The Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, Delaware may be housed in a 175-room mansion once owned by a member of the du Pont family and filled with over 90,000 decorative and fine arts antiques, but who gives a crap about that shit when you can see the world-renowned Campbell Collection of Soup Tureens? YES, WORLD-RENOWNED! Since May 1997, the specially designed Dorrance Gallery permanently displays the ceramic and metal soup-serving vessels, some dating as far back as the early 1700s. It all started in 1966 when John T. Dorrance Jr., chairman of the Campbell Soup Company, and W. B. Murphy, the company president, decided to begin collecting a wide range of tureens and soup-related objects. Thirty years later the collection found a new home at the Winterthur Museum, where it was believed the objects would benefit from a curatorial and conservation standpoint. In celebration of its arrival, the curators published a book on the collection. Yes, a book! These receptacles are a bit more distinctive and beautiful than, say, Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans. Some range in shape from rabbits and cauliflowers to sailing ships and smiling Buddhas. Most of the rococo-style pieces come from Europe where they graced the dining tables of monarchs, nobility, and other wealthy members of society, like a medieval Russian silver boat embossed with the monogram of Catherine the Great. But there’s more to the collection than just soup bowls as ladles, spoons, saucers, and individual covered dishes are also on display. The Soup Nazi would most definitely approve (but not on Mondays when the museum is closed – “No soup for you!”).
Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, Delaware
