Sherman has donated a Mallorytown pitcher to a fundraiser for the Children’s Foundation of Muskoka.
Sherman’s mouth-blown pitcher is a replica of one made in 1839 in Mallorytown, the site of Upper Canada’s first glass works.
This is the very last one in a limited series of Mallorytown pitchers, done for the Royal Ontario Museum between 1989 and 1994.
The ROM sold some 200 of Sherman’s replicas at $350 each. The original Mallorytown (near Gananoque) pitcher, is in the ROM’s permanent collection.
Sherman describes the 9-inch tall pitcher as a light aqua glass, a colour created by iron oxide in the sand around Mallorytown.
Each replica is signed by Sherman.
Since Sherman produced the Ontario pitcher, he has fallen in love with the glass of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.
One day he saw a picture of a 2,000-year-old Roman glass perfume container shaped like a bird and set
about to replicate it in his studio in Bracebridge.
“The bird was an eccentric shape. It was a series of accidents that led me to re-create the shape,” he says.
To make the bird look authentic, Sherman used a silver nitrate and a gold leaf process to imitate the aging process.
A Jordanian princess saw one of Sherman’s Roman birds and ordered 50 for a dinner party. A few of these birds
($360) are on sale at the Riverhouse Gallery in Bracebridge.
Other work by Sherman includes original vases ($200 to $400) and glass sculptures ($2,000 to $3,000).
For information about the Children’s Foundation of Muskoka auction and gala, to be held this Saturday at the Bracebridge Centennial Centre, call 705-645-1810.
