The Portland daily press., 1893-06-13
Gath's Interesting "reminiscences Of
Many Master Artists.
BE Talks OF Acquaintances in Florence
and Their Wonderful Work-A Snow
Statue That Was the Beginning
=. of q Great End.
[ooPYRIGar, 1891

Cdulc UPOA d SA1t1Al k1Asbt4OllA tbllu bGLn-
pie OF pottery, which knew in mo-
ment must be the lockwood pottery,
established by Miss Longworth, after
wards Mrs. Nichols, now Mrs. Stohrer.
grand daughter Of Nicholas Long
worth. The subtay alternating yell
lows and browns, wiki a tendency
toward the green that is called mala-
chite; the harmonious blending Of
dark glazings, IN which are some
brownish reds, the simple forms not at
all strained, are significant of this
pottery, and inquired Of the Lad who
had charge of it, why it was called
lockwood" Mrs. Stohrer,s said he,
named it, think, after her fathers
place IN the country, close by Cincin-
natl. - l took up a piece of this pot
terry and asked its price; it was close
to one hundred dollars, though hardly
more than foot and half high.
Nothing is Duplicated in this pot
terry" said the lad; whoever buys
that piece has the only copy Of it,
Here is the case of q woman bearing
an analogy to Pullman. The money
instinct was as much inthe Long worth
family as in the Pullman family, but
in both cases it was subordinate to a
desire to create something with the
money which should also perpetuate
the promoter andsbe a benefaction.
Standing with my hand upon this
piece of pottery, "reminiscences came
upon me, all in one train. which will
probably be interesting for yon 10 read
During our civil war, in the latter
part of 1868, ! went to the cityof Flor
ence and stayed there month. Hiram:
Powers was the chief American mag
nate in the town. / knew nothing
whatever about him, except. that I had
seen some of his busts and his Greek
slave. Among my acquaintance
formed in Florence were the scu1ptors
Hart, Jackson and Meade. I did
not seeas Mr.. Powers at all, as
it is disability for men to
have too much reputation, and
while they attract the tuft hunters and
parasites, their fame disnays the timid
and the inpressionable. Larlzin
Meade took me into Powers show
rooms or workshops, and there was a
beautiful image in white marble there,
which I understood had been modelled
after Powers own daughter, q legend
which gave the statue romance in my
boyish eyes. I was told that this
young lady had been or would be mar
ried to some Engfishman who had
known her between Florence and Eng
land.
Sitting down one day with Meade,
who, I fancied might have been:in love
with this Miss Powers, 1 said to him.
"How came you tosbe a sculptora"
IT had a sfondness for shaping
things" said Mr. Meade, s'for lived
in marble. country in Vermont. They
make many tombs and monuments up
theres and, besides that seeing those
things, the creative disposition is in
our family. My sister married Mr..
Howells, whom you may haveeheard
of as contributor to magazines, and
who wrote the life of Abraham Lincoln
when he ran for president. He is our
consul now in Venice; Mr.. Lincoln sent
him there. After had got some knack
in shaping things readily, there came
Q big snowstorm at Brattleboro, where
lived. and went out in the snow
that night, and finding it OF good con-
sistency for my purpose, I modelled
the old year going out and covered it
with water, which froze, and there
in the morning before the towns
people stood nice monument. Mr.
Beach, of the New York Sun, it's
proprietor, happened to be there. He
wrote an article for his paper, describ-
ing this statue of the old year. Not
long after that came a letter to the
postmaster in our placepostmarked Gin
cinnabi, asking him what sort of young
man I was and whether this deserip,
ton could be relied upon. The post
master told me of it, and he answered
the letter favorably. dropped a Line,
however, to friend in Ohio, and
found that Nicholas Longworth owned
the particular postofice box which the
postmaster was to address. Of course,
you know Nick Longworth?"
eyes, said I, she makes wine, I
think
sSPshawr' said Meade, The brought
out Hiram Powers. Powers was one
of our Vermonters who drifted out
west, and WAS making wooden images
in Cincinnati as sign posts on tho
streets. He worked ina museum and
rugged UP chamber Of horrors, with
electrical batteries in it, to scare coun-
try visitors. Nick Longworth saw that
he had talent and advanced him money
and gave him orders, and that is how
Powers got to where he is. You may
suppose" said Mr.. Meade, 'that was a
little set up when found that great
Nick Longworth writing to our post
master about my image"
what came of 1t ALP"
4eWhy, I got an order to put that
same figure into statuette form. 1t
turned my attention to sculpture. Il
never rested until I got to Florence
under the eye and advice of Hiram
Powers"
"What have you got to do now?"
s.Oh, / am about to make a pair of
statuettes, one called Echo and the
o+1,ar GTha T,ovars yvho calls the voica