http://www.newarkmuseummedia.org/podcast/lenox/lenox.xml The Lenox Legacy: Americas Greatest Porcelain, 1889-2005 Curator: Ulysses Grant Dietz Senior Curator Curator of Decorative Arts Highlights from the century-old tradition of Lenox porcelains boast handpainted porcelain vases and dinner plates, minutely detailed figurines and modern designs from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. http://www.newarkmuseum.org webmaster@newarkmuseum.org Newark Museum, 2008 en-us IAS RSS Feed Generation Engine The Lenox Legacy: Americas Greatest Porcelain, 1889-2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey Newark Museum Newark Museum webmaster@newarkmuseum.org The Lenox Legacy: Americas Greatest Porcelain, 1889-2005 Curator: Ulysses Grant Dietz Senior Curator Curator of Decorative Arts Highlights from the century-old tradition of Lenox porcelains boast handpainted porcelain vases and dinner plates, minutely detailed figurines and modern designs from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. No No The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 to 2005 looks back both at the history of Lenox china in New Jersey, and also at the history of Lenox at the Newark Museum since 1911. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:41 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/lenox.mp4 Newark Museum The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 to 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:07:15 The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 to 2005 looks back both at the history of Lenox china in New Jersey, and also at the history of Lenox at the Newark Museum since 1911. No No The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 to 2005 looks back both at the history of Lenox china in New Jersey, and also at the history of Lenox at the Newark Museum since 1911. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:40 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/001.mp3 http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/001.mp3 Ulysses Grant Dietz The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 - 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:00:11 The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 to 2005 looks back both at the history of Lenox china in New Jersey, and also at the history of Lenox at the Newark Museum since 1911. No No Hi, my name is Ulysses Dietz and Im in charge of the Decorative Arts Collections at the Newark Museum. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:39 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/002.mp3 http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/002.mp3 Ulysses Grant Dietz The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 - 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:00:04 Hi, my name is Ulysses Dietz and Im in charge of the Decorative Arts Collections at the Newark Museum. No No The exhibition begins in a small octagonal gallery and the centerpiece here is this large porcelain bust of Walter Scott Lenox, who founded Lenox china in 1899 as the Ceramic Art Company. The bust was done in 1917, three years before he died, and modeled by a well known sculptor named Isaac Broome. If Mr. Lenox looks a little grim, it may be because he was blind by this time. The four other cases in this gallery each contain a large fancy white vase with no decoration on it. These were called blanks, produced in the factory in Trenton in the late 19th Century to be sold to professional china painters, or to be decorated by one of the china decorators in the Lenox factory. They are rare survivals, and I see them as sort of ghosts, and Ive placed them in this gallery around the bust of Mr. Lenox as a memorial to him and to the company he built. The last Lenox factory in New Jersey closed down in 2005. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:38 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/003.mp3 http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/003.mp3 Ulysses Grant Dietz The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 - 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:00:52 The exhibition begins in a small octagonal gallery and the centerpiece here is this large porcelain bust of Walter Scott Lenox, who founded Lenox china in 1899 as the Ceramic Art Company. The bust was done in 1917, three years before he died, and modeled by a well known sculptor named Isaac Broome. If Mr. Lenox looks a little grim, it may be because he was blind by this time. The four other cases in this gallery each contain a large fancy white vase with no decoration on it. These were called blanks, produced in the factory in Trenton in the late 19th Century to be sold to professional china painters, or to be decorated by one of the china decorators in the Lenox factory. They are rare survivals, and I see them as sort of ghosts, and Ive placed them in this gallery around the bust of Mr. Lenox as a memorial to him and to the company he built. The last Lenox factory in New Jersey closed down in 2005. No No This large porcelain vase - which is very elaborate but completely undecorated - really embodies the quality of the porcelain that Walter Lenox produced at his factory in Trenton. Vases werent sold blank like this except to professional decorators, or to china painting shops where women would sit and fill the blank white canvas with enamels of many colors and then cover the ornate handles and details with a gold paste. The result would have been very opulent, and very much in the taste of the late 19th century. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:37 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/004.mp3 http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/004.mp3 Ulysses Grant Dietz The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 - 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:00:27 This large porcelain vase - which is very elaborate but completely undecorated - really embodies the quality of the porcelain that Walter Lenox produced at his factory in Trenton. Vases werent sold blank like this except to professional decorators, or to china painting shops where women would sit and fill the blank white canvas with enamels of many colors and then cover the ornate handles and details with a gold paste. The result would have been very opulent, and very much in the taste of the late 19th century. No No The delicate little creamer and sugar are in a pattern known as Hawthorne, which was the very first design that Walter Lenox produced in his factory in Trenton in 1889. This kind of china was very fashionable in the late nineteenth century, but most of it came out of Europe; one of Walter Lenoxs goals was to produce artistic porcelain that could compete with English, French and Austrian porcelains. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:36 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/005.mp3 http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/005.mp3 Ulysses Grant Dietz The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 - 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:00:21 The delicate little creamer and sugar are in a pattern known as Hawthorne, which was the very first design that Walter Lenox produced in his factory in Trenton in 1889. This kind of china was very fashionable in the late nineteenth century, but most of it came out of Europe; one of Walter Lenoxs goals was to produce artistic porcelain that could compete with English, French and Austrian porcelains. No No The most remarkable piece in this case is the little lattice work basket with the pastel flowers around the rim. It was entirely handmade for Lenox by James Sheldon, using techniques brought from the Belleek factory in Ireland. Walter Lenox first brought Irish porcelain makers from Belleek to make this delicate but tough ivory colored body for the American market. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:35 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/006.mp3 http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/006.mp3 Ulysses Grant Dietz The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 - 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:00:20 The most remarkable piece in this case is the little lattice work basket with the pastel flowers around the rim. It was entirely handmade for Lenox by James Sheldon, using techniques brought from the Belleek factory in Ireland. Walter Lenox first brought Irish porcelain makers from Belleek to make this delicate but tough ivory colored body for the American market. No No The vase here was painted by a man named Sigmund Wirkner for Walter Lenox at the Ceramic Art Company just before the turn of the Twentieth Century. The portrait of a woman (whose name is on the bottom, her name is Antoinette) is typical of many such porcelains in this period. Beautiful women were a hugely popular feature on art porcelains. Sigmund Wirkner was one of a group of professional china painters, most them European by birth, who came to Trenton to paint ceramics for Walter Lenox. These hand painted wares were considered art and were not meant to be functional. Even though this piece is a vase, it would have been kept on a shelf to be looked at rather than used for flowers. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:34 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/007.mp3 http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/007.mp3 Ulysses Grant Dietz The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 - 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:00:36 The vase here was painted by a man named Sigmund Wirkner for Walter Lenox at the Ceramic Art Company just before the turn of the Twentieth Century. The portrait of a woman (whose name is on the bottom, her name is Antoinette) is typical of many such porcelains in this period. Beautiful women were a hugely popular feature on art porcelains. Sigmund Wirkner was one of a group of professional china painters, most them European by birth, who came to Trenton to paint ceramics for Walter Lenox. These hand painted wares were considered art and were not meant to be functional. Even though this piece is a vase, it would have been kept on a shelf to be looked at rather than used for flowers. No No This large lavender vase is one of the greatest commemorative pieces ever made by the Ceramic Art Company. It was commissioned to thank a German-language singing group from Carlstadt, New Jersey who sang on the Fourth of July in 1905. On the back there’s a long German inscription in gold paste work which was a specialty of Ceramic Art Company, and on the front of the vase is a portrait of Marie Antoinette based on a famous Eighteenth Century painting of her. I don’t think that Marie Antoinette had anything to do with the singing group in New Jersey, but she was a pretty woman and vases with pretty women on them were very popular in this period. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:33 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/008.mp3 http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/008.mp3 Ulysses Grant Dietz The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 - 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:00:36 This large lavender vase is one of the greatest commemorative pieces ever made by the Ceramic Art Company. It was commissioned to thank a German-language singing group from Carlstadt, New Jersey who sang on the Fourth of July in 1905. On the back there’s a long German inscription in gold paste work which was a specialty of Ceramic Art Company, and on the front of the vase is a portrait of Marie Antoinette based on a famous Eighteenth Century painting of her. I don’t think that Marie Antoinette had anything to do with the singing group in New Jersey, but she was a pretty woman and vases with pretty women on them were very popular in this period. No No The whole idea that porcelain decorated with enamels could be art is really embodied in this modestly sized vase entirely covered in gold paste. It has a portrait painted on one side, but the real point is the extraordinary elaborate raised or jeweled enameling on the back. This kind of thing was so expensive that ultimately Ceramic Art Company didn’t produce very much, only three of these vases have survived, and we happen to own two of them. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:32 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/009.mp3 http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/009.mp3 Ulysses Grant Dietz The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 - 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:00:26 The whole idea that porcelain decorated with enamels could be art is really embodied in this modestly sized vase entirely covered in gold paste. It has a portrait painted on one side, but the real point is the extraordinary elaborate raised or jeweled enameling on the back. This kind of thing was so expensive that ultimately Ceramic Art Company didn’t produce very much, only three of these vases have survived, and we happen to own two of them. No No Now it was around 1906 that Walter Lenox launched Lenox as a tableware company. The Ceramic Art Company became Lenox Incorporated he realized that if he was going to continue to make art and survive financially he needed to do it with dishes. And to me the most fascinating piece is the plate that looks all burned - because it is all burned. Lenox sold his dishes to the fanciest stores in America, and this plate was for sale in San Francisco at Shreve & Company in 1906 when the earthquake and fire devastated the city. Shreve & Co. sent the plate back to Lenox, as a relic of the earthquake and fire. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:31 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/010.mp3 http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/010.mp3 Ulysses Grant Dietz The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 - 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:00:35 Now it was around 1906 that Walter Lenox launched Lenox as a tableware company. The Ceramic Art Company became Lenox Incorporated; he realized that if he was going to continue to make art and survive financially he needed to do it with dishes. And to me the most fascinating piece is the plate that looks all burned - because it is all burned. Lenox sold his dishes to the fanciest stores in America, and this plate was for sale in San Francisco at Shreve & Company in 1906 when the earthquake and fire devastated the city. Shreve & Co. sent the plate back to Lenox, as a relic of the earthquake and fire. No No In order to sell its dishes as luxury goods, Walter Lenox hired skilled enamel painters who could replicate the same scene over and over again. His most famous and sought after china painter was William Morley, who painted everything from orchids and roses to bridges and sailboats. This large platter with Prince of Wales pheasants on it would have been part of an entire game service, each plate of which - dinner plates and serving pieces - would have been decorated with a different kind of wild game bird. All of these were hand painted and sold in sets of twelve in luxury stores at a very high price. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:30 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/011.mp3 http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/011.mp3 Ulysses Grant Dietz The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 - 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:00:33 In order to sell its dishes as luxury goods, Walter Lenox hired skilled enamel painters who could replicate the same scene over and over again. His most famous and sought after china painter was William Morley, who painted everything from orchids and roses to bridges and sailboats. This large platter with Prince of Wales pheasants on it would have been part of an entire game service, each plate of which - dinner plates and serving pieces - would have been decorated with a different kind of wild game bird. All of these were hand painted and sold in sets of twelve in luxury stores at a very high price. No No This little grim faced porcelain bust is of John Roebling, who was the builder of the Brooklyn Bridge and invented the wire cable technology to make suspension bridges possible. The Roeblings were from Trenton, NJ, and were friends of Walter Lenox. This bust was commissioned by the Roebling family to memorialize their famous patriarch, and it came to the Museum from the Roebling family for our 1910 exhibition on modern ceramics. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:29 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/012.mp3 http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/012.mp3 Ulysses Grant Dietz The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 - 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:00:23 This little grim faced porcelain bust is of John Roebling, who was the builder of the Brooklyn Bridge and invented the wire cable technology to make suspension bridges possible. The Roeblings were from Trenton, NJ, and were friends of Walter Lenox. This bust was commissioned by the Roebling family to memorialize their famous patriarch, and it came to the Museum from the Roebling family for our 1910 exhibition on modern ceramics. No No One of the things Lenox has always done is produce custom dinner services for people who wanted something special and different; it produced its first White House dinner service for President Wilson in 1917, and continues to supply the president with china. The dinner plate with the dark green border and the coat of arms with two horses on it in the center was a custom design produced for the royal family of Saudi Arabia in about 2000. It is part of a tradition of Lenox making dinner services for state governors all across the country, and for other dignitaries from ambassadors to archbishops. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:28 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/013.mp3 http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/013.mp3 Ulysses Grant Dietz The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 - 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:00:30 One of the things Lenox has always done is produce custom dinner services for people who wanted something special and different; it produced its first White House dinner service for President Wilson in 1917, and continues to supply the president with china. The dinner plate with the dark green border and the coat of arms with two horses on it in the center was a custom design produced for the royal family of Saudi Arabia in about 2000. It is part of a tradition of Lenox making dinner services for state governors all across the country, and for other dignitaries from ambassadors to archbishops. No No One of the things Lenox developed in the 1930s was porcelain bodies that were solid color, and they started out using pinks and greens and then moved into different colors in the 1940s and 50s. The souvenir set of salts and peppers and a box came from the New York World’s Fair of 1939, and featured the Trylon and Perisphere in white. That makes them interesting in themselves, but the rarest thing about these little souvenir pieces, is the fact that they were made out of a yellow bodied porcelain which was the rarest color produced by Lenox. Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:56:27 GMT http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/014.mp3 http://www.newarkmuseum.org/podcast/lenox/014.mp3 Ulysses Grant Dietz The Lenox legacy, Americas greatest porcelain, 1889 - 2005 Newark Museum, Newark, Museum, Lenox, Legacy, Porcelain, hand-painted, vases, dinner plates, figurines, modern designs, NJ, New Jersey 00:00:30 One of the things Lenox developed in the 1930s was porcelain bodies that were solid color, and they started out using pinks and greens and then moved into different colors in the 1940s and 50s. The souvenir set of salts and peppers and a box came from the New York World’s Fair of 1939, and featured the Trylon and Perisphere in white. That makes them interesting in themselves, but the rarest thing about these little souvenir pieces, is the fact that they were made out of a yellow bodied porcelain which was the rarest color produced by Lenox. No No