AUCTION INFORMATION

Elinor Penna / Staffordshire

People have been attracted to, and collected, pieces of Staffordshire pottery since it was first manufactured in Staffordshire, England in the early 17th century. But few have dedicated themselves to a collection as enormous in size and scope as Elinor Kaine Penna who, over the course of her full and rich life, amassed a collection she estimates at 3,000 pieces. They fill her home outside New York City, but the collection in its entirety will be sold over the course of 4-6 auctions by Strawser Auctions in Indiana, beginning in May 2024.

Elinor Kaine was born in Miami Beach, Florida, where she wintered with her family growing up. The family moved around a lot, but summers were spent mostly in Winnetka, Illinois, where she attended New Trier High School, the same school that graduated actor Rock Hudson. She was first introduced to Staffordshire by her best friend in Miami Beach, Faith Stevens (whose father, interestingly, was none other than Harry M. Stevens, the legendary inventor of the hot dog and America's foremost ballpark concessionaire). Faith’s mother collected Staffordshire and displayed her pieces in the house. Elinor admired what she saw, but she was just a kid so her interest was just in passing.

Elinor went on to work as a reporter for the Miami Herald newspaper and did some side writing, too, for the Florida edition of The Daily Racing Form, a tip sheet for horse racing enthusiasts. It was while working that beat that she met Angel Penna, an Argentine-born horse trainer who came to the United States in the 1960s and learned his craft under the tutelage of Gus Ring, the renowned trainer at Belmont and Hialeah tracks. Angel went on to have a storied career of his own, and he and Elinor’s relationship eventually blossomed into marriage. His work took him to Europe, and that’s where Elinor’s fascination with Staffordshire began.

It was the early 1970s when the couple, which prior to that had been splitting their time between New York (Saratoga in August) and Florida (in the winter), packed up and moved to France, where Angel trained horses for the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France’s most famous horse race. While he was working, Elinor would often travel to London, to shop and take in the swinging English life of that exciting time. One of the shops she liked to visit was a place called Oliver-Sutton. “I would go there and they’d have Staffordshire pieces in the store window. I didn’t buy any my first few times there, but one day I splurged and bought three.”

One was a statue of Queen Victoria. “I hardly knew who she was, but I just loved the statue and knew I had to have it,” she said. “I still have it, somewhere. The other two I can’t even remember what they were. They weren’t dogs, I’m certain of that, but now I’m pretty sure I own more Staffordshire dogs than anyone. One entire room in my home is filled with nothing but dogs.” She brought the three pieces back to Chantilly in France, where she and Angel lived. “I put them on a shelf and grew to like them,” she recalls, “and before you know it, I was hooked.” Subsequent trips to London invariably steered her back into Oliver-Sutton, where she’d buy more pieces for her growing collection.

She and Angel moved back to the States in 1979 and Elinor found herself attending auctions held by the high-end auction houses – Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Doyle, in New York City. “They often featured Staffordshire in their sales and I was an eager buyer,” she said. Around that time she started advertising in the Maine Antique Digest, to attract like-minded souls who wanted to buy and sell Staffordshire. Eventually her collection became specific. “I only buy pieces that are made between 1860 and 1880,” she said, “but occasionally I’ll buy some pearlware made prior to 1860. I especially like Victorian figures and figures of animals, especially dogs. Horses, too.”

Circus animals were something she took a fancy to. “The old London newspapers would often run ads for the circus, and from those ads the artisans at Staffordshire would have images to work from,” she explained. “Remember, Staffordshire is in a remote area, so there weren’t many sources of inspiration. Those circus ads provided that.” In addition, Elinor is a big fan of the British Royal Family, and especially Queen Victoria and her husband Albert.” I think someone should send a Staffordshire piece or two to Kate Middleton,” she said. “I think she’d like that.”

In 1996, Elinor did her first show as a dealer, at Coconut Grove in Florida. That same year she founded the Staffordshire Figure Association, which today has around 100 members. The members are about evenly split between the UK and the US., who share their pleasure in English pottery figures made from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Some members are professionals in the decorative arts world, but most are collectors. Its mission is to broaden collecting enjoyment so that Staffordshire figures will be preserved for future generations.

Elinor is in the process of packing up her life and moving back to Florida, where she’ll enjoy retirement in an assisted living facility. Her Staffordshire won’t be making the journey, however. The collection, in its entirety, is bound for Indiana and Strawser Auctions, which will begin the daunting task of identifying and cataloging each and every piece for eventual sale to other Staffordshire devotees, who may someday build a 3,000-piece collection of their own. It’ll take time, though. Elinor has big shoes to fill.

Will she keep a piece or two or three for sentimental value? “I think I might pick six pieces, actually,” she said wistfully. “Maybe a pair of flower basket spaniels – they’re very pretty and decorative – and maybe pipe smoking dogs, or someone riding a horse. I also like the hen on a nest pieces. They’re a seated hen that’s a basket, and a bowl used for eggs, so it actually serves a purpose. People kept them in their dining rooms. I might keep one of those. I also like candle holders and watch holders. The man of the house would put his watch in the watch holder on the mantel. So many choices. The fact is, I love them all.”

One more thing about Elinor that people will find interesting. She’s always loved football, and in the 1960s she tried to get a job as a sportswriter at a newspaper, but nobody would hire her because she was a woman. So, she started her own football newsletter called Lineback, in New York City. It gave an inside look into the sport in a way that no one else was writing about at the time. It had a gossip column feel, and it could be cheeky. For example, she wrote of Miami head coach Don Shula, “He’d rather eat worms than go for it on fourth down.” She wrote about Joe Namath shaving his legs before a game, and Rosey Grier doing needlepoint.

At first, she gave copies of Lineback away for free, all up and down the bars on Second and Third Avenues. People liked what they were reading and she soon began charging a nickel a copy. Eventually her keen observations became a syndicated column that appeared in over 60 newspapers nationwide. But Elinor was still a woman in a male-dominated field. This point was driven home when she applied for a press pass to the first-ever Jets-Giants game, in 1969. She was denied (again, because she was a woman), she sued, she won, and when she arrived at the stadium she was directed to a seat in a row beneath the rest of the writers, so they could look down on her. “I got great publicity out of that,” she said with a laugh.

Elinor had to give up football when she and Angel moved to France in 1971. But she was so unique in what she did, and was such a groundbreaker, she appeared twice on the TV show To Tell The Truth and once on What’s My Line? To view a YouTube clip about Elinor Kaine’s career as a football writer, including part of an appearance on To Tell the Truth, please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8yaa8oxqWc&t=18s. To learn more about Strawser Auctions, please visit www.strawserauctions.com.