RoyCroftCampusCorporation

Buffalo Pottery at The Roycroft

 Tuesday, May 20th

If you have been to the Copper Shop Gallery or the RCC web site gift shop, you no doubt have seen the Roycroft pattern china and coffee mugs as well as the Larkin and Graycliff patterns for sale under the Buffalo Pottery trademark. But did you know the Hubbard - Martin - Buffalo Pottery connection?

       Before founding the Roycroft, Elbert Hubbard was a soap salesman for the Larkin Soap Company in Buffalo. He lived in East Aurora and commuted to Buffalo. However, Hubbard was more than a salesman, he was a creative promoter of his products, inventing the premium, today known as a gift with purchase.

       Japanese silk handkerchiefs, silver and china were among the gifts offered by the company as sales inducements. During Hubbard’s time at Larkin Soap the china premiums were imported. However, in 1901 John Larkin, Darwin Martin and other Larkin Soap executives decided they should manufacture their own china premiums and founded Buffalo Pottery to do so.

       The pottery was wholely owned by the parent company. In 1906 Buffalo Pottery also began producing a pattern for the Larkin Company's employee dining room in their new Frank Lloyd Wright designed administration building. By 1911 nine kilns were operated by 250 people. However, Buffalo Pottery wasn't just making china premiums for the Larkin Soap Company. In 1915 they began making vitrified hotel ware. Today many of their early discontinued lines continue to be sought after by collectors; Deldare ware being one of the most popular.

       The Buffalo Pottery trademark is now owned by Niagara Ceramics, a subsidairy of Oneida Ltd., and continues to manufacture in the same facility in Buffalo. As a matter of fact, the Roycroft, Martin House, Graycliff, and Larkin Bison Mug patterns are all manufactured there.

       Buffalo Pottery in the Roycroft, Martin House and Graycliff patterns are sold at their respective gift shops and the Copper Shop tries to keep coffee mugs in all 3 patterns, plus the Larkin Bison Mug in stock at the Copper Shop (31 South Grove St. East Aurora, NY). This is yet another example of how interconnected these individuals were in the past and how their surviving institutions remain so to this day.

- Sue

The Roycroft Campus Mug

I have some of the new mugs which include the Larkin Company, Graycliff and the Roycroft Campus Corporation. They are one of my favorite mugs to drink my morning coffee out of. For some reason I had always thought that coffee tastes extra good in one of these mugs.

Not long ago I was walking with my son to the nearby corner for him to catch the school bus. I had taken my Roycroft Mug with me. As we were waiting on the corner, someone in a car pulled to the side of the road and rolled his window down. I thought for sure this person was going to ask directions. Instead he said to me "Coffee tastes better in porcelain mugs doesn't it!"

I guess that confirms it! So if you want a great tasting beverage in the morning, come to the Copper Shop , 31 Grove Street, East Aurora, NY and get yourself a Roycroft Campus mug. You can order it online too at Roycroft Campus Corporation.

Julie

Maple Syrup Time In Western NY

Driving in western New York’s countryside I can see the “sugar shacks” putting out their steam and smoke and I know it is that time of year again, sugaring season. The Roycrofters were sugar makers. They used their maple syrup to make their specialty, Roycroft Pecan Patties, selling them all over the country.

It is hard work making maple syrup. I remember our sugar bush and sugar time every late winter. Grandpa would go to the woods and stay in the sugar shack for several days at a time, keeping the wood fire stoked all night long to boil the sap he and my father had gathered. There was a cot in the corner for him to nap on and we would bring meals up to him. I’m sure he didn’t mind doing it - he loved the outdoors and probably enjoyed the solitude.

I remember one year when Easter was early, just like this year, and snow was still deep on the ground. Dad had to be sugaring and couldn’t go to church. Mom still wanted to have a proper Easter dinner so she made our traditional ham dinner with all the trimmings and brought it up to the woods for a midday tailgate dinner with Dad. It was al fresco dining at its best: a clear blue sky with sun shining through the bare trees,  sitting on tree stumps or logs in the snow, wearing boots covered in early spring mud, and topping off the delicious meal, waiting for a mug full of fresh, hot syrup to cool in the icy snow fed stream. That was the best Easter dinner ever.

Be sure to get some fresh syrup this spring for your pancakes and french toast!

-Sue

Cookies, Cake and All Things to Bake

     It's finally that time of year to really get creative in the kitchen. Nothing says Christmas like the smell of Gingerbread baking! There seems an endless list of goodies that show up around the holidays. Cut-out Cookies, Fruitcake, Shortbread, Muffins....and how about Pecan Patties?

     Take a look at this vintage ad from Roycroft magazine in 1919:

     Wouldn't it be perfect if those could still be delivered to your door! 

     We invite you to show up at our door at 31 South Grove St. in East Aurora, NY. The Copper Shop Gallery is open 10-5 every day of the week*.  There are wonderful last-minute artisan gifts for those names still on your list! 

*Please Note Holiday Hours: Christmas Eve 10 - 2 and closed Christmas day and New Year's day.

For those interested. a copy of the original Pecan Patty recipe is available at the Copper Shop!

Have a great Holiday!

-Amanda

Roycroft Copper Shop's Christmas Mulled Cider

Last weekend was the ever popular Roycroft Winterfest. Visitors and artisans wandered from the Main Street school across the street to The Roycroft Campus. The Copper Shop was delightfully decorated for the holidays. Beautiful Christmas music was played by a local flute quartet. The smell of warm mulled cider and cookies drew people to the back of the store.  Visitors were finding great presents for their loved ones.

During that weekend, one of the most frequently questions asked was not about the Roycroft Campus but "Can I have the recipe for the mulled cider?"

Christine Peters, the Executive Director of the Roycroft Campus Corporation, makes this cider ever year.

So by popular demand, here is the recipe:

2 gallons apple cider

2 oranges, thinly sliced

1 lemon thinly sliced

nutmeg - not too much

whole cloves - a bunch

8 cinnamon sticks

sugar - if too sour

Simmer for 2 hours: mull orange and lemon against side of pot

Enjoy!

PS. Just a quick reminder that Santa Claus will be at the Roycroft Inn (40 South Grove Street, East Aurora) on Tuesday December 11 from 3 to 8 pm.

Julie

WNY Grape Harvest & Roycrofters

      For those living outside of WNY, we had an unusually warm and sunny September and October. The killing frost didn’t arrive until the last week of October - the latest frost my brother, a farmer of 30+ years, can remember. And a week ago, on election day, we had our first snowfall of the season. Instantly the sunny days in shirt sleeves are a memory, and the questions form: How much (snow) will we get in this storm? Where is the shovel? Do everyone’s gloves and snow boots fit? etc.

     Back four weeks ago when it was 74 degrees and I still needed sunblock, we were harvesting the grapes from the one vine here on the farm. It was a great year for WNY grape growers. The long sunny season allowed plenty of time for the fruit to ripen on the vine. We got over 30 pounds of grapes from our one vine! After the picking we began the process of turning all those buckets of grapes into preserves much the same way the Roycrofters would have. They wouldn’t have made any wine from their grapes since they were a temperance community. My grandmother, a strong WCTU-er (Women's Christian Temperance Union) and contemporary of Hubbard, would have approved.

     This was my first time making grape jelly so each step was fascinating. The grapes are processed in batches, making juice as the first step. You start by mashing them to force the skins off (giving you a bowl full of green Halloween ‘eyeballs’) and then boiling them in water - luckily you are rewarded during this process with a strong grape aroma as the steam rises off the bubbling brew. Next is the truly yucky process of straining the juice from the skins - anything and everything gets stained at this point so stainless steel implements and wearing old clothes is a must. What is left behind in the cheesecloth is the ugliest purple brown muck of cooked skins and seeds I have ever seen. The reward for your labors is the rich purple juice in the bowl. If you are totally exhausted - as I was after processing 30 pounds of fruit this way - you can refrigerate the juice and cook it into jelly or preserve it as juice later. I think in the future I will buy my juice at a vineyard and avoid this step altogether! That’s a modern option I can take, not so for the Roycrofters.

     Here's to good preserves or wine (sorry Elbert and Grandma) for getting through the winter! And speaking of winter, don't forget to mark your calendar for Dec. 1 & 2 for the annual East Aurora Winter Fest of Juried Artisans being held at East Aurora Middle School on Main Street. While you are in the neighborhood be sure to stop by 31 South Grove Street to view even more unique hand crafted items at the Copper Shop Gallery's Open House.

- Sue