Ima Hogg Ceramic Circle

A. Brandt Zipp will introduce Thomas W. Commeraw, one of the most well-known African-American craftsmen of his day. A stoneware potter working in the earliest decades of the new United States, he and his fellow New York City stoneware manufacturers were looked to as the gold standard of their craft, shipping large amounts of ware up and down the eastern seaboard.
Thomas W. Commeraw was completely forgotten by American society in the wake of his death. This presentation will tell Commeraw’s fascinating story from the perspective of the person who serendipitously rediscovered him in the twenty-first century and then brought his story back to life.

Colleen Gold will discuss the tradition of pottery making in American Pueblo Indian life which is one of their most enduring traditions. What was once considered Folk Art by many has become recognized as Fine Art today and is avidly collected by many. Ima Hogg was an early collector, and her pieces are in the collection at MFAH. Traditionally made primarily by women in matriarchal societies spread across New Mexico and Arizona, these objects reflect both their personal innovations and a solid grounding in a 2,000-year-old tradition which influences the composition, form, and decoration of the pots to this day.

Presented by Aimee Froom, Ph.D.
Curator, Arts of the Islamic World,
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Presented by Chelsea Dacus,
Assistant Curator of the Arts of the Indigenous Americas, Africa, the Pacific, and Antiquities, and Assistant Curator of Ancient Art

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Presented by Daniel K. Ackermann, Ph.D.
Director of Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
From imported Madeira sipped from glass at mahogany tables to local whisky swigged out of redware jugs, explore the decorative arts that defined the early Southern drinker.

Presented by David Barquist, H. Richard Dietrich Jr. Curator of American Decorative Arts
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Dr. David Barquist, world renowned expert, will chronicle the history of porcelain table wares owned and used by American presidents and their families for public and private dining. As part of the most highly visible household in the nation, the presidential china in the McNeil Americana Collection offers an overview of the changing styles, tastes, and modes of entertaining across four centuries of American history, from George Washington to Ronald Reagan. The lecture will also look at the changes over time in the ceramics available to fashion-conscious Americans, from goods imported from China and Europe to domestically-made products.

Presented by Suzanne Marchand, Ph.D.
Boyd Professor, Department of History
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

Tour of private ceramic collection, by reservation only.

Presented by R. Ruthie Dibble, Ph.D.
The Robert N. Shapiro Curator of American Decorative Art, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
While the Peabody Essex Museum is known for its Chinese export porcelain, the museum also stewards an important, fascinating, and lesser known collection of ceramics from England, Europe, New England, and the broader Americas. This talk will highlight the rich and varied ceramics that fall under PEM’s American Decorative Art department and explore the intersection of trade and collecting, artistry and industry, that shapes each pot and the collection as a whole.

Presented by Jill Weitzman Fenichell
Antique Ceramics Expert; Appraiser: Furniture & Decorative Arts, New York, NY