Though art museums have traditionally separated the fine arts from the decorative arts, tending to devalue the latter, the incredible artistry involved in their creation and the resulting beauty have recently prompted many institutions to revisit that policy. The R.W. Norton Art Gallery has long valued the craftsmanship and artistic vision that produced many of the finest decorative arts, amassing collections in the area of glass, porcelain, and silver.

One of our visitors’ favorites among these is the Norton’s collection of Steuben glass, one of the largest in the country. The discovery of glassblowing sometime between 27 B.C. and 14 A.D. in the Sidon-Babylon area made possible the luminous beauty of the Steuben glass in the 20th century. Steuben is an American company whose origins begin with the talented Frederick Carder (1863-1963). Having begun his career as a glassmaker in England while still only a teenager, he teamed with American Thomas Hawkes in 1903 to start a glass factory in Steuben County, New York – the Steuben Glass Works. The company was sold to Corning Glass works in 1918. In 1932, a technological breakthrough resulted in a special kind of crystal unique to Steuben called “10M” glass. It is so refractive and pure that it allows the entire light spectrum to flow through the glass, including the ultraviolet range. Over the years, Steuben has hired an outstanding array of artists to design its glass pieces, including bowls, plates, art objects, and the famous Steuben animals. Among the best known of these are Lloyd Atkins, who produced some of the classic animal designs, Paul Schulze, whose work is influenced by Modernist sculpture, and, perhaps the most famous, Sidney Waugh, who designed a number of important plates, goblets, sculptures, and the classically timeless Gazelle Bowl.

A more practical, while also beautiful, form of glass is the Norton’s 19th century pressed glass collection. This was produced by two different American companies, Gillinder and Sons and the Central Glass Company. Gillinder and Sons produced two of the patterns: the “Westward Ho!” series and the “Africa” series. “Westward Ho!” uses decorative motifs including covered wagons, log cabins, and Native Americans, while “Africa” is embellished with lions, crocodiles, and other African wildlife elements. The company was established in 1861, but came to prominence in 1876 when they produced glass souvenirs on site at the Philadelphia Centennial Celebration, including a Cinderella slipper that became their most popular item. The Central Glass Company of Wheeling, West Virginia was established in 1863, but almost came to grief in 1892 when they issued the coin pattern found in our collection. For it, the company produced exact pressed replicas of U.S. coins dated 1892. The coins were so accurate that the government was afraid the plates used to make them could be used for counterfeit coins. They ordered production halted and the plates destroyed after only 5 months of manufacture.

The Norton also has some outstanding examples of porcelain, including examples from one of the most famous names in the field – Wedgwood. Born into a pottery-making family, Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) proved to be a genius in his field, conducting thousands of experiments that produced new forms of pottery. His first success was a new earthenware with a special glaze that caught the eye of Queen Charlotte and became known as Queen’s Ware. He followed that up with the popular porcelain known as Jasperware in which the color extends throughout the piece, eliminating the need for glazing. It came in many colors, but is best known for the classic Wedgwood blue. Wedgwood eventually found a business partner in Thomas Bentley, and they began to specialize in neo-classical designs inspired by the fresh archaeological discoveries of their time. It is one of these that is considered Wedgwood’s masterpiece – the Portland Vase. Based on an original Greek vase made in two glass layers with the top chipped away to reveal the design, Wedgwood made his vase in two pieces with a Jasperware overlay contributed the design. It took 4 years to complete and when the original was smashed in 1848, British authorities used Wedgwood’s in order to replicate the Greek vase.

Another example of porcelain in the Norton’s collection is the Cybis Porcelain originally produced by Boleslaw Cybis (1895-1957). A Polish national, though born in Russia, Cybis attended the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, but had his training interrupted by the Communist takeover in 1921. After some years wandering Europe, he came to America in 1938 and, when World War II broke out, decided to stay. He began making porcelain souvenirs for tourists, but soon became fascinated with the American West and Native Americans. He decided to make a porcelain statue for each of the North American tribes, 12 examples of which are on display in the Norton’s glass courtyard. Unfortunately, he died before the project was completed. His company, Cybis Porcelain, spent another 10 years gathering data and finished the series.

Perhaps none of the decorative arts has as much tradition associated with it as silver. Most of the Norton’s collection was produced in America during the 17th and 18th centuries when more than 400 silversmiths plied their trade in the cities of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Undoubtedly the most famous of these is Paul Revere II (1734-1818) of the famous “midnight ride”. Revere took over the silvermaking business from his father and maintained its success, passing it on to his own sons. There are several Revere pieces in the museum’s collection, including a teapot, a porringer, a cann, a pitcher, and a set of spoons. Other prominent colonial silversmiths in the collection include Edward Winslow (1669-1753), often considered the greatest of the American silversmith for the quality of his craftsmanship, Jacob Boelen (1657-1729/30), a Dutch immigrant to New York who also served as a city alderman, John Coney (1655-1722), who designed the plates for the first American banknotes and produced the first American-made teapot, and Daniel van Vorhis (1751-1824), who counted Martha Washington among his clients.

By providing function along with form, the decorative arts give witness to the human desire for beauty in our everyday lives, not merely when we visit a museum. Homely in the finest sense of the term, they may also serve to remind us of the history which resides in the objects around us – a treasured porcelain figurine carefully carried from the Old Country, a dented silver teapot that survived the war. They are works which uniquely combine artistic grace with personal history.