The Celebrity Collector - Billy Dee Williams
The actor who played Lando Calrissian meant to collect teapots. A friend got there first, so Billy Dee Williams turned to handmade ceramic cookie jars of jazz singers and performers.
Why Billy Dee Williams collected cookie jars instead of teapots
The fact that Billy Dee Williams collected cookie jars raised a few eyebrows. The story of how he started is almost as surprising. “Originally I planned on starting a teapot collection,” he recalled. “I really like them. But I found out that my friend Peter Max (the pop artist) was already collecting teapots, so I thought, ‘I can’t be copying his collection, I’ve got to find something else!’”
The something else turned up about ten years before the 2002 interview in a small store called The Opera Shop in West Hollywood, California. “It’s a little store with all kinds of opera-related stuff,” Williams said. “I’m a fan of the opera and I was in there looking around, and I saw this beautiful and colorful ceramic cookie jar, made to resemble an opera singer. I bought it on the spot. I think I paid about $125 for it.”
On a later visit he found more jars in the same style. “They had one of a Fats Waller-type singer at a piano, and one of Josephine Baker, the black performer from the ’30s,” he remembered. “I bought both of them. They were obviously done by the same person, so I did a little detective work to find out who it was.”
Michael and Shelley Buonaiuto, the makers behind the jars
His search led to Michael and Shelley Buonaiuto, a husband and wife team of ceramic artists in Santa Fe, New Mexico, who had moved there from New York. They had been making cookie jars and other ceramic and porcelain pieces for years, with about 18 jars in their line, produced in quantity for individual customers and specialty shops around the country. Williams became a regular buyer.
“I would say I’ve got 12 or 13 of their jars,” he said in 2002. They were packed away at the time. “I had them in a studio, but I’ve been moving things around, so right now they’re in storage. I plan on expanding the collection, probably to include more of Michael and Shelly’s stuff but maybe other kinds as well. They’ve set the bar pretty high, though. They’re beautiful, original, colorful pieces.” Among the jars were figures the makers called Fats, Bella and Amos, along with Josephine Baker.
By then the line had been discontinued, apart from one piece, a Mrs. Rosa Parks jar. “We stopped making them because they were just too labor intensive,” Michael Buonaiuto said. “We may resurrect them someday, but for now we’re making sculptures in clay, cast bronzes and cast resin pieces.”
How a Buonaiuto cookie jar was made
Shelley was the artist and designer, and Michael made the molds. She said she was drawn to black subjects while living in Boston, where she spent time with jazz musicians. “There’s a freedom to the jazz scene that attracts me,” she said. “I try to put a quality of soul into the pieces I do. That’s the thing people respond to.”
Each jar began with Shelley’s design idea and a sculpture based on it. Michael then “dissected” the sculpture and built a mold. The piece was cast and the colors chosen. The couple tried five to ten different painters before they got the look they wanted, and once a design was set, there was little room to change it.
“The market pushed us to get more elaborate and detailed,” Michael said. “We painted the microphone gold for the jazz singer, for example. But what we discovered was that nobody wanted individual creations. Once a jar was put into mass production, that was it. If we got creative with the colors, we’d get negative feedback. The collectors wanted what came off the assembly line, period.”
Cookie jars as one of the most popular collectibles of 2001
The Buonaiutos learned quickly how competitive the collectibles market could be when they started making cookie jars in the early 1980s. “We started out making them as functional items,” Michael said. “We really believed people would put cookies in them. We found out pretty fast that nobody was using them for cookies. It’s incredible how many people are collecting cookie jars.”
The numbers backed him up. A website that tracked trends in the antiques and collectibles trade ranked cookie jars the number two collectible of 2001, behind only china. Next came dolls, furniture, lamps, carnival glass, books, plates, Depression glass, Roseville, china dinnerware, McCoy, Avon, clocks, Noritake, teapots, figurines and Limoges.
With the Buonaiuto line out of production, anyone wanting to add to a collection, Williams included, would have to turn to eBay or track down other collectors. That is the usual path for discontinued studio pieces, and it is where many collectors follow what sells on eBay before they bid.
Billy Dee Williams the painter
Williams trained as a painter from boyhood. Born in 1937, he grew up in Harlem in New York City, where his family encouraged his talent, and as a boy he won a scholarship to the National Academy of Fine Arts and Design in New York. It was the need to earn money for paints and canvas that pushed him toward acting, over the objections of his art instructors.
In 1988 he returned to the New York stage to star in Fences, and the experience reawakened the painter in him. He went back to California full of new ideas and produced 120 original works of art in two years. From 1991 he had numerous solo exhibitions around the country, and he donated work to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Schomburg Museum in New York. Many of his paintings carry sports themes, such as The Boxer.
He named his influences as Edward Hopper, Thomas Hart Benton, M.C. Escher, Frida Kahlo and many African art forms. Other performers who also paint are covered in the profiles of Barbara Carrera and Robert Shields.
From Broadway at seven to Lando Calrissian
Williams made his Broadway debut at age seven in The Firebrand of Florence, and from then on the performing arts dominated his life. He became a star with suave, romantic roles in Lady Sings the Blues and Mahogany. He was nominated for an Emmy for playing football star Gale Sayers in Brian’s Song, and on television he played a greedy record baron on Dynasty.
He is best known worldwide as Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back, one of the top-grossing films of all time, a role he played again in Return of the Jedi. He also had a long interest in psychic phenomena and co-wrote PSI/Net, a novel based on a real government psychic spying program, with author Rob MacGregor. His recent films in 2002 included Undercover Brother and Constellation.
Questions and answers
What does Billy Dee Williams collect?
In 2002 Billy Dee Williams collected ceramic cookie jars. He owned 12 or 13 jars made by Santa Fe artists Michael and Shelley Buonaiuto, including figures of a Fats Waller-type singer at a piano and Josephine Baker. He had first planned to collect teapots, but his friend Peter Max already did.
Where did Billy Dee Williams buy his first cookie jar?
He found it at The Opera Shop, a small store of opera-related goods in West Hollywood, California, about ten years before 2002. The jar was shaped like an opera singer, and he paid about $125 for it. Later visits turned up more jars by the same makers.
Does Billy Dee Williams paint?
Yes. Williams won a childhood scholarship to the National Academy of Fine Arts and Design in New York. After starring in Fences in 1988 he returned to painting, produced 120 works in two years and held many solo shows from 1991. His work is in the National Portrait Gallery and the Schomburg Museum.
Who made the Billy Dee Williams cookie jars?
The jars were made by Michael and Shelley Buonaiuto of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Shelley designed and sculpted them and Michael made the molds. They began in the early 1980s, had about 18 jars in the line and discontinued them as too labor intensive, except a Mrs. Rosa Parks jar.
How old is Billy Dee Williams?
Billy Dee Williams was born in 1937 and grew up in Harlem in New York City. He made his Broadway debut at age seven in The Firebrand of Florence, long before his film roles in Lady Sings the Blues, Mahogany and The Empire Strikes Back.