The Silver Twin's ...Place... In New England Decorative Art - Part Two - "Aware Sense"

The Silver Twin's ...Place...

In New England Decorative Art

Part Two

"Aware Sense"

            The family name; “Silver”, must be explained.  Originally, during the Colonial Wars, 1750-1760, the male head of household was “an Armstrong”.  Of... English... Colonial... ‘settler’ ‘family’ in the “Dover (New Hampshire) area”.  By the Revolutionary War decade, the Armstrong Colonial settlement family had dispersed ‘along the coast’ (north of Boston) with this settlement dispersial including a ‘handful’ of ‘young’ Armstrongs who were in ‘military service’ in the ‘interior’ of

            Maine territory

            North to the St. Lawrence River and “into” Canada.

            One of them ‘coming back’ (from Canada) came back in the winter on snowshoes with his Native American wife, an “Indian Princess”... it was always told.  She, of “Great Lakes” “Huron” (?), came south, on snowshoes, in the winter, from Canada, “to Maine”.  She, not speaking English and being

            Among those English who could not read and write nor communicate in any Native American “tongue” found the mutually adopted title (name) given her of “SILVER” to be the awkward-but-it-works “NAME” of “HER”.

            This “Silver”; her name, came from her being a Native American woman who, of her dress, wore “silver”.  What this ‘silver’ was ...WAS true silver metal.  The ‘silver’ was small (one inch or one half inch diameter) round open circle (“trade”) “ring brooches”; little (tiny) silver “trade” pins... that were gathered by barter and ‘pinned’ on clothing, usually as decoration AND as display of wealth.  Little rows of silver ring brooch pins.  Having MANY and MANY MORE ‘pinned’; the ‘more rich’ one is.  A ‘few only’ means ‘not rich’?  No.  Few is what most ‘had’.  So... there come... “Silver”.  “She” from her silver trade brooch hoard, pinned on her clothes for display, became the ‘title’ (name) “Silver”.  And of her husband too.  Because... “SILVER”...; everyone understood who this was; who these people called “Silver” were.  That is that; how “Silver” of “Silver Hill” at the top of “Silver Hill Road” and the “Silver Twins Place” (farm).

            Came to be titled.

            This Native American silver name source tale too... helps to explain this Silver homestead settlement... by qualifying.  “Expectations” are explained meaning that for this family to ‘settle’ ‘there’ and ‘homestead’ as a family there, with the ‘very little’ and ‘very small’ (Part One) was not, in fact, “that”.  The homestead settlement was actually perceived to be ‘very big’ and to have ‘a lot’.  It is ‘expectations’ that determined the perceptions of ‘qualify’.  Does this affect the “Silver Twins... place... in New England Decorative art?

            Yes it does, especially if one is perceptive enough to acknowledge that ‘these people’ actually felt themselves to be ‘very well off’.

            What am I going to do now (these days)?  Should I get a metal detector and hunt the Silver Twin’s place site in a wilderness effort to “FIND” a one half inch silver trade brooch dropped and lost on the hillside site in the mid 1770’s?  I know people who ‘do that’.  They would ‘do that’.  They would

            Find that?

            I don’t think so.

            I did know one of those idiots to “FIND” the “SITE” of the (maple syrup) “SAP HOUSE”.  He “FOUND” a “BURIED” clump of mold cast lead sap spiles... just off the lower left corner of the ‘pasture’ (Part One) just past the “break” in the stonewall and ‘into the woods’

            “IT (the ‘sap house’) MUST HAVE BEEN RIGHT THERE”.  For the well over one hundred and fifty years that it was

            “Used”.

            Addressing the sap... spiles... I ...open up a view for you (Part One).  This buried clump of cast lead (pot metal?) is a ‘came up the hill’ (manufactured and imported) design form that came from a ‘went down the hill’ raw natural resource (cut down trees) that was bartered.  These spiles, too, are ‘late’ in the homestead’s settlement (1880-1920’s).  Before... and from the ‘earliest’ settlement period... maple sap gathering to produce ‘maple products’ (syrup and sugar)... the “TREES” were “TAPPED” and upon each tapped tree, a ...carved (whittled) wood... (legend favors ‘maple wood’; the ‘maple touching maple’ legend school of maple syrup purity, but my working discoveries of hand carved wooden sap spile hoards show white pine as the ‘usually used’ wood)... spile was inserted into the tree to ... drain the sap into the sap collection “bucket”.  What kind of wood or even the ‘they are wooden sap spiles’ are NOT my denotations here.  What is my notice is that the hand carved wooden spiles come from the ‘made right here’ group (Part One) of homestead settlement design forms:  A homestead tree was ‘tapped’ and a single hand whittled wooden sap spile was inserted in the tap hole and... the tapping man moved to the next tree and repeated the action.  After ‘sap season’ the spiles were collected (the hole plugged) and they, as a cluster were ‘put away’ until ‘next season’.  These wooden spiles, one for each tapped tree, were carved ‘together’ so sort of ‘look alike’ (show the carver’s hand).  “NEAT HUH”.  

Well... expand the view.  This carved sap spile cluster was... used for years (decades) with only minor supplemental influence... THAT IS VISIBLE TO THE KNOWING ‘design sensitive’ EYE (“aware sense”) right away.  For example, a ‘broken’ or ‘lost’ spile was replaced, usually ‘in the field’ by a whittled replacement... often times made decades after the original spile was carved AND this replacement often was carved by someone of several generations ‘later’; a ‘different hand’.  DO YOU SEE that I am saying that in addition to being a ‘made from there now’ homestead design form that TOO... this design form alters through time and the alterations are visible to the eye when one inspects the cluster of ‘old hand carved wooden sap spiles’ “FOUND” in an old New England homestead?

            At the moment of writing this essay, I have no cluster of old whittled wooden sap spiles that I have found in an old New England homestead... to show off the homestead whittled design form cluster.  I have found many clusters and... sold them all.  I sell them after looking at them... all.  This last ...is... ‘just for me’.  Most ‘do not’ ...any of this.  I advise.

            Helping me today is a similar cluster of homestead wooden ware that, although of a much later era, does ‘do the same thing’ when one is looking at it and looking for design, art, design influence, art design type, singular art design expression and... a wholeness of aura of all that upon such New England homestead clusters.  It is a very simple design form too so this allows one to ‘get it’; understand the broader applications... more easily... I hope.

            I present an “old” coffee can, a ‘pre-zip code’ vintage 1950-60’s Maxwell House “Good to the Last Drop” two pound “coffee can” (no lid) filled with FIFTY ‘wooden clothespins’.  I found this ...classic design form... relic... in an estate contents clean out.  I knew what it was right away so... did not only not throw it out but sensitively preserved it for ME... as what it is...; a real true expression of old New England homestead ‘estate contents’.

            What this is... is what exactly it is:  A ...probably 1950’s New England housewife’s “TIN” of “CLOTHESPINS” that she used to “HANG OUT THE LAUNDRY” outside in the yard.  FIFTY clothespins.  Many “alike” but some odd wooden ones too AND some ‘newer’ wooden ones TOO and... all together in HER CAN that she used so was “the way I have it”; an expression that becomes an art expression within the design forms of coffee cans (coffee cans have a one hundred and fifty year design history) and clothespins (having too the same design history length... if not longer) inclusive of her tweaking her design during the several decades (many decades) she ...and/or... later generations USED THEM.  I may empty the coffee tin, sort and line up the clothespins, commercially evaluate them and... only too...

            SUDDENLY REALIZE THAT THIS WHOLE “THEY” (clothespins in the can) is their true expression; true human expression (having humanity AND humility), when... and only when... the pins and the tin are together... “as she intended” them.  Am I saying this unit is art?

            YES.

            DO YOU GET IT (see it)?

            It is not a big design recognition leap but this leap opens up a very broad view plane (Part One) when one looks at ‘old New England homestead design, it’s history and heritage.

            I am saying that here one finds a woman’s expression of her humanity by her ‘combine’ art design (tin and clothespins) ‘signiture’.  Of HER.  Through her.

            Coffee can filled with her (50) clothes pins.  Can I bring you a more wondrous art gift?

            NO.

            The old coffee can filled with clothespins becomes beautiful... and stunning

            Art.

            I will now take this ‘aware sense’ back to the Silver Twin’s homestead and look around to see more of the homestead’s ... singular... place... in New England Decorative Art.

            But one final notice on the whittled wooden sap spiles.  How many “did he make”?  How many whittled wooden sap spiles did (does) one man make in his life time?  One man whittles one spile for one tree... once ... with that crafting only ‘supplemented’ over ...six or seven... subsequent generations of ‘one man’ who, too, use those same spiles.  So... one man whittles sap spiles that are used by seven men over ...seven generations.  This establishes ‘sacristy’... obviously... but too... reveals ‘actual production’.  The actual production of ‘things’ found in old New England homesteads that are, too, New England Decorative Art... is an important

            “Aware Sense”

            For one to self-develop

            Too.

The Silver Twin's ...Place... In New England Decorative Art - Part One - "Rutted Path"

The Silver Twin's

...Place...

In New England Decorative Art

Part One

"Rutted Path"

The Silver Twins lived in their rural Maine ancestral homestead (built in 1792).  The homestead was locally titled “The Silver Twin’s Place”.  It was a “farm” at the top of the “Silver Hill Road”  The homestead had the top of “Silver Hill” behind it.  The homestead had an open and clear downhill view to the east-southeast.  What that “eastern” view plane created was a supple fading of light at the farm each afternoon as the sun ‘passed’ to the west and ‘caught’ the top of Silver Hill.  The south eastern view with its dawn and ‘sunrise’ upon the homestead was “always” “brilliant”.  This has been so for the past two hundred years, including the first decades (1792-1812) required to “open” this view.  This ‘opened’ view is still open as I write.

            In 1792, at the bottom Silver Hill Road, was the ‘center of the village’ “of then”.  This consisted of three primitive and small one-man-self-made “saw mills”... on a very small “stream” the was called a “brook”.  That brook then was... and still is... pathetically small to one of today’s vision to be accepted as ‘being big enough to run’... a ...saw ...mill.  These mills, the center of the ‘of then’ village, were at a crossroad that consisted of the “road” ‘passing through’ (the mill village) along one side of the ‘brook’ with a second ‘road’ joining it from the right where this second ‘road’ “crossed” the ‘brook’... at where the three ‘mills’ stood.  This road, going east away from the brook... “went up” (hill) to that hill’s top where... one found... three homesteads ‘in sight’.  This ‘road’ was not a ‘road’ much past the base of this hill.  It was first a ‘path’ and then, by 1792, had become a ‘rutted path’.  The ruts were caused by the oxen hauling the ‘milled lumber’ up the path to the top of the hill to build the homesteads that were ‘up there’.

            This milled lumber was not hauled ‘in a wagon’.  The village did not have ‘a wagon’.  The lumber was ‘skidded’ ‘up hill’ on a ‘sledge’.  Sort of.  Hence... the ruts... on the path... that caused this path to be considered to ‘be enough’ to be ‘a road’ (‘going east’).  Sort of.

            The ‘road passing through’ following the ‘brook’ and passing by the mill village followed the ‘brook’ “down” to “the river” that was “nearly a mile below”.  This river was ‘big’ so before one came to it on this road one came to a crossroad again where paths that were, too, rutted enough by oxen to be considered fair to title as roads... went... “WEST” or “EAST” and had a “PATH” “down to the river ahead” “TOO”.  

Back at the mill village crossroad... the “mill hill” road crossed the ‘road passing through’ and started, across that intersection, up hill.  There this path... that became a ‘road’, was titled “Silver Hill Road” and “went up hill” to the top of the Silver Hill Road where one found the Silver Twin’s homestead just below the top of Silver Hill.

            The Silver Twins; twin sisters, were born in 1886.  They were born on the family’s Silver Hill Farm in a small room in the ‘house’.  They were the first... and only... ‘Silver Twins’.  Before them came ‘their family’ who ‘settled the hill’ with this beginning several decades before 1792.  The 1792 date is “WHEN” “the house” “was finished”.  To this day there is little else ‘up there’; ‘upon’, ‘up’ and ‘over’ Silver Hill and... Silver Hill Road.  “The view” from “Silver Hill” (meaning Silver Hill Farm) is about all of Silver Hill and its road that anyone speaks of ‘anymore’.  In fact, with the “forest” “came back” after it being fully “cut” in the Nineteenth Century... including the “TOP” of Silver Hill (“I CAN REMEMBER WHEN THAT WAS BARE”)... one hears the words “glimpse the view” (from Silver Hill) as an accurate evaluation as to “HOW” the Silver Hill Farm view “is holding up”.  In the end; at the end of this missive, the Silver Twin’s homestead is ‘gone’ and “the forest” “grown up”.

            There are two aspects of ‘small’ about the Silver Twin’s Place I need to treat.  First, the ‘house’ (the homestead structure including its shed extension and barn) were ‘small’.  The house was a twenty-six foot square ‘house’ with a first floor as living space and the ‘up under the eves’ “unfinished” “attic” for storage and for “children” to “sleep”.  Over the two centuries of usage, this never changed.  The shed was a ‘walk though’ enclosure going to the barn.  The barn was twenty-four feet wide by thirty-six feet long.  It was never altered or ‘extended’.  It was ‘finished’ “in 1808”.  “They say”.

            Below the ‘farm’ buildings was the (cleared) “field” or “pasture”.  This was nearly two acres of hill top scant and rock filled “soil”.  The “field” was “for hay” with a family’s kitchen garden at the uphill end before the homestead.  One must understand that “THIS” was “IT”.  It is easiest to understand that, as a ‘farm’, the Silver Twin’s Place was, in total... “very small”.

            If they (the family) ‘grew corn’ it was very little corn that they used themselves.  Hay was ‘very little’ too.  Everything that ‘grew’ was ‘very little’.  “Very little” means ‘not even enough for the family’.  But it ‘had to be’ “enough”.  So it was.  For two hundred years.

            This (“very little” and “very small”) is where one may first broach the notion... and sense of scale... of the Silver Twin’s... place... in New England decorative art.  At the hill top, at the homestead, at the top of the rutted path “road”; at this top of up hill on The Silver Hill Road, in the eighteenth century... did New England decorative art... have ‘sense of scale’ “even there”?

            Yes.

            Even modest beginning; the ‘opening’ of the ‘view”... IS an

            Early New England decorative... art.

            The homestead, of course, “too”.

            The rutted path called “road”?

            Absolutely of a man’s hand in New England... made.

            The

            Need to receive these notions further... deeper; to feel this ‘it’

            Oneself.

            Embrace, wrap arms, hug

            This peculiar true

            May you?

            Is it this... rutted mud primitive...

            The

            New England decorative art?

            Why don’t I open this view

            For you.

            The first absolute rule of New England design that affected the Silver Twin’s place was.... “what goes down creates what comes up”.  This means that what went DOWN the Silver Hill Road from the homestead directly determined what came UP to the homestead.  And I have established that we are speaking of ‘very small, very little’.  If there could be a ‘something’ to go DOWN then possibly there could be something come UP to the homestead.  What, then, could go DOWN?

            Trees... cut down trees... COULD go down... and it was (is still) ALL DOWN HILL.  A cut down tree COULD go down to the mill village at the bottom of the hill.  This COULD ... BE... DONE.  There (“down there”) the cut down tree could be sawed in to lumber and:

            Hauled back UP to the homestead... to build a homestead and ‘a barn’.

            Or it could be ‘bartered’ for

            Foremost at a settlement homestead... iron... tools.  A pot.  A pan. A blade.

            An axe

            A scythe.

            And not much more.

            “A kettle?”

            “OK that too”.  But:

            How well did this go?  This trade of cut down trees and iron.  Go?  It was ‘very small’ and ‘very little’.  And always on the rutted path called ‘road’.

            “I did not think we could get this far.  But we have and you’ve

            Opened up the view.  Too.  Dear”.

            Who is “Dear”?

            Who opens a view?

            Of course there could be too... “Things” from the cut down trees ‘right there’ (made right there and then on site)  Does that be too...

            New England decorative art?

            “COULD BE... I suppose.  But not of any finery... could be it

            I suppose”.

            Be not sure... be ye... of thee... sure of that be ‘could be’

            And be ye could be ‘that be art’.  Too?  Up hill on a rutted path?

            Find alone the view plane?  The homestead door is open now and

            Not fastened by an iron latch.

            Its wooden handle is ‘made’ “right there”.

Canary Lustre - Part Three - "These Days... Darlings"

Canary Lustre

Part Three

"These Days... Darlings"

            It; “old” ...Transferware... Canary (lustre) “china”, is

            “Certainly NOT!”

            In any way

            At all...

            From the New England antiquarian’s vantage...

            An

            “Of bad taste”.

            This is the confusion of this point?

            Pretty much.

            And also oddly...

            This includes the “lustre” (“luster”) too for

            With this “these” (transferware canary) one does find lustre applied

            By hand (painted); usually “banding”.

            “OK?”

            Now-then... the this third confusion dissected:

            “Isn’t transferware nice” is the setting and

            It is

            “Nice”.

            But this essay is not about “nice”... transferware.

            Transfers are, actually, a decorative expedient that allowed for

            Quicker... cheaper... decoration of the... canary yellow field earthenware blank.

            A transfer is a decal... snipped by... and applied by... from a sheet

            Of same; “Use ALL of the transfers on one sheet before starting

            The next sheet”.

            Snip, snip, snip and then

            Break for lunch.

            The lustre decorative banding is applied at the ‘finish’; after the transfer has been

            Transferred

            To the blank.

            Not much to it (actual lustre paint)... as hand painted decoration... when ‘compared’

            To the vibrant hand painted ‘mantel china’.  Does that explain that?

            This?

            Not quite but... well... the etiquette is that one is ‘ok’ having a transferware canary specimen if it is ‘slipped in’ amongst the ‘a good one’ (hand painted Canary).  That means the transfer canary MAY be included in the collection TOO but ... the one who knows... knows... too... ‘only after’ the vibrant hand painted Canary is “already there”.

            More confusion... allowing for bad taste found in the midst of good taste?  I suppose it “seems so”.  It will take a while for one to, with china-on-mantel, “get this far” (with ones collection) that the taste-tweak among one’s Canary on the Mantel ‘is needed’.  One CAN get that far with this... and if you do you will know... “raw-exactly”... what I am speaking of.

            Subtle and sophisticated it is... over decades ‘of collecting’.

            To make this even more:  Transfer canary is found on traditional yellow blanks such as tea service ..ware.  But...:  It is MOST COMMONLY FOUND on the yellow (mold cast) blanks (with ‘applied handles’) known generally amongst antiquarians as “Child’s”... “Mugs”.  This is flawlessly important to understand for this is the... principal form... of Transferware Canary Lustre (soft paste earthenware) one is going to ... “SEE”, “FIND”, “HAVE”, “KEEP” and/or the “SEE” of each of those TOO.  For example one will ‘see’ a child’s mug being ‘keep’.  Understand that a ‘canary’ ‘child’s mug’ is a ‘your’ best chance of ‘find’ of all of this Canary china... on any given day

            In any given way.

            Stop ...a moment... and get.... this... clear.  I am writing before you of a good taste etiquette of old New England domestic china.  I have presented a rather well ‘not known’ form; “Canary” “Soft Paste”, hand paint decorated... as being an obscure ‘best’ on the mantels of old (school) New England décor (“off to the side”).  Now I am coming back in writing by introducing the “OF VERY GOOD TASTE” canary soft paste transferware child’s mug BUT I am qualifying that by saying that these delightful and charming mugs are steps down in decorum and ...taste... due to their actual design features... when stood up against the hand painted.  SO.... I am knit (nit) picking among a very high order of ...very good... ‘in very good taste’ too... old New England ‘china’.  I say right here that this I am writing of... NEEDS to be understood if one is to be truly participating ‘of this’ sophisticated  New England domestic china taste.  IF... this is ‘seems lost’ on one... then one... may be better off pushing a shopping cart around a home décor box store and ‘going that way’ and... LEAVING THIS to the ‘that’ (New England decorative arts)... “I care about”.  AND... that is what happens ANYWAY... with or without YOU.

            Back to the expostulation.  The mugs are, in design, less art crafted.  They, too, are plentiful... actually abundant...:  They were popular when made, popular ever after, preserved, protected, collected and today... commercially ‘around’.  They are wonderful but they are too... a few steps down the ladder; their decoration is an applied pre-made decal.  That is the third point of confusion;  applied decal transfer or hand painted decoration.  Notice the difference.  “I do”.

            A little more about Canary... Lustre... transferware child’s mugs.  Age:  the early ones are best; the ‘egg shell’ fine mold casting as apposed to the heavier ‘later’ (1830) ones.  Form:  Early cylinder ‘egg shell’ as opposed to the later ‘coffee mug feel’.  Transfer; rust-red is best with black an ‘okay’ and other colors mostly ‘no’.  Rust-Red on a large, detailed, crisp transfer Canary mug:  “Nice”.  No lustre... just rust-red... is ‘best’ That is ‘earlier’.  And:  Not too many in one’s ‘my collection’; be very... very selective.  And again understand; these Canary mugs are considered to be VERY GOOD TASTE.  They ‘are on the cover of the book’ grade.  ONE (a single specimen) is FINE as a whole collection.  KNOWING all this ‘when you see it’ IS just FINE...  as a whole collection.  All of this is NOT easy to see.  When one ‘knows’ one WILL KNOW when one is “SEEING IT”.  IF... one finds self before “Canary”... on the mantel (in an old New England home)... KNOW IT... and show your... good taste.

            Some bad taste?  FRENCH soft paste has ‘Canary’ too.  It is not the same.  Usually it is Empire (Josephine) Style in black transfer.  Very Empire in style.  If one knows that, this is denoted in seconds of a glance.  What makes that easier?

            This is really cool.

            In Old New England a ‘foreign made’ (not English) stands right out.  Due to scarcity... of the English made ware.  The English antiquarians do not and never did like the Canary hand painted ‘china’.  Nope.  “NOT” their “TASTE”.  So don’t go looking for it in their reference books.  It... is what they consider (title) “Peasant Pottery”.  ‘For the lower classes’.  And “America”.  So... ‘only in New England’.  Take that you nasty mantel decorating Yankees.  Just as the English abhor the New England ‘taste’ for their ‘dark blue’ (Staffordshire Transferware) they too... abhor “Canary”.  But with Canary... one finds the English mentioning... nothing about it at all.  It IS the swept under the carpet of peasant pottery ‘old New England’.  That’s right; peasant pottery and... one is lucky to SEE even a Canary child’s mug “For A Good Girl” “EVER”...  Should one happen upon a ‘Canary’ on the mantel... in an old school New England home... that is a rare sighting

            These days.

            Darlings.

            “Oh I... didn’t know... you know.”

            She said.

            “Most don’t know...

            And never will know...

            You know.

            But, of course, that does not matter

            To them.”

            “Ouch.” I said.

            “I know... and you do (know) too.”