Brad Keeler Artwares at Clayton and Hazel Sinclair's Rock Rest Tourist Ho

[Cross posted from Cati's Poetry, Prose & Pottery Substack]

On November 5, 2019, I received an email through the Brad Keeler Artwares website contact form from Carrie Feldman, a cataloger at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. She wrote:

I am currently cataloging a few items created by Brad Keeler, all from his lobster line. I am having trouble dating the pieces. In this collection is a Three Part Divided Dish with a full lobster on three lettuce leaves stamped 866, a small plate with a single lobster claw stamped 891 (I think), and salt and pepper shakers of lobster heads (no stamps but appear to match the plates). Do you have a date range for this line? Thanks!

Whoa! Grandpa Brad’s lobsters in the Smithsonian! I immediately wrote her back:

Thanks for reading Poetry, Prose & Pottery! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Thank you for your interest in my grandfather's work. I'm curious to know how the lobster dishes found their [way] to the Smithsonian's African American History museum -- it is an honor to know they are there, and I am delighted to help.

She, too, responded immediately:

The pieces were collected from an African American-owned tourist home that ran during the Era of Segregation in Maine. It was one of the few places where African Americans could vacation during that era. I’ve attached photos (poorly taken from my iPhone and pre-conservation treatment/cleaning). Once I’ve completed the records, these will be public on the Smithsonian collections search page, so I always like to confirm the accuracy. If these pieces have particular names, please let me know. This is what I have currently named them.

1. Brad Keeler three-part divided dish

2. Brad Keeler plate

3. Brad Keeler salt and pepper shakers

Please let me know if there are official names to these pieces or if I have misidentified anything.

Also can you confirm that the three-part divided dish is #866?

And the plate is #891?

I wrote back the next day:

Thanks for your patience. I love that my grandfather's pieces found their way into that home, and hopefully made the guests' stay more pleasant. I can imagine them set out on the table and all the conversations that must have gone on around them. Once the page is live, I would love to have the link so I can share. I'd also like to make people aware of it through the Brad Keeler Artwares website that I run: http://bradkeelerartwares.squarespace.com/

I got out my stepstool to take a look at the pieces I have and I discovered that I don't in fact have exact matches for these, but some research did unearth confirmations that your numbers are correct: 866 for the three-part divided dish and 891 for the plate. As far as I know, the names you have given are what they are usually called, except for possibly adding "Artwares" after "Brad Keeler" ("Brad Keeler Artwares") as that is what appears on the label, when there is a label and not a stamp. You also might consider adding "Lobster" (or Lobsterware) as there are other similar pieces using radishes and tomatoes and crabs; that would differentiate them, and is often how they're described in ebay listings and catalogs. There is no official name for them, as far as I am aware. For a city of origin, you may list Los Angeles, California.

Again, thank you for allowing me to assist you with identifying these pieces. I have not been to the Smithsonian since I was a teenager. Now I have another reason to plan a trip.

She wrote back the next day:

I made your suggested changes – I went with Lobsterware since that sounds like the name of the line. I couldn’t fit it in the object name (character limit) but it’s in the description. But I was able to fit Artwares into the object name. Thank you so much for the additional information and for confirming the numbering on the museum’s pieces. I will let you know when these artifacts go online. It will probably take a little while because it’s a large collection of objects that I’m working my way through and I’m just at the beginning

Your website is very well done, by the way. That’s what I used for your grandfather’s constituent bio and how I found you. I’m also dropping the link for your site in the record for the curator to have a look once it goes to curatorial review.

And if you do come to DC for a visit, please let me know. I’d be happy to get you tickets for the museum!

Our exchange might have ended here, but as it happened, I did find my way to D.C., albeit four years later, and took a chance and wrote to her again hoping that her offer of tickets was still good. I wanted to meet her in person, and I was also curious about the fate of those Lobsterware dishes. Unfortunately, she was out of the office, but the ticket offer was still good and I was happy to get more information about the vacation home:

I can tell you a little bit to start. The Rock Rest Tourist Home was in Kittery, ME. It was owned by a husband and wife during the Segregation Era. It was in the Green Books as a safe place for African American vacationers to go without fear of violence or discrimination. Sadly, after the Sinclairs died, the house fell into disrepair. Eventually a historic preservation organization stepped in and they offered NMAAHC the contents of the house. We made a field collection there which included your grandfather’s pieces. This material was originally collected, not only to preserve this historic house, but also for our exhibition called Power of Place, which is one of my favorite exhibitions and is located on the third floor of the museum down the center. I’m not 100% sure of this, but I believe that since the material was in poor condition and required a great deal of conservation, the curators decided to focus on a different segregated tourist home called Oak Bluffs in Martha’s Vineyard, MA. But here’s a little more information here: https://savingplaces.org/stories/preservation-vacation-rock-rest-a-home-away-from-home

She then sent me the tickets and I enjoyed a long visit in the museum. This was in 2023.

Yesterday, I was thinking about our exchange again because I’m preparing to hand off the final draft of Clay Bodies to the copy editor and I’m thinking about all the people I need to thank. I was curious to see whether those Lobsterware dishes ever made it into the online records. Sure enough, there they were! I decided to drop Carrie another email but got a mailer daemon. I can only assume that she is no longer with the Smithsonian. (Carrie, if you’re out there, send me a note about how I can find you!)

While at the time of our exchange I did not own either the lobster plate or the divided dish, I do now. The Smithsonian entries don’t yet have pictures, but based on the matching numbers, I assume they are identical to the ones below.

Brad Keeler Lobsterware

Hazel and Clayton Sinclair’s Rock Rest Tourist Home has been written about extensively and is even included in the PBS documentary Driving While Black.

If you’d like to know more, check out the following links:

Click here to read Valerie Cunningham’s first-person account of working at Rock Rest.

Click here to read more Rock Rest Tourist Home history on Route1Views.

Click here to view Rock Rest Tourist Home on the Smithsonian NMAAHC website.

Click here to view all three Lobsterware entries on the Smithsonian NMAAHC website.

Click here to view the Power of Place ongoing exhibit at the Smithsonian NMAAHC website. Note: Rock Rest is not on exhibit.

How to Correctly Identify a Brad Keeler Piece

On weekends, my husband and I often find ourselves near antiques shops. When we do, we scour the glass cases and open shelves for anything that could have been produced by my grandfather, Brad Keeler. We've had some lucky finds: flamingos, a rooster platter, and most recently a covered serving dish from the fish service line.

It does seem that authentic pieces are becoming harder and harder to find, likely due to the limited production because of my grandfather's short lifespan. As of this writing, on January 24, 2023, there are 147 Brad Keeler listings on eBay.

A quick scan of them tells me that most of them are authentic. Most, but not all.

Whether unscrupulous or simply uninformed, some sellers attribute the Brad Keeler name to pieces that, to a novice, bear a resemblance to something made by him, but when you know what to look for, it becomes clear that either a piece is a knockoff or it's just plain not his. I'm going to give you two real-world examples, and a couple of things to look for. 

1) Lobsterware

Three lobster platters with lettuce-green leaves. One is real. Can you tell which is which at a glance?

All three of these came up under a search for Brad Keeler on eBay. Things to look for: Note the colors of the glaze, the detail on both the leaves and the lobsters, and always look for a makers' mark.

Keeler was famous for his "Ming Dragon's Blood" true red glaze, an innovation at the time. Which of those lobsters appears to have the truest red? And while there is some variation with the greens in different buffet service lines, none of them are quite that vivid a green. 

Another distinctive feature is the shape of the lobster. You will typically see more artistic detail. The leaves, too, have a distinctive look to them. They draw the eye inward toward the body of the lobster. Visually, they do not compete with the lobster for the viewer's attention; rather, they are the canvas on which the lobster is artistically placed.

Lastly, always look for a maker's mark. There are rare exceptions, but the lobsterware line will typically have a stamp with or without a number on its backside, and possibly even a sticker. (Stickers are rarer because they fall off over time.) Other things to look for: The tell-tale crazing, e.g. hairline cracks in the glaze. If there are no cracks in the glaze, it is definitely not authentic. 

2) Figural birds

As is with most of Brad Keeler's work, the more detailed the work, the more likely it is to be an authentic Brad Keeler Artwares piece. My grandfather, like his father before him, was a gifted artist and modeler. Again, with a discerning eye, one can pretty easily see the difference between a Keeler bird and a non-Keeler bird.

This past weekend, my husband and I found ourselves in the vicinity of the same antique store where we have had good luck in the past, Victoria's Attic. 

Victoria's Attic is a sprawling antique mall in the Coachella Valley, famous for a mid-century modern aesthetic. A good place to find tchotchkes from my grandfather's era. In the same case where I found the beautiful fish service dish, I spotted a bird. It was/is labeled Brad Keeler, but looking at it through the glass I was 90% certain that it absolutely wasn't. Still, I asked them to open the case so I could inspect it. 

Here is the bird, next to an authentic piece for reference, on the right, one from my mom's collection that I took a photo of yesterday in her kitchen.

The first thing I want to you notice is where the eye goes when you look at these. Like any good artistic composition, the eye is drawn to a focal point, then moves around the piece finally landing back on the focal point.

The piece on the left is kind of a hodge-podge. The eye doesn't know where to go. All of the elements are in competition with one another so it's sort of hard to look at. Look at the branch that the bird is perched on. It's heavy, and the decoration on both the bird and the branch is sloppy. And the color of the branch overpowers the color of the bird.

Now look at the piece on the right. Where does your eye go first? Yes, to the bird. Note the detail on the wing, little scallops like feathers. The tail is delicate. The glaze colors do not compete and instead complement each other. Also, note the birds' eyes: the one on left has a little splotch of paint for an eye; the one on the right has a detailed eye, and if you look closely, you can see there is tiny wedge of white representing where the light is glinting. [Note: My photo is too low-res to see this, but click here and zoom in on this one on eBay--note the tiny "pie slice" of white.] This is a characteristic feature of Keeler birds and most if not all of the figural work. There is also the characteristic crazing to look for.

Once you know what to look for, it's not hard to identify an authentic piece. So how is it that this antiques dealer has his bird marked as Brad Keeler? I checked the base and there is no signature, which is how the typical birds are identified--a signature etched into the un-fired clay itself. 

I offer you this piece of advice: Just because something is identified by a dealer as an authentic Keeler piece, or it says "Brad Keeler" in the description, does not mean that it is. Don't be fooled by imposters or unscrupulous or simply ill-informed dealers. Had the dealer been on-hand at the store on Sunday, I would have given them this quick tutorial.

Alas, I just hope that other dealers who are looking to the internet for identification might happen upon my blog. To anyone out there reading this, I am always happy to look at pictures and give you my assessment--which is not to say that I know everything, but what I know, I'm happy to share.