Article revised and augmented, first published in two parts in Porcelain Artists of Canada / Peintres sur porcelain du Canada magazine, (Volume 24, Number 3, August 2015, p 16-17 and Number 4, November 2015, p. 18-19) under the title A retrospective view of hand painted porcelain in Canada (1880s to 1940s) from a collector's perspective.

It is quite a challenge to try to present such a complex subject as the history of hand painted china in so few words. This retrospective is but a small sampling of the diversity and richness of the Canadian hand painted porcelain for a defined period. With few exceptions, the selection of pieces presented in this article was dictated by the artefacts collected by the author quite by chance in many cases.

Porcelain painting is an art which was perfected early in the great porcelain manufactures of Europe, where many artists were employed, mostly specializing in a particular genre, flowers, garlands, animals, landscapes or figures. It wasn’t rare that good artists sign or initialize their work. Then other workers applied the gilding separately.

Women became skilled “Paintresses” working for the china manufacturers in Europe. A London’s Female School of Design was established in 1842, preceded by a French Female School of Design in Paris, France in 1815.

The English Minton porcelain manufacturers were in a sense visionaries and precursors of the Arts and Crafts Movement, because, after a glorious tradition of hiring the best professional sculptors for the forms and painters for the decoration, in 1870, the Minton Art Pottery Studio was established in Kensington. The Studio was put under the direction of W.S. Coleman, an English designer, illustrator and water colourist, in order to encourage professional as well as amateur artists to decorate china for Minton. In the 1860s Coleman began experiments in pottery decoration for W.T. Copeland and from 1869 as a freelance decorator at Minton he painted bowls, plaques and slabs for fireplaces, and from 1870 to 1873, directed the Kensington studio. Although the Studio was very popular and influential, it wasn’t rebuilt when it burnt down in 1875.

The Arts and Crafts Movement born in the late 19th century England is associated with the works and activity of William Morris who asked for a return to pre-industrialized standards of craft and design. In ceramics the movement’s ideals were expressed mostly in the works of artist potters in studio conditions and is the inspiring movement for the spreading of the amateur hand painted china in North America.

In the United States an important pioneer in introducing hand painted porcelain was Edward Lycett who became a prominent instructor of the art in St Louis and Cincinnati from 1877 on. Many of his students formed a majority of amateur American china painters. These students were mostly women who were allowed creative occupations, and who considered it a hobby. Thus, women played a significant role in the birth of the china-painting movement in America (Debby DuBay: Collecting Hand Painted Limoges Porcelain: Boxes to Vases, 2004, p. 15-33). One notable example was a Cincinnati student of Karl Lagenbeck called Mary Louise McLaughlin who published the first book in America – China Painting - A Practical Manual for the Use of Amateurs in the Decoration of Hard Porcelain. She is credited with educating the general public who could not attend classes on the art of china painting. Her book included information for tracing on china, china painting techniques and directions for gilding, firing, etc. In 1879, McLaughlin formed the Woman’s Pottery Club, and amateur painters began demonstrating their talent in house or for commercial purposes (Fig.1).

Fig. 1 Early example of American hand painted china, Morning glory plate, no mark, unsigned, dated 1882.

There is one noticeable difference between the United States and Canada. By the turn of the 20th century, painting on porcelain in the States had become a cottage industry for more than 25,000 talented artists. Most of these were women who were not allowed to achieve professional status otherwise. In Canada, with a smaller talent base, the art of china painting was limited mostly to private studios and cultural association, and never integrated into a huge industrial concern like the American Pickard firm or other professional art studios, seeing that by 1881, there were major china painting studios in Boston, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New York and Chicago. (Fig. 2)

Fig. 2 Pin dish, Pickard mark, signed Z. Mac (Zuie McCorkie, professional painter at Pickard from 1905 to 1910 (see A. B. Reed, Pickard China, 1995, p. 62, 152).

In Canada the brothers John and James Griffiths were largely instrumental in spreading this “professional” hobby (Elizabeth Collard: Nineteenth-Century Pottery and Porcelain in Canada, 1984, p. 315-319). Their activity, mostly in London, Ontario is well documented and many of their hand painted objects are actually in the collection of the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec. Born in England, the Griffiths brothers learn the craft of china painting in the Minton factory, in Stoke-on-Trent. John Howard Griffiths, the better known of the two brothers for china painting, credited James for establishing in Canada critical standards for judging the quality of painted decoration on china. James Griffiths also proposed that provincial exhibition committees include china painting as a category in prize lists. John Griffiths made his mark as the china painter and teacher of china painting who prepared many women to earn a livelihood by decorating china in the later years of the century. It was in the treatment of flowers that he reached the peak of his skills on porcelain. He also painted Figures and bird themes, as well as arrangements of fruits and various flowers besides roses. The prizes he took at exhibitions, both in Ontario and beyond provincial borders, established John Griffiths as one of the best-known china painters in Canada. In 1887, he painted a tea set that was one of Canada's official gifts to Queen Victoria on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee. (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 Plate painted by James Griffiths, ca 1885, unmarked, London, ON (Canadian Museum of History).

Consequently these talented amateur artists schooled in the professional studios in Canada and the United States took the first step in 1886 towards establishing a Women's Art Association and in 1892 the Women's Art Association of Canada, and there were soon branches in many parts of Canada. (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4 Decorative plate signed M.J. Mc*, dated 1892 ,Limoges Coiffe Mark, acquired from an estate in Niagara Falls, ON.

The quality of the amateur china painting in Canada was amply demonstrated in the dinner service presented to the Countess of Aber­deen in 1898. Members of the Canadian Senate and House of Commons made this dinner service, their farewell gift to Lady Aberdeen the wife of the Governor-General Lord Aberdeen and a very energetic promoter of women’s rights (Keith A. McLeod: “This Splendid Gift” in Antique Showcase, April 1998, p. 46-50). The Cabot Commemorative State Dinner Service is an eight course service with 24 place settings. There were 16 artists from many parts of Canada who participated in the creation of the Cabot Commemorative Service, Alice Mary Egan of Halifax being one of them. She painted 12 of the 24 game plates for the Historical Service (Fig. 5 & 6).

Alice Mary (Egan) Hagen, one of the best known Canadian woman china painter and potter, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1872. The daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas J. Egan and Margaret (Kelley) Egan, she was educated at Mount St. Vincent Academy and the Victoria School of Art and Design in Halifax. She further studied in New York in 1897 under Adelaide Alsop Robineau, the initiator and editor of the prestigious Keramics Studio Magazine, an almost complete series of this publication being preserved by Eileen McCaughey, highly respected porcelain painter from Ottawa. She returned to Halifax, and leased a studio, where she taught china painting between 1898 and 1899. In 1901, she married John C. Hagen, and lived with him in Jamaica, Halifax and Mahone Bay. Between 1930 and 1931, she travelled to Britain and France, became interested in pottery making and later set up a studio and kiln in her home in Mahone Bay, producing pottery and teaching summer school until about 1950. She died in Mahone Bay in 1972 (Colin S. MacDonald: A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Vol. 2 1968, p. 325-325). Alice Mary Hagen was a commercial artist. She was a breadwinner who worked under commission as implied by a 42 pieces desert set which was commissioned in 1909 by a Mrs Donohue from a prominent Haligonian political family (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7 Desert service painted on Tresseman & Vogt Limoges blanks by Alice Mary Hagen. The 42 pieces dessert service was commissioned for a Mrs. E. Donohue in Halifax, N.S. in 1909. Mrs. E. Donahoe (née Margaret Mary Balcom) was married to Edward Owen Donahoe on Novembre 7, 1869. She would have received the service for her 40th wedding anniversary, as confirmed by the research of the important collector of A.M. Hagen works, Dr. Gaétan Lang of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

At about the same period, in the first decade of the 20th century, in southern Ontario, in the village of Shakespeare a very talented physician wife, a Mrs. M.M. Faill was practicing her china painter abilities as an amateur. She left an impressive body of work, some 500 pieces which were sold by the estate and dispersed recently. From the few pieces available we conclude that she probably used mostly Limoges blanks, which were the most common and least expensive at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th in Canada (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8 Small plate, signed M.M.F. in red. Woody shore lake landscape, elaborate border in raised paste, Ontario, ca. 1910.

The vases illustrated below are separated by two decades. One (Fig. 9) was probably painted in Victoria B.C. in the 1900s by a A.M. Lumming on a Guérin Limoges blank in Art Nouveau style with romanticized views of water falls on the four panels. The second (Fig.10) is dated 1920 and signed by Ada B. Sparks, an amateur china painter, probably from Ottawa. Her 12 inches tall vase is decorated with a geometrical luster pattern, recalling the emergent Art Deco style and the stylistic tendencies of the period.

Dated at about the same time as the Art Nouveau vase is a Limoges jardinière or fruit bowl, painted and signed by another amateur, a lady named Myrtle Zoe Thomas who was living probably in Galt, Ontario as testified by the inscription in black, on the bottom that reads "Myrtle Zoe Thomas/ Started in Brampton/ Finished in Galt" (Fig. 11).

Fig. 11 Jardinière signed Myrtle Zoe Thomas on a Parotaud Frères mark Limoges blank. Painted in a vaguely Art Nouveau style, Brampton & Galt, ON.

An artist originating from Ontario whose creations were found in a collection in Saskatoon, SK is ''aunt Winny'', prolific artist painter also from the beginning of the 20th century. The artist's name is Winnifred Rice. She was born in Fort Perry, Ontario. Her sister, Hanna had two sons, one of whom, George moved to Saskatoon with his mother in the late 1950's. I joined her delicate punch cups with a pitcher acquired in Belleville ON and a tray found in the United States with a similar grapes motif. Another of her creations is the small urn-vase decorated with daffodils and some eleven side plates painted with a variety of flowers . (Fig. 12 & 13 ).

Some time ago I found in Ottawa a plate painted in Egyptian style by a E.E. Woods, signed and dated 1918. (Fig. 14). Jane Woods began painting a tea service in Conventional-style (see D. Kamm: American Painted Porcelain, 1999, p. 50) in 1929-1930, in Vancouver, signed and dated in black on the bottom of most pieces. More recently I acquired the tea set also in Ottawa (Fig. 15). Were the two painters related? It seems that the name Woods is less common than the name Wood, and only a few families of this name are to be found today in the telephone directory of the city, but more research is needed.

Fig.14 Plate signed E.E. Woods, Jan. 1918, Egyptian style, Limoges blank.

Fig. 15 Tea Set signed Jean Woods Vancouver, 1929 & 1930, Guérin Limoges and Bavarian blanks.

Teaching privately china painting was a vocation with Gwladys Williams Menzies. She was born in Carleton Place in 1891. At the turn of the century the family moved to Ottawa and she soon became the foremost teacher of china painting in the Ottawa area. Gwladys produced many complete sets for her family, but did not accept commissions. She painted entirely freehand and loved to paint flowers and butterflies, but she also produced fine geometric designs showing the influence of Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Gwladys maintained her studio until about 1930. (Fig. 16)

Fig. 16 Vase decorated by Gwladys Williams Menzies with foxgloves flowers in Art Nouveau style from the collection of the artist's family, published in the Gwladys Williams Menzies 2021 wall calendar, illustrated with photos taken by Sue Hoegg.

A little later another remarkable figure emerged in Ottawa as an outstanding painter, china painter and teacher. As related by one of her formers students, Gratia Julien used hand painting china techniques as a tool for perfecting the teaching of drawing and oil painting. Gratia was active from the 1920s to the 1940s on the Ottawa art scene, where she exposed her works beside such well known painters as Henri Masson at the 4th Annual Exhibition of the Ottawa Arts Association in 1936, as related in the Ottawa Citizen at that time (Fig. 17).

Fig. 17 A covered muffin dish on platter signed G. Julien, dated 1923?, painted on Wedgwood blanks.

Young female students were given instruction in many cases in convent school where nuns trained in the arts were imparting their knowledge and creating at the same time very beautiful pieces. This is the case with a chocolate set, a work of Sister Margaret McKeoan from the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph in Kingston ON. Sister Margaret was born in 1850 in Erinsville and probably died in 1915 while serving in the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Kingston, ON (Fig. 18).

A reticulated wisteria vase (Fig. 19), acquired in Montreal, can be dated between 1926 and 1931. The vase, reminiscent of the Art Nouveau style, is painted on a Bernardaud & Co. Limoges blank, richly gilded and inscribed on the bottom ''S.M.A. Couvent des SS NN de Jésus et de Marie Valleyfield'' meaning that it was painted by soeur Marie-Aristide (Délia Audet 1872-1960) teacher at the Convent of SS MM de Jésus et de Marie, Valleyfield, QC between 1926 and 1931. (see; Jacqueline Beaudry Dion, Jean-Pierre Dion & Mario Wilson, Peinture sur porcelaine dans les institutions réligieuses au Québec 1890-1955, Saint- Lambert, QC, 2018, p. 38).

Fig. 18 Chocolate set hand painted by Sister Margaret McKewoan R.H.S.J. Kingston, ON, ca. 1890-1910, Noritake blank.

Fig. 19 Limoges vase in Art Nouveau style, painted by Sister Marie-Aristide (Délia Audet 1872-1960) of the Convent of SS MM de Jésus et de Marie, Valleyfield, QC, 1920s.

In conclusion, quoting from one of my previous articles: ''To avoid the dilemma of provenance for this kind of collectables Dorothy Kamm, in her book Antique Trader’s Comprehensive Guide to American Painted Porcelain with Values, 1999, concentrates solely on the functionality of china painted pieces. The same type of classification is embraced by Debby DuBay in three of her more recent publications. She creates two large categories of hand painted china objects:

1) Decorative pieces, for example portrait or decorative chargers and plates, vases, decorative bowls, etc.

2) Utilitarian objects such as card trays, vanity sets, table, luncheon or tea sets, celery trays, mustard and comfiture sets, salts and peppers, etc.

Many times these collectibles find their resting place in the house of relatives. Museums can host collections dedicated to a specific artist, as is the case with some of Alice Mary Hagen china paintings and pottery production found in the Nova Scotia Museum and at Rideau Hall, the Governor general of Canada official residence. The same is true for the Jennie Carson Hele artefacts hosted in the Dufferin County Museum, Ontario. The former Museum of Civilization, now the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa-Gatineau is the keeper of the complete Griffiths collection and a few other Canadian hand painting china artists and many other museum have in their collections hand painted china pieces, for exemple Le Musée des Ursulines in Three Rivers, Ouébec.. The antique dealers as well as websites are a great source of this type of artefact for the heartened collector.

Stylistically speaking, there is an evolution of taste and motifs in china decoration over the decades, and it sometimes helps with dating unmarked pieces. Also the manufacturer’s mark can give an indication of the period when a piece was created. But all too often the lack of background for this kind of artefact makes impossible any speculation as to the artist, place or time of creation. As these pieces are inscribed in the best of cases only with the name and the year of the creation, one of the greatest difficulties on identifying the place where a hand painted item was created is its anonymity. Hence in most of cases only the place of acquisition can give some geographical background to the collectible and the only type of classification is by functionality. The intrinsic beauty of the piece is often the only motivation for the hardened collector.''

For a while during and after the Second World War, the painting on porcelain knew a decline, mostly explicable by the fact that many women were engaged in the war effort and a lack of blanks led to a scarcity of works from that period.

In the United States, due to Nettie Pillet who began publishing The China Decorator magazine in 1956, the fine art of china painting was not lost. Currently there are two major organizations that promote the art of painting on porcelain: The International Porcelain Artists and Teachers Inc., widely known as IPAT Inc., and The World Organization of China Painters (WOCP). These organizations publish Porcelain Artist, and The China Painter, respectively, which along with The China Decorator are the major sources of information for the china painters today. Unfortunately, The China Decorator magazine is no longer printed. The last issue was in 2018, see: https://www.chinadec.com/

In Canada the Canadian Organization of Porcelain Art (COPA) was incorporated in 1981 (see: https://opencorporates.com/companies/ca/1179799) and replaced by the Porcelain Artists of Canada (PAC) (see: https://www.can1business.com/company/Active/Porcelain-Artists-Of-Canada-Inc), a very active organization with provincial chapters and in the case of Ontario, several local guilds. The organization publishes the magazine Porcelain Artists of Canada / Peintres sur porcelain du Canada four times a year.

Since 2018 PAC organizes annually in August Canadian School of Porcelain Art in Brockville, Ontario. Several courses are offered by teachers and known artists in the field. Unfortunately the 2020 and 2021 sessions were compromised by the Covid19 pandemic, but hopefully this highly appreciated initiative will be restored in the summer of 2022.

Individual Canadian professional artists' short biographies were included in two publications: Biography Library of Canadian Porcelain Artists Inc.: Past and Present, Vol. 1 (May 2004) and Vol. 2 (Minuteman Press, Chilliwack, B.C., n.d.).

A richly illustrated alphabetical list of Canadian painters on porcelain is included on the site: https://porcelainartistsofcanada.ca/

NB Many of the illustrations and comments included in this retrospective were taken from my previous article Hand painted porcelain in Canada, first published in: Muzeul National, Vol. XX, Bucharest, 2008, p. 249-260 & 6 p. illustrations, also presented on this site.