Pickard Golden Treasure

Posted on July 3, 2015 by acc1313

Pickard All-over Gold Peacock Set

Finding treasures in antiques stores is always a thrill. The hunt is half the fun, but the real rush is the realization that you have found something truly stupendous. Last week I found a beautiful, shimmering six piece set in a local antiques store and fell in love.

Gravy Boat with Saucer and Saucier

The six pieces include a gravy boat with saucer, as well as a lovely two handled piece whose use I can only speculate at. I’m going to assume it’s some sort of sauce recipient that should have some sort of ladle perhaps? It’s a fun mystery. If you have an idea of what this odd saucier was for, let me know. (And no it is not missing a lid since the inside is covered in gold).

Pickard All-Over Gold Sugar Bowl and Creamer Set

The next three pieces include a cream and sugar combo with a saucer for the cream pitcher. The use for this seems a lot more obvious but no less majestic and would be the perfect addition to any tea party.

Pickard All-over Gold Peacock Pattern

Here is a close up of the luxurious peacock and vines pattern that covers all six pieces of this set. I love peacocks and was very attracted to the matching set. So imagine my surprise when I took the set home with me and looked at the bottom of the pieces (as I always do) and found different porcelain maker’s marks!

Pickard Maker’s Mark of the Sugar Bowl

Pickard Maker’s Mark for the Gravy Boat

I was now presented with a puzzle. The piece was obviously unified by the all-over gold peacock pattern but came from different manufacturers. I’d never seen anything like this before and decided to focus my attention on the golden lion mark instead of the porcelain mark in itself since all six pieces shared the golden blason.

Pickard is a renowned name, a china company founded in Chicago in 1893. It started out as a china decorating franchise where students from the art institute and local artists would design one of a kind pieces. They were not producing the china pieces themselves but instead buying them from outside sources (namely European ones), decorating them and selling them in the United States. In 1911, founder Wilder Pickard invented a new kind of decoration, the “all-over gold” which covered the china in a fine coating of 24 carat gold before imprinting a pattern on said gold. Pickard is known for it’s “daisy and rose” patten especially. That being said, they started manufacturing their own porcelain in 1933 and have become the providers for the White House china as well as providing for the US embassies across the world and the formal china sets of heads of state and royalty.

As for my particular lion mark… It was used by the Pickard company from 1925 to 1930.

I’ve researched as much as I could online and haven’t found heads or tails (or feathers) of Pickard peacocks. I can only assume that it’s quite rare and I’ve truly found a great addition to the collection.

How Photography Changed Everything

Posted on December 13, 2013 by acc1313

I’ve often wondered about the moment where someone paused, paintbrush in the air and decided that copying reality, adding to it only a dash of idealism, metaphor and allegory was tedious. Who was the first to pause and ask why they should be copying endless paintings from the great masters, plethora of drapes and fruits, dissecting hidden symbols in a twisted quest for meaning? Who jump started the creative process, opening the way for new art and a new way of expression? I think that singling a lone artist at a precise time and place would be almost impossible. The Idea seemed to come to several around the same era and in different locations. How can we reinvent artistic expression? In this class, we studied the transition of art into something new and exciting. It was intriguing to see all the different stages and styles, with artists struggling to push art forward. I think we shouldn’t down play the impact of photography in this process. Besides, the time frames coincide nicely, the first photographs appeared the 1800s and becoming popular in the second half of the 19^th century, just as the first impressionists were questioning the artistic status quo. I always thought that photography was the trigger. Suddenly there is a way to make an exact copy of an instant in time. A perfect copy, that takes a few hours at best, instead of the months it would take a painter to struggle and duplicate that same image. I believe those first Avant -Guard artists saw the potential in photography and also might have seen the end of an artistic area. Not wanting to be left behind, they had to create something new, and find a new path for an artistic expression that photography could not offer. There is something more intimate and emotional in a painting, something about the time and energy, thought and technique used in painting and drawing that transcends photography. Which is probably why the fine arts realm snubbed it for a while. I think the artists felt threatened by this new technique, and refused to give it the artistic acknowledgement it deserves. It’s a tricky process to compose a good artistic shot. It takes a lot of knowledge and manipulation, you have to have a good subject, the adequate lighting, and proper processing technique. There is a lot of skill and creativity involved in artistic photography. It took some time for the higher end artistic circles to realize this. Despite their hidden uses of photography for their own work. Indeed Photography and Painting have a long history of co-dependence. Here is a fascinating article on the subject, discussing just how painting and photography are linked.

How Photography changed Everything

It talks about how artists rapidly came to use photographs, as snapshots of a subject and duplicate, or at least use the image as a reference in their own work. (artists today do this routinely, Modern artist at work ) The funny part was the denial of the painters themselves, still considering photography as simplistic, unworthy of the “fine arts” title. According to the article, Critic Ernest Lacan described those painters’ relationship to photography as “like a mistress whom one cherishes but hides.” And visa versa, photographers have dived into the vast archives of paintings in search for subject matter and composition inspiration. (the two images at the beginning of the article were particularly striking) Here are a few examples In our own highly multimedia world, photos have taken over. We are constantly taking pictures on phones, tablets and cameras, sharing them in some hopes that they will perpetuate the memory of an instant, becoming pseudo artists ourselves in an attempt to communicate something visually. It’s an interesting development for our society, this urge to share our personal perspective and vision in an overwhelmingly quantitative way. The anthropologists of the next century will have literal tons of images to go through, hopefully helping them decipher our intricate modern society. A down side of this photo craze, is the absence of ACTUAL memories. A new study came out this week, showing that the distraction of taking a picture, hinders the process of creating a detailed memory. By taking rapid snap shots, you are more likely to forget the details and locations of items and specifics of events. This article here talks about it.

How photography can affect your memory if you aren’t paying attention

I feel like this wouldn’t be a problem for an artist reproducing that item or that instant in time. They have to carefully study and observe before recreating (in what every style, composition or technique) what they have seen. There is something to the creative process that demands careful consideration, experimentation and precise execution. It’s interesting to see that off handed, careless photo taking is damaging our own abilities. Perhaps we have grown too comfortable and too reliant on our technology, expecting it to remember and create in our place without pouring in the essence that is Art.

Time Traveler’s guide to Elizabethan England

Posted on July 7, 2013 by acc1313

Time Traveler’s guide to Elizabethan England, Part I The Common People

Here is the first chapter of a delightful little BBC series. We are taken through history by a knowledgeable historian, right back to the 1550s. He retraces the everyday lives of the people. It is quite fascinating to explore the “golden age” of England through the perspective of the poor peasant people, to get a glimpse of their miserable lives. The host shows us the very different culture and beliefs of the time. Be prepared for shock as you learn the favorite past time of Elizabethans, Bear baiting… the cruel battle between a chained bear and English mastiffs, for the pleasure of the crowd. Or how beating your children was recommended, or how going to church was required by law…

Times change…. and values have as well. The process is fascinating. The world has changed dramatically since Queen Elizabeth the First, and many of those changes we so easily take for granted.

This documentary is filled with fascinating tidbits and snapshots from nearly 500 years ago.

Time Traveler’s guide to Elizabethan England, Part II The Rich

Time Traveler’s guide to Elizabethan England, Part III Brave New World

(Unfortunately All the episodes were removed from Youtube, due to the lovely Copyright infringement bots. Truly a shame, as these were excellent documentaries. I tried tracking it down but to no avail… However, Amazon carries both the original book and audio book the series was based on)

Ice Age Art, the Beginning of Everything

Posted on July 7, 2013 by acc1313

(This is part 1 of 5)

A beautiful documentary from the BBC about ancient art. Fascinating exploration of prehistorical art, with great explications and high, BBC quality.

Very much enjoyed this one. It’s fascinating to see and to try and understand that ancient art. We humans have always been pushed towards creating. One can only wonder why? Why must we seek out aestheticism, beauty and creation?

The documentary touches on an interesting correlation between the advent of art and the beginning of society, associating prehistorical art with the awakening of the human as we now know it. We can theorize that the process of creation might have helped develop the minds of the modern man. A very romantic idea indeed.

Mysteries of the Female Figure, Part 6 The Modern Woman I

Posted on July 5, 2013 by acc1313

The Pompidou center offered a very different perspective on the female figure. I also found that women were one of the most common themes in the art here. There’s something to be said about the fascination of artists with the female body, trying to represent it, change it and mold it into something new, but still expressing the natural beauty of the women in their lives. After the advent of photography, the art world changed completely. Artists were seeking a new meaning to creation, a new inspiration, and women played an important part in that search for a new art.
(Naked woman sitting, Georges Braque 1907, Fauvist movement with outrageous colors.)

Picasso

Picasso’s vision of the world has always fascinated me. I simply marvel at the variety of his works, and so there are quite a few of his works here. The cubist movement was scorned and mocked, but I find it to be a show of technical prowess. It’s a much more challenging piece to admire and decipher, but definitely worth the effort.

Woman’s bust, 1907

Woman sitting in a chair, 1910

Girl with a hoop, 1919

Naked woman with Turkish hat, 1955

Women by the ocean, 1956

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I liked this series of sculptures, marble and stone women, standing with tilted heads. The one on the top in embracing a lover. The perspective is a bit odd, it almost seems like the breasts are in the wrong spot, I was a little puzzled at first, but it was in the cubist exhibit, so perhaps it is just a different point of view than what we are used to. The figure on the bottom gives of a gentle softness with a smile.

Andre Derain, 1907-08 collection of nudes

Otto Dix’s works are always a little perturbed. But this one was especially so. The main characters are reflected multiple times throughout the pieces as if they are surrounded by mirrors, each reflection focusing on a different part of the strange couple. The strangest part of the piece is how the artists identifies the female here as a nun, making this representation of vice and hubris all the more shocking. (Soldier and Nun, Otto Dix 1916)

Mysteries of the Female Figure, Part 2 Ancient World II

Posted on July 5, 2013 by acc1313

This large mosaic is entitled “Amazonmachie”, which in French means massacre of the Amazons, (the same suffix is used to describe bull fighting). The violence of this piece caught my attention.

The story of the Amazons is quite sad, strong, independent women, ultimately subdued by men. The details and colors of this piece made it all the more memorable. (Turkey, 400 ce)

I wanted to include as many different mediums as I could also, just to show the diversity of the female figure in different Art forms. Here is a bas-relief, showing a Greek hero, Heracles welcoming the personifications of Charity, Hospitality and Generosity. The details of the women’s attire caught my attention with this piece. Sadly, empty studs in the stone showed tantalizing signs of more elaborate ornamentations (jewelry and embellishments) that we can only guess at today. (Island of Thasos, 480 bce)

Here we have another glimpse at funerary steles. This time in the Egyptian culture. What struck me here was the way both figures, man and wife, are placed on the same level as equals, gently embracing for eternity. There is no superiority of one over the other, regardless of what the situation was in life, in death, they are equals. This was a surprisingly reoccurring theme.

Scribe Ounsou and his wife, Imenhetep, 1450 bce

Ancient Rome

The beauty of this sculpture struck me. It’s a two tone marble and bronze statue of Artemis, the Huntress. I loved how they incorporated the marbling of the stone into the folds of her clothes and the striking black and white contrasting materials.

This marble sculpture of one of Apollo’s muses is a Roman copy of a Greek piece, created in the second century c.e. However, in the 18th century, a fanciful restoration, added the comedy mask and caused an ongoing commotion about the true subject matter of this piece.

Here is another roman re-creation of an original Greek statue, reconstructed from fragments. The Romans took the pose and features of this character but adapted her to suit their needs, placing her in a different tale of mythology altogether. In Greece, she was Diane, and in Rome, she became Atalante, one of Ovid’s metamorphoses. But her dynamic posture caught my eyes, she seems ready to come to life at any second and run right past us.

200 c.e. restored in the 18th century.

This was the most impressive marble statue I saw in the Louvre. The presentation and location are the perfect backdrop for this monumental 10 foot tall statue of Athena (Pallas of Velletri). Her face is stern and her features almost masculine, shown as a figure of strength and victory. This is a Roman reconstruction from the 2nd century. The original Greek statue was a ten foot bronze of the goddess, this piece was apparently recreated from plaster molds of the Greek original, a piece that was never found.

Facing the Pallas Athena, is a long hall, filled with statues and busts of the goddess Athena/Minerva, showing her in different poses and dress.

You guessed it, more funerary steles. I was rather surprised to find one more example of this reoccurring theme in Roman culture. It was a surprise to see the similarities in each of these Mediterranean civilizations. Once more, we have the couple, man and wife, side by side, seated as equals, together, facing the afterlife. I think it is an important reminder of the position of the woman in the family structure, not as inferior, but as a partner. And it would seem that each culture added their own touch to this idea.

Stele of Zabdibol and Haggai, Syria 240 c.e.

Mysteries of the Female Figure, Part 1 Ancient World I

Posted on July 5, 2013 by acc1313

During my Paris vacation, I had a lot of fun simply absorbing the atmosphere and being surrounded by art and beautiful things to look at. I wasn’t quite sure how to approach this topic. Women have been a major theme and inspiration in every aspect of art and creation since the dawn of human kind. This topic is rather vast and I didn’t want to do something bland or impersonal. So I decided to go on a “Treasure Hunt” of sorts through the city and different museums to simply record the different women I would encounter, photographing the ones that struck me or spoke to me. And this is how I hope this project will be read, as simply an exploration, a walk through the figures that captured my attention. Enjoy!
(I tried to be as thorough as possible, but some pictures are blurry and some dates are missing, but I still wanted to include the image nevertheless because of its beauty or uniqueness.)

The Ancient World

This ancient sculpture was apparently the stereotype of the female form, made around 6000 bce, this was one of the oldest I found. She has a generous, curvy figure sign of abundance and is comfortably seated with her legs crossed.

Etruscan/Cyclades figures

This figures date back to 2,700 bce from the Island of Keros. We saw similar things in our book, the stylized, recognizable but impersonal figures of these women. They all have the same poses. The museum also mentioned finding very slight paint residue on the Marble faces of these anonymous women.

The Mediterranean Basin in Ancient Times

This funerary stele was moving to me. I saw a lot of funerary art during my couple trips to the Louvre, and it should be a topic on it’s own. These grave markers are a snapshot of past lives, and I found it touching to find this couple, husband and wife, carved in stone side by side for eternity, or at least, as long as the stone would last. Testament to this ancient love. (130-140 C.E. Lebanon)

These figures were magical talismans, promoting protection or healing. They fascinated me since they represented Egyptian, Greek and Semitic deities but in outrageous, caricatural and crude forms. These little figures were meant to attract the anger of supernatural forces being mocked, in order to distract them from plighting the owners instead.

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These intricate female heads caught my eye. They were meant to be bodiless, representing a Greek ritual of sacrificing locks of hair. Little wonder since each and every one has an elaborate and carefully fashioned hair style. Most of these were found in burials, and are assumed to represent the sacrifice of loved ones to insure the safety of the passing soul. They are an appeal and a prayer to female, mother-like deities such as Isis and Aphrodite. (Found in Egypt and dating back to the 2-3rd century c.e.)

This third century bronze embodies a culture much different from ours, where female goddesses were praised, worshiped and depended upon. Here we have a statue, blending the features of Isis and Aphrodite, showing a Mother figure with gentle curves, open arms and a soft smile. The Isis-Aphrodite cult was quite important in the ancient world and spread from Africa to England, all the way up the Middle East, showing a passion and love for the female aspect of the divine.

When God was a Girl

Posted on February 21, 2013 by acc1313

When God was a Girl Bbc Documentary

I watched this documentary last night and found it extremely interesting. It talks about the very beginnings of religions, and how the female aspects of the divine were highly emphasized. It was intriguing to watch since mainstream western religions are so focused on a masculine macho deity. The ancient people recognized the goddess as a strong figure. Females were the givers of life, a creator force. The mother goddess was responsible for the fertility of the land as well as a protector.

What was even more intriguing was the duality found in female deities throughout. They are signs of fertility, birth and protection but also have strong powers over the realms of the dead. This was true in ancient near east cultures, the greeks and romans and even the modern day form of hinduism. The goddess is to be revered, besearched and feared. She is not one to be trifled with.
This was explained by the low survival rate of children. In antiquity, they estimate half of the children died at birth or shortly after. Adding a new dimension to the powers of the mother and the female deities.

This aspect made her especially appealing to the romans. This was surprising to me, since roman society was so bent on masculinity, virility and warfare. And yet in their time of need they turned to a fearsome goddess to protect them.

Then of course, the documentary speaks of how christianity began to take over and the female goddesses became blasphemous and demonic.

This is a series of three. I am greatly anticipating watching the next couple parts.

So take a peek at this series and let me know what you think.

(Once again, Youtube removed this documentary. Copyright is the Bane of my existence…)

What is in a name?

Posted on January 28, 2013 by acc1313

This Figure is quite well known, the “Venus of Willendorf”. It is the most commonly used symbol of prehistoric carvings and sculpture, I’ve seen in several classes throughout the years, museums and documentaries show something similar when explaining art in the pre-history times. So I was not surprised to find a section on her in my current Art History text book. However the story attached to the photo was slightly different this time.

When the statue was first discovered, archeologists had been finding quite a few of these female figurines through out Europe. They called them “Venus” statues. This particular one was found near Wallendorf, Germany and is thought to have been carved around 26,000 years ago. Because one scientist referred to these as Venus statues, the interpretations of what they might symbolize was warped.

Venus was the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility, using her name for these statues implied that they had a religious connotation of some kind, and representing the ideal of womanhood. For years, these figures were thought to be fertility figurines, representing the Mother goddess figure, even though there was no proof. I remember this being the theory I was taught in junior high.

However, new research has moved away from this bias and tried to determine the truth without being swayed by an artificial name. There were two theories in the book that I found particularly compelling. The leading Theory (Clive Gamble), states that these figurines were a form of non verbal communication, some kind of peace token between two tribes that wouldn’t know how to communicate with speech. As symbols these figures would have provided reassurance about shared values about the body, or technique and the small size of these figurines (about 4 inches tall) would have demanded a face to face, close contact in order to exchange them.

The other theory expressed here (from Leroy McDermott) focuses on the exaggerated form of these female figures. they have bulbous extreme proportions and very few have any feet. He argues that the perspective was that of a pregnant woman looking down on herself. This was quite an exciting theory since this would show the origins of female art and offer an intriguing insight of women as artists, in charge of how they were represented.

Quite fascinating when we think about the power of a Name, what it means to us and what it then becomes because of it.
It is a Human Universal trait to name (people, places, things), to attribute a sound (audible symbol) to represent something else. But it’s in the interpretations that every culture differs.

Link

The History of High Heeled shoes and Why men stopped wearing them (link to article here)

For a lover of history and a fan of fashion, this article was fascinating. It touches on a lot of different subjects, explaining how high heels were originally designed as horse riding aids, then became a trend when Europe was infatuated with everything Persian.

There was a quote I liked that claims “One of the best ways that status can be conveyed is through impracticality.” This is apparently how high heels became so wide spread and desirable. The more impractical something is, the posher you look. If you wear something outrageous it just shows that you never have to work in it… or in this case, walk much. I think this statement is true even today. Take a look at our “status” shoes and clothes.

The article continues to explain how heels were the ultimate sign of MANLINESS, and how they only became popular with women during a sort of counter culture fashion trend of women wanting to emulate men.

This whole topic of gender and shoes absolutely fascinated me.

A true MUST read article

An Incredible Book

Posted on January 18, 2013 by acc1313

This National Geographic documentary retraces the history of an incredible manuscript of the 14th century, created by a single man to encompass all of human knowledge. It also contains illustrations of the devil and how to on exorcism, medical cures and botany.

Its a splendid work of art and a great snapshot of the time it was created, but even more interesting his how such a book has survived over 600 years.

Can we say that any of our modern day books will survive that long?

What about e-books? Does having the text of a novel make it enough? Do we loose anything in forfeiting a physical form of a book?

Crumbs of Knowledge

Random snippets of interesting knowledge that tickles my fancy, facts, current events, art, diy, photos, travel experiences and just about anything I can think of.

Tag Archives: history

Pickard Golden Treasure

Time Traveler’s guide to Elizabethan England

Ice Age Art, the Beginning of Everything

Mysteries of the Female Figure, Part 6 The Modern Woman I

Mysteries of the Female Figure, Part 2 Ancient World II

Mysteries of the Female Figure, Part 1 Ancient World I

When God was a Girl

What is in a name?

Link

An Incredible Book

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