By Ann Nichols
annsnichols@aol.com
Pitchers are the focal point in the Houston Museum of Decorative Arts special exhibition through March.
Anna Safley Houston, for whom the museum is named, owned 15,000 pitchers until March 1947 when a fire broke out in her home and antiques shop in East Ridge. With no running water in the wooden structure, she formed a pitcher brigade with women in her neighborhood and filled the pitchers with water from a nearby fire hydrant.
“The damage was small numerically, but emotionally huge for Anna,” writes Tom Williams, author of Ms. Safley’s biography “Always Paddle Your Own Canoe. “Of the 15,000 pitchers in her collection, about 500 were destroyed.”
On display in the Houston exhibit are pitchers in a wide variety of colors, shapes, sizes and materials.
One of those that survived the fire is a 1904 pigeon blood, mold-blown pitcher in the Torquay pattern.
A number of pitchers are made of mold-blown cranberry glass, cranberry satin glass and clear glass with cranberry and white spatter.
“It’s quite obvious to us that Anna, along with her passion for pitchers, had a preference for cranberry glass as we have special exhibit areas filled with stunning cranberry creations,” said Amy Frierson, director of the museum.
From the late 1800s, visitors can see a clear, nonflint glass pitcher in a Spanish-American pattern, as well as a topaz and amber Northwood piece. Several other pitchers in the display are embellished with motifs made from enamel
Opaque canary glass with shadings of yellow comprises one of the unique 20th-century pitchers.
The Houston, 201 High St., is open Monday through Friday with the first guided tour at 9 a.m. and the last at 4 p.m. The museum is open Saturday and Sunday by appointment. Admission is $9 for adults and $3.50 for children 4-17. Call 267-7176.