and private collections.  The exhibition continues at Brooks through September 15, and then travels on a national tour that includes the Arkansas Arts Center and the Georgia Museum of Art through 2014. 

 

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The Brilliance of Tiffany

Detail of the Dragonfyl Hanging Lampshade.
Tiffany Studios, New York, 1900 to 1905.
The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass,
Long Island City, New York.

"The Brilliance of Tiffany:  Lamps from the Neustadt Collection" is an illuminating exhibition now on view at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art through January 13, 2013.  Thirty five lamps on loan from the Neustadt Collection, Long Island City, New York, form the core of the exhibit, amply supplemented by Tiffany silver and Favrile glass from both the Brooks permanent collection and items on loan from local private collections.  It is all expertly organized by the Brooks Curator of European and Decorative Art, Stanton Thomas.

Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Image:  Neustadt Collection.

Louis Comfort Tiffany, 1848 to 1933, son of Charles Lewis Tiffany who was the founder of the luxury retailer Tiffany & Company, started as a landscape painter, eventually branching out into interior design and the decorative arts, becoming one of the foremost artists of his time.  In 1869, Tiffany established a studio in the new headquarters of the New York City chapter of the Young Men's Christian Association, the YMCA Building by Renwick and Sands.  But it was Tiffany's design for his own residence at the Bella Apartments that caused a sensation when completed in 1878.  Read about "the fly-eye of New York" as O. Henry called it, in two articles from the early 1880s posted in the Half Pudding Half Sauce blog here.  In 1880, Tiffany established the interior design firm Louis C. Tiffany, Associated Artists with partners Lockwood DeForest (furniture and woodwork specialist), Candace Wheeler (textile and embroidery specialist, often credited as the Mother of American Interior Design) and Samuel Colman (a former Hudson River School artist who became one of the country's first professional interior designers). 


Tiffany Studios, New York City.
Image:  Macklowe Gallery.

In 1883, Tiffany left Louis C. Tiffany, Associated Artists to form his own glassmaking firm, first known as Tiffany Glass and later, Tiffany Studios.  When his father's magnificent Romanesque Revival house commissioned from architects McKim, Mead & White was completed in 1885 on the northeast corner of East 72nd Street and Madison Avenue, New York City, L.C. Tiffany and his family occupied the top two floors.


The Charles Lewis Tiffany residence,
East 72nd Street and Madison Avenue.
Image:  Macklowe Gallery.

Although he continued to collaborate on interior design projects, Tiffany built large workshops and furnaces in Corona, Queens, New York in 1893 and registered "Favrile" as the trademark for his iridescent glass that same year.  Tiffany had become interested in the artistic effects of elecric lights, especially after his collaboration with Thomas Edison for the Lyceum Theater, the first theater to  have electric lights.  The growing availability of electricity provided the impetus for producing commercial lamps in 1895, although the early ones were kerosene and then with the option of either kerosene or electricity.  In 1900, Associated Artists was reorganized as Tiffany Studios.

Laurelton Hall, Laurel Hollow, Long Island.
Image: David Aronow, circa 1924 view, 
Historic American Building Survey.

Louis Comfort Tiffany became the Artistic Director of Tiffany & Company in 1902, following his father's death.  Art jewelry, copper enamels and pottery designed by Tiffany wered added to the retail offerings.  Tiffany's grand estate, Laurelton Hall, was completed in 1905 in Laurel Hollow, Long Island;  it was destroyed by fire in 1957 with its mosaic-decorated loggia installed in the Englehard Court of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1970s.  (Devoted Readers will recall reading about benefactors Jane and Charles Englehard and their estate Cragwood here).  Louis Comfort Tiffany died in 1933 at the age of 85.

Dragonfly Hanging Lamp.
Tiffany Studios, New York.
The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass,
Long Island City, New York.

Despite the many facets of his career, Louis Comfort Tiffany is best remembered for his colored glass lampshades.  These lampshades were influenced by his experience in painting nature, and his exposure to Art Nouveau with his several exhibitions in Paris in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  The Dragonfly Hanging Lamp, 1900 to 1905, exemplifies these influences.


Pond Lily Library Lamp.
Tiffany Studios, New York.
The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass,
Long Island City, New York.

There were several variations on the Pond Lily shade shapes with a library lamp shown here.  The large, hardy, white water lily, Nymphaea odorata, is depicted on the table lamp.  A globe lamp, probably for a newel post lamp, features Nelumbo nucifera, or sacred lotus.


The Pond Lily globe.
Photo by permission of the curator,
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
Image:  John J. Tackett for The Devoted Classicist.

The lampshades were assembled on a wooden mold with different molds for the various shades offered.  Brass patterns provided guides for cutting glass, with many colors and effects created in the studio's own furnaces.  Each piece was wrapped in a thin strip of copper foil and placed on the mold, and then the edges were soldered together.


Using the wood mold to fabricate a Tiffany Shade.
Photo with permission of the curator,
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
Image:  John J. Tackett for The Devoted Classicist.

Lindsy Parrott, Director & Curator of the Neustadt Collection, will give two talks in Memphis in conjunction with the exhibit.  On Saturday, November 17, 2012, Ms Parrott will talk at 3:00 pm about the seven Tiffany windows at Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal Church in a Decorative Arts Trust event open free to the public;  this lecture will be given at the church located on Peabody Avenue at Belvedere Boulevard.  On Sunday, November 18, 2012, Ms Parrott will talk at 2:00 pm at Memphis Brooks Museum about the artistry and historical context of the lamps in the exhibit;  this second event is free with museum admission. 

Jeffrey Bilhuber: Reflections on American Beauty

An enormous ceramic vase centers the Living Room
of the townhouse of the Laird family
as furnished by Jeffrey Bilhuber.
Image by William Abranowicz for
The Way Home:  Reflections on American Beauty
published by Rizzoli.

Mid-Southerners are in for a real treat on Friday, November 9, 2012, when Jeffrey Bilhuber, one of today's most in-demand interior designers, comes to speak at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art for a special event sponsored by Decorative Arts Trust.  Mr. Bilhuber's list of clients ranges from design legends Hubert de Givenchy and Elsa Peretti to celebrities Iman & David Bowie to media mogul Robert Pittman and wife Veronique to cultural icon Ashton Hawkins of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour, also a client, sums it up best, "Jeffrey is great at taking one's taste and making it better".

A detail of the entrance of the Entrance Hall
of the Laird townhouse as furnished by Jeffrey Bilhuber.
The image by William Abranowicz is from Bilhuber's latest book
The Way Home:  Reflections on American Beauty
published by Rizzoli.

While Bilhuber's portfolio is full of one glamous room more fabulous than the last, his latest book THE WAY HOME: REFLECTIONS ON AMERICAN BEAUTY focuses on very livable residences, often home to children, that are furnished to suit the way families live today.  While it would be difficult to choose a favorite from the dozen residences featured in this book, one stand-out for The Devoted Classicist is the very first presented, the Upper East Side Manhattan townhouse of advertising superstar Trey Laird and his family.  (And it is merely a coincidence that Trey's lovely and most gracious mother was a client of John Tackett Design).  Although this project was also featured in Architectural Digest magazine, it was beautifully re-photographed for this book by renown photographer William Abranowicz, as evidenced in these images.

More will follow in the weeks leading up to this event, but the tickets have just gone on sale for the special two-part presentation in Memphis and more than half of the seats are already sold.  So I did not want to delay any further in announcing it here.  Ticket information, and advance purchase is recommended as it is sure to be a sell-out, may be found on the website of Decorative Arts Trust here.  (Unfortunately it is flash-driven site and cannot be viewed on many mobile devices).


Jeffrey Bilhuber
Image:  Bilhuber & Associates

I look forward to seeing many Devoted Readers on Friday morning, November 9, 2012, at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

The Southern Cosmopolitan

Susan Sully, author of ten books on regional architecture and design, will celebrate the sophisticated South with a presentation sponsored by Decorative Arts Trust this Saturday, October 20, 2012, 10:30 am, at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

Ms Sully leads tours of stylish Southern destinations and is also the author of the blog The Southern Cosmopolitan.

There will be a books sale and signing of her latest title THE SOUTHERN COSMOPOLITAN, SOPHISTICATED SOUTHERN STYLE before and after the lecture.  The event is free with regular museum admission.

Photos are from The Southern Cosmopolitan, Sophisticated Southern Style by Susan Sully, published by Rizzoli, 2009.

Pisgah Forest and Nonconnah Pottery



Image of Walter B. Stephen pottery courtesy of Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.



Walter B. Stephen, 1876-1961, was a remarkable artist with no formal training who became an imaginative and gifted potter.  First with slip-painted pots made from Nonconnah Creek clay in the then-rural area outside Memphis, Tennessee, and then with more variety of forms and glazes he developed after moving to the hills near Asheville, North Carolina.  Stephen's work spanned Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau to the Moderne era.  His decorative schemes were widely diverse, ranging from memories of his young life on the Nebraska frontier, Bible references, and Asian art.  Also, themes with Mayan and Egyptian motifs as well as Wedgwood influences were explored.



Image of Walter B. Stephen pottery courtesy of Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

 More than 70 rare examples of Walter B. Stephen's pottery are currently featured in the exhibition Pisgah Forest and Nonconnah Pottery on view through November 13, 2011, at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, sponsored in part by Decorative Arts Trust.  There will be a lecture by master ceramist and American pottery expert Rodney Henderson Leftwich on Saturday, September 24, 20011.  The presentation which will discuss the life and work of Walter B. Stephen will be held at 10:30 am in the museum's auditorium, free to the public.

Dr. Stanton Thomas, Curator of European and Decorative Arts, at the entrance to the exhibit.
Photo by John J. Tackett for The Devoted Classicist.

"I am fascinated that we have an exhibition by a largely undiscovered and incredibly innovative art potter who began working in Shelby County around 1900," says exhibition organizer Stanton Thomas, Curator of European and Decorative Art at the Brooks.  "Stephen is a little idiosyncratic and very much an individualist, and at the same time. he's part of the larger Arts & Crafts movement, when artists were getting away from mechanization and focusing on the handmade."

Mr. Leftwich's book Pisgah Forest and Nonconnah: The Potteries of Walter B. Stephen is available for purchase in the museum's gift shop and here.

A Very Impressionistic Summer



A Renoir painting currently on exhibition at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French, 1841-1919.  Woman Arranging Her Hat, ca. 1890.  Oil on Canvas.  High Museum of Art.  Gift of Micheline and Bob Gerson.  2008.165.

 Those who are able to tolerate this summer's heat in Memphis are rewarded with not one but two extraordinary exhibits of Impressionist art.  These images that are now so popular and so easy-on-the-eyes were once considered not only avante garde but shocking, and eventually revolutionized the way we look at art.

At the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Monet to Cezanne/Cassatt to Sargent:  The Impressionist Revolution, the exhibit curated by Stanton Thomas, Curator of European and Decorative Arts, features over 100 paintings and works on paper as a collaborative effort by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta with the Brooks, with works also from the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis.  These three important collections of French and American Impressionism and Post-Impressionism feature works from many of the masters spanning the 1850s through the 1920s.  For more information click www.brooksmuseum.org/

A Forain pastel on exhibit at Dixon Gallery and Gardens.
Jean-Louis Forain, French, 1852-1931.  In Front of the Set, ca. 1895-1900.  Pastel on Paper.  Collection of the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Museum purchase with funds provided by Brenda and Lester Crain, Hyde Family Foundations, Irene and Joe Orgill and the Rose Family Foundation, 1993.7.30.

Also in Memphis, the Dixon Gallery and Gardens is presenting the exhibition Jean-Louis Forain:  La Comedie parisienne, organized and produced with the Petit Palais, the Museum of Fine Arts of the City of Paris.  It is a landmark retrospective of Jean-Louis Forain (1852-1931), a member of the Impressionist circle, protege of Degas, and mentor to Toulouse-Lautrec.  Assembled from museum and private collections world-wide, 130 paintings, pastels, drawings, lithographs and mosaics trace the artist's career over a fifty year time period.  For more information click www.dixon.org/

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, with the original building by James Gamble Rogers on the left.
Photo by John J Tackett for The Devoted Classicist.

Regular readers of The Devoted Classicist will recall the essay on the original part of the Brooks Museum designed by New York Architect James Gamble Rogers featured in the May 31, 2011, post.  As a special feature of this remarkable pair of exhibitions, a General Admission ticket purchased at Brooks can be presented at Dixon for free admission, and vice-versa.  Brooks is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, but Wednesdays are Pay-What-You-Can.  Dixon is closed on Mondays, but Tuesdays are Pay-What-You-Can and Saturdays are free from 10 to noon.  (These free admissions are corporate sponsored with private funding contributions).



Dixon Gallery and Gardens, with the original house by John F Staub on the right.
Photo by John J Tackett for The Devoted Classicist.

The original part of the Dixon is a handsome house that was designed by Tennessee-native John F. Staub, best known for his work in Houston.  The Dixon residence will be featured in an up-coming essay on The Devoted Classicist.

The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and Architect James Gamble Rogers

The original entrance to the 1916 museum, then known as the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery.

Last week, I was happy to present the Decorative Arts Trust Volunteer of the Year Award to Stanton Thomas, a Board of Directors member who really goes above and beyond in all phases of our group's organization and activities.  There is no aspect that he does not pitch in and provide assistance.  The ceremony was particularly notable for Memphis Brooks Museum of Art as it marked the anniversary of the opening dedication 95 years ago on May 26, 1916.

The sculptures "Spring", "Summer", and "Fall" by Wheeler Williams previously adorned the 1955 wing, razed by a subsequent additon, and are now displayed against the backdrop of the original 1916 building.

Originally known as the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, the beautiful building has been referred to as "the jewel box in the park" ever since its construction at a cost of $115,000.  Initiated by Mrs. E.A. Neely, there had been various interests and efforts to establish an art museum since 1906, the same year that the nearby Overton Park Zoo was established.  The project did not significantly develop until 1913, however, when Bessie Vance Brooks donated $100,000 to the City of Memphis in honor of her late husband, Samuel Hamilton Brooks, who died in 1912.  S.H. Brooks had moved to Memphis from Ohio in 1858 to work in his brother's wholesale grocery business.  After serving in the Confederate army, he formed Brooks-Neely wholesale grocers which was a prosperous partnership until Brooks' retirement in 1897.  Brooks married his second wife, Bessie Vance, in 1902.  From a prominent Memphis family and formerly an art student in Paris, Mrs. Brooks was inspired by the plans that had been developed by Mrs. Neely, the wife of her late husband's business partner, and hired New York architect James Gamble Rogers to design a museum in 1913.

The Holly Court garden was developed by The Little Garden Club and is now maintained by The Brooks Museum League. 

James Gamble Rogers was already well known in Memphis as the architect of the Shelby County Courthouse, the first of his civic commissions, 1905-09.  Local bank president N.C. Perkins had headed a ten year crusade for a new courthouse to represent the spirit of the City Beautiful movement.  In 1904, Perkins and the selection committee visited the Chicago office of Daniel H. Burnham, then the most successful architect for corporate America and the guiding spirit of the City Beautiful movement.  Burnham recommended his former employee James Gamble Rogers.

The Shelby County Courthouse, Memphis, in an early view.

James Gamble Rogers was born in Kentucky in 1867, but grew up in a middle class subdivision on the north side of Chicago.  Rogers received a scholarship to Yale where he was introduced to a new culture and friendships from a wide range of backgrounds including scions of wealthy New York clans and descendants of old New England families.  After graduation, Rogers toured Europe, not as a "grand tour" but as a member of an exhibition baseball team organized by A.J. Spalding to introduce the sport.  In 1889, he returned to Chicago and went to work in the office of William LeBaron Jenney.  (Some designate Jenney's 1885 Home Insurance Building to be the first skyscraper).  At this time, there were no courses at Yale for architecture as a profession, so it was this first office experience that became the model for James Gamble Rogers' career.  After two years, he joined Burnham & Root for a short time before opening his own office in 1891.  He interrupted his practice to study at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.  There he learned the two organizational principles that were to have the most influence on his designs, the parti (overall layout) and the correct use of the classical orders.  Returning to Chicago in 1898, he went into practice with his brother John Arthur, starting with a number of residential commissions, both mansions and apartment houses.  From 1904 to 1907, he was a partner in the Boston firm Hale & Rogers.

Laurel Court, the Peter Thomson House, 1904-08, Cincinnati, Ohio, designed by James Gamble Rogers, was that city's most expensive home in its day.  Located on the highest point in the county, it was opened to the public in 2007.

In 1905, Rogers was awarded a commission that had an effect on the rest of his career and allowed him to move to New York City.  The mansion for Mr. and Mrs. Edward Harkness is a seven story house which appears as only four stories with the main block clad in Tennessee marble, exceptionally detailed.  To this day, the house ranks among the best designed great residences in Manhattan.  The childless philanthropists were generous with cash donations to a number of educational and medical institutions, and bequeathed their artworks to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  But the family's greatest gift was the creation of The Commonwealth Fund, whose headquarters are now located in the meticulously maintained house.

The Harkness mansion, located on East 75th Street at Fifth Avenue, is now the headquarters of the charitable foundation created by the Harkness family, The Commonwealth Fund.  Photo:  Museum of The City of New York.

More commissions from other Harkness family members followed, along with those from additional Yale connections.  N.C. Perkins, the Memphis bank president who had first brought Rogers to Memphis for the Shelby County Courthouse, commissioned Rogers in 1909 to design a new building for his own Central Bank and Trust.

The Central Bank and Trust Building, Memphis, designed by James Gamble Rogers, built 1911-12.

The Brooks Museum, the only museum building Rogers ever designed, is a magnificent small marble pavillion.  He went on to design numerous buildings for hospitals and universities, notably for the Yale campus, in both the Colonial Revival style and the Collegiate Gothic style.  This academic work kept his office busy during The Great Depression and medical work, which included those projects made possible by the Harkness-sponsored charites, bolstered the office during WWII.  James Gamble Rogers died in 1946 at age 79.

James Gamble Rogers

Additions to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in 1955 by Everett Woods and 1973 by Walk Jones + Francis Mah gave only a marginal nod to the original 1916 building.  A 1986 addition by Skidmore Owings and Merrill in conjunction with local firm Askew, Nixon, Ferguson & Wolfe demolished the 1955 wing and made an effort to respect the original building, but the success is arguable;  the Post-Modern design won an award from Progessive Architecture magazine, however.  This last construction provided a new entrance, administrative offices, restaurant, kitchen, storage and service areas, but very little new exhibition space.  By the time of the Brooks centennial, it is hoped that a successful campaign will have been completed to allow the construction of another exhibition wing and more suitable public spaces for the next hundred years of the beloved institution.

All black & white photos, except as noted, are from James Gamble Rogers and the Architecture of Pragmatism by Aaron Betsky, An Architectural History Foundation Book, MIT Press, 1994.  See www.decorativeartstrust.com/ for more information about Decorative Arts Trust.

Hidden Assets

Young Boy's Waistcoat, c. 1720, linen with silk-embroidered appliques.

One of the non-profit organizations favored by The Devoted Classicist is Decorative Arts Trust, a support group of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.  A wonderful article titled Hidden Assets written by Anne Cunningham O'Neill was featured in the March, 2011, issue of Memphis Magazine and can be viewed by going to this link:

http://www.memphismagazine.com/Memphis-Magazine/March-2011/Hidden-Assets/

Chinese dish, c. 1662-1722, porcelain.

Decorative Arts Trust has a long history of education and promoting interest in silver, porcelain, ceramics, textiles, glass, furniture and all the other disciplines normally associated with the decorative arts as well as architecture, garden design, and interior design.  More information can also been seen at the website http://www.decorativeartstrust.com/.

Food safe, American, c. 1825-1835, walnut primary wood.

In recent years, there has been an increased effort to acquire objects made in the region.  The food safe pictured above was made in the northeast corner of Tennessee or just over the line into Virginia.  It is a walnut (with cherry and light wood inlay, poplar secondary) serving piece, circa 1825 to 1835, featuring painted punched tin panels in the doors that protected the stored baked goods from flying insects in addition to being decorative.

John J. Tackett is proud to soon start his third term as President of Decorative Arts Trust.  All photos shown here are courtesy of Decorative Arts Trust.