From Abbeville, South Carolina to the U.S. Capitol:
Discovering, and Authenticating, an Historic Treasure Trove in Your (Front) Yard
Themes:
Recognizing: Documenting Local History and National Relevance Protecting: Restoration and Long-Term Stewardship
This session explores the discovery of the largest-known private collection of Janes, Beebe and Company cast iron garden ornaments still in existence, and the research that led to its authentication. Janes, Beebe and Company is significant as the foundry that cast the dome of the U.S. Capitol building. The 14-foot-tall cast iron fountain in the yard of the Robertson-Hutchinson House, Abbeville, South Carolina is only the fifth extant Janes-Beebe fountain to be found in the United States and shares the distinction, with the Forsyth Park fountain in Savannah, of being the oldest remaining example of the company’s decorative fountains.
The grounds of the Robertson-Hutchinson house in Abbeville, South Carolina were landscaped between 1848 and 1861 by Colonel Jehu Foster Marshall. Marshall purchased 12 acres in the middle of the village of Abbeville in late 1847, built a house, and began arranging for the landscaping of the gardens, a process that continued throughout the 1850s. The decorative cast iron he purchased, and which remains on the grounds, includes: Two greyhound dogs, two large urns, a settee (which bears the Janes, Beebe mark), a chair and the bottom halves of two additional chairs, and the basin from an additional smaller fountain.The design of the sculpture on top of the fountain (two distinctive figures with dragon heads, voluptuous female bodies, wings, and entwined mermaid or fish tails) has been traced to the French foundry of J.J. Ducel. Janes, Beebe is known to have sent a representative to the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1851, to get ideas and patterns for decorative ironwork, and Ducel exhibited his decorative ironwork there.
The gardens--which were described in a reminiscence: “In all my travels throughout the world, not excepting the famous gardens of Versailles, have I seen anything to equal it" --were planted with specimens purchased from Summers Nursery in Pomaria, South Carolina. Still standing beside the fountain is the redwood tree Marshall planted, now recorded as the oldest and tallest redwood tree in South Carolina (and, possibly, the oldest and tallest east of the Mississippi).
This is a tale of dogged research that travels from the little village of Abbeville in the 1850s to the contentious political seas in Washington, DC in the decade prior to the Civil War to London’s Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851 to the iron foundry in France that cast the Bartholdi Fountain (U.S. Botanic Garden) to the White House, New York’s Central Park, and Cusco, Peru. Along the way, there are: A serendipitous meeting in the streets of Capitol Hill (Washington, DC), a box of unexplored documents, and the stitching together of a family history which ends up connecting Abbeville to Starbucks, the Paris Metro, and the very origins of decorative cast ironwork.
Discovering, and Authenticating, an Historic Treasure Trove in Your (Front) Yard
Themes:
Recognizing: Documenting Local History and National Relevance Protecting: Restoration and Long-Term Stewardship
This session explores the discovery of the largest-known private collection of Janes, Beebe and Company cast iron garden ornaments still in existence, and the research that led to its authentication. Janes, Beebe and Company is significant as the foundry that cast the dome of the U.S. Capitol building. The 14-foot-tall cast iron fountain in the yard of the Robertson-Hutchinson House, Abbeville, South Carolina is only the fifth extant Janes-Beebe fountain to be found in the United States and shares the distinction, with the Forsyth Park fountain in Savannah, of being the oldest remaining example of the company’s decorative fountains.
The grounds of the Robertson-Hutchinson house in Abbeville, South Carolina were landscaped between 1848 and 1861 by Colonel Jehu Foster Marshall. Marshall purchased 12 acres in the middle of the village of Abbeville in late 1847, built a house, and began arranging for the landscaping of the gardens, a process that continued throughout the 1850s. The decorative cast iron he purchased, and which remains on the grounds, includes: Two greyhound dogs, two large urns, a settee (which bears the Janes, Beebe mark), a chair and the bottom halves of two additional chairs, and the basin from an additional smaller fountain.The design of the sculpture on top of the fountain (two distinctive figures with dragon heads, voluptuous female bodies, wings, and entwined mermaid or fish tails) has been traced to the French foundry of J.J. Ducel. Janes, Beebe is known to have sent a representative to the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1851, to get ideas and patterns for decorative ironwork, and Ducel exhibited his decorative ironwork there.
The gardens--which were described in a reminiscence: “In all my travels throughout the world, not excepting the famous gardens of Versailles, have I seen anything to equal it" --were planted with specimens purchased from Summers Nursery in Pomaria, South Carolina. Still standing beside the fountain is the redwood tree Marshall planted, now recorded as the oldest and tallest redwood tree in South Carolina (and, possibly, the oldest and tallest east of the Mississippi).
This is a tale of dogged research that travels from the little village of Abbeville in the 1850s to the contentious political seas in Washington, DC in the decade prior to the Civil War to London’s Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851 to the iron foundry in France that cast the Bartholdi Fountain (U.S. Botanic Garden) to the White House, New York’s Central Park, and Cusco, Peru. Along the way, there are: A serendipitous meeting in the streets of Capitol Hill (Washington, DC), a box of unexplored documents, and the stitching together of a family history which ends up connecting Abbeville to Starbucks, the Paris Metro, and the very origins of decorative cast ironwork.
The session is enhanced by archival photos of the fountain (1885 to the present), as
well as photos documenting the restoration process; images from the 1855/58 catalogs
of Janes, Beebe and Company and the 1850 catalog of the French foundry of J.J.
Ducel; copies of historical documents relating to the ironwork and gardens; and a
bibliography of sources.
The presenter is Ann Hutchinson Waigand, whose great-grandmother purchased the house (with cast iron garden ornaments) from the estate of J. Foster Marshall and whose mother is the fourth generation of her family to live in the house. The presentation will also discuss the long-term stewardship of the house and grounds by the Robertson family and its descendants as well as the house’s tradition of passing down through the female line (a tradition that will continue through Waigand and her sister, Jean Robertson Hutchinson, and on to Waigand’s two daughters).
Ann Hutchinson Waigand is an independent researcher, editor, and freelance writer who contributed a column to the New York Times Syndicate for five years. She has worked as a developmental editor with The Teaching Company, coaching professors in presenting recorded courses, and spent 20 years in the field of educational and cultural tourism, working with a diverse range of clients including the Smithsonian Institution and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
May Robertson Baskin Hutchinson will participate in the question-and-answer session. The fourth generation of her family to live on the property in Abbeville (she sleeps in the bedroom in which she was born), she is responsible for the restoration of the house and fountain. She served on the Executive Council of the Confederation of South Carolina Historical Societies and as Vice Chairman on the Commission to Implement Abbeville”s Historic Properties Protection Ordinance at its inception; co-founded HATS, the Historic Abbeville Tour Service; wrote the Fitness Walk Tour of Historic Abbeville; was Project Manager for two grants to restore the McGowan-Barksdale-Bundy House; was curator for the Abbeville Historical Society’s headquarters for nine years; originated and led Erskine College’s/Abbeville’s Elderhostel (1987-94) focusing on Abbeville County history and Victorian decorative arts; and is Curator for the Abbeville County Museum.
Research sources include:
Carol Grissom, Smithsonian expert and author of Zinc Sculpture in America,
1850-1950
Susan Brizzolara Wojcik, art historian and author of Thomas U. Walter and Iron
in the United States Capitol: An Alliance of Architecture, Engineering, and Industry
Barbara Israel, author of Antique Garden Ornament: Two Centuries of American Taste
Barbara Wolanin, Curator of the U.S. Capitol
William Creech, National Archives
Lydia Tedrick, Office of the Curator of the White House
The presenter is Ann Hutchinson Waigand, whose great-grandmother purchased the house (with cast iron garden ornaments) from the estate of J. Foster Marshall and whose mother is the fourth generation of her family to live in the house. The presentation will also discuss the long-term stewardship of the house and grounds by the Robertson family and its descendants as well as the house’s tradition of passing down through the female line (a tradition that will continue through Waigand and her sister, Jean Robertson Hutchinson, and on to Waigand’s two daughters).
Ann Hutchinson Waigand is an independent researcher, editor, and freelance writer who contributed a column to the New York Times Syndicate for five years. She has worked as a developmental editor with The Teaching Company, coaching professors in presenting recorded courses, and spent 20 years in the field of educational and cultural tourism, working with a diverse range of clients including the Smithsonian Institution and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
May Robertson Baskin Hutchinson will participate in the question-and-answer session. The fourth generation of her family to live on the property in Abbeville (she sleeps in the bedroom in which she was born), she is responsible for the restoration of the house and fountain. She served on the Executive Council of the Confederation of South Carolina Historical Societies and as Vice Chairman on the Commission to Implement Abbeville”s Historic Properties Protection Ordinance at its inception; co-founded HATS, the Historic Abbeville Tour Service; wrote the Fitness Walk Tour of Historic Abbeville; was Project Manager for two grants to restore the McGowan-Barksdale-Bundy House; was curator for the Abbeville Historical Society’s headquarters for nine years; originated and led Erskine College’s/Abbeville’s Elderhostel (1987-94) focusing on Abbeville County history and Victorian decorative arts; and is Curator for the Abbeville County Museum.
Research sources include:
Carol Grissom, Smithsonian expert and author of Zinc Sculpture in America,
1850-1950
Susan Brizzolara Wojcik, art historian and author of Thomas U. Walter and Iron
in the United States Capitol: An Alliance of Architecture, Engineering, and Industry
Barbara Israel, author of Antique Garden Ornament: Two Centuries of American Taste
Barbara Wolanin, Curator of the U.S. Capitol
William Creech, National Archives
Lydia Tedrick, Office of the Curator of the White House
Margot Gayle (founder, Friends of Cast Iron Architecture) Papers, University of
Maryland Special Collections
c. 1858 Janes, Beebe and Company catalog, New York Public Library
c. 1855 Janes, Beebe and Company catalog, Athenaeum of Philadelphia 1870 Janes, Kirtland & Co. catalog (reprinted 1971 by Pyne Press)
c. 1850 catalog of J.J. Ducel, Réseau international de la fonte d’art (RIFA) c. 1892 catalog of Val d’Osne, Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Dominique Perchet, RIFA
Transcribed by Norman DeBruhl December 17, 2014
c. 1858 Janes, Beebe and Company catalog, New York Public Library
c. 1855 Janes, Beebe and Company catalog, Athenaeum of Philadelphia 1870 Janes, Kirtland & Co. catalog (reprinted 1971 by Pyne Press)
c. 1850 catalog of J.J. Ducel, Réseau international de la fonte d’art (RIFA) c. 1892 catalog of Val d’Osne, Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Dominique Perchet, RIFA
Transcribed by Norman DeBruhl December 17, 2014
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