[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 184 (Thursday, December 17, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S8789]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING DANFORTH PEWTER
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I want to take a moment to celebrate the
success of another Vermont business, Danforth Pewter, which this year
celebrates 40 years of producing quality, hand-crafted pewter products.
Danforth Pewter--owned and operated by Fred and Judi Danforth--opened
for business in 1975 in Woodstock, VT. What started as a family
business operating in a milk house in an old dairy barn has expanded to
a workshop and flagship store in Middlebury and a network of retail
stores in Burlington, Waterbury, and Woodstock, VT, and in Colonial
Williamsburg, VA.
This rich history of Danforth Pewter, however, dates back more than
two-and-a-half centuries, when Thomas Danforth II opened his pewter
shop in Middletown, CT in 1755. Generations of Danforths followed in
the patriarch's footsteps until 1873. A century later, Fred Danforth
and his wife, Judi, also an artist, rekindled the family tradition and,
following in the footsteps of his great-great-great-great-great-
grandfather, reopened what is today a thriving business with a
reputation for quality that extends far beyond the Green Mountains of
Vermont. Fast forward to today, and the Danforth pewterer legacy lives
on. Using the same techniques to cast pewter today as were originally
used by Thomas Danforth II is an even greater testament to the
longevity of fine craftsmanship and the quality of the goods produced
at Danforth Pewter.
Every time Marcelle and I visit Danforth Pewter, we are impressed by
the time and effort that goes into each piece. We shared the quality of
this craftsmanship in 2008 when we shared palm stones crafted at
Danforth Pewter with other delegates at the 2008 National Convention.
Whenever we are in Middlebury, Marcelle and I try to stop in the store
and see what new pieces are available. Our home in Vermont is dotted
with Danforth Pewter pieces, and many hold special memories for us.
These pieces are part of what makes our house in Vermont truly our
home.
The Burlington Free Press recently ran an article highlighting the
long history of Danforth Pewter, punctuated with images of some of the
company's most historic pieces. I ask unanimous consent that this
December 11, 2015, article entitled ``Inside the world of Danforth
Pewter' '' be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Burlington Free Press, Dec. 11, 2015]
Inside the World of Danforth Pewter
(By Fred Danforth)
In his wonderful book ``The Connecticut,'' Walter Hard
tells of the development of trade along the Connecticut River
by the American colonists. In one chapter he describes
itinerant peddlers with horse-drawn carts who were the first
to distribute the wares of the 18th-century artisans of the
Connecticut Valley.
Some of the wares on those carts were most likely pewter
mugs and plates made by Thomas Danforth and his six sons in
the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Thomas Danforth opened his pewter workshop in Middletown,
Connecticut, on the banks of the Connecticut River, in 1755
and his sons, grandsons and great-grandsons continued
crafting pewter in their respective workshops until 1873,
when the last of the early American Danforth pewterers died.
Some of the pewter pieces made by these Colonial and early
American Danforths have made their way into the Smithsonian,
the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Winterthur Museum in
Delaware, the DeWitt-Wallace Museum in Colonial Williamsburg,
and many other American museums.
Fred and Judi connect
In the middle of the 20th century, Judi Danforth, who was
then Judi Whipple, also grew up on the shores of the
Connecticut River, in Claremont. New Hampshire. Fred
Danforth, whose father was the family genealogist, came to
Vermont from Ohio to attend Middlebury College. When Fred and
Judi met in Middlebury, they discovered that they not only
liked each other a lot, but they had a common interest in
pewter. Judi had studied silversmithing and pewtering at the
school for American Craftsmen in Rochester, New York, and was
determined to become a pewterer.
Fred aspired to fine woodworking and knew that the four
pewter pieces on his family's mantle were made by his great-
great-great-great-great grandfather Thomas Danforth and his
family. With a little cajoling Fred shifted his creative
interest from wood to pewter. After a short apprenticeship in
the basic skills of pewtering and a brief stint working for
an entrepreneur in Nova Scotia, the two returned to Vermont
and found the perfect spot to follow their new passion in
Woodstock, and 102 years after the last of the early American
Danforths stopped working in pewter, the Danforth family
pewter trade came to life again, once more in the Connecticut
River Valley.
Using the rampant lion from Thomas Danforth's touchmark on
their first sign, Fred and Judi Danforth opened their pewter
shop in Woodstock, Vermont in 1975.
Fred says ``We were inspired by the burgeoning revival of
the American Crafts movement in Vermont in the 1970s. We were
brimming with design ideas and our goal was to make well-
designed appealing functional pieces that people could use
every day and enjoy for generations.'' The shop in Woodstock
was in the milk house of an old dairy barn. The makeshift
showroom was in their living room in a tired 1789 farm house.
`Into the woods'
After two years of successfully attracting both locals and
visiting tourists to their fledgling business, they decided
to move closer to friends in Addison County to begin raising
their family and to pursue a new approach to their business.
``We moved into the woods,'' Fred continues, ``some might
say back to the land, in Lincoln. This presented new
challenges for our business and we had to work hard to make
it succeed. In order to reach customers we began attending
more craft fairs and selectively selling our growing product
line to stores around Vermont including Frog Hollow. We
created our first touchmark based on the same rampant lion of
Thomas Danforth II.''
``And this was when Judi became a sculptor. She began
carving wax into a whimsical range of buttons in the shapes
of animals and flowers. They were immediately popular on the
craft fair circuit, not to mention on the sweaters of our two
beautiful young daughters.'' The business grew in new
directions as the couple went to trade shows and sold their
buttons and pins and then ornaments to stores all over the
country.
Expand to Middlebury
By 1988, they had 12 employees and had outgrown the
workshop in the Danforths' barn in Lincoln. They built a new
facility next to Woody Jackson's Holy Cow in Middlebury. Soon
thereafter Judi's carving skill won them the license to make
Winnie the Pooh pewter for Walt Disney, which led to another
period of growth in a new direction.
In the late 1990s, the company returned to its roots and
refocused its energies on Fred and Judi's original designs.
In 1997 Danforth Pewter was honored by the SBA when Fred and
Judi were the co-winners of the Vermont Small Business Person
of the Year Award.
In 2006, the company took another big step, putting their
flagship retail store in Middlebury into the same building as
the workshop. One set of observation windows lets guests see
100-year-old lathes being used by skilled artisans to make
oil lamps, candlesticks, baby cups and other holloware.
Another set of windows gives a look into the casting shop
where visitors can see molten pewter being carefully poured
into some of the hundreds of vulcanized rubber molds the
company uses to make jewelry, holiday ornaments and
figurines.
Network of pewter stores
Today, the company employs around 60 people, and the
network of Danforth Pewter stores has grown to include a
boutique on Middlebury's Main St; stores in Burlington,
Waterbury, Woodstock, and Williamsburg, Virginia; a holiday
kiosk in the University Mall in South Burlington in November
and December; and several retail events around New England.
The company also has a thriving online business at
www.danforthpewter.com, as well as a national wholesale
business. In addition, Danforth makes custom designs, such as
the bottle stoppers for one of Whistlepig Whiskey's high-end
offerings, and holiday ornaments for Life is Good.
A lot has changed since Thomas Danforth II opened his
pewter workshop in 1755, but there are a lot of things that
he'd recognize if he walked into Danforth's Middlebury
workshop today. The process of casting pewter by pouring
molten pewter into a mold is a technique he used that's still
in use today.
Hopefully, he'd also recognize a passion for good design
and for quality craftsmanship. And he'd certainly recognize
some of the pieces of Colonial-era and early American
Danforth pewter that are on display in each Danforth store,
including one or two that he made himself all the way back in
the 1700s.
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