IEA acquires Syracuse China Lithostones from Lake Editions at Syracuse University
May 23, 2018 Wednesday
The IEA recently acquired
over 160 lithographic stones from Lake Editions of Syracuse University. The
majority of the stones are of the highest quality with approximately 75%
ranging from "light grey" to the most desired "blue grey"
grade densities. The Stones are part of an enormous collection of approximately
2000 that were being stored at a warehouse for many decades. The stones were
originally part of the lithographic stones used by Syracuse China to produce
decals for their fine porcelain dinnerware. Most of the stones still have
images on both sides that still can be printed.
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| over 160 lithographic stones |
Print Media Faculty Myles
Calvert, Print Media Technician Sam Sloan-Wiechert and summer Expanded Media helper
Andrew Wiechert along with Co-Director Joseph Scheer, retrieved the stones on
May 23rd. Syracuse China has a long History with the New York State College of
Ceramics at Alfred University starting in 1928 with its financial support of presenting
a new kiln to the college. [3]
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| Print Media Technician Sam Sloan-Wiechert, Andrew Wiechert, Professor Joseph Scheer |
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| Print Media Faculty Myles Calvert, Print Media Technician Sam Sloan-Wiechert |
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| Associate Professor of Print Media at Syracuse University Dusty Herbig with Myles Calvert |
Special thanks to Associate
Professor of Print Media Dusty Herbig at
Syracuse University for help making this happen.
The addition of this many stones will allow for Alfred students and IEA artists to extensively explore color-printing techniques. Professors Myles Calvert and Kathryn Vajda are already planning to introduce this into this falls Sophomore Intro to Print Media courses.
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| over 160 stones loaded in the U-Haul |
From
Wikapedia:
"Later
in 1896, the company installed the industry's first in-house lithographic shop
for the "printing of decals."[2] This made it easy for the decorating
department to make inexpensive lithography of hotel and restaurant labels
feasible which helped "further the company's market penetration of the
institutional markets."[1]
[1] "Syracuse and Onondaga China
Information and History". Collectives, 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
[2] "The History of Syracuse
China". Syracuse Then and Now, 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
[3] "Report
on the New York State School of Clayworking and Ceramics" (PDF). Alfred University Yearbook 1927- 28: 155–56. 1928. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
More research will need to
be done on what technique was used to create the decals. As can be seen in the images, color
separations of up to 10 colors can be seen on single stones and quite close to
each other. This means they must have been printed with a vehicle that the
color pigments would have been applied to after printing and then assembled
before applying to the dinnerware??? Aodi Liang, IEA's archive and research support
staff will record each stones images before they are ground and used. Some of
the stones with special images we will preserve and not use.
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| Professor Joseph Scheer and Myles Calvert were so exciting |
/photos from Joseph Scheer/texts from Joseph Scheer
