55th Annual Delaware Show

reflect the continued presence of British and international design vocabularies in American-made materials. George Wyon’s trade catalogue allows its readers to view composition ornament in a form untouched by years of overpainted surfaces, chipped edges, and grime-filled crevices. It also speaks to the importance of design books and trade catalogues as vehicles for transmitting styles and motifs throughout the world in a pre-internet era, highlighting in particular the ideas adopted into an American design vocabulary . . . even in the remote corners of Winterthur. 1 “New in the Library: George Wyon’s catalogue of composition ornament,” Winterthur Library News (Winter 2016). 2 The eight pages of chimneypieces and composition ornament correspond to the Jaques and Son price list on page five of the section. Annotations on those pages do not always match George Wyon’s handwriting found on previous pages; see Jaques and Son introductory panel in the Wyon trade catalogue. 3 Wyon notes that the illustrations in his catalogue were received “from himself,” meaning Thorp. Thorp’s occupation is assumed based on the introductory panel “Directory for Using Thorp’s Composition . . . a collection of the best models of different artists as well as his own works, and those under his direction.” 4 Geoffrey W. Beard, Decorative Plasterwork in Great Britain (London: Phaidon Press Ltd., 1975), 16−17. 5 Mark Reinberger, Utility and Beauty: Robert Wellford and Composition Ornament in America. Studies in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Art and Culture (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2003), 13. 6 James Butland ad, Pennsylvania Evening Post, and Daily Advertiser (December 16, 1783). http://infoweb.newsbank.com.udel.idm.oclc.org/ 7 More information on Wellford’s mantelpiece (acc. no. 1969.4067) can be found through Winterthur’s online collection database. 8 The mantelpiece in Lake Erie Hall supposedly has Wellford’s signature; the one in McIntire Room came from Wellford’s house in Philadelphia; for attributions and a catalogue of Wellford’s work, see Reinberger, Utility and Beauty, App. 1C, 154. Elizabeth Humphrey is a Lois F. McNeil Fellow in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. — 112 —

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