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Brief description |
Porcelain vase hand-painted by Edla Rowell Inman, Beaver Dam, 1898-1906. |
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Object name |
Vase |
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Alternate object name |
China painting |
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Maker |
Inman, Edla Rowell, 1879-1962 |
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Date |
1898-1906 |
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Dimensions |
18 3/8"H x 7 ¾"W x 6"D |
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Materials and techniques |
Porcelain with hand-painted overglaze |
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Marks |
Maker's mark in green underglaze: artist's palette with initials CAC and "Belleek" |
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Original location |
Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey |
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Location of use |
Beaver Dam, Dodge County, Wisconsin |
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Current location |
Beaver Dam, Dodge County, Wisconsin |
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Description |
Tall porcelain vase with two molded handles, hand-painted with white flowers on a green ground. The vase is American-made belleek-style porcelain manufactured by the Ceramic Art Company (later Lenox, Inc.), which operated in Trenton, New Jersey. The mark on this example was used by the company between 1894 and 1906. |
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History |
The vase was decorated by Edla Rowell Inman of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Edla Ingram Rowell, a daughter of Ira Rowell and Mary Thompson Rowell, was born in Beaver Dam in 1879 and married Ralph Caleb Inman in 1906. According to family history, she made a living as a china painter in Beaver Dam. Between 1870 and 1920, thousands of American women took up the art of china painting--the decoration of porcelain tablewares and other household objects with hand-painted overglaze. An entire industry sprang up to support this trend. China painters could purchase porcelain blanks and supplies from mail order catalogs or local shops, take lessons in the craft from trained artists, and read periodicals and instruction manuals to learn about new techniques and designs. China painting was an amateur pursuit for some women, but others, including Inman, parlayed the craft into a serious artistic career. |
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Sources |
Ralph and Terry Kovel, Kovels' New Dictionary of Marks (New York: Crown Publishers, 1986). For more on china painting, see Sharon S. Darling, Chicago Ceramics and Glass (University of Chicago Press for the Chicago Historical Society, 1979); Cynthia A. Brandimarte, "Somebody's Aunt and Nobody's Mother: The American China Painter and Her Work, 1870-1920" Winterthur Portfolio 23, no. 4, (1988); Ellen Paul Denker, "The Grammar of Nature: Arts and Crafts China Painting" in The Substance of Style: Perspectives on the American Arts and Crafts Movement (Winterthur, Delaware: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1996); and Dorothy Kamm, American Painted Porcelain (Collector Books, 1997). |
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Related objects |
Additional examples of Inman's china painting in the collections of the Dodge County Historical Society include a cider jug and a place setting: http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/u?/wda,1575 and http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/u?/wda,1567 |
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Owner |
Dodge County Historical Society |
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Rights |
(c) 2008 by the Dodge County Historical Society. Contact the owner for more information. http://www.dodgecountyhistory.org/ |
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Digital collection |
Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database |
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Digital identifier |
DG007 |
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Digital format |
image/jpeg |
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Type |
Physical object |
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Keywords |
Ceramics; Pottery; Vase; Vessel (container); Container (receptacle); Furnishings and equipment; Household Accessory |
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Date digitized |
2008-06-03 |
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Date modified |
2011-07-04 |
