Flying Fame weathervane, possibly N.Y., ca. 1880–1890. Copper, zinc, traces of original gold leaf, verdigris. 30 x 31 x 12 inches. Courtesy Jane Katcher Collection of Americana. Photography by Gavin Ashworth
Tall-case clock, New England, ca. 1830. Decoration attributed to George Robert Lawton Sr. (1813–1885). Scituate, Providence County, R.I., ca. 1883. White pine, 30-hour wooden movement, iron hinges and lock, lead pendulum bob. 85 x 17 ¾ x 9¼ inches. Inscribed on dial: “R. Whiting/Winchester”; Stamped on inside of door: “Mary L. Sprague.” Courtesy Jane Katcher Collection of Americana. Photography by Gavin Ashworth
Dressing table, Eastern Connecticut, circa 1750–1770. Maple and white pine, cast brass handles, old resin-based finish, 30¾ × 33½ × 23⅝ inches Courtesy Jane Katcher Collection of Americana. Photography by Gavin Ashworth
Washington Benevolent Society traveling desk box, probably Mass., 1812. Pine, original iron hinges, iron lock, brass drawer knobs, molded brass oval pull on top, brass escutcheon, original painted decoration, initialed and dated in red paint “W.B.S.” “1812” and “N.L.,” with an engraving of George Washington under glass. 10¼ x 22 x 10¾ inches. Courtesy Jane Katcher Collection of Americana. Photography by Gavin Ashworth
Infirmary counter, New Lebanon, New York, circa 1830–1840. White pine, turned maple knobs, original red paint, iron hinges, iron lock, wood spin-latch, 30 × 46 × 22½ inches. Courtesy Jane Katcher Collection of Americana. Photography by Gavin Ashworth
Probably northern New Jersey or New York, circa 1700–1720. Black walnut, eastern white pine, and red pine, old resin-based finish, cast brass pulls with iron cotter pins, iron lock, iron hinges, 33 × 17½ × 9½ inches. Courtesy Jane Katcher Collection of Americana. Photography by Gavin Ashworth
Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence: Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana, Volume II, edited by Jane Katcher, David A. Schorsch and Ruth Wolfe (Yale University Press/Marquand Books, $95),
Review by Joanne Molina
“The acquisition of books is by no means a matter of money or expert knowledge alone. Not even both facts together suffice for the establishment of a real library, which is always somewhat impenetrable and at the same time uniquely itself….Dates, place names, formats, previous owners, bindings and the like: all these details must tell him something—not as dry, isolated facts, but as a harmonious whole…” – Walter Benjamin, Illuminations
To pen a volume of authentic importance is similar to creating a collection of a similar disposition. It is an activity where the reciprocity between the objects acquired and the subject who submits herself to them is asymmetrical, but nevertheless rooted in respect and sincere joy. Half a decade after Jane Katcher’s premiere of Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence (2006), readers will find that her second volume is a journey through one of the most exquisite collections of Americana, its very existence a courageous, captivating snapshot of the social, political and aesthetic realms that create a triptych of the United States. Katcher’s 452-page volume is a monumental achievment and a necessary addition for those truly interested in the life forces that have produced the decorative arts and antiques—as well as the multiethnic and richly textured history - of the United States.
With nearly 100 recent collection acquisitions illustrated with 417 color images, it might have been easier to craft a book that solely resembled an annotated catalog. Instead, in these 20 chapters, 19 writers and scholars have joined Katcher in addressing a spectrum of questions and curiosities regarding several items in the collection with their essays. There is, of course, a catalog at the end of the volume, but one that is beautifully mediated by Katcher’s chapter “Connections,” and followed by a list of auctioneers, dealers and former owners.
As Robert W. Wilkins states so pointedly in this essay, "Innovation and Refinement in Shaker Design: An Analysis of Five Objects" : “As the highest compliment that can be paid to anything manmade, all too frequently, ‘masterpiece,’ is asserted, with little or no attempt at justification, or to address the begged question, “Why?” What is it about these five pieces that sets them apart from the merely ‘good’ or even from the truly ‘excellent”? How, exactly, do they reflect the inspired genius of their creators? What makes them so very beautiful?”
To answer these questions means more than offering slick imagery coupled with affective commentary—it means a serious but nevertheless entertaining and emotional commitment to understanding objects. As Katcher describes in her introduction, “…Rather [this book] is a sampling that illuminates my new perspective on collecting…. Some of [the authors’ investigations] have unraveled mysteries about the men, women and children who created these works. In other instances, research has provided fresh and captivating accounts of the early American families who first owned the intriguing possessions that led us, often after considerable inquiry, to their front doors.” Each of the three main sections, “Family, Makers, and Interpretations,” offer compelling discussions that rival any imaginary life ascribed to objects by the onslaught of advertising and advertorial pages in the twenty and twenty-first centuries (crafting fictional stories about objects is hardly a new concept).
One of the best examples of this is Robert Shaw’s essay, " Dat So Lee and Her Baskets." Shaw not only offers the historic and social background that informed the work of Native American basket maker So Lee (who was called “Dubuda” [little willow in her native Washoe] but preferred to be called Louise Keyser after marrying Charles Keyser in 1889). But Shaw doesn’t simply offer biographical details or praise the beauty of her work. He gives details about the modes of cultural production that allowed her work to become visible and popular in the public eye.
Shaw explains how her job as a laundress for Amy Cohen, the wife of the owner of an emporium of men’s clothing, led to the promotion and sale of her work during a time when “museums and wealthy collectors were eagerly gathering examples of Indian craftsmanship, old and new, as artifacts of a vanished age and a vanished race.” With colonization and the mythology of the ‘noble savage’ in the forefront of the American imagination, Cohen developed a marketing strategy for Keyser’s work: a completely fabricated past that played to the affects of consumers and collectors—as if her technical aptitude and authentic personal history weren’t ‘enough.’ According to Shaw, Amy Cohen “claimed that Dat So Lee had been born in 1834, well before whites came to the region and at least 15 years earlier than her actual birth date…. described [her] as a medicine woman and the daughter of the Washoe’s highest chief and further explained that her status as an Indian princess gave the exclusive right to make degikup [baskets.]” Using excerpts from books, such as The History of Nevada (1913) and the seminal 1904 book Aboriginal American Basketry written by the curator of the Smithsonian’s Division of Ethnology, Shaw also paints a portrait that illuminates how Lee’s work achieved its popularity during the end of the 19th century—a time when “the conquest of Native America was complete.” Shaw’s brilliantly written essay reveals what he aptly called Keyer’s “Faustian bargain:” the Janus-face of being Native American in the 19th and early 20th centuries and a master craftsperson and artist—a struggle that exists to this day in the cultural imagination.
Another of Shaw’s essays, “A Fame Weathervane,” offers a similar genealogy of the use of the “fame” motif in decorative arts history, but more specifically in reference to the “Flying Fame Weathervane” (circa 1880-90). Robin Jaffee Frank’s essay “ ‘Forget Me Not:’ James H. Gillespie’s Portraits of an African American Couple,” offers an equally profound and important analysis of the connection between art, politics, race and nationalism. Truly, every essay offers a similar evocation of passion, intelligence and reflection.
Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence is a volume that all serious books about the decorative arts should aspire to. Its visual narrative and written cadence create a sentimental journey accompanied by the most necessary of traveling companions: thoughtfulness and critical reflection.
For more information please visit: The Yale University Press
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