AFA Summer 2018

2018 Antiques & Fine Art 125 not seem to be unique. Beauport, the Sleeper- McCann House in Gloucester, Massachusetts, for instance, features a fan light and two sidelights set with cup plates. It has not been confirmed, however, if these lights are original configurations from an earlier house or were fabricated as decorative elements by Henry Sleeper, a friend of A.B. Wells, who would have likely been aware of the Clay examples in the Wells home. Additionally, the Old Sturbridge Village research file for the windows notes that “[h]ouses in Chaplin and Weathersfield, Conn. have related transom lights, much less elaborate, in place.” These claims, however, have not been verified. The tradition of honoring political and military subjects on domestic tableware extends at least as far back as the seventeenth century, as is seen on English delftware chargers and plates depicting Charles I, Charles II, and William III. 4 Widespread availability of politically imbued consumer goods was not realized, however, until the first half of the nineteenth century. With the advent of new technologies and techniques brought about by industrialization, artisans, craftspeople, and merchants were able to produce on a broad scale, and at varying price points, everyday domestic objects exhibiting political support for a specific individual, group, or established set of ideas. The Henry Clay cup plates produced by the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company during the second quarter of the nineteenth century are just such objects, and their unique implementation as architectural ornament at the Pease House in Somers, Connecticut, undoubtedly made a strong political statement about the convictions of the owners during the turbulent decades leading up to the American Civil War. Thanks to the voracious collecting habits of A.B. Wells, and his keen eye for collecting New England artifacts, these windows provide a glimpse into the nation’s rich and varied past. I would like to thank the staff at Old Sturbridge Village for their assistance with this article, especially Shelley Cathcart who unearthed much of the material presented here. Also thanks to Will Kimbrough for his suggestions. Fig. 4: The Pease House, Somers, Conn., ca. 1840. Photograph by Caitlin Emery Avenia. Fig. 5: “Great room,” 1927 addition to the A. B. Wells residence, Southbridge, Mass. Courtesy Old Sturbridge Village Research Library, Wells Collection. A lecture on the windows will be presented at Old Sturbridge Village on Saturday, August 11th at 11:00 a.m. in the Visitor Center Theater. Price to the lecture is included with Village admission. Visit www.osv.org for more information.  Jeffrey S. Evans is president, senior auctioneer, and American glass expert, at Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates in Mt. Crawford, VA. He is recognized as an authority on the decorative arts and material cultural of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, having written a number of books and curated exhibitions on the subject. 1. All are in the collection of OSV except for one of the two side lights, which is in the collection of the Corning Museum of Glass. 2. This variation is designated as No. 566-B in Ruth Webb Lee and James H. Rose, American Glass Cup Plates (1948). Of the eight variations recorded by Lee and Rose, this is the rarest. 3. The Wells home still stands at 176 Main Street in Southbridge, Mass., although no longer a residence. It was designed by Daniel H. Burnham of Evanston, Ill., whose daughter Ethel married A. B. Wells in 1900. 4. Michael Archer, Delftware in the Fitzwilliam Museum (London: Philip Wilson, 2013), 4–12.