Description:
Small square pinkish earthenware tile, molded with an raised outline design of a big horn sheep in profile with mountains in the distance, initials in the lower right hand corner are "MB" for Margaret Broxton, glazed in white on the upper surface, on back of tile is impressed mark of a leaping deer with “OLD DEERFIELD MASS”.
Label Text:
According to Suzanne Flynt's Poetry to the Earth, "during the Great Depression, the craftwork community in Deerfield received an injection of creativity and energy with the arrival of two newcomers, Randolph Johnston (1904-1992) and Edward “Ted” Norman. In 1933, Johnston established the Deerfield Studios Art School, and his brother-in-law, Ted Norman, built the Old Deerfield Pottery, both located at the Bloody Brook Tavern. Once the Old Deerfield Pottery was in production, the two men hired Margot Broxton and Phyllis Little as assistants. All four worked on the wheel, with molds, and by the coil method, and had a hand in firing their wares marked with the leaping deer logo. Margot Broxton, a native of England who grew up in Washington, DC, trained as a ceramicist at the Corcoran Art School and at the Art Institute of Chicago. Broxton created molded figural creamers and sugar bowls. Gertrude Ashley likely described these mugs when she said that Broxton carved “the grotesque face on a ‘Toby’ mug or jug.” In 1937 Broxton and Johnston married, and in 1938 moved to South Deerfield, where they set up a foundry and pottery. Ted Norman continued to run the Old Deerfield Pottery by himself specializing in simple, elegant, hand thrown forms such as bowls and vases with solid glazes." Historic Deerfield owns several examples of Norman’s work but just one other piece of pottery by Margot Broxton, a female craftsperson working in 20th-century Deerfield.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2023.33 |
