Trenton’s ceramics – whether useful or ornamental – begin with aesthetic concepts generated by painters, sculptors, and designers. The 2009 ceramics symposium co-sponsored by the Potteries of Trenton Society and the New Jersey State Museum will examine the role of artists and designers in developing the wares produced in Trenton.
Trenton’s ceramics — whether useful or ornamental — begin with aesthetic concepts generated by painters, sculptors, and designers. The 2009 ceramics symposium co-sponsored by the Potteries of Trenton Society and the New Jersey State Museum will examine the role of artists and designers in developing the wares produced in Trenton.
The Modeler in 19th-Century American Ceramics
Diana Stradling, independent scholar
For background, Diana Stradling, an independent scholar, will discuss the work of modelers in developing designs for New Jersey’s rockingham wares, those mottled-brown kitchen wares that were ubiquitous in American homes in the 1800s. These modellers learned their skills working in English and American factories. They invented, combined and recombined a variety of motifs to appeal to American retailers and homemakers.
Isaac Broome:
Trenton’s Elusive Master of Ceramic Sculpture
Ulysses G. Dietz, Curator of Decorative Arts, Newark Museum
Keynote speaker Ulysses Dietz, curator of decorative arts at the Newark Museum, will review the biography and work of sculptor Isaac Broome ranging from his parian wares for Ott & Brewer’s display at the Philadelphia Centennial exhibition in 1876 through his late nineteenth-century contributions to tile design for Providential and Trent Tile and concluding with his return to Trenton’s pottery workshops in the early twentieth century.
Art Applied to Industry: Walter Lenox, Frank Holmes, Ernest Henk and the Design of Fine China in Trenton
Ellen Paul Denker, free-lance curator and historian
Ellen Denker, an independent scholar who was formerly the archivist for Lenox China, will discuss design at Ceramic Art Company/Lenox China through the work of Walter Lenox, Frank Holmes, and a myriad of post-war dinnerware designers that moved the company from the dominance of a single design vision to design by committee.
Lunch and Social Hour next door
12-1:30 p.m.
After our usual informal and delicious box lunch we will finish the afternoon by visiting two new Lenox exhibitions.
Afternoon Program
1:30-4:00 p.m.
Faces & Flowers:
Painting on Lenox China, University of Richmond Museums
Virtual walk-through of this new exhibition that opened February 18
Emma Lewis, POTS board member
Collector and POTS board member Emma Lewis will give us a virtual walk-through of the exhibition “Faces and Flowers: Painting on Lenox China,” which opens in February 2009 at the University of Richmond, Virginia. This exhibition features the work of Bruno Geyer, William Morley, Jan Nosek, and other painters, enamellers, and gilders who decorated the special-order wares produced by Ceramic Art Company and Lenox China from 1889 into the 1930s.
The Luster of Lenox, New Jersey State Museum
Ellen Paul Denker, guest curator
Exhibition Walk-through in the gallery, NJSM, second floor
Finally, Ellen Denker will return to lead a walk-through of a new exhibition at the New Jersey State Museum that celebrates the recent gift from the Lenox Archives, donated by the china maker’s former parent company Brown-Forman Corporation. Symposium participants will have the first look at this exhibition, which will open on April 4. They will also be invited to a celebration of the exhibition opening, which will follow the symposium.
Opening Reception for The Luster of Lenox
Join us for punch and cookies in the Museum.
The registration fee for the day includes the program, morning refreshments, lunch, the walk-through of the new exhibition, and the reception at the State Museum. Advance registration must be received by March 20, 2009 in order to attend at the regular fee, which is $30.00 for members of POTS and the Friends of the New Jersey State Museum; $35.00 for non-members. Registrations made after March 20, 2009 or paid at the door will be $40.00. POTS takes checks or money orders only, no credit cards.
The New Jersey State Museum is a division of the NJ Department of State.
Directions to the State Museum’s auditorium on West State Street are also available on the website for NJ State Museum.