Ceramics Exhibit Opens at Sheffield Historical Society
SHEFFIELD, Mass. - The upcoming exhibit at Sheffield Historical Society, "Clay-town," Sheffield Ceramics Exhibit, which will relate local history to early American ceramics, will run Saturday, July 18-Sunday, September 13, 2009. There will be an opening reception in the Gallery at the Old Stone Store on Saturday, July 18, 1 to 3 pm.In 1866 the Sheffield China Clay Company was established in Clayton (hence the name) to capitalize on the fine, soft white clay beds in the southeastern part of the town. Clay production was already a thriving industry, and the Sheffield beds were mined for the manufacture of pottery and firebrick. According to a June 7, 1866 Berkshire Courier news article, the bank where the clay was obtained was "the largest deposit of any similar substance in America, and there is but one other clay bed, which is at Brandon, VT, though that is a mixture of yellow ochre and clay together." Based on the purity of the clay and plentitude of the pit, the article concludes that the production "may already be considered among the surest and most important in Berkshire County."
White clay, china clay, or kaolin produced by the company had many applications, including crockery, firebrick, decorated tile, terra cotta or clay caps for marble pillars on buildings, and an especially fine grade of clay for papermakers, for both filling and coating paper. Architecturally, the work has been traced to the concrete walls of several New York Banks, a large building in Norwalk, CT made with Clayton's terra cotta products, and the capping of the marble columns of Pennsylvania Station.
Although kaolin continues to be used today in ceramics, medicine, coated paper, as a food additive, in toothpaste, as a light diffusing material in white incandescent light bulbs, in cosmetics, and is generally the main component in porcelain, the production of China Clay at Clayton ended in 1908. The fate of the industry, like that of many manufactories in the Konkapot Valley extending to the marble quarries and the ironworks from Lanesboro to Canaan, on account of cost of the haulage to the railroad in Canaan, made it unprofitable to compete with companies nearer a railroad.
The exhibit will reference the Sheffield China Clay Company while examining the use of kaolin in early American ceramics, porcelain, and slip decorations on redware pottery. It will integrate the local historical research with the sgraffito and slipware designs of Rick Hamelin & Garine Arakelian of Warren, MA, colonial and world selections from the collection of Carl Proper of Sheffield, supplemented with exemplary redware and porcelain pieces from Samuel Herrup Antiques. While a big dig has yet to evidence what wares were specific to Sheffield settlers, we can look to state and regional history to supply us with those answers.
For more information about Society exhibits, please contact the Sheffield Historical Society at (413) 229-2694 or visit us on the web at www.sheffieldhistory.org. The Gallery at the Old Stone Store is open weekends, Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. If unfamiliar with Sheffield and its environs, the Old Stone Store is the distinctive mottled stone building located on the town Green, immediately south of the Mobil station.
