If you like these things, then spring must make your heart beat a little faster. But even those of us who would rather not spend a moment planting, weeding, smelling mulch, or standing in line at the garden store, would occasionally like to admire someone else’s garden – or just a pot of well-tended flowers. So, in honor of all gardeners, past and present, the CHS has created a small hallway display of garden-related objects from our collections.
Some of the highlights of the display include mid-nineteenth-century flowerpots attributed to Hartford potter Edwin Roberts. Roberts made redware pots in Hartford for over 30 years. These pots are displayed next to pots created by contemporary master potter Guy Wolff. In his studio in Washington, CT, Wolff creates pots based on traditional eighteenth- and nineteenth-century models, as well as his own one-of-a kind designs. His pots are owned by the likes of Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey and are on display in famous gardens like Monticello and the New York Botanical Gardens.
Visitors can also see a small wooden box made around the 1880s to display seeds for sale from the Hart, Welles & Co. Seed Company of Wethersfield. The box has over 50 unopened seed packets giving visitors a glimpse at the types of flowers popular with nineteenth-century gardeners – such as Salpiglossia, Godetia, and Calliopsis – as well as types that are still popular today – like Sweet Pea and Chrysanthemum. A photograph of Mrs. E.C. Terry’s garden on Collins Street shows the types of gardens that were in the backyards of early 20th-century Hartford homes. A copper watering in the streamlined art deco style was created by the Chase Brass & Copper Co. of Waterbury in 1933.
Also on display are examples of works inspired by spring flowers. Watercolors painted by Mabel Gilman of Hartford in the 1880s are featured along with designs created for vases to be hand-painted by the Goodwin Pottery of West Hartford at the turn of the century.
Celebrate the coming of spring in Connecticut by visiting The Connecticut Historical Society.The hallway display of flowerpots and other flower-related artifacts is on view from April 5th to June 10th. A one-room display of eight quilts featuring floral motifs is on view in the exhibition galleries between April 5th and April 30th. Don’t miss this brief opportunity to see these two small spring shows. The exhibition galleries are open Tuesday through Friday from 12:00 to 5:00 and Saturdays from 9:00 to 5:00. For more information, go to http://www.chs.org/page.php?id=498 or call (860) 236-5621 during normal business hours.
