Just a Bit of Whimsy

 

QUESTION: Recently, while browsing the booths at an antiques coop, I came across several kitschy ceramic planters. One had the form a sadiron, another had the form of a decorated rolling pin. Neither one had a mark. Do you have any idea which pottery produced these funky pieces?

ANSWER: It looks like you found some pieces of Cameo China ware. Cameo China, of Wellsville, Ohio, is one of the least known of the many novelty potteries that once operated along the Ohio River during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Because few of its products had marks, they’re difficult to recognize.

The Cameo China Company, an outgrowth of the Chic Pottery Company, operated in a portion of Wellsville's old United States Pottery Co., side by side with the better known Purinton Pottery, before the latter moved to Shippingsville, Pennsylvania in 1940, and Chic moved to Zanesvifle, Ohio. The United States Pottery Company, a manufacturer of semivitreous toilet and table wares from 1898 until 1932, fell victim to the Great Depression.

John Purinton purchased the pottery in 1936 and began producing colorful, hand-painted "peasantware" and fruit decorated kitchenware. He allowed Dana K. Harvey to use the southern portion of the factory for the Chic Pottery Company Harvey operated Chic Pottery in Wellsville and later in Zanesville, Ohio.

Both Hugh Garee, the mold maker for Chic Pottery, and Sam Corsello, who had  worked for the old United States Pottery, worked for both Chic and Purinton Pottery  during those early years. Corsello did just about everything at Chic's pottery, from pouring slip to firing gold, and Garee designed molds for both Chic and Purinton

Hugh Garee was born in Toronto, Ohio, in1875, the son of Albert and Eathenorah Burchfield Garee. His father, Albert, was a "pottery hand" in New Cumberland, West Viriginia, in 1880. Garre moved to Ontario, Canada, in 1897, and in 1900 worked  in Mimico, Ontario, as a brancher, making "branched" sewer tile at the Ontario Sewer Pipe Co.  He continued to work at various potteries in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

Garre worked for a number of potteries, including Salem China, Bedford China, Sebring China, Selo Pottery, Homer Laughlin, and Shenango China as a mold maker and/or designer. In 1929, he moved to Minerva, Ohio, where he worked for Owen China. 

In 1946, Hugh Garee and Sam Corsello continued to operate the Cameo China Company while Corsello worked for Acme Craft Ware. Garee, his son Mac, and J.Lee Pickering incorporated the business on October 9, 1948. Cameo operations included a small, 40-foot-long tunnel kiln but were sufficient to keep 21 women employed. 

Mac Garee sold Cameo China pieces at the Garee Scott Clothing Store in Minerva, Ohio, while at the same time advertising Cameo wares in American Home and similar decorating magazines. Particularly popular were Cameo's rolling pin and flatiron planters, usually decorated with a rose decal, and various salt and pepper shakers.

Among Cameo’s known designs are a pair of salt and pepper shakers representing a coal stove and coal bucket, male and female torsos in old-fashioned undergarments, two sizes of a standing alligator, a pair of clasped hands, and a pair of bare feet with brightly colored toenails and a definite orthopedic problem involving the big toe—the best known pieces. The smiling alligator, the most appealing, appeared several years before the Disney movie version of "Peter Pan:" As for the painfully if humorously disjointed feet, Japanese and American copies are far more common than the Cameo originals. Cameo China had the foresight to copyright them, although most potteries paid little attention to copyright laws.

Japanese imports quickly spelled the end of Cameo China's prosperity, however. Hugh Garee's sight completely failed in 1951, and son Mac Garee, who had worked with his father since the age of 13, continued to manage the pottery for a time, working day and night to fill orders. The Garees wisely sold their part of Cameo China to Sam Corsello, who continued to operate it for a few more years with his son Russell. 

Garee used a kick wheel for many years. He created his own tools by hand from kitchen utensils and other readily available utensils.

 produced a leaping fish as a hair receiver for Chic, and later made a very similar shape for Cameo. While only slight differences in form distinguish the two, they can easily be identified by differences in decoration—Cameo used airbrushing more often--- but especially by glaze and density. Chic pottery’s pieces weren’t as well fired, causing fine crazing, and was off-white or ivory color. Cameo’s ware was denser, whiter and less subject to crazing.

Cameo China's lady head vase is one of the few pieces clearly identified with an impressed "C.C.Co. U.S.A." mark. (Both Chic and Cameo often used a small, block-letter "U.S.A." in-mold mark along the inside edge of the base.) The lady head vase is distinguished by sponged gold hair, a gold trimmed flower at the neck and a red, cold-painted flower in the hair. A "Cameo China"mark in gold script mark was also used on some pieces.

Cameo's 6-inch-high "Mammy and chef cream and sugar set" been recognized; it was patented Sept. 1, 1949. Finally, a "Golf bag and two clubs" was patented June 11, 1951, undoubtedly one of the last pieces that Hugh Game designed before he lost his sight. Although unmarked, the golf bag planter with two clubs has rather prominent "USA 51" impressed near the bottom. 

 Hugh Garee's distinctive and considerable ability from the pottery novelties produced by Cameo China alone. A much better idea of his skill is gained by examining the wide variety of shapes he designed for Chic Pottery.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Advertising of the Past" in the 2023 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Simple Gifts

QUESTION: I always associated the Shakers with rocking chairs. My grandmother had one, although I’m not sure it was an authentic one. But last Fall I took a trip to Hancock Shaker Village in western Massachusetts and discovered that the Shakers invented a whole host of items, many of which we use in improved forms today. What can you tell me about some of their inventions? And why were they so creative.

ANSWER: The old saying “Necessity is the mother of invention” certainly applied to the Shakers. Since this religious sect lived in communities apart from the outside world, they had to produce everything they needed. And this led to them inventing all sorts of things. And although they made and sold great chairs, especially rockers, to the outside world, they produced so much more.

Today, modern wood workshops wouldn’t be complete without a circular saw. Historians trace the origin of the circular saw blade to 1810 and the Shaker community at Harvard, Mass. It seemed that a Shaker Sister witnessed two Shaker Brothers cutting wood using a two-person reciprocating saw, and using her experience at spinning, realized she could improve the conventional way of sawing wood. She conceived a circular metal disk with saw teeth on its perimeter. She discussed it with some of the Shaker brothers who made a prototype blade and used water to spin it.  Today, the circular saw blade has been improved to cut everything from wood to concrete.



Mother Ann Lee founded the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, which is the sect's true name. She claimed to be the female manifestation of Christ. Persecuted in England, she and some followers came to Albany, N.Y., in late 1774. Ultimately they formed self-sustaining communities in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Indiana, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky.

They became known as Shakers only after arriving in America. It was originally a derisive name given them by outsiders because of the frenzied dancing and shaking that typically took place during their worship services.

The Shakers under Mother Ann Lee believed they should strive for perfection. Using resources efficiently and effectively and finding ways to complete tasks faster and with less effort was a step toward perfection here on Earth.

One of the most common of Shaker inventions was the flat broom. Mother Ann is believed to have said, “There is no dirt in Heaven.” So keeping all the rooms and buildings in Shaker communities clean was a major chore.

And while brooms existed before the Shakers, but they were typically lengths of corn straw tied to a wooden handle. Brother Theodore Bates at the Watervliet, New York, community decided that a broom made with its bristles bound flat and straight would work better than a traditional one, so he devised a way to stitch the straw so as to make it flat when fastened to a broom handle. Shakers everywhere began to make flat brooms, not only for their own use, but to sell to outsiders.

A major obstacle to cleaning floors was heavy furniture. Moving beds in particular posed a problem, so the Shakers invented bed rollers so they could easily move beds to clean beneath them.

Doing laundry for a community of several hundred people was a daunting task. In 1858, Brother David Parker at tire-Canterbury, NH., community designed a steam powered "wash mill." It sped up the laundering process and made the work easier for the sisters assigned to laundry duty.

The Shakers didn't often patent their inventions. but the washing machine was an exception. Not only was it patented, Brother Parker's design won a medal at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Copies of his wash mill were sold W several big hotels.

Shaker herbs and plant seeds were' sought after because of their consistency and high quality. The Shakers were the first to put seeds in small printed pack-ages for home use. The seeds were sold through stores and by mail order.

The Shakers also invented a spike wheel that produced evenly space holes l; for seeds, and it automatically planted seeds, too. It reduced planting time by about fifty percent.

Poplar trees were abundant in some areas, but the wood wasn't useful for either building or burning. The Shakers, !however, found it was an excellent material for baskets. One of the brothers !devised a machine to split lengths of poplar wood into thin splints that could the he used for basket weaving. And Shaker baskets became another product the World" demanded.



Shaker woodworkers developed a machine for making uniform barrel staves, and another for making broom handles of varying lengths.

The Shakers cared for one another, especially the elderly and those that were sick. They invented several things to make life easier for those who were ill. For example, they invented the tilting or adjustable hospital bed. And most Shaker communities had wheelchairs for the elderly and incapacitated. They were rocking chairs with large wheels akin to today's wheelchairs, and a stabilizing wheel or wheels in the back. The finger splint was a Shaker invention, and they created pill making machines for producing herbs and plant potions.

Only a few brothers took care of household chores. The rest were farmers, so they invented several machines to make their jobs easier, including a hillside plow, a horse drawn mowing machine and a thresher machine. Brother Hewitt Chandler of the Sabbathday Lake, Maine, community created the Maine Mower. which mowed hay fields more efficiently than other available equipment. And Brother Daniel Baird at the North Union, Ohio, community developed the revolving harrow used to breakup soil for planting.

And while brothers were busy in the fields, sisters tended to the feeding the community. Feeding several hundred people, three times a day, seven days a week was a daunting task, so naturally invention played a major role.

Cooking on an institutional scale presented its own problems. While a housewife might cook one roast or chicken or bake one pie, Shaker sisters had to prepare dozens, sometimes 60 pies a day. To help with them, for example, They invented a double rolling pin, and it's claimed they could roll twice as much pastry dough in half as much time, verses a conventional rolling pin. Peeling apples is no easy task, so a screw-based apple peeler was created to strip the peel from an apple in a matter of seconds. Once peeled, the apples were cut into quarters using an apple splitter, a spike like device invented by Brother Sanford Russell at South Union, Ky.

 Emeline Hart at the Canterbury, New Hampshire, community designed the Revolving Oven. Numerous pies could be baked simultaneously in this oven.

Sisters also invented the slotted spoon, pea shellers, a cheese press, bread kneading machines and even a potato washer. In 1796, the Shakers produced one of America's first cookbooks.

The Shakers even improved on articles of clothing. One of them, the woolen hooded cloak was a staple of every sister’s wardrobe to protect them from the cold blasts of winter. As with the broom, they sold these to the outside world to make money to buy supplies they needed.

Shaker communities attracted some of the best craftspeople and cooks but unfortunately they believed in celebacy. And that didn’t help their future.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about  La Belle Epoque in the 2020 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.