It’s What’s on the Reverse Side

 

QUESTION: Years ago, I purchased a banjo clock with an intricate scene painted on the clock glass. At several recent antique shows, I’ve noticed several other reverse paintings from the early 19th century. What is the origin of reverse painting glass? And when was the technique at its peak?

ANSWER: Reverse painting is done on the backside of the glass and has been done since ancient times. Though there are only some crude artifacts, art historians believe the process dates back to Egypt in 4 C.E.

During the Middle Ages in the 13th century, the art technique appeared in Italy. Shortly thereafter, the French and English also learn of this art-form.  By the 16th century Renaissance, reverse painting reached its peak. To meet the growing demand, glass artists on the Island of Murano in the Venetian Lagoon widely produced small reverse glass paintings to decorate church alters and for other religious purposes. Gradually they began to paint larger landscapes, portraits, and more, making Venice a center of the technique.  

Beginning in the mid 18th century, painting on glass became preferred by the Church and the nobles throughout Central Europe. By the early to mid 19th century, watchmakers used reverse painting for dials on their watches.

Reverse glass painting had been practiced in Europe for several centuries. In France, Rococo decorative arts influenced it. In Italy and Switzerland, landscapes and small figures dominated reverse glass painting. Persian miniatures inspired it in India, Syria, and Iran, drawing attention to Islamic religious themes. German, Italian, and Spanish artists specialized in allegories, regional costumes, and hunting scenes while iconographic painting influenced the technique in Eastern Europe. 

In America, reverse painting enjoyed its greatest popularity during the Federalist Period of the early 19th century. Old-country artisans in the colonial cities used reverse paintings to decorate clocks, mirrors and other items of the time. This art fashion reigned from about 1815 to 1850. Then, with the exception of a brief time before World War I when it enjoyed a comeback, reverse glass painting became all but extinct.

Before an artist can reverse paint on glass, all details must be known. Done with oil paint ground with shellac, varnish, or linseed oil. Often the colored pigments were back by a white ground which reflected light back through the paint and gave the painting a warm and brilliant color. The smoothness of the glass increased the painting’s richness and vibrancy. 

Not only is the painting done on the reverse side of the glass, it must be done in reverse, beginning with the finer details and ending with the background.

Subject matter was mostly religious with paintings done by peasants but also included allegorical subjects, heroes of the day, and landscapes. Many of these paintings, primitive in technique, included Vermillion red, blue, yellow. Religious scenes could be found in peasant homes. These had backgrounds embellished with floral decorations and scrolls. Early paintings had lots of gold but later ones just had accents. These primitive paintings had crude homemade wooden frames. 

During the reign of William and Mary in the 17th century, the frames of mirrors had moldings of glass painted with roses, tulips, and leaves touched with gold. Back in the 14th century, East India Traders brought courting mirrors from China. This type of painting became popular in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, secular subjects became popular, including portraits of women symbolical of spring, summer, fall, and winter, as well as portraits of kings and queens.

Reverse painting spread to America and was popular with the Pennsylvania German immigrants, who carried on the religious traditions. They also painted primitive portraits of famous Americans such as George Washington and Andrew Jackson. Copies of portraits of Washington by Gilbert Stuart were quite popular.

Still life was more popular than portraits in New England. Other subjects included naval battles, such as the Monitor and the Merrimac. Amateurs and itinerant artists painted these paintings, so they call into the folk art category.

One of the most common uses for reverse paintings was on clock pendulum doors. Popular subjects included a floral or fruit still life or a simple flag or eagle design. 

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School Days, School Days, Happy Golden Rule Days

QUESTION: Not long ago, I began collecting little school awards cards. I also collect postcards and found several of these at a postcard show. Each seems to have been personalized for a particular student and covered a variety of topics. What can you tell me about these cards? Are they worth collecting? And how old might they be?

ANSWER: It’s that time of year when schools let out for summer vacation. It’s also the time when students receive awards for a variety of achievements. Today, only a select few receive awards, but in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, many students received them in the form of Reward of Merit cards.

As early as 1780, Robert Raikes , editor of the Gloucester Journal, opened his first Sunday school in Massachusetts. He began a reward of merit system to maintain discipline, appropriate behavior and good and punctual attendance.

Eighteenth-century hand drawn, colored and hand painted Reward of Merit cards from this early period are considered American folk art by many collectors. Earlier cards had religious subject matter, with poetry, sermons and verses from the Bible. Beginning in the early to mid-19th century, Rewards of Merit became less religious and pious in nature, gearing themselves more toward children's topics, games, child scenes, and patriotic flags and eagles, especially those printed at the time of the American Civil War.



The very earliest examples were simple hand-written notes of praise. Early printed cards were printed on thin pieces of paper with black ink. Most had had a fancy border and the words “Reward of Merit” printed on them. Some printers added illustrations copied from children's chapbooks or newspapers. Pictures often depicted patriotic and seasonal symbols, trains, ships, people and animals.

The top of the card usually read "Reward of Merit," with the well behaved students name written below, followed by the signature of the teacher who issued the reward. Teachers presented these Reward of Merit cards not only for academic achievement but also for punctuality, attendance, proper and good right conduct, and overall signs of improvement in early 19th century one-room schools. Victorian mothers often pasted these cards into scrapbooks to show a their child's achievement and performance at school.

In the 1850s, teachers began to add color to their merit cards by hand-tinting them. Some printers used the chromolithographic process popular in the greeting card industry. Side inscriptions might have included a full-length poem or a saying.

Rewards of Merit cards came in packs of 10 assorted cards, with four designs to the package. Prices varied depending on sizes and workmanship. Most were imported. The most expensive, 40 or 50 cents for 10, were the die-cut examples. Embossed groupings started at 8 cents a package and ran up to 30 cents.

Those teachers who didn’t want to select their own cards could use an optional selection service. The young ladies who did this had good taste and sent the best and prettiest they could for the money sent.



What were these rewards given for? Many came printed with their topic—Neatness in Writing, Correctness in Recitation, Diligence and Good Behavior, Correct.'Deportment, Never Absent-Never Irate. Others had lines for the teacher to fill in. It’s obvious when reading them that teachers often used Rewards of Merit as tokens of affection with inscriptions such as “A Fine Boy or Girl.”

Teachers never looked upon Reward of Merit cards as educational aids. They were gifts in return for something worth recognizing. Although some could be inscribed with such words as "best" in math or English or Latin, they were never part of the grading system. They were the way teachers could say, “You did a good job,” and “Thank you.”

Sunday School teachers also gave reward cards that usually featured scripture. Some were the same size as the Reward of Merit Cards, but many were stickers as small as postage stamps. Their messages reflect their theme—Live Like Jesus, Blessed Be God, Be Thou Faithful, My Hope is in Thee, Maintain Good Works, The Lord is With Thee.

Publishers began printing standardized mass produced rewards for the American public later in the 19th century. The teacher might simply fill in the name of the student, write a signature, and be done. The George P. Brown and Company School Supplies Catalog of the 1890s devoted the first three pages of Day-School Reward Cards.

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Mementos of Faith

QUESTION: I was browsing at a local flea market this past weekend and came upon a strange object. It seems to be some sort of wand. It has a turned wooden handle at the end of which is a round metal ball with tiny holes in it. The dealer said she picked it up at a church sale, so I bought it out of curiosity. Can you please tell me what this is and how it might have been used?

ANSWER: You are now the proud owner of an aspergillum or holy water wand, used by priests in Catholic and Anglican churches.

The priest uses an aspergillum to sprinkle holy water. It comes in two common forms—a brush that the priest dips in an aspersorium or bucket of holy water and shakes, and a silver ball with tiny holes attached to a stick.

Priests use an aspergillum for the Rite of Baptism and during the Easter Season. In addition, priests use an aspergillum to bless the candles during candlemas services and the palms during Palm Sunday Mass. At a requiem, if a coffin is present, the priest will sprinkle holy water on it. The aspergillum can also be used when blessing other things like houses, pets, crops, and such. The name derives from the Latin verb aspergere “to sprinkle.”

Ecclesiastical collectors search antique shops, flea markets and church rummage sales in the hopes of finding objects and furniture used in mostly Christian religious practices. Examples of monastic art, the delicate needlework of cloistered nuns, painted icons, carved candleholders, prayer beads and baptismal fonts originally intended for Christian houses of prayer often command astronomic prices from knowledgeable antique dealers. Cups, bowls, dishes, altar linens and the ceremonial vestments provided the finest examples of craftsmanship and art work.

But, what became of the thousands of beautifully wrought religious utensils, garments and symbols made obsolete by the sweeping changes in Catholic Church policies and the closures of Catholic churches beginning in the 1960s?

Back then, no one wanted the larger-than-life statues, banners appliqued with obscure religious symbols, heavy marble holy water fonts, old-fashioned altar pieces and paintings that graphically depicted the tortured deaths of religious martyrs? Since these weren’t quick moving commodities or even investment items for antique dealers, church basements, rectory attics, and parochial school storage areas began to bulge with hand-turned altar railings, huge sanctuary lamps, ornate metal reliquaries and the delicately carved doors of closet-sized confessionals.

Gradually, these outmoded, unwanted and useless items trickled away. Well-intentioned volunteer groups hauled much of this detritus back into the light of day and offered it at fund-raising events such as church rummage sales. When it became necessary to raze a church, the church hierarchy offered old stained glass windows and exquisite, glass door inserts to local antique dealers on a "make-an-offer" basis. Salvage companies carted off the carved lions, fancy wooden fretwork and the masonry arches from above church doors.

Starting in the late 1980s, interior decorators began to incorporate religious artifacts into the interiors of up-scale homes. This trend propelled discarded church surplus into the realm of high style. Pieces now command huge prices at architectural warehouses. Consider the wild popularity of angel items, for example.

Candleholders for weddings and christenings, long pine pews, processional crosses mounted on oak poles and even altars are showing up at large flea markets. Since most churches use flowers during the year for religious services, collectors can find all types of large altar containers and floor vases. Bibles, candleholders, altar linens and crosses of every size and material, as well as religious utensils, such as cut crystal cruets, used by altar servers to present the water and unconsecrated wine to the priest and easily identified by the incised crosses, wheat sheaves and grape cluster motif.

People buy religious items for three reasons. First, they might purchase a chalice because of its artistic beauty. Second, they want it because it evokes an emotional response from their childhood, a time when the family attended Sunday services. And third, some people collect Christian religious items with much the same interest that African cultural memorabilia collectors buy tribal masks. They don’t use the masks, but enjoy displaying them, researching them, and using them as unique decorations.

And don’t think religious objects appear for sale only in the U.S. Flea market vendors, especially in Mexico City, often have beautiful old vestments on display, as well as santos, carved wooden figures of saints. A small but unique item is the nicho, a three dimensional, recessed shadow box, dating back to the Spanish colonial period. Traditionally, people used nichos as portable shrines for patron saints or pictures of loved ones. The faithful often carry these with them when going door to door in their village asking for donations for the church.

Another item, often found hanging on the wall of a side chapel in a Mexican church, is the retablo. These paintings on tin depict a loved one who is sick or dying. Hanging their image in the church is a way of asking people to pray for them. Other retablos are beautifully handpainted testimonies of faith of the people of a particular Mexican village.

Religious objects mean different things to different people. Many mundane religious items retain value because many ceremonial practices have been eliminated from worship and therefore the elaborate trappings and religious utensils won’t be produced in the future.

tin plate frames, or nichos. These 3-d, recessed shadow boxes date back to the Spanish colonial period. Traditionally nichos were used as portable shrines for patron saints or pictures of loved ones. Frescos on tin depicting the 12 apostles, most likely from an altarpiece.

For more on collecting religious objects, read my previous blog on collecting old Bibles, "The Most Printed Book of All Time."

To read more articles on antiques, please visit my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 17,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac.