By: centraljersey.com
The Historical Society of Princeton will present its sixth annual event Sept. 25 and 26, managed by Frank Gaglio of Barn Star Productions. A preview gala will be held Sept. 24 to kick off the weekend festivities. All proceeds from the show fund the Society’s core mission activities, including its rotating exhibitions, educational programs for children and families, and collections care.
Barbara Webb, HSP’s director of development, says more than 20 dealers are new to the show this year and select exhibitors will give "Passion for Collecting" booth talks. Jennifer Jang, HSP’s curator of education, has put together a self-guided treasure hunt for children ages 7 to 12.
"What we’re trying to do is encourage young families to come and not be afraid to bring children," Ms. Webb says. "And the dealers really appreciate it – it’s important for them to have a younger buying audience, and often those are individuals who still have young children at home. They love to teach about what they collect and offer for sale."
Suzanne Perrault, head of cataloguing at Rago Arts and Auction Center in Lambertville and co-director of its department of 20th-century design, will give an inside look at the Robert A. Ellison American Art Pottery Collection during her talk "A Roving Eye" Sept. 25. The esteemed collection, installed last year in the New American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, represents all regions of the nation and spans the years 1876 through 1956.
Ms. Perrault and business partner/husband David Rago, founder of the auction house, have known and sold items to Mr. Ellison for decades. They are also private dealers who appear at antique shows nationally and receive clients by appointment. "We have sold to Bob a great many of these pieces that he has in his collection and that he has put up at the Met," says Ms. Perrault, an expert appraiser for the hit PBS series Antiques Roadshow, where she specializes in decorative ceramics and porcelain.
"He donated about 300 pieces from about 10,000," Ms. Perrault says. "These are all very special pieces, but they are highlights and some of his very best."
One piece in particular that touches Ms. Perrault is a stoneware and leaded glass lamp, made by Fulper Pottery Company in Flemington around 1915. "It’s fabulous, quirky and campy," she says, adding that it’s the only such lamp she’s ever seen. Of the copious amount of Fulper pieces Rago Arts has sold over the years, many have been lamps, which are not only significantly more collectable and desirable than the company’s vases but a lot rarer. "To find a shade and base that were meant to be together is twice as hard," she says of the piece, which has early autos painted on the shade.
Mr. Ellison, a resident of New York City, began collecting in the early 1960s as an artist with a great eye and very little information to consult. Ms. Perrault says there might have been one book on American art pottery at the time, and most people had little knowledge on the subject until Paul Evans’ Art Pottery of the United States: An Encyclopedia of Producers and Their Marks was published in 1974.
The collection features works by the major American potters, like Grueby, Newcomb, Rookwood and Marblehead, as well as lesser-known but historically significant potters, with objects ranging from vessels to plaques, lamps and vases.
A major highlight of the collection is work by renowned potter George E. Ohr, an artist far ahead of his time who made pieces so abstract and sculptural, Ms. Perrault says some viewers think they look like kiln mistakes. "He would throw the pieces so thinly and crush the shapes and make shapes no one else was making," she says.
Mr. Ellison started collecting Orh’s pieces right away, recognizing their value before Ohr became a known collectable. Now, works by Ohr cost a fortune and are nearly impossible to find, Ms. Perrault says. "His vision was unlike anyone else’s and Bob Ellison got that very early on."