Albany stoneware.(Current and coming)

Three exhibitions related to New York State pottery are on view at the Albany Institute of History and Art until May 27: Clay Connections: Four Centuries of Ceramics and Their Stories from the Albany Institute's Collections and Containing History: Contemporary Ceramics from Regional Potters are two. The third one, which deals with stoneware produced in Albany, at the beginning of the nineteenth century is Paul Cushman: The Work and World of an Early 19th-Century Albany Potter. Cushman started what is thought to have been the second pottery for manufacturing stoneware in that upstate city about 1805-1807. His pieces, while often crudely made, have for years attracted collectors because of their large impressed marks and whimsical, often bizarre, incised decorations--one of the stranger showing a cow suckling a fish.

Recent research by several scholars, collectors, and a descendant has revealed more than was previously known about this delightful folk artist, but he is still a bit elusive. The show features more than fifty salt-glazed stoneware ceramics from Cushman's pottery (at least some 206 marked pieces have been located). Some of these pieces are displayed alongside examples made by both his competitors and his successors. Also included are maps, prints, drawings, furniture, cast-iron objects, and imported ceramics found in Albany during this period. All of this ...