Westmoreland Museum of American Art presents Pennsylvania folk art exhibit

Frank Swala fiddles with a small tin disc, placing it on top of a clay jar imprinted with a blue pictogram of peaches.

"These tin lids were put on, then they took hot wax and sealed them," Swala says. "So, while the product was still boiling hot -- lets say peaches or something -- they put it in there, put the lid on, and put sealing wax around it. And then as it cooled, it contracted and made its own seal. These, of course, were outdated when the glass industry started making glass canning jars."

A stoneware collector, Swala, who lives in Jefferson, Greene County, is a guest curator of salt-glazed stoneware and tanware for "Made in Pennsylvania: A Folk Art Tradition," an exhibition of folk art pieces, mainly from the 19th century, that all have their origins in Pennsylvania.

The show, which opened Saturday at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, is by far one of the largest of its kind ever produced. Arranged in four categories, each of which is organized by its own curator, the exhibition features more than 400 important examples of fraktur, salt-glazed stoneware and tanware, textiles, and painted furniture.
source:www.pittsburghlive.com