An interview with Margret Craver Withers conducted 1983-1985, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Withers discusses her childhood in Kansas; early education; and aptitude for drawing.Education in art and design, including studying crafts at the University of Kansas, 1925-29; her position as a grade school teacher in Kansas and as a crafts instructor at Wichita Art Association, 1930s; study with various master metalworkers, including Arthur Nevill Kirk, Arthur J. Stone, Leonard Heinrich and Wilson Weir in the USA, and Baron Erik Fleming in Sweden.Development of Hospital Service Program, with the support of Handy and Harman, precious metal refiners, during World War II, to train army therapists in metalworking for disabled soldiers; supervision in post-War period of Handy and Harman's Craft Service Department, producing films on hand-wrought silver, a traveling exhibition of outstanding contemporary silver, instructional brochures, and a series of workshops for American silversmiths, taught by European masters.Marriage in 1950 to Charles Withers, president of Towle Silver, and that company's policy of employing top designers; Towle's commissioning of works in silver from top modern sculptors; her making of silver holloware and jewelry for private clients; her re-invention of the en resille process for enameling (1959) and in the early 1980s her invention of a process for combining enamel, glass, and silver and gold leaf in jewelry; and her involvement in crafts organizations.She discusses her en resille enameling technique. [The 1985 session is transcribed, and is accompanied by slides of the work discussed].
Biographical / Historical:
Margret Craver Withers (1907-2010) was a silversmith in Boston, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 5 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 10 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hr., 58 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Records documenting silversmith production by Arthur J. Stone, his workshop, and Stone Associates.
Included are ca. 11,000 drawings, including bench drawings, designer's master drawings, architect's drawings, and ca. 1,000 "scales" or templates, made from full scale drawings; files from Stone's workshop containing an index to photographs, information on clients, and work summaries including dimensions, name, craftsmen's initials, hours, weight, and price; stock number cards, circle and gauge cards, and daily hours cards; files for Stone Associates containing work summary and stock cards.
Also found are photographs of Stone, his workshop, and silver pieces, (mainly taken by his wife, Elizabeth Bent Stone, 1912-1937), and objects made by Stone Associates; photograph albums of duplicate prints; clippings, 5 exhibition catalogs, and brochures; 17 letters; 2 essays on silverware by Jerome A. Heywood; records on stock number card categories; lists of silver gauges, weights, and circles; ten sections of plaster casts of chased silver forms by Arthur J.Stone; and a trade catalog of James Dixon and Son, Sheffield, England, undated. A microfiche of a card file is included with the records.
Records from the Arthur J. Stone workshop, including measured drawings; templates; albums of photographs of work, including commissions for leading Episcopal churches and churchmen, Yale and Harvard Universities, private patrons in Boston and N.Y., and for Stone's leading client, George Booth of Cranbrook, Michigan; photographs of an exhibition, and of Stone, his workmen, and his shop. Also included are Stone's copies of a few English silver and metalwork trade catalogs, ca. 1824-ca. 1937.
Biographical / Historical:
Arthur J. Stone was a leading silversmith from Gardner, Massachusetts. He was trained and worked in Sheffield, England, and Edinburgh, Scotland prior to coming to the U.S. in 1884. He was one of the last silversmiths in America to train apprentices to carry out designs in handwrought silver.
In 1901, Stone set up a workshop in Gardner, which operated under his name until its sale in 1937 to Henry Heywood, a Gardner businessman, who renamed it first as The Stone Silver Shop, changing it later to Stone Associates. Heywood died in 1945, and his sons Henry, Jr. and Jerome ran it until 1957, when they disbanded.
Provenance:
Donated by Jerome A. Heywood, 1979-1980 and Janet J. Loop, 1997. When Stone sold his shop to Heywood, he included the records to insure the continuity of the work. Stone retained records relating to his early work. These were donated to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston by Stone's family. According to Stone's niece, Elenita Chickering, who processed the papers, approximately 3 trunks of accounts and letters were destroyed in the 1940s by Stone's widow, Elizabeth Bent, to insure client's anonymity. The 1 ft. of records donated by Janet Loop, daughter of Herman Glendenning, were given to Glendenning by Stone's widow. Loop donated them along with some of her father's own designs and other papers, which are cataloged separately under Glendenning.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Silversmiths -- Massachusetts -- Gardner Search this
Topic:
Decorative arts -- Massachusetts -- Gardner Search this
Silverwork -- Massachusetts -- Gardner Search this
Silverwork -- Great Britain -- Catalogs Search this
Included are Glendenning's designs and templates for trays and dishes for Leah Curtiss (Leah Curtiss-Gould); and a book of illustrated twentieth century American silver flatware patterns.
Biographical / Historical:
Glendenning was a silversmith in the Gardner, Mass. workshop of Arthur J. Stone (later Stone Silver Shop and Stone Associates), beginning as a helper in 1913, an apprentice in 1920, and as workman until 1936 when he left to form a partnership with George C. Erickson, another Stone workman. He attained the Master Craftsman rank of the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, 1927. Stone's workshop derived its classic approach to silver design and and its emphasis on traditional techniques from founder Arthur J. Stone, who had a traditional English silversmithing background prior to coming to the U.S. in 1884. After working for various silver manufacturers, Stone set up his own workshop at 17 Winter St., Gardner, Massachusetts in 1901. He established himself as a leading designer and silversmith, and was one of the last in America to train apprentices and craftsmen to render designs in handwrought silver.
Glendenning ended his partnership with Erickson in 1971, and opened his own shop. In 1975 he moved to Westminster, Mass. where he made jewelry and special orders for silverware. He retired from silversmithing in 1985.
Provenance:
Donated 1983 by Herman Glendenning and in 1997 by his daughter, Mrs. Lloyd Loop, Saugerties, N.Y. Ca. 1 ft. of rthur J. Stone workshop records which were given to him by Elizabeth Bent Stone (Mrs. Arthur J. Stone) were placed with Arthur J. Stone workshop/Stone Silver Shop/Stone Associates records.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
The papers of Leah Curtiss-Gould relate primarily to silversmith Arthur J. Stone, his company of silversmiths, Stone Associates, and their business relationship with the Curtiss Gallery.
Included are: biographical material, 1985, relating to Leah Curtiss-Gould; correspondence, 1973-1977; printed material, 1918-1973; 27 photographs of Stone Associates silversmiths; 14 drawings, 1930s-1960s, of articles of silverware; and miscellaneous notes, 1978.
Biographical / Historical:
Art dealer; New York, N.Y. and Connecticut. Curtiss-Gould was a dealer in Stone silver from ca. 1936-1975. During the period 1936-1950, she worked in a shop, Portraits, Inc., in New York City where Stone silver was sold. Eventually, she opened her own business in Connecticut, the Curtiss Gallery, and sold it in 1970.
Provenance:
The donor of these papers, Nicole Meek, was one of the investors in Curtiss-Gould's business.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Unpublished memoir of the life of Leah Curtiss Gould.
Biographical / Historical:
Art dealer; New York, N.Y. and Conn. Curtiss-Gould was a dealer in Arthur J. Stone silver from ca. 1936-1975. During the period 1936-1950, she worked in a shop, Portraits, Inc., in New York City where Stone silver was sold. Eventually, she opened her own business in Connecticut, the Curtiss Gallery, and sold it in 1970.
Provenance:
Donated 2001 by Thomas Beddall.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Papers relating to silversmith Arthur J. Stone, including: five ink drawings [ca. 1920] of a tea set by Stone; a scrapbook containing biographical data on Stone, two letters from Stone, 1920 and 1925, a letter from his widow, Elizabeth, 1938, clippings, and photographs of Stone, his home, and his silverwork; an exhibition catalogue, SILVER BY ARTHUR STONE (Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass., 1941); newspaper clippings and printed material on Stone and his associates, 1942 and 1948; and twelve photographs of craftsmen in the Stone workshop and of silver by Stone.
Biographical / Historical:
Harold and Mabel Bowdoin were close friends of silversmith Arthur J. Stone and his wife Elizabeth from the 1920's on. Harold was a business partner of Norman Bell Geddes, the designer, and Mabel ran the Little Gallery in New York City until it was sold to Leah Curtiss-Gould and moved to Connecticut.
Provenance:
Donated 1983 by William and Sally Rhoads, who bought the papers at auction.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
The papers of volunteer curatorial assistant Eliot Bartlett measure 0.4 linear feet and date from 1930 to 1981. The papers include correspondence, financial material, writings, photographic material, and printed material.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of volunteer curatorial assistant Eliot Bartlett measure 0.4 linear feet and date from 1930 to 1981. The papers include correspondence, financial material, writings, photographic material, and printed material.
Correspondence consists of letters concerning Bartlett's art-related activities and his interest in various artists including Mary Ogden Abbott, Amy Cross, George Dergalis, Lilian Westcott Hale, and Arthur J. Stone. Financial material includes four receipts and price lists. Writings includes a docent speech for an exhibition. Photographic matieral consists of a single slide of the painting Tulips by Amy Cross. Printed material includes clippings, exhibition and auction announcements, catalogs and programs.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Eliot Fitch Bartlett (1918-1992) was a volunteer curatorial assistant at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts during the 1970s.
Provenance:
The papers were donated by Eliot Fitch Bartlett.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Correspondence; research material; writings; diaries; family papers; and printed material.
REEL NAM: The Mastery of Drawing, an English translation revised and brought up to date by Winslow Ames, of Joseph Meder's Die Handzeichnung; ihre Technik und Entwicklung, 1923.
REELS 1428-1429: Three diaries, 1940-1942; correspondence, 1931-1978; writings; and printed material. Among the correspondents are Leonard Baskin, Kenneth Clark, Krick Hawkins, Hans Huth, William Ivins, Jr., Walt Killam, Lincoln Kirstein, Gaston Lachaise, Agnes Mongan, Nelson Rockefeller, Michael E. Sadler, Meyer Schapiro, Wolfgang Stechow, Francis Henry Taylor and William Zorach.
REEL 3134: Correspondence, 1934-1959, (16 items) regarding Gaston Lachaise's "Standing Woman" and its purchase by the Museum of Modern Art, N.Y.C. Included are 3 letters from Lachaise to Ames, 1934, one containing a sketch and description of the statue.
REEL 3768: Annotated photographs of a silver sugar basket designed by Arthur J. Stone. The basket was a wedding gift to Ames' grandparents, Katharine Milicent Ames and Edward Winslow Ames in 1905. The photographs were taken by Todd Studios of St. Louis, Mo., 1983-1984.
UNMICROFILMED: Papers, 1787-1989, mainly documenting Ames' writing and research projects, as well as family papers and professional correspondence, and Ames' personal library. Correspondence relates to his work as an appraiser, his activities in the Drawing Society and the Victorian Society, and general professional activites. Among the correspondents are Lincoln Kirstein, Michael E.Sadler, Agnes Mongan, Hubert Humphrey, and Senator Claiborne Pell. Research material consists primarily of photographs of art work and decorative art and some printed material. Writings (5 ft.) consist of Ames' addresses and lectures, articles, reviews, books, his autobiography (unpublished), and fiction; 2 ft. relates to his never published book, American Taste. Included also are material relating to his books The Mastery of Drawing (1978) and Prince Albert and Victorian Taste (1968). Family papers consists mainly of correspondence, among which is a 1787 letter from a distant relative and journals, 1869-1906, kept by Elizabeth Winthrop Ames during her travels throughout the western U.S.; also found are biographical materials and papers relating to Ames' volunteer work during 1945-56 for the Quaker Transport.
Biographical / Historical:
Museum director, art and architecture historian, collector, connoisseur of drawings; b. 1907; d. 1990.
Provenance:
Material on reels NAM and 1428-1429 lent for microfilming 1978 by Winslow Ames; he donated the remaining microfilmed material 1977-1984. The unfilmed papers were donated in 1996 by Ames' daughter, Alison Ames.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
