A Copper Alliance Member
Copper in the Arts
Issue #64: August '12 - Cont'd
Bringing New Life to Early Culinary Copper
Copper fixed French braising pan. Late 18th to early 19th century.
Photograph courtesy of Virginia Tuttle
“I traveled to Europe and there I was collecting antique copper cookware,” Tuttle says, adding much time was spent in France.
After retiring from the museum three years ago, Tuttle moved to Maine and decided to turn her love into a business of sorts.
“I am supporting my collecting habit,” she says.
Her website, which is the sole platform for her business named Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds Kitchen Antiques, gives her the opportunity to showcase her finds. Scarcity, quality and condition dictate the price of each item in most cases, with her cookware ranging from approximately $100 to $1,000.
Tuttle describes the experience of holding a 100 year-old copper pot with a wrought iron handle with a brazed seam, bearing an insignia.
“It is really special,” she says. “If you love history and you are subject to that sort of romantic feeling, using a very early copper pot is really exciting.”
While pots are rarely dated, occasionally it will bare the name of the manufacturer, which makes it easier to pinpoint its date of origin.
“Then you can go to business directories and find out when they were in business,” she says.
19th century copper French pitcher.
Photograph courtesy of Virginia Tuttle
“I can be in a rundown town in Maine, just out and about killing time somewhere and come upon an antique store,” she says. “I have found the most incredible things.”
Until recently, Tuttle focused on collecting English and French copper cookware.
“I found the French copper was the most spectacular,” she says. “They were the most inventive with form.”
Given the culinary expertise associated with France, Tuttle described how the copper cookware they created evolved with their culinary history.
The allure for cooks is the ability for copper to quickly conduct and spread heat throughout the pan creating no hot spots. In addition, the pan’s heat quickly dissipates as soon as it is removed from the heat source.
Prior to the 18th century Tuttle explained there was little copper available due to shallow mines leading to unalloyed copper rarely being used for cookware.
The once thick, handmade copper pots made by artisans, in time, were largely replaced with the improvement of rolling technology, which led to less expensive and less preferred thinner pots.
Aside from serving the primary purpose of cooking food, the ownership of copper pots ran deeper in the late 18th and 19th centuries.
“It was a great status symbol certainly in England. It was something that one had to have,” Tuttle says.
Pots bearing insignias and initials was commonplace, serving the purpose of ownership to keep the pots safe from sticky-fingered staff as well as to enable the tinsmith an easy way to keep track of pots he was re-tinning.
“The royalty would put a crown on it and an initial.”
Her latest interest relates to copper and its relationship to social mobility in America during the Industrial Revolution. Tuttle finds copper cookware that started to be manufactured in the U.S. in the mid to late 19th century is difficult to find.
From auctions and estate sales to antique shops, Tuttle’s passion for copper is known which gives her an advantage.
“I know enough dealers and enough know me -- it is relatively easy for me to collect,” she says.
Resources:
Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds Kitchen Antiques, (207) 706-6848
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Copperton Lane: Specializing in Antique to Mid-Century Copper Items
Hammered copper tea kettle.
Photograph courtesy of Teri Rosvall
"I thought they were copper but were simply copper-colored anodized aluminum with no actual copper content,” she recalls. “I had put up paper on my wall with illustrations of copper kitchenware. The Jell-o molds looked so nice on that paper that I went looking for more 'copper.' That's when I realized the real metal is much more beautiful than the wanna-bes."
Today, she still has those molds hanging on her office wall and her collection has grown into a thriving business, Copperton Lane Antiques and Collectibles, where she collects and sells her unique copper finds to customers all over the globe.
"I love the beauty and warmth created in rooms decorated with copper," says Rosvall, whose eye is drawn to "pieces that speak to me. Pots and vases from any era abound though ice cube trays, soap graters, kitchen appliances and unusual items normally produced in more common metals are especially attractive. Since I purchase at estate and on-site auctions, I usually don't have any provenance. I try to find out about the history of pieces for myself (and collectors) when available. I wonder about the people who made and used them. However, after all these years collecting and selling, I'm usually able to determine the origin or maker accurately."
Her primitive, hammered copper water/tea kettle of heavy solid copper with a bronze handle is probably 200 years old. A small copper pan with a long wooden handle looks like it could be a bedwarmer, yet is actually a Victorian era fireplace chestnut/bean warmer. Made in France, the hinged lid is reticulated with round and arrow shaped piercings. The covered pan has an applied bronze medallion of the city of Chambray in its center. Rim and lower edge are dented. The interior reveals heat marks from hot coals, though not excessive.
Copper Vase
Photograph courtesy of Teri Rosvall
"Uncommon objects from the Arts and Crafts era are harder to find. I collect them, too, although they tend to be typical desk/decor items like vases, bowls, bookends, ashtrays, pitchers, planters and candlesticks. A Craftsman Studios hammered and folded copper pod console or flower planter comes in various sizes. Though the previous owner liked the shiny exterior and kept it well-polished, the inside has a water line near the rim with slight verdigris. A transitional crumb catcher from Craftsman Studios in Laguna Beach, California, evidences transitional progression from Mission Arts and Crafts to the Art Deco period because of its square, stair-stepped construction," Rosvall reports.
An expert on caring for the metal, Rosvall also gives various tips on her website regarding removal of lacquer from U.S. kitchenware sold in the last 30 to 40 years and how to polish/clean non-lacquered pieces. She advises that "the passage of time is the only thing that will restore a true patina to copper." She mentions unlined kitchen items that should not be used for cooking and says, "Copper is an excellent conductor of heat. That, combined with its beauty, is why copper cookware is so popular."
Since Rosvall began selling over the internet in 1988, she has shipped more than 10,000 packages all over the world.
"I'm currently acquiring numerous small vintage appliances,” she says. “I have blenders, lighting, clothes irons, heaters, deep fryers, percolators, mixers and even a hair dryer, but still no copper telephone."
Resources:
Copperton Lane Antiques and Collectibles, Soda Springs, ID, (208) 546-4860
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The Lure of Curiously Historic Coins Minted from Copper
Antique copper coins.
Photograph courtesy of Shawn Yancey
"It's not worth very much, maybe $20 or so, but to me, it is priceless," he says, now as a copper numismatist living in Springfield, MO.
Over the years, Yancey grew his enduring penchant for coin collecting into a thriving business while his former job in heavy duty truck sales began to take a hard hit with tumbling economic conditions.
"The most rewarding thing about coin collecting is that I have been able to turn my passion for coins into a business that supports my family," he says.
Today, Yancey sells rare coins through his website, Earlycoppercoins.com, specializing in early American coppers, or large copper cents and half-cents minted between 1793 and 1857.
Antique copper coins.
Photograph courtesy of Shawn Yancey
Estate auctions, antique shops, and from other collectors and dealers are the main routes Yancey uses for discovering the coins he adds to his supply.
"I have been doing this long enough now that I feel like my hand is in every cookie jar and under every rock," he admits.
As a member of the Early American Coppers, an organization of dedicated coin collectors which Yancey describes as "infected with the incurable 'early copper syndrome,’” traveling across the country to different conventions and regional meetings every year is a big part of supporting his collections, sales, and passion in copper coin-speak.
Networking with other collectors has been an invaluable benefit to Yancey in that his now well-honed knowledge of how to grade the condition of genuine coins and spot insidious fakes.
One of the strongest details of the mystique associated with copper coins comes from the fact that they were the first official coins produced by the U.S. Mint.
These half cents and large cents were struck by hand on blank copper discs known as planchets. Since the coins were struck by hand and without modern conveniences such as electricity, mistakes and anomalies were commonplace—but this makes each example unique and even more curious in contemporary terms.
Antique copper coins.
Photograph courtesy of Shawn Yancey
The most sought-after coppers are those struck from light-colored, uniform planchets with no defects or irregularities, Yancey explains—yet these are almost impossible to find.
"With respect to early coppers, there are a lot of choices in-between, and this adds to their appeal with collectors,” he says. “The quality of the copper metal itself is a large part of what makes early copper coins valuable and attractive."
Yancey’s favorite copper coin is the 1793 Liberty Cap large cent, a coin he credits for starting his "whole love affair" with early copper coins.
The rarest and most expensive copper coin that Yancey ever sold stood as a 1795 Jefferson Head large cent, one of the only two known to exist.
It always pains him to sell such beautiful copper coins, but it is his business to do so.
"Every now and then, I find a special coin I put aside, for at least a short period of time," Yancey says. Currently, the latest distinctive coin is a 1793 Wreath large cent, in pristine condition.
Yancey advises neophyte coin collectors to always buy the best condition coins they can afford, avoiding problem coins, unless they are either very cheap or understandably rare.
Resources:
Shawn Yancey, P.O. Box 2731, Springfield, MO, (417) 848-1090
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Copper in the Arts: NEWS
Princeton University of Art Unveils Monumental Bronze Sculptures by Ai Weiwei - August 01, 2012
In Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, Mr. Ai draws inspiration from sculptures that once adorned the fountain clock at Yuanming Yuan, an imperial retreat outside Beijing.
Photograph courtesy of The Princeton University Art Museum
Weiwei is one of China’s most prolific and controversial artists. His work in recent years has included collaboration on the design of the Beijing Olympic Stadium, or “Bird’s Nest,” for the 2008 Olympic Games; Sunflower Seeds, an exhibition at London’s Tate Modern featuring 100 million hand-painted porcelain seeds; and innovative uses of social media to advance artistic objectives, free speech and human rights.
In Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, Weiwei draws inspiration from sculptures that once adorned the fountain clock at Yuanming Yuan, an imperial retreat outside Beijing, representing the signs of the zodiac (snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog, pig, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit and dragon). Designed by Italian artist Giuseppe Castiglione in the mid-18th century, the original works were looted in 1860 when France and Britain invaded China. Of the 12 figures, only seven are known to have survived. Five have been repatriated to China, but ownership of the remaining two remains contested. Mr. Ai’s re-envisioning of the work represents an intriguing intersection of history and politics and is a reflection on the complexities of authenticity and derivation.
This presentation of Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads reflects a longstanding commitment on the part of the Woodrow Wilson School to engagement with human rights issues around the world, as well as the Art Museum’s commitment to placing art across the whole of the University campus, thus creating rich opportunities to discover great art in the path of everyday life.
Notes James Steward, director of the Princeton University Art Museum, “We are delighted to have Ai Weiwei’s work on campus for the coming year, work that is at once playful and provocative, and through which we can consider the role of the visual arts in the politics of resistance.”
Resources:
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ, (609) 258-3788
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