Annetta Saint-Gaudens with Urns from House Beautiful Magazine

This black-and-white photograph from the December, 1915 issue of "House Beautiful" magazine shows a dark-haired white woman, sculptor Annetta Saint-Gaudens, kneeling between two large urns that she sculpted. She faces one of the urns, her face in profile to the camera, and appears to study the urn, with her hand resting near its top. She is wearing a long dress with elbow-length sleeves. The urns are on short platforms, and depict people standing and dancing around the circumference of the top half, with writing around the bottom half. A caption beneath the photo reads: "After much experimenting, Mrs. St. Gaudens succeeded in reproducing the jar in varicolored terra cotta, in a manner that satisfied her." 

The two-page profile of Saint-Gaudens in the magazine describes how she designed the bronze urn for the Meridian Bird Sanctuary in Cornish, New Hampshire, to commemorate the play "Sanctuary: A Bird Masque" by Percy MacKaye. The play premiered at the sanctuary in 1913, with President Woodrow Wilson in attendance and both of his daughters performing in the play. The play became popular nationwide and inspired more than 100 bird clubs as well as contributing to the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. 

As described in the profile, the urn is the base to a bird bath. "Its distinctive note is the bas relief frieze encircling its upper half. This frieze reproduces, largely in portraiture, the distinguished personnel that participated in the 'Bird Masque.'"

The article describes how actors in the play, including painter Maxfield Parrish and President Wilson's daughters, Margaret and Eleanor, came to pose for Saint-Gaudens in her studio. As she explains, "My original intention was simply a commemorative garden vase. At the suggestion of Mr. MacKaye and Mr. Baynes, I topped off the vase with a removable bowl-like receptacle that fits snugly as the lid of the traditional alabaster jar, while it gives the birds a fine plunge." 

"After much experimenting," Saint-Gaudens had figured out how to reproduce the bronze original as a varicolored terra cotta, available for purchase by bird-lovers and gardeners across the country.