Leighton, Clare, 1898-1989, Clare Leighton collection,, 1949-1953
- Title(s):
- Clare Leighton collection, 1949-1953.
- Physical Description:
- 12 linear feet (1 box + 6 oversize)
- Holdings:
- Unable to reach service. Holdings currently not available
- Copyright Status:
- Copyright Not Evaluated
- Full Orbis Record:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/9453078
- Related Content:
- View a description and listing of collection contents in the finding aid
- Classification:
- Archives & Manuscripts
- Notes:
- Clare Leighton was an important 20th century wood engraver well known as an author and illustrator of books, many with rural themes. In 1951 and 1952 she worked intensively on Josiah Wedgwood's commission for a series of 12 plates portraying traditional New England industries. The work took her all over the Northeast, and upon its completion she decided to move to Massachusetts (she would later settle in Woodbury, Connecticut). Although she broke new ground in designing the Wedgwood plates, she finished the project feeling both triumphant and exhausted. In the unpublished notes towards an autobiography she made in old age, she recollected: "Once I had finished the Wedgwoods, I realised I needed to forget wood engraving. It is no wonder that after so many years, I found myself growing exhausted by it. I felt I was running the risk of repeating myself and ceasing to grow." She saw the Wedgwood plates as one of her most ambitious projects, perhaps even the culmination of her career.
The collection is open without restriction.
The collection is described in an article by Andrew Raftery, in Antiques Magazine, 2011. See: https://www.themagazineantiques.com/article/leighton/
Friends of British Art Fund, and Mr. and Mrs. Bart T. Tiernan LLB 1968 and Mr. and Mrs. Nigel Hamway. Ten of the Wedgwood plates are the gift of Judith and Norman Zlotsky, Yale Class of 1953.
The collection comprises original artwork and manuscript material by Clare Leighton for a series of 12 Queen's ware plates representing New England industries, produced by Josiah Wedgwood & Sons in 1952. Each plate reproduces a circular, wood-engraved design depicting one of 12 traditional industries: Whaling, Cranberrying, Grist Milling, Ice Cutting, Codfishing, Lobstering, Logging, Marble Quarrying, Shipbuilding, Sugaring, Tobacco Growing, and Farming. The collection includes all 12 of the Wedgwood plates, plus extensive preparatory material, including Leighton's preliminary studies, compositional studies, wood-engraved states, and final prints (signed and unsigned). The collection also includes photographs of Clare Leighton working on the woodblocks. Written material in the collection includes numerous drafts of texts by Leighton describing her process in designing the plates, and over 40 letters from Leighton's acquaintances responding to her announcement on June 6, 1952 of priority sales for the plates (Leighton's original letter is also present).
Among the preliminary studies are finely executed graphite drawings, including full-page drawings of a lobster, a whale vertebra, and sketches of tools, etc. Most of the engraved states have white ink added in Leighton's hand, with which she determined where more white was needed in the image before she carved alterations into the woodblock itself. The sequence of printed states available for each design offers an excellent step-by-step view of Leighton's process in engraving the blocks. There are also a handful of photographs of Leighton at work, engraving in her studio.
The collection includes Wedgwood's original brochure for the plates, with a brief overview of the project and short descriptions of each industry. Also present are Leighton's numerous drafts for the brochure texts, as well as additional writings by Leighton (many with her penciled corrections) describing her design process. There are detailed, multi-page narratives of her design process for Cranberrying, Grist Milling, Ice Cutting and Whaling. These offer windows into Leighton's engagement with the project, the people she met, her tireless search for subjects, and the curiosity and humility with which she approached the people and places involved in each industry. The texts for the four industries mentioned above are the most extensive and were likely composed first; drafts on the other eight industries are each about a page long, suggesting that she may have realized during the process that Wedgwood was only interested in printing very brief notes on each plate. It appears that Leighton's original longer texts were never published.
Correspondence includes a letter from Frederick Hill (Director of The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia) enclosing photos of whaling for her design. The rest of the correspondence concerns the advance sale of the Wedgwood plates. There is a copy of the typed letter (from 6 June 1952) that Leighton sent to about 75 of her friends and acquaintances announcing the sale of the plates. In response to Leighton's letter, there are over 40 typed and hand-written replies from prominent intellectual and artistic figures such as David Mitrany, Rachel Kallen (wife of philosopher Horace Kallen), Katharine Middleton (wife of R. Hunter Middleton), Frederic Melcher, and Nathaniel Saltonstall.
The collection is arranged into five series: I. Wedgwood Queen's ware plates of New England Industries; II. Artwork; III. Writings; IV. Correspondence; V. Photographs. - Subject Terms:
- Agriculture -- Pictorial works.Atlantic cod fishing -- Pictorial works.Cranberry industry -- Pictorial works.Grain -- Milling -- Pictorial works.Ice industry -- Pictorial works.Josiah Wedgwood & Sons.Leighton, Clare, 1898–1989 -- Correspondence.Leighton, Clare, 1898–1989.Leighton, Clare, 1898–1989. New England industries.Lobster industry -- Pictorial works.Logging -- Pictorial works.Maple sugar industry -- Pictorial works.Marble industry and trade -- Pictorial works.Shipbuilding -- Pictorial works.Tobacco farms -- Pictorial works.Whaling -- Pictorial works.Wood-engraving.
- Form/Genre:
- Queen's ware.
Graphite drawings.
Correspondence.
Photographs.
Wood engravings. - Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON