64 
House & Garden 
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OVINGTON’S 
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The Gift Shop of Fifth Avenue 
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T HIS year we are forced to abandon our Christmas 
custom of showing many distinctive gift suggest¬ 
ions in this issue of House and Garden. 
It is far better to do this, is it not, than to disappoint 
you on some article you have decided upon? 
But even that need not prevent your securing the 
distinctive Christmas wares of Ovington’s. 
Come to Ovington’s yourself—the variety is as wide 
as ever, even if quantities are somewhat restricted. 
Or scan over the general list below, tell us approx¬ 
imately what you want and what you desire to pay 
for it, and trust to Ovington’s trained judgment to 
send you something distinctive and charming. 
Picture Frames $3.50 to $20 
Lamps and Shades $10 to $500 
Sheffield Articles $5.00 to $100 
Sheffield Tea Sets $35 to $250 
China Dinner Sets $60 to $500 
Mirrors $5.00 to $150 
Candlesticks $3.50 to $50 
Bookends $3.50 to $25 
Polychrome Articles $3.50 to 
$50 
Smokers* Articles $3.50 up 
Desk Sets $7.50 to $100 
Beaded Bags $15 up 
Velvet and Leather Bags $5 up 
Salad Sets $10 up 
Candy Jars $3.50 to $15 
Crystal Articles decorated with 
sterling silver $5 to $25 
China Tea Sets $5.00 to $100 
Large assortment of Table Crystal, Enamelware, Break¬ 
fast Sets, Novelty Furniture, and Christmas Articles. 
OVINGTON’S 
“The Gift Shop of Fifth Jlvenue 9 
312-314 Fifth Ave., 
NEW YORK 
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Gray and silver 
lustre jar, 19 th 
Century make 
Old Lustre and the Collector 
(Continued from page 27) 
to the lustreless dross of possession. 
Were old lustre ware my only passion 
instead of my occasional indulgence, a test, 
too, of self-denial, my little showing might 
invite expansion so that my whole house 
would, perhaps, come to look like a lustre 
ware shop, just such an amazing domicile 
as that into which years of determined, 
unbridled, and passionate lustre ware 
seekings and findings have transformed 
the house of my good friend Ceramicos. 
Well, Heaven bless his exultant successes! 
I love him and I love his lustre ware, but 
I do not attempt to argue with a mono- 
hobbiest that there is a happy medium in 
all things. That would be but to construct 
delicate conversation for the disinterested 
ear of adamantine deafness, where I 
admire and abjure admonishment. It 
happens that my own hobbies are vast 
in number and thus I am permitted that 
parental sort of sympathy which a father 
may be expected to feel with other people’s 
children. If I myself do not devote my 
whole life to collecting old lustre, I can, 
notwithstanding, contemplate with honest 
ardor the labors of those who do, and I 
can, without deceit, declare the pursuit to 
be one which is highly commendable and 
as thoroughly fascinating from every 
angle. 
Lustre in Museums 
Of late the great museums of America 
have been taking much interest in this 
branch of keramics, and if one has the 
good fortune to be visiting the museums 
in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, 
there will be opportunities there afforded 
for a delightful first-hand study of lustre, 
as some of the finest and most interesting 
pieces of the ware in existence are to be 
found in the museums of America. Of 
course, I know how necessary, how valu¬ 
able, how interesting, and how inspiring— 
unless one becomes too tired to drag an¬ 
other step, which is oftenest the case!— 
museums are. Nevertheless, I think I 
could not get along without at least a few 
treasures of my own, and after hours of 
flattening my nose against the museum 
cases containing lustre delights, I come 
home to my own modest acquisitions and 
realize that in them there is a satisfaction 
that even the endless treasures of the 
Victoria and Albert Museum could not 
exactly afford! 
The Italian and English Makers 
It must have been a memorable day 
when the Italian potters, centuries ago, 
discovered the way to produce lustre 
glazes after the manner, or at least with 
the effects found in the Persian and other 
oriental lustred pottery that inspired their 
research and labor. The old madreperla 
maiolica of Italy, notably that of Gubbio, 
was ancestor of the lustre ware that was 
so popular in the early part of the 19th 
Century, a descendent, too, of the metallic 
lustres of the early Hispano-Moresco ware 
produced in Spain about 1350 A. D. Very 
thin glazes of chemically reduced metals 
applied to the body pottery or porcelain, 
as the case might be, with a final glaze 
that brought forth in reflection the under¬ 
glazed, was the manner in which the deco¬ 
ration of lustre ware was produced. A 
copper solution glazed produced either 
copper or gold lustre after requisite firing 
on the dark clay of the base. Lilac and 
pink hues were produced by firing on white 
or cream grounds with the copper metallic 
glaze. A platinum solution produced a 
silver lustre. 
Just when the art of making lustre ware 
was rediscovered or introduced into Eng¬ 
land, or by whom, I have never been able 
to find out. There does not seem to be 
any reliable evidence to make certain the 
matter. It is safe to assume that the 
Staffordshire district was the cradle of the 
industry in England, and that Hancock, 
who has been credited by some with the 
rediscovery, at least nursed, if he did not 
father, the early English lustre ware. 
About the year 1776 the indefatigable 
Josiah Wedgwood began his experiments 
with lustre ware and continued them for 
some years, producing beautiful pieces. 
Fortunate, indeed, is the collector who can 
bring together a few early pieces of lustre 
that will be representative of the various 
sorts of English lustre ware, but it can be 
done, and there will be joy in the pursuit. 
There will be the rare ruby or plum shades 
of lustre, an undurable shade now only 
faintly to be traced on the dark ground 
pieces that had the good fortune to receive 
it. Wedgwood’s ruby lustre of 1790 may 
well be treasured by the collector who 
chances to acquire an example of it. Fre¬ 
quent rinsing in water undoubtedly de¬ 
stroyed the rich color of the ruby glazes, 
but, of course, the careful housewives of 
a century ago were not giving thought to 
the collectors of today! 
The Lustre Colors 
In the gold lustre there may be a very 
small amount of real gold in the copper 
solution which entered the glaze, but it is 
more likely, I think, that degrees of firing, 
or, perhaps, even frequent accidents, lent 
more of a gold color than of a copper color 
to the finished piece. At any rate, the gold 
lustre bears no resemblance to the leaf 
gilding on old English porcelain. 
Varied are the shades of the copper 
lustre. Occasionally a lovely reddish tone 
was produced by the formation of a sub¬ 
oxide in the glaze. With inferior glazes 
or with glazes applied to grounds not fit 
to receive them, the results were dead 
brown in color, decided “failures,” but 
historically interesting. 
The bronzed purple lustre, which Bos- 
anko likens in appearance to the color of 
a ripe blackberry (I would add, in the 
morning sunlight), is also to be met with. 
Lilac, a deterioration, perhaps, of the 
light purple lustre, or, as Bosanko sug¬ 
gests, an inferior shade of it, is the color 
most commonly to be met with on the 
light grounds. The pink lustre must not 
be confused with lilac. It is a distinct hue, 
free from the bluish hint in the lilac. As 
for myself, I have a very tender spot in 
my heart for pink lustre, especially that 
of the Sunderland ware, somewhat crudely 
imitated in later years. The steel lustre 
('Continued on page 66) 
