Asa Ames (1823-1851), ‘Millard Fillmore Dewey,’ (1845-1916), Evans, New York, 1847. Paint on tulip poplar (est), bequest of Vivian F. Greene (2022.701.1). Photo courtesy of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — When the young sculptor Asa Ames (1823-1851) died shortly after his 27th birthday, he left behind nearly a dozen carved portraits, many of which are signed. Most of his sculptures portray family and friends, including a wooden bust of the artist’s nephew Millard Fillmore Dewey (1845-1916) at the age of two. This likeness descended from the subject through his son and was recently given by bequest to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. The bust of Millard Dewey is the third Ames portrait to join the foundation’s esteemed American folk art collection.
Log cabin show quilt, Geneva Luela Richards Graves (1862-1915), Hampshire County, Massachusetts, circa 1890, silks, metal bangles, wool, silk and metallic fringe and cotton foundation. Gift of Karen W. Cox, 2020.609.5
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — Two new textile exhibitions will open at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg on December 3, and are sure to delight museum visitors. Stitched in Time: American Needlework, an exhibition of nearly 60 examples of bedrugs, whitework, embroidered hand towels, quilted petticoats, samplers, mourning and commemorative needlework, crewelwork, needlework with religious and geographical influences as well as sewing accessories, will remain on view through January 2, 2025 at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. Additionally, an entirely new rotation of objects in the popular exhibition The Art of the Quilter that opened in 2021 will feature 15 pieces, 12 of which are recent acquisitions that have never before been displayed. This configuration of the exhibition, which will remain on view through August 2023 at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, will include 11 large quilts, one woven coverlet and three doll-size quilts that tell stories about people from America’s past and the societies in which they lived.
Caudle Cup, John Hull (1624-1683) and Robert Sanderson (circa 1608-1693) and marked by Jeremiah Dummer (1645-1718), silver, Boston, Massachusetts, circa 1670. Broad, baluster-shaped body with a lightly everted rim, a low base and a pair of cast handles applied to opposite sides. Museum purchase, the Joseph H. and June S. Hennage Fund, 2022-74. Image courtesy of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – A 17th-century caudle cup that belonged to the Puritan congregation of the First Church of Christ in Farmington, Connecticut, and was used there as a vessel for sacramental wine, was recently acquired by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, making it the earliest piece of American silver in its famed collection. The cup, wrought around 1670 in Boston, Massachusetts, was fashioned by the first silversmiths making goods in what is now the United States.
Bernice Sims, ‘Big Daddy’s House at Hickory Hill,’ Brewton, Alabama. Circa 1996, acrylic on canvas. Museum Purchase, 2020.101.4
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — When “I made this…”: The Work of Black American Artists and Artisans opens on October 22 at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, one of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, 28 examples of decorative art and folk art from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s renowned collections will go on view in a groundbreaking exhibition. Never before have the art museums together exhibited objects made exclusively by Black artists and artisans from the 18th to the 20th centuries across so many genres in both decorative and folk arts. Focusing on the makers, this unique assemblage of paintings, furniture, textiles, decorative sculptures, quilts, ceramics, tools, metals and more will help illuminate their stories. The exhibit will remain on view through December 31, 2025.
