Limoges plate
date: label: date made
content: c. 1895-1900
label: date made
content: c. 1880-1900
name: label: maker
content: Delinieres & Co.
notes: label: Description
content: China painting swept across America in the late nineteenth century as one of the most prevalent decorative pottery techniques, especially among young women. Considered a respectable form of work and creative outlet for women, china painting incorporated the element of hand craft that helped elevate standards of design during a period of mass production and industrialism. The technique of china painting could be done conveniently at home or in large pottery settings. Also known as “mineral painting,” after its materials, a china painter used enamels, low firing colors produced from various mineral-oxides, as a “painting” medium on pre-fired porcelain white porcelain, also known as blanks. These blank porcelain pieces were often imported from European countries, France and Germany in particular, and came in a variety of dinner ware forms and vases. The china painting technique of decorating porcelain was popularized in America by the highly influential Englishman, Edward Lycett. Trained as a potter in the English tradition at Spode pottery in Staffordshire, England, Lycett moved to America in 1861, where he almost immediately gained prestigious commissions for the White House and Tiffany & Co. His devotion to experimenting with materials and teaching pottery techniques across the country established Edward Lycett as the “pioneer of china painting in America” during his own lifetime. Ultimately, the creativity fostered by the china painting movement and the influence of Edward Lycett launched the American ceramic industry towards new and exciting avenues of decorative pottery.
label: Description
content: This shallow plate began as a porcelain blank made in Limoges, France and exported to America in the late nineteenth-century. The blanks would be ordered by china painters to use as a surface for their painting, mostly as a leisurely activity for woman. Often, women would take lessons in china painting under the tutelage of professional china painters. This plate in particular was painted by Mrs. Ida Gentry Phillips Wheless while studying china painting under Marshall Fry in New York in 1895. Putting Fry’s lectures to use, Mrs. Wheless captured the delicate wistfulness of flowers blowing in the wind with her atmospheric background and whimsical white blooms of Queen Anne's lace.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Limoges
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
label: See more items in
content: Art
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Mrs. David Anderson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.393786
label: catalog number
content: 393786
label: accession number
content: 211929
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Plate
label: Object Name
content: plate
label: Object Type
content: plate
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: white; green; blue; pink (image color)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 in; x 22.86 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 1/8 in x 9 1/8 in; 2.8575 cm x 23.1775 cm