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ALBANY – Art for the People: Decorated Stoneware from the Weitsman Collection will be on exhibit at the New York State Museum, beginning January 5.

Located in the New York Metropolis introduction area through the summer of 2009, the exhibition features 40 uniquely decorated stoneware vessels, including jugs, crocks, pitchers, jars and water coolers. The artful designs on the 19th-century stoneware are today considered to be prime examples of American Folk Art. Most pieces were created in cities and towns across New York State. Many are “presentation pieces” – oversized and frequently decorated with elaborate and unusual cobalt blue designs. Tools used to decorate the stoneware are also included in the exhibition, as well as broadsides, a rare portrait of a potter and photos of potteries and their staffs.

Adam J. Weitsman of Owego acquired all of the stoneware in the exhibition and loaned or donated the pieces to the State Museum. Weitsman began collecting stoneware in 1980 when he was 11 years old. Since then he has scoured New York State and the East Coast, continuing to acquire rare pieces at antique shows, estate sales and auctions. In 1996, he donated his collection of 100 pieces to the State Museum to ensure that the collection would be preserved, studied and appreciated for years to come. Pieces acquired since then form the basis for the current exhibition. Most have never been displayed before.

“We are enormously grateful to Mr. Weitsman for choosing the State Museum as the repository for these outstanding examples of American Folk Art,” said State Museum Director Dr. Clifford Siegfried. “It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to showcase these latest additions to one of the most important collections of American decorated stoneware in the world.”

During the 19th century, stoneware was used primarily to prepare, store and serve food and drinks. It was decorated to make it more attractive. Weitsman focused on collecting the rarer “presentation pieces” that were created for special occasions.

These include a cylindrical water cooler, displaying a portrait of a Civil War general and his wife. It was purchased at an auction for $88,000, and set a record for American stoneware sold at a specialty sale. It was made by potters Fenton & Hancock of St. Johnsbury, Vermont. The general depicted is Asa Peabody Blunt (1826-1889), who distinguished himself in the 1862 Civil War battles at Lee’s Mill and Savage’s Station in Virginia. Blunt was a resident of St. Johnsbury, and the cooler was undoubtedly made as a tribute from the community, and presented to him when he returned from the war.

Also on display is a historically significant 1809 stoneware jar made by Paul Cushman of Albany, which came from the personal collection of PBS’ Antique Road Show host Leigh Keno. A presentation piece that was likely created for a specific customer, the jar may be the first piece that was made in Cushman’s kiln. The jar is stamped 36 times in a crisscross pattern with the mark of the potter “Paul Cushman’s Stoneware Factory 1809/half a mile west of Albany Gaol (Jail).” Another inscription reads “C.Russell/Pott/Sunday/1809.” Russell was an Albany mason and may have assisted in building the kiln.

William Lundy & Co. of Troy, c. 1824-1828, created a stoneware jug on display, which depicts an amusing incised and cobalt blue caricature of a merman (male version of mermaid).

The exhibition also includes some of the most unusual decorations to be found on stoneware. These are from potter William MacQuoid of Little West 12th Street, Manhattan. One crock displays a prancing zebra and the other a camel, inspired by the traveling circuses of the time. Another crock by this maker displays an American eagle and shield. A crock by MacQuoid’s predecessor, L. Lehman & Co., c. 1860, is decorated with a Dutch or German-style church with a gambrel roof and round tower, complete with a weather cock. There may have been a similar church in the German neighborhood where it was made. It resembles the late 18th-century stone Palatine Church in Stone Arabia, Montgomery County.

A two-gallon crock on exhibit, made by Charles W. Braun of Buffalo around 1870, is decorated with what appears to be a caricature of Buffalo Bill. A humorous long-necked gooney bird graces a six-gallon water cooler made by M. Woodruff of Cortland, c. 1860. This piece was acquired from the collection of Donald Shelley, former director of the Henry Ford Museum.

A highly decorated five-gallon water cooler came from the famous George S. McKearin collection. Julius and Edward Norton of Bennington, Vermont created the piece, which features examples of three types of decoration commonly associated with potteries at Bennington, Troy and Fort Edward -- a house, reclining stag, and a basket of flowers.

One of the most significant pieces, added to the Museum collection in May, is a six-gallon crock made by Nathan Clark & Co., Rochester, c. 1845. The rare piece is decorated with the phoenix bird of Egyptian mythology. The painstaking detail used gives the bird a three-dimensional quality.

Exhibition curator John Scherer, also the Museum’s curator of decorative arts, will present a program on the collection and lead a short tour of the exhibition. “Art for the People: Decorated Stoneware from the Weitsman Collection” is scheduled for Sunday, January 13 at 1 p.m. and Tuesday, February 19 at 7 p.m. A catalog featuring the Museum’s Weitsman Stoneware Collection also is planned for 2008.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, it is the oldest State Museum in the United States. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, it is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information is available by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.