Cordial cup and saucer
date: label: date made
content: 1903
name: label: maker
content: Lycett, Edward
notes: label: Description
content: About Edward Lycett Pottery:
label: Description
content: Edward Lycett arrived in the United States in 1861 and quickly received important commissions such as the 1865 White House painted porcelain service for President Abraham Lincoln. He produced the first vitrified china in America with pure gilt decoration for Tiffany & Company. Travelling across America, Lycett taught the decorative technique of china painting at major ceramic centers such as Cincinnati and East Liverpool, Ohio, where soon-to-be influential women in the art pottery movement, Maria Longworth Nichols and Mary Louise McLaughlin, began their careers as china painters. Within his own time, Lycett was called “the pioneer of china painting in America” by ceramic historians. In 1890, at the age of 57, Edward Lycett left Faience Manufacturing (See About Faience Manufacturing Company) when it was sold and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to work in his son William’s studio. He continued to experiment with clay and glaze materials as well as different firing techniques until he died in 1910. A number of small pieces were donated to the Smithsonian and illustrate the breakthroughs of Edward Lycett’s experimentation. Rather than making flat test tiles, Lycett chose to make miniature forms to test his various metallic effects. Such cruets, vases, pitchers, and heart-shaped dishes display red iridescence, mirrored and matte gilding, and bubbling glaze techniques.
label: Description
content: About the Object:
label: Description
content: A three-handled cup and saucer. The saucer has molded scalloped rim with painted gold dots on white slip then gilding with stripes and a red glaze with gilt crazing, a band of gilding with zigzag on the bottom half and the top having a central band of gilded dots. Marked on bottom by a French factory and signed by Edward Lycett. The form was a French blank that Lycett used to decorate and conduct his glaze experiments. The cup has a similar decoration to the saucer with a scalloped rim that is gilded; a red band with gilt bubbling, and a gilt band with zigzag decoration. All three handles are gilded with two stripes in the center that are bubbling. Its flared foot is also glazed red and has gilt bubbles. Shows Edwards Lycett's experimentation with glazes.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Limoges
topic: label: Subject
content: Art Pottery
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.75.155ab
label: catalog number
content: 75.155ab
label: accession number
content: 319030
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cup
label: Object Name
content: saucer
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: gold (cup color)
label: Physical Description
content: gold (saucer color)
label: Physical Description
content: green (saucer color)
label: Physical Description
content: bands (joint piece description of decoration)
label: Physical Description
content: bands (overall description of decoration)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic, porcelain, hard-paste (cup material)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic, porcelain, hard-paste (saucer material)
label: Physical Description
content: gilt (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: cup: 4 in x 3 in; 10.16 cm x 7.62 cm
label: Measurements
content: saucer: 5 in; x 12.7 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall cup: 4 1/8 in x 3 1/2 in x 2 3/4 in; 10.4775 cm x 8.89 cm x 6.985 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall saucer: 13/16 in x 5 3/4 in; 2.06375 cm x 14.605 cm