(Look Back with Bob Enoch - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

OPENING EXHIBIT PARKERSBURG FINE ARTS CENTER

NOVEMBER 29 – Tiny Mugs Brought to This Country by Sailors Many Years Ago In Valuable Collection.

Tiny mugs from far-away England, brought to this country many years ago by sailors as presents for their children, are included in the valuable and unusual collection of children’s mugs owned by Miss Nan Snodgrass of Murdoch Avenue which will be a part of the opening exhibit of the Parkersburg Fine Art Center Tuesday evening, November 29, at 8:30 o’clock at its new home at 317 Ninth street.

Miss Snodgrass’s collection is doubly valuable because of its rarity occasioned by the difficulty encountered in obtaining specimens, since the majority of children’s mugs, in the early days, were made of china and were, therefore, easily broken. A large number of the small cups in her possession are of Old English design, characterized by a hand-applied border on the inside of the cup. These were brought by sailors from Liverpool and other British ports. Miss Snodgrass has a beautiful specimen of the famous “Liverpool Mug” in blue and white. Another Old English one, which is most unusual, depicts Robinson Crusoe making a boat. She has, also, one of the cups of the “Jolly Sailor” series of which there is a specimen in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

Included in her collection of Early American mugs is the “Benjamin Franklin” cup. Many of these have proverbs inscribed on them and the one in the Snodgrass collection shows a “cheap shop” with customers attempting to bargain with the proprietor. Of the series of mugs bearing bird designs, Miss Snodgrass possesses the Goldfinch one, and the “Season” series is represented in her collection by the September cup.

Popular in Earlier Days

Very popular in earlier days with children were the mugs with letters of the Alphabet on them. The Snodgrass collection includes the one with “E is for elephant and F for fish.” In her years of collecting, Miss Snodgrass has been unable to locate any others of the Alphabet series with one single exception, which she lost in the bidding when it was up for sale at an antique auction. In this extraordinary collection of some 30 mugs are some beautiful ones of milk glass and luster ware, and one with a cameo on it. One very eccentric old English cup depicts a monkey teasing a dog with his tail, but one finds, while following the picture around the cup, that the tail is not that of the monkey, but belongs to an opossum which the monkey is hiding.

In addition to the Snodgrass collection, there will be an exhibit at the opening of the Fine Arts Center of a fine collection of Currier & Ives lent by Dr. O. D. Barker, Mr. Thomas H. Brown, and Miss Mary E. Weidman; several figures done by Mr. Harry Poole Camden, sculptor, and photographs of the statues which he has made for the coming World’s Fair in New York; and exhibit by the local Charcoal Club.

The opening of an Art Center in Parkersburg will fill one of the city’s greatest needs, as was evidenced by the interest taken in the six exhibits held last year and the three held the previous year. Forty-seven such centers were opened throughout the country last year and, to date, each state in the Union has one, with the single exception of West Virginia. With the help of the entire community, the Blue Triangle club, the Junior League, Lambda Chi Omega sorority, Beta Sigma Pi sorority, the American Association of University Women, and the Parkersburg schools are undertaking to sponsor the Center. The opening on November 29 [1938] will be a preview for the members, after which the Art Center will be open to the public each day of the week from 2:30 until 5:30 o’clock free of charge.

Excerpt from The Parkersburg News

Nov. 20, 1938

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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.