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During an internship her junior year at Lafayette, Siobhan Pendergast ’89 found herself placing bids on behalf of the distinguished Didier Aaron Ltd. gallery in London which deals in 17th and 18th-century fine French and Old Master paintings for exclusive international collectors.
“It was an amazing experience,” she says. “After the program ended I continued to go to auctions and met a gentleman from a Spanish gallery who eventually hired me, during my senior year, to scout art auctions on the East Coast.”
Pendergast also spent Fridays as a senior working as an extern for Piero Corsini, Inc., a New York gallery specializing in Italian art of 1300 to 1800. “They had conservators on-site who were repairing and restoring the paintings,” she says. “The owner had an incredible eye for being able to find beautiful works of art.”
Her experiences among the galleries and auction houses convinced Pendergast that she had correctly chosen a double major in art history and economics and business.
“I felt it was a great way to have a solid foundation in marketing while incorporating the art I loved,” she says.
But what Pendergast hadn’t counted on was the economy.
“In the booming 1980s, all the big banks were offering art advisory services, and even department stores such as Neiman Marcus had buyers specializing in art,” she says. “But by 1989 the boom came crashing down.”
For a few months following graduation, things didn’t look promising. Potential employers couldn’t immediately see the value of her dual major.
“Then a position opened up at Lenox and it has been the perfect match for me,” says Pendergast, who has worked there since 1990. “I’m dealing with artists and sculptors while at the same time analyzing collecting patterns and trends.”
Pendergast’s current position at Lenox, known for its fine tableware and giftware, is director of product development for Lenox Classics. She is responsible for overseeing the creation of graceful ivory and crystal figurines, some sold to direct-mail purchasers and others to high-end specialty retailers.
“The direct-mail customers are often collectors purchasing for themselves,” she says. “They may collect elephants or frogs or Disney and will look for what we have in those categories.”
Lenox figurines and collectibles sold at exclusive retailers often go to another type of customer, Pendergast finds.
“Often they are giving the items as gifts or have received Lenox in the past as a gift and are looking to celebrate a special occasion,” she says.
Today’s collectors are looking to form a personal relationship with a company, and Pendergast is regularly asked to attend signing events at international trade shows and collectible expositions. She also appears on the Home Shopping Network four times a year to present new Lenox figurines. She has been nominated for five awards from the National Association of Limited Edition Dealers.
In her role she does everything from selecting the right artists to render the concepts, to critiquing early product samples, to approving the final piece for production. All this while ensuring that the finished piece fulfills a collector’s fantasy (cats and angels are popular), falls into a target price range and can be produced in the factory (figures standing on one foot are difficult). Another caveat is that the figurines must be able to be shipped through the U.S. mail without breaking.
“It’s a challenge, but I really enjoy creating a piece of artwork that generates an emotional response in the customer,” she says.
Many of the Lenox figurines are rendered in ivory porcelain and accented with gold, platinum, gem stones, enamel and paint. Figurines range from graceful Victorian skating couples in flowing frocks to whimsical penguins muffled in scarves to Mickey Mouse in a top hat and tails.
Each figure represents is the combined vision of Pendergast and the artists she oversees. She describes how an angel figure is born, noting, “It can be a very long process from start to finish.”
“I begin by looking at the angel figurines we already have and thinking about how to make a new one different,” she says. She describes what she has in mind to an artist who in turn comes back with three to five rough sketches. She has taken a number of classes in sculpture, watercolor painting, and oil painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts so that she can better communicate with the artists with whom she is working.
“Then we begin getting down to picking out the clothing and what accouterments they may have, such as a horn or scroll,” Pendergast says. “The interesting part for me, and where my art history background comes in, is building in some symbolism. For a millennium angel, I added a 10-pointed star.”
After Pendergast is satisfied with the angel in the sketch, she gives it to a sculptor to produce in clay.
“The artists who work best for me are classically trained,” she says. “They start by sculpting the human form and only later clothe it.”
Once a clay figure is approved, Pendergast has to look at it from a production standpoint: can the factory reproduce it? “When everything checks, then it’s sent to the factory,” she says.
“My experiences at Lafayette – in the classroom, on field trips, and as an extern – really prepared me well for this job,” she says. “During my career, as I’ve met people from other colleges, I’ve come to realize what an amazing place Lafayette is and how much I learned there.”