November 5, 2009
Thursday 8:00am
Detail: Lenox china is often referred to as America’s greatest porcelain. The
exhibition features more than 70 objects, including plates, vases and
decorative wares with exquisite paintings of orchids, figures,
idealized women and landscapes.
Faces & Flowers highlights
the remarkable talents of Lenox’s china painters, with works made by
the firm’s leading artists for some of America’s foremost citizens,
including orchid fancier Charles G. Roebling and Newark industrialist
Franklin Murphy, who was governor of New Jersey from 1902 to 1905.
Walter
Scott Lenox started the Ceramic Art Company in 1889 in Trenton, New
Jersey (becoming Lenox China in 1906), with the ambition to achieve
“the perfection of American porcelain.” To achieve his goal, Lenox
hired the premier European and American porcelain painters of his time,
including Bruno Geyer (Austrian, active late 19th – early 20th
century), William Morley (British, circa 1869-1934), and Sturgis
Laurence (American, 1870-1961). The quality and creativity shown in the
wares from Ceramic Art Company/Lenox China surpassed the best porcelain
produced in Europe at the time and enabled Lenox China to make its mark
internationally. The company developed such a loyal following that it
became the first American china to be used in the White House (during
Woodrow Wilson’s administration).
( Flyer 1/1 )
