WEDGWOOD SERENDIPITY

Sometimes we Wedgwoodians glory in the fun of finding Wedgwood even when we are trying not to! This week I was visiting the Marietta, Ohio Campus Martius Museum and the closeby area called Stanleyville, both homes of one of my Revolutionary War ancestors Thomas Stanley and his wife Mixenda Dix Nott Stanley. I've wanted to be there for ages, and finally able to get there on the way home from my recent New England trek. During the guided tour of Gen. Rufus Putnam's preserved home I was busily looking around the late 1700s kitchen and paying rapt attention to the wooden trencher, iron pots and tilt top table owned by Persis Putnam. In the next room, the parlor, sat an antique table with 2 dinner plates and a lovely tureen with underplate. I recognized it immediately but waited until our tour guide paused for questions and I asked if he would lift a plate; he allowed me to do so and of course there was the impressed word WEDGWOOD just as I knew there would be. What they have is 3 pieces of the early feather edge pattern, ca. the mid 1800s - too late to have been in the house when Mrs. Putnam was hostess, but apparently donated by someone later on. I spoke to the small tour group about the china and laughed at the thought of one of my pal's having once told a group I could 'smell' Wedgwood! In the main part of the museum building itself, I found glass cases with other items owned by the original family and descendants in the area...to include a lovely Widow Finial black basalt teapot. If you have read our New and Featured Items frames, you have seen the story of Thomas and Mixenda who migrated from Farmington, CT and settled at Campus Martius. Their daughter, my 4great grandmother Nancy Anna Stanley, was born in one of the blockhouses on 1 Jan 1791, the day before the Indian attacks became more serious and organized. I drove to Marietta from Farmington, CT where I photo'd the graves of Thomas' father and grandfather. Be sure to see our Campus Martius commemorative items by Wedgwood in stock now. And as you read on, you'll see the news of the lovely new Wedgwood book by Tricia Foley. Check page 30 to see the pattern I found at Campus Martius. Illustrated in the book is the soup tureen, the Museum in Ohio has a gorgeous oval covered vegetable dish with underplate, in gorgeous condition and a treat to see since it is a pretty rare pattern to find; there is some at Williamsburg if memory serves.