EXCEPTIONAL PIECE WILL BE AUCTIONED AT DESIGNER
CRAFTSMAN SHOW IN PHILADELPHIA
January 18, 2008
Valley Forge Convention Center
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Habitat for Humanity to Benefit
When master craftsmen collaborate on a project, the result can knock your socks off. One singular example will be sold at a live auction at the Preview Party for the Designer Craftsmen Show on January 18, 2008, 50% of the proceeds to be donated to Philadelphia Habitat for Humanity.
This apothecary cabinet, created by Greg Shooner and John Spicer, has never been seen before--even centuries ago, when apothecaries and their cabinets were as common as pharmacies are today. The antique ancestor, called The Physician’s Herb, Elixir, and Potion Library, was a practical necessity. Its 21st-century descendant is a delight to the eye, a work of art. The combination of Shooner’s gifts as a potter and Spicer’s as a cabinetmaker, lavished on this piece over a year’s time, is unprecedented. Part whimsy, part history, it gives new meaning to “one of a kind.”
The case, made of 100-year-old loblolly pine John Spicer had been saving for “something special,” is mortise and tenon construction, about sixteen inches tall and eighteen inches wide, with a depth of seven inches. The wood has a distinct, wavy grain, enhanced by a long session in Spicer’s smokehouse to achieve a mellow, oxidized look. The case sits on turned redware William and Mary bun feet; the top is a complex molded cornice. Rope-twist redware balusters frame the sides. Two doors, fastened with diminutive hand forged rat-tail hinges (Spicer was the blacksmith on these), open to reveal the fitted interior, painted robin’s egg blue. The compartments accommodate twenty-nine virtuoso pieces of Shooner’s redware.
The redware’s various sizes and shapes display an entire vocabulary of glaze and decoration. There are square, lidded herb boxes, each with an applied lion’s head decoration; bottles wreathed with a garland of leaves. The mortar and pestle takes a center compartment, to best display a classically shaped mortar decorated with leaves, a wavy glaze like mochaware, and a rim, top and bottom, of jewel-like dots of color. The pestle is turned, glazed (except for the business end), and sgraffitoed. Lidded pots and jars, including an ink pot and a pill pot, share six compartments. The bottom shelf displays a row of nine stoppered book flasks, each numbered, each with a different, exuberantly sgraffitoed cover, and ridged spines in a stippled glaze you’d swear is leather.
To top it off, Shooner has perched two sculpted redware figures to serve as candleholders at each front corner. One is a boy, the other a girl; both are elfin. She holds a bird in her lap, the candle sits in a basket strapped to her back. His candle fits into the redware pot he holds in his arms. Their legs dangle down over the cornice molding; their pleasant peasant faces look ready to speak.
The Philadelphia Designer Craftsman Show, held every January, has established a solid reputation for fine craftsmanship and the best of Americana. This year, the Live Auction (a first for Goodrich Promotions) will take place at 8:45 on opening night, the Friday evening Preview Party, January 18th. Wine and desserts are complimentary; fifty other pieces of fine craftsmanship are also up for auction.
It promises to be a rare opportunity to see—and bid on—American inspirations. You’ll want to be there!
Details: The Designer Craftsmen Show begins with the Preview Party and Auction on Friday, January 18, from 6 to 9 PM. Auction starts at 8:45. Admission $35 Show opens Saturday, January 19th, from 10 to 5, and continues Sunday, January 20, from 11 to 4. Admission $12. All admissions good for any day, and include the Greater Philadelphia Historic Home Show.
At Valley Forge Convention Center, King of Prussia, PA.
Contact: Bob Goodrich 717-796-2380
