The View is Blue

 

QUESTION: I’ve always liked the look of the Blue Willow ware dishes that my mom used to bring out for holiday dinners. Even though the scenes on them were all the same, I was still intrigued by the use of blue on a white background. When I became an adult, I started to look at other pieces of Chinese blue and white porcelain. Then one day while browsing a local antique show, I spotted a tea bowl and saucer, decorated in underglaze blue with two cartoonish Chinese fishermen unraveling their nets. At first, I thought the set was Chinese, but the dealer said it was made by Meissen in Germany in the 18th century. The set was way out of my price range, but I took a photo of it with my smartphone and decided I had to learn more. While I’ve learned a bit about these early handpainted porcelain wares, I’d like to know more. Can you help me?

ANSWER: While most people associate Meissen with 19th-century porcelain figurines, they were the first to produce hard-paste porcelain in Europe at the royal factory at Meissen, near Dresden, in 1710.

In 1717, King August the Strong of Dresden Saxony, announced a reward of 1,000 thalers to the first person who could come up with blue porcelain painting similar to that  of the Chinese imports. August called the white porcelain white gold. August had previously provided the funds to set up the royal factory in Meissen.

Johann Friedrich Boettger produced the first successful examples of European porcelain. He sent the King a letter on March 28, 1709, promising "porcelain with the finest glaze and all its attendant painting and decoration equal to that of the East Indian," by which he meant the Chinese. But despite his claims of having produced some preliminary pieces of blue underglaze painted porcelain, he was unsuccessful.

However, the sum of 1,000 thalers attracted many craftsmen, as well as charlatans. Notorious among them were a father and son team called the Mehlhorns, who in 1719 bragged to the local newspaper about possessing the secret of blue painting. However, they never produced consistent results. The real credit for developing the underglaze blue color goes to David Koehler and Samuel Stoeltzel, who accomplished it between 1721 and 1722. And although the King acknowledged their success, they never saw the 1,000 thalers.

One of the most talented early blue painters was Johann Caspar Ripp. He was already an accomplished faience painter trained in Delft when Johann Gregarious Hoeroldt brought him to Meissen late in 1720. But his creativity and independence made Hoeroldt jealous, so he fired him in 1723. 

Cobalt blue decoration began to be manufactured on an industrial scale in 1789, when Meissen began producing its most popular underglaze blue pattern—Blue Onion. 

While the popularity of the Blue Onion pattern exploded after1860, it was not the most common underglaze blue decoration during the 18th century. The earliest Meissen pieces depict imaginary Chinese scenes known as “chinoiserie” and Kakiemon-style decorations inspired by the Japanese Arita wares. As a set pattern, the most common one was actually the Strawflower decoration, later adapted and made world-famous by the Royal Copenhagen Factory.

Some of the rarest and most stunning underglaze blue wares were those that combined blue and overglaze polychrome painting in a single composition. Artists painted the background scenery in cobalt blue and the artist, visualizing the final painting, reserved areas prior to firing to which he would later apply an overglaze polychrome painting to complete the scene. Because artists handpainted each piece with unique designs, no two pieces are completely alike. 

In the 19th century, Meissen standardized the underglaze decoration, applying it with stencils to outline the pattern, a job often left to apprentices.

Therefore, single pieces from the mid-18th century today sell for high prices, their value coming more from their rarity and age. They represent a time in the history of European porcelain when the blue color was just being brought under control. 

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 "The Ancients" in the 2021 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.

Those Loveable Advertising Icons

 

QUESTION: When I was a kid, my world seemed to be filled with cute characters— tigers, giants, cows, bunnies, tire people, and doughboys. I saw them on my cereal boxes, milk cartons, soup cans, and all sorts of other products. I had mugs, colorful drinking glasses, rings, spoons----you name it. What brought about such a character-driven economy? Are any of these character items worth anything today?

ANSWER: While the character mascots you saw every day appeared mostly in the 1950s and 1960s, in fact, the first one—the Quaker Oats Quaker—dates all the way back to 1877. And although he didn’t really have anything to do with the Quakers, the cereal company created an icon that has lasted 144 years.

Ad men refer to characters such as Aunt Jemima, Elsie the Borden Cow, the Jolly Green Giant, and Tony the Tiger as advertising icons, but collectors just call them advertising character collectibles. And there are lots of them—Betty Crocker, the Energizer Bunny, the Michelin Man and the Pillsbury Doughboy, to name a few.

Collectors classify advertising characters in two categories—those created by a company specifically to sell a product, such as Aunt Jemima, and those that became a character first, then were licensed to one or more companies to sell a product, such as Howdy Doody. Some advertising character collectors specialize in just one character. 

Henry Seymour, co-founder of Quaker Oats, randomly decided on the character after reading about Quakers in an encyclopedia. He thought the Quaker name represented purity, honesty, and integrity, characteristics the company wanted to portray as their brand. Early collectibles include buttons, trade cards, booklets, a china bowl in 1910, plastic-ware from F & F, tins and, of course my favorite, cookie jars. 

Next came Aunt Jemima. Aunt Jemima pancake mix debuted in 1889, though the inspiration for the character came from a minstrel show that occurred in 1875. Charles Rutt and Charles G. Underwood, creators of the self-rising flour, named the recipe “Aunt Jemima’s recipe” after watching a minstrel show that featured a Southern mammy named Jemima. Nancy Green, the original actress who portrayed Aunt Jemima from 1890 until her death in 1923, was a former slave from Kentucky. Besides appearing on boxes of pancake mix, the character of Aunt Jemima evolved into dolls, cookie jars, syrup bottles and other memorabilia.

Illustrator Grace Wiederseim did sketches of cute little kids in 1904 for a series of streetcar advertisements for Campbell Soup. The Campbell Soup Kids, as they came to be known, began as little kids playing games but they quickly grew up, maturing over time to begin performing more traditional adult tasks such as climbing a fireman's ladder and delivering ice. They quickly became very popular. The kids have spawned a huge business in collectibles with pins, postcards, dishes and of course dolls, as well as recipe books, kitchen decor, and table top salt and peppers shakers, toys, and even Christmas ornaments. 

Another oldie but a goodie is Mr. Peanut. Born in 1916 when 14 year-old Antonio Gentile won $5 for submitting a drawing of a peanut that resembled a person. Rumor has it that Commercial Artist, Andrew S. Wallach, enhanced the illustration with a monocle, top hat and cane to create the iconic image, though Planters has never positively identified the artist. He has appeared on almost every Planters package and advertisement since 1916 and became one of the best-known icons in advertising history. Mr. Peanut collectibles include a vintage adult Halloween costume, glass tumblers, vintage alarm clocks, and pins, as well as books, posters, jars, dolls, silverware, banks, watches, and salt/pepper sets.

When the Green Giant first appeared in 1928, he wasn’t very jolly. The Minnesota Valley Canning Company created a hunched and scowling Giant. But marketing a Giant as a mascot proved to be difficult in the beginning. Early tv appearances left children crying at the sight of this monster. So ad agency Erwin, Wasey & Co. came in and improved his posture, added a smile, and made his clothing light and leafy. By 1935, the company added the word Jolly to the Giant’s name, and by 1950, the Minnesota Valley Canning Company had changed its name to the Green Giant Company.

Elsie the Borden Cow, one of the most famous marketing characters ever created, came into being at a time when consumers often feared milk to be disease-laden after a 1907 report from the USDA declared many dairy cows carried tuberculosis and lived in unsanitary conditions. 

She went on to lead the Rose Bowl parade, raise $1.6 million for World War II bonds, collect keys to more than 600 cities, and spawned several recipe books. Elsie has been made into dolls, toys, lamps, mugs, ceramic items, cookie jars, as well as having her face adorn other items, including signs, buttons and postcards.

Originally designed by Martin Provensen, author and illustrator of children's hooks, Tony the Tiger has captured the hearts of children and adults alike since he first appeared on Kellogg's Sugar Frosted Flakes unreal boxes in 1952. He actually started as one of four characters that included Katy the Kangaroo, Elmo the Elephant and Newt the Gnu. They had a very short life, but Tony has gone on to fame promoting Kellogg's Frosted Flakes (the name Sugar was taken out in a health conscious wave). Like many of the characters on the icon list, Tony is depicted in plush toys and dolls, telephone, watches, cookie jars, tins and on cereal bowls.

One of the cutest ad icons are the M&M guys and gals. M & M's were first sold to American soldiers in 1941 after Mars Sr. met Spanish soldiers eating hard sugar-encased chocolate candies during the Spanish Civil War. He came home, developed the recipe and the product was sold to American soldiers as a snack that traveled well and easily in all climates. At the time the candies were packaged in cardboard tubes. By the late forties they were a popular candy with the public and the packaging changed to brown paper bag we still know today. The M & M characters were first introduced in 1954, on TV in 1972 and are more popular than ever today. The clever and funny commercials really catch the eye and make us identify with the different guys, like feeling sorry for Orange and laughing at Red's antics. Toppers are particularly popular, as well as the candy dispensers, plush figures, pins and cookie jars. A series of special miniature toys appeared on retailer shelves for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter in the last decade.

Poppin’ Fresh (aka the Pillsbury Doughboy) was born in a kitchen in Chicago in 1965. Rudy Perz, a copywriter for advertising agency Leo Burnett, helped create an ad campaign for Pillsbury’s refrigerated dough product line. He imagined a living dough boy popping out of a Pillsbury Crescent Rolls can. To separate him from the rolls, Perz added a chef’s hat and a white scarf. He also gave him big blue eyes, and made him giggle when poked in the stomach. As you can imagine, Pillsbury Doughboy is on hundreds of collectibles, most of them kitchen related. Dolls, clothing, radios, ornaments, pictures, towels, and Christmas ornaments filled out the souvenir product line. 

And while many of the advertising characters are cute and cuddly, some are worth more than the smile on kids’ faces—especially the older items.

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 "The Ancients" in the 2021 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.

Managing a Collection

QUESTIONS: I love collecting things and have been doing it a long time. But I now find I really don’t know exactly what I have. Can you give me some advice on how to manage my collections?

ANSWERS: Lots of people collect things, but unfortunately that’s where it stops. They love the act of collecting but do nothing to manage their collections. Collecting things can be addictive. And over time collections can become so large that people lose sight of what they actually have. To truly enjoy the entire collecting experience, it’s necessary to do three things—organize, document, and curate. 

Private collections often start with one or two items—perhaps a unique old lamp or an old crock. At first, a person will treasure a few objects and know their every feature. But as the objects multiply, they’ll forget where they found an object or anything about it.

The first step in managing a collection is to organize it. This can be as simple as displaying the objects in an attractive way or in groups by subject matter. If the objects aren’t placed on view, neither the collector nor his or her family and friends will get to enjoy them. Some people purchase expensive display cabinets for to hold their collections. Those with glass doors are especially good for small to medium-sized delicate or fragile pieces or those that are more valuable. Larger objects may have to be displayed on open shelves or in other ways. It’s important to allow room for the collection to grow. If most of the collection cannot be displayed, then it may be time to stop. Some collectors rotate their collections, so they can enjoy different pieces.

It’s also a good idea to display smaller groups of objects together in different locations within a home. Viewers can be overwhelmed if an entire collection appears together.

The next step in managing a collection is to document it. Taking an inventory of a collection is imperative for several reasons. A collector needs to know what’s in his or her collection, as well as the relative value of each piece. While this will increase or decrease over time, it’s good to have a general idea what a piece is worth.

Cataloguing a collection can record the details about each piece, document the artifacts for insurance, and form a framework to keep similar objects together. It’s also important to know where an object came from.

Some types of documents may already be available, or can be easily acquired, such as sales receipts, a note accompanying a gift, a snapshot, a printed description, a program from an exhibit, biographical information on the artist or maker, a description and picture of a similar object perhaps from a newspaper, magazine, or the Internet, and a copy of a mark on the object. 

If an object has been passed down within a family, then its family history should be noted—who first purchased it, who owned it and when. The objects in specialized  collections— furniture, dolls, quilts, kitchen utensils, guns, tools, even sports and music memorabilia—are prime candidates for documentation. Documentation is important for  insurance, family heritage, preparing for appraisal, certain types of tax benefits, and connoisseurship.

In case of theft, loss or damage by fire, flood or national disasters, you need to prove ownership of any object claimed, and provide descriptions with supporting information in order to be compensated or to help the police identify and recover your stolen valuables. 

There are three ways to catalogue your collections. All of them are rather simple. The first uses standard 3 x 5 or 5 x 8-inch cards and a notebook, or logbook. Another uses a three-ring binder with dividers for those who wish to keep all the information under one cover. The third way is to create a computer database. Some collectors record the information about each object on cards first, then transfer it to a database later. 

To keep everything in order, each object must be given a sequential number, beginning with the earliest to the most recently purchased. This number should appear on the object, on the card or in the logbook, and on every receipt, canceled check, and photograph that relates to it.

Although simple numbers will do, a three-part number is more useful because it includes the year the object was acquired and the source. Individual items purchased at the same time from the same source will thus each have this number.

Curating a collection is just as important as collecting the objects in it. Everyone knows museums have curators, but do they know why? While organization and documentation are important jobs of a curator, taking care of objects in a collection is just as necessary. This may be as simple as dusting the objects from time to time. But sometime it’s necessary to repair or restore an object because of breakage or environmental hazards like humidity. 

Thoughtfully arranging a collection is also part of a curator’s job. A collector can assemble a mini-exhibit based on a theme and invite family and friends to view it. Protecting objects in a collection from harm is another job of a curator. And once a collection gets large enough, it’s the curator’s job to refine it, culling out earlier not-so-good pieces and selling them to replace them with better ones.

And last but not least, it’s important for a collector to learn all he or she can about the objects in their collection, not just what they already know but additional information about objects in that category. 

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 "The Ancients" in the 2021 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.

The Delight of Bristol Blue

 

QUESTION: I recently purchased a piece of what was described as “Bristol Blue” glass through an online antiques auction. I collect antique glass but this vase struck me as something unique. Although it looked like Victorian enameled glass, it resembled porcelain and the description said it was made in England in the late 18th century. I would really like to know more about this piece. I didn’t think glassmakers produced enameled glass that early Was it produced in Bristol, England, and thus the name, and who made it? And just how far back does Bristol Blue glass go?

ANSWER: Those are all very good questions. Let’s begin with the name. Even though this type of glass has Bristol in its name, glassmakers throughout most of England produced it. The blue in the name refers to the coloring used in the glass.

In the first half of the 18th century, near Redcliffel Backs, Temple Meads, Bedminster and other suburbs of Bristol, England, the squat chimneys of glasshouses and potteries silhouetted the landscape like giant beehives. But it was the age of porcelain, and anyone who could afford to buy it did so. Porcelain factories enjoyed the protection of kings, and European elite emptied their purses for priceless porcelain treasures. The arrival of an affordable substitute in decorated rnilch glass from Germany delighted Bristol glassmakers. For the first time, they had a perfect porcelain substitute  within their reach. 

The Venetians first made glass as an imitation of porcelain prior to 1500. Experts believe they used tin oxide as the agent to produce the white opacity in their glass. Eighteenth-century English white glass, called enamel glass in advertisements of the 1760s, was an intensely white, brittle material, generally a potash-lead mix, rendered opaque by the addition of lead arsenate. The porcelain-like, opaque glass  produced by the glassmakers of Bristol, was soft and smooth to the touch yet retained the fine heaviness of English crystal. It was an instant success, forcing the Bristol glassmen to borrow decorators from neigh-boring potteries to keep up with the public's demand.

England's glass excise tax of 1746 raised the duty on clear glass but didn’t tax opaque and colored glass because there was so little of it being made. This offered an excellent economic incentive for its increased production.

Chemists long knew that a powdered coloring could be premixed and supplied to glassmakers for addition to clear glass of their own making. But it was 18th-century German chemists from Saxony, who refined impure oxide of cobalt to produce a blue powder of unparalleled purity and uniform consistency. They exported their product, called “smalt,” to England, where a British merchant distributed it under the name "Bristol Blue."

The Bristol glassmakers quickly added the new deep-blue color to their already successful line of opaque white glass. Vigor & Stevens, of Thomas Street and Lazarus Jacobs, and later his son Isaac, of Temple Street, produced pieces primarily in deep Bristol Blue.

By the end of the 18th century the manufacture of blue glass became fairly common throughout England and continued to be marketed under the name of Bristol Blue. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to identify glass made in Bristol from a piece manufactured elsewhere. The original term “Bristol Blue" referred simply to the coloring agent sold to glassmakers rather than to their finished products.

The early shapes, manufactured around 1770, emulated Chinese and English porcelain—pear-shaped covered vases, trumpet-mouthed beakers, and cruets—all   produced in sets. Glassmakers also produced scent or smelling bottles and snuff boxes, often facet-cut, with enameling and gilding, in both white and blue glass.

Early Chinese porcelain painters greatly influenced the 18th-century Bristol designs. The Chinese artists working at the Imperial Porcelain Factory excelled in delicate miniature enameled decoration on their opaque white glass. They often employed motifs of figures, birds, and European flowers much admired by the Emperor Chi’en Lung, who ruled from 1736 to 1795. Since most English glasshouses made their opaque white glass in competition with porcelain, most used the same styles and even the same artists to decorate both.

Glass decorator Michael Edkins linked the white and blue glass under the mutual name of "Bristol." At first, he apprenticed to an enameling firm in Birmingham, England, but at the age of 20, he took up residence in Bristol and settled down to decorate pottery dishes and tiles. At that time, artists painted the pieces with pencils made of bristles from the noses and eyelids of oxen. Graduating to glass, Edkins began decorating "enamel and blue glassware." He worked both independently and for Isaac Jacobs, Little & Longman, and Williams, Dunbar & Company from 1782 onwards. Instead of using enamel paints that needed to be fired, Edkins used standard oil colors, or plain gold gilt motifs, applied with unfired varnish, which he called "cold" decoration. 

Generally, artists decorated Bristol Blue ware with unfired or lightly fired gold varnish. Cruets and decanters often sported the name of their contents as well as intricate garlands and wreaths of plain gold. 

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 "The Ancients" in the 2021 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.

The Search for Comfort

 

QUESTION:  I inherited a couch from my grandparents. I have tried to do research online, but the multitude of antique items is overwhelming. The couch appears to resemble the Chippendale style, but not exactly from what I have seen. My grandmother said the couch was already over 100 years old when she purchased it in the 1960's. What can you tell me about this piece? 

ANSWER: Sorry to say, but someone gave your grandmother misinformation about her couch. It’s not uncommon for dealers in used furniture to do this because they really don’t know how old the pieces they’re selling are and just want to sell them.

This couch dates from the 1920s or 1930s. It’s a great example of pseudo styles that manufacturers created to fill the need in the early to mid-20th century middle and working class markets. At that time, most people were looking forward and didn’t want “old” furniture in their homes. To buy all new furniture was a big deal, especially during the Great Depression. It was a way people impressed their friends and neighbors. Those who could afford to buy new furniture were definitely going places. So manufacturers produced some truly ugly, ostentatious pieces to fill this need. 

The roots of Modernism, grew out of pre-World War II industrialism. This furniture style used little or no ornamentation and a function over form concept. Influenced by Scandinavian, Japanese, and Italian designs, it featured industrial materials such as steel and plastic.

What all of the above styles had in common was that they were mostly produced for those that could afford them. Newly wealthy industrialists, bankers, and merchants wanted furniture that was in fashion and were willing to pay great sums for it. However, the common person couldn’t afford such luxuries and ended up with mass-produced pieces that didn’t cater to any taste in design.

What ordinary people wanted was their own form of luxury—comfortable chairs and couches that they could fall asleep in after a hard days work but that would also impress guests. They wanted just enough decoration to make the pieces seem elegant but not so much as to make them hard to care for. These needs resulted in overstuffed chairs and sofas with springs in their cushions to give added comfort, extremely stylized shallow carving that was easy to clean, and generally little decorative woodwork since using more added to the cost of the piece. Manufacturers could use cheap woods to build the frames which they then covered with upholstery.

Sitting prominently in the living rooms and family rooms of many 30 to 50-year-olds today is the ubiquitous “comfy” sofa, It takes up a huge about of space and can seat at least four or more people comfortably. Some models feature built-in lounge chairs with pop-up ottomans. The precursor to these giants was the sectional sofa. This unique piece of furniture came in sections. Buyers could buy as many sections as they needed to create a monster seating “pit,” popular in the 1980s. In some homes, condos, and apartments, the giant sofa is the only piece of furniture in the room, besides the giant flat-screen T.V. hung on the wall opposite it. 

While the sectional sofa certainly rose to fame in the mid-20th century, it has a more complex past. Before built-in cup holders and powered recliners, sectional sofas solved other problems for homeowners in the early 19th century, back before the start of the Civil War. Only a few examples remain intact, and most of them are in Virginia.

Antiques experts believe that end pieces of sectional sofas have long been mistaken for corner chairs, but evidence is sketchy. The loss of furniture makers, workshops, and a shortage of timber halted furniture production in the South. And destruction by the Union Army in Virginia led to the loss of most of these pieces. Back then, a sectional consisted of two tufted, carved and laminated sofas pushed together. Corner pieces were virtually nonexistent. 

Jumping ahead nearly 100 years to the era of Mid-Century Modern, the sectional sofa became the perfect showcase for the furniture designs of Charles & Ray Eames and George Nelson when the sleek, industrial profile of contemporary-style furniture appeared. The sectional also  answered the question of standardization versus customization when considering high consumer demand, thanks to department stores and catalogs. By breaking a sofa down into sectional pieces, known as modular design, it was easier to manufacture and ship, as well as mass-produce standard, individual pieces that could then be customized once they were the home.

And while comfort is a good thing, style is something else altogether and often the twain do not meet. But this comfort phenomenon didn’t just begin yesterday. It actually started 100 years ago in the 1920s. 

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 "The Sparkling World of Glass" in the 2021 Winter 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.

Crazy Fads Come and Go But This One Lingers On

 

QUESTION: I have a crazy quilt that once belonged to my great grandmother. It’s been lovingly cared for by her daughter and then her daughter’s daughter, my mother, who’s now getting up in years. When she downsized to move to a retirement home, she gave the crazy quilt to me. I love the intricate designs, but, otherwise, I don’t know much about it. Can you tell me more and perhaps tell me how I can take care of it? It’s in good condition, but I can see that it’s somewhat delicate.

ANSWER: Your crazy quilt is the result a fad that began in the United States nearly a century and a half ago, roughly from 1875 to 1900. As with many country quilts, it became a way for women to use up their extra scraps of cloth or fabric from worn-out clothes. But crazy quilts were also a form of self-expression, much like samplers were a century before. 

Victorian women created crazy quilts like giant jigsaw puzzles, made of irregular pieces of silk, satin, velvet, or plush fabric sewn onto a solid backing of a lighter material, then decorated with embroidery stitches. Many became sentimental diaries stitched with names and legends while others took on the look of nostalgic stitched scrapbooks filled with memorabilia commemorating events, story book characters, garden flowers, even family pets. Women often made them as gifts to a bride or to someone recovering from a severe illness. Others made them in memory of a loved one who had recently passed.

Scraps for these elaborate quilts often came from ball gowns, opera capes, or the parlor curtains. But women could also buy packages of scraps from the Montgomery Ward or Sears Roebuck catalogs. The Singer Sewing Machine Company used crazy quilts as a symbol on their trade cards. Women's magazines of the day offered directions for making crazy quilts as table covers along with patterns for decorating them. Silk manufacturers promoted the use of their scrap waste in making crazy quilts. Magazine publishers also offered booklets on making crazy quilts as premiums in exchange for subscriptions to their periodicals. 

The word crazy in this case actually means irregular, odd, bizarre, strange, or unusual, and perfectly describes these quilts. Some look like a haphazard collection of odd bits of cloth and memorabilia while others are more like abstract works of silk art in shimmering colors reflecting light.

Since crazy quilts are more often tufted rather than quilted, they should be called "throws." Victorian housewives often threw them over parlor tables and pianos, as well as sofas or beds. They were the perfect complement to the ornately carved overstuffed furniture and bric-a-brac of every sort adorning  table tops, etageres, and mantels in the Victorian parlor.

Some historians believe the Victorian crazy quilt may have originated as a result of the popularity of Japanese prints or screens after the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876. Others wonder if their fractured designs may have been taken from the pattern of an uneven pavement or cracked ice, a popular decorative border used from the late 1870s through the 1880s.

Likewise, women often copied the patterns painted and embroidered on crazy quilts from Japanese ones. Many crazy quilts display a cranes standing in pools of water, owls and peacocks perched on gnarled tree branches, kimono clad figures, butterflies and cherry blossoms, hanging lanterns and spider webs. 

And since not every woman was artistically talented, makers of crazy quilts could purchase pre-stamped patches or would trace designs from magazines. The Ladies Home Journal offered as a premium to readers bringing in 16 new subscribers a “Crazy Patchwork Outfit,” consisting of 12 pre-stamped pieces of silk, one box of stamping powder, twelve skeins of embroidery silk, and a glittering array of two dozen spangles and two yards of tinsel cord.

Women's magazines also offered how-to instructions for the three basic embroidery stitches---the outline, Kensington, and plush. The outline stitch, also known as the stem stitch, formed a thread line as in a drawing. The Kensington stitch enabled crazy quilt makers to fill in their outlines using various colors. And the plush stitch produced areas of cut silk thread like a pile carpet. 

Quilt makers used embroidery stitches not only along the edges of patches to decorate them and at the same time hold the edges under and in place but also to make designs. Those who lacked embroidery skills could purchase pre-embroidered appliques. Some crazy quilt makers further embellished their creations with painted designs on the fabric after they assembled their quilts. Sequins, beads, spangles, metallic braid, and ribbon were also popular forms of embellishment.

Crazy quilts aren’t as durable as regular quilts. They won’t survive daily folding and shouldn’t be used as throws where they’ll be handled a lot. But they can be mounted on a frame or encased in plexiglass and hung on a wall. Both dry cleaning and wet cleaning damages them, so the only safe way of cleaning them is to use a low power vacuum held well away from the fabric which has been covered with some sort of mesh screening—an old window screen will do—to prevent the fabric from being sucked up and damaged.

Unlike regular quilts, women who made crazy quilts usually signed them. Many have been passed down through generations in a family.

Prices for crazy quilts range from $50 for an average small one to as much as $1,000 for a large exceptionally stitched one. Because their prices are relatively low in comparison with fine 19th-century quilts, many most likely remain hidden away in attic trunks waiting to be discovered.

For more information on caring for old quilts, read “Caring for Antique Quilts” in #TheAntiquesAlmanac. 

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 "The Sparkling World of Glass" in the 2021 Winter 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.

The Original Cafe Chair

 

QUESTION: I recently purchased two bentwood chairs at an antique shop in a nearby town. Both have woven cane seats and the number “14" pressed into the wood under the rim of the seat. I’ve seen similar chairs in coffee shops and cafes, but I purchased these to use in my kitchen. The cane is in good condition and the chairs are stained a dark brown. Can you tell me anything about these chairs—who made them and how old are they? 

ANSWER: You made a great purchase. Your chairs are commonly known as “bistro” or “cafe” chairs, and while most people think they date from the early 20th century, they actually date back to the 1850s.

Michael Thonet (pronounced “toe-net”), a clever and creative cabinetmaker from Boppard am Rhein, Germany, invented the process for bending wood and as a result created the first pieces of bentwood furniture. He originally made your chairs in 1859, however, his company, which is still in existence, made over 50 million by 1930. So yours could date from the early 20th century. 

Thonet, the son of master tanner Franz Anton Thonet, started out as a carpenter's apprentice in 1811. Eight years later, he opened his own shop. In the beginning, he carved his pieces from European beechwood. 

In the 1830s, Thonet began trying to make furniture out of glued and bent wooden slats. His first success was the Bopparder Schichtholzstuhl, or Boppard layerwood chair, in 1836. The following year, he purchased the Michelsmühle, the glue factory that made the glue that he used. However, he failed to obtain the patent for his new process in Germany and England in 1940, so he tried again in France and Russia the next year, but again failed. 

The steam engine appeared on the scene around the time that Thonet's was experimenting with his bending process. He discovered that he could bend light, strong wood into curved, graceful shapes by forming the wood in hot steam. This enabled him to design elegant, lightweight, durable and comfortable furniture, which appealed strongly to style trend at the time. His pieces were a complete departure from the heavy, carved designs of the past.

At the Koblenz trade fair of 1841, Thonet met Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, who was enthusiastic about Thonet's furniture and invited him to his Vienna court. During 1842, Thonet presented his furniture—particularly his chairs—to the Imperial Family. On July 16 1842: Metternich granted Thonet the right "to bend any type of wood, even the most brittle: into the desired forms and curves by chemical and mechanical means." The Prince granted him a second, nonrenewable 13-year patent on July 10, 1856 "for manufacturing chairs and table legs of bent wood, the curvature of which is effected through the agency of steam or boiling liquids.”

When his first factory in Boppard establishment got into financial trouble, he sold it and moved his family to Vienna, where in 1849, he opened a new factory called the Gebrüder Thonet. In 1850, he produced his Number 1 chair, which he intended to sell to café owners.  

He received a bronze medal for his Vienna bentwood chairs at the London World's Fair in 1851, at which he received international recognition. At the next World's Fair in Paris in 1855, he received the silver medal for his new and improved bentwood chair design. In 1856, he opened a new factory in Korycany, Moravia because of the country’s ample supply of beechwood. 

By 1859, he developed his most famous chair—the Number 14, known as Konsumstuhl No. 14 or Vienna coffeehouse chair No.14—for which he finally received a gold medal at the 1867 Paris World's Fair. It became the first example of bentwood furniture. 

Furniture experts regard the No. 14 chair a design classic. It has been praised by many designers and architects, including Le Corbusier, who said "Never was a better and more elegant design and a more precisely crafted and practical item created." 

Thonet produced his No. 14 chair using six pieces of steam-bent wood, ten screws, and two nuts. He made the wooden parts by heating beechwood slats to 212 °F, pressing them into curved cast-iron molds, then drying them at 158 °F for 20 hours. The chairs could be mass-produced by unskilled workers and disassembled to save space during transportation—an idea used today by the Swedish company IKEA to flat-pack its furniture. By the 1870s, Thonet owned offices in almost 20 countries.

The firm’s later chairs used eight pieces of wood and also had two diagonal braces  between the seat and back to strengthen that particular joint.

Today, a No. 14 from the 1860s with a near-perfect seat can fetch about $1,000 at auction.

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