Colorful Backgrounds For Daily Living––

Early American Decoration On Display At Library

By Dottie Evans

Visitors to the Cyrenius Booth Library during the next six weeks will be treated to glimpse of gracious living during the 19th Century, as they view a wide variety of exhibits that illustrate authentic early American patterns and decorations.

The decorative techniques shown include stenciling, country painting, silhouettes, and faux finishes, and they have been applied to all manner of home furnishings from lacquer trays to tin coffee pots, from mirrors to clock faces, from Hitchcock chairs to fireplace bellows.

Though the objects themselves are not necessarily old, the art that embellishes them represents the best decorative traditions of days gone by. They are techniques that have been faithfully and meticulously reproduced by present-day artists, who are dedicated to preserving what might otherwise become a “lost art.”

“Guild members have researched these crafts and they are determined to keep them alive,” said Newtown resident Lorraine VanderWende, who assisted Library Curator Caroline Stokes in setting up the exhibit.

“The Historical Society of Early American Design [HSEAD] has a national membership, and many HSEAD guilds are from Connecticut,” said Ms VanderWende, who has been a member of the Charter Oak guild since 1973.

She is also a member of the FairChester guild, which includes residents of Fairfield and Westchester counties.

A skilled painter, teacher and collector, Ms VanderWende and her husband Paul moved to Newtown in 1964. Although Mr VanderWende died nine years ago, she continues to live in their Taunton Lake Drive home, where she teaches decorative design techniques to four students from the area.

“I would like to teach more, but there isn’t room in my house,” she added.

Belonging to an HSEAD guild is an honor, Ms VanderWende said, adding “it used to be a highly selective process to get in. I had to paint two objects to get accepted. Now, when you become an associate, you don’t necessarily have to paint anything,” she said.

Guild members from throughout the country meet twice a year at regional conferences. At any time during the year, they may teach or attend courses in how to reproduce an authentic pattern using antique methods. A list of accredited HSEAD guild teachers will be available at the library, Ms VanderWende said.

The exhibit, which may be seen in several glass display cases throughout the library, opened the last week of August and it will remain on view through October 15.

“These items were last displayed at the University of Connecticut, through August 8,” Ms VanderWende said.

Guild Was Founded              In 1946

The Historical Society of Early American Decoration was founded in 1946, in memory of Esther Stevens Brazer, who was an avid researcher and teacher of decorative designs of the 19th Century.

“She wrote the [1940] book on early American decoration,” Ms VanderWende said.

“The people who studied with her decided to form this guild to prevent the crafts from being lost.”

Guild members paint and work in many techniques individually, or in classes and workshops. They are taught by teachers certified in the art of stenciling, Pontypool painting (a method of painting roses, which originated in England), gold leafing, Victorian flower painting, reverse glass painting, clock dials, free hand bronzing, and theorem painting.

Theorem painting was practiced widely in the 19th Century and was taught to young women in finishing schools as a way of decorating household objects that was faster than needlepoint.

The artist works in oils on white velvet, first creating a number of stencils that are applied in sequence, very close together but not touching so the paint does not overlap. The colors are dabbed on very carefully by a wool-wrapped fingertip.

Theorem subjects include flowers, fruit, or baskets of flowers and fruit, people, or animals.

Even though a detailed scene may be portrayed through theorem or stenciling, the design is always done by hand, not transferred whole onto the surface and then varnished.

“We don’t use decoupage. That’s definitely a bad word,” Ms VanderWende said.

Re-creating early American design is a fine art, because each authentic decorative pattern must be reproduced individually by the artist. It is not something one could learn to do overnight, or without some training, she explained.