Article first published in Porcelain Artists of Canada / Peintres sur porcelain du Canada magazine, (May / mai 2020, p.15-17).

A recent acquisition of a sauce boat painted and signed by A.L. Kelley, sometime between 1890 and 1910, prompted me to look more closely at this artist who contributed to the creation of the 1897 Canadian Historical Dinner Service also known as the Cabot Commemorative Service.

Fig. 1 The sauce boat, signed in black underneath A.L. Kelley, is painted with delicate flowers on a Limoges blank (saucer missing). The sauce boat was acquired initially from a vendor in Fredericton, N.B.

Little is known about the life of A.L. Kelley, an interesting artist who was born, lived, worked and died in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. An inquiry into this topic at the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives did not produce significant information about her.[1]

While I was researching the life and achievements of Anna Lucy Kelley, a lucky find on the well known Worthpoint.com/Worthopedia site made me discover a very early work of the artist, signed and dated November 30, 1870 when she was only 21 years old.

The basket was put on sale on eBay at one point and comes with the comment that this handled flower basket blank was made by the Coiffe Porcelain Manufactory in Limoges, France. This is an early piece produced by Coiffe, as the factory operated from 1870 to the 1920's.[2]

Fig, 2 A porcelain handled basket signed on the bottom by the artist, A.L. Kelley and dated November 30, 1870. The decoration is pink and yellow roses with a black outlined and sectioned aqua border and a rich gold trim which is well preserved.

Anna Kelley was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in 1849, the third of the five children of Captain Charles William Kelley and Mrs. Deborah L. Kelley, daughter of Captain Benjamin Robbins.[3] Her father was the grandson of a very interesting character, Captain James Kelley who was born in Manchester, MA, probably in 1740, and died 16 January 1807 in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

“In 1765, Captain Kelley moved his family from Manchester, Massachusetts, to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, becoming one of Yarmouth’s earliest settlers. … He made his home in a small cove near the southern tip of Nova Scotia, in a place that was later named ‘Kelley’s Cove’... Captain Kelley was one of Yarmouth’s earliest shipmasters (Captain) and he became the progenitor of captains. Four of his sons — James, Samuel, Robert and Israel — became ship’s captains ….” [4]

Anna Lucy was the descendant of James Kelley's third son, Captain Robert Kelley. She studied in Liverpool, Edinburgh, New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Examples of her work are now in the Nova Scotia Museum and the Yarmouth County Museum.[5]

Information about her apprenticeship years is scant, but it seems that she exhibited a hand painted porcelain sauce boat in the Women's pavilion at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876.

Probably the presence of a work by A.L. Kelley at the Centennial Exhibition was related, on the one hand, to her art training in Philadelphia [6] and, on the other, to the desire of the Women's Centennial Executive Committee to include one of her pieces in the exhibition. The committee was an American national women's group who ''planned, funded, and managed their own pavilion and devoted it entirely to the artistic and industrial pursuits of their gender... The Woman's Building was the project of the Women's Centennial Executive Committee, a national women's group, appointed in 1873...''[7].

Fig. 3 The Women's Pavilion at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, 1876.

It is confirmed that one of A.L. Kelley's works was included in the retrospective Earth into Art: The Flowering of American Art Pottery organized by the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, Florida in 2018. The theme of the display was the American made pottery presented at the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition. The piece is mentioned in the catalogue, section '' II . C H I N A P A I N T I N G'' under the category ''Amateur-decorated porcelain'' and described as a “Sauce boat, c. 1890 Painted glazed porcelain Maker unknown, Limoges, France Decorator: A. L. Kelley Marks: A. L. Kelley. / FRANCE / LIMOGES Gift of Gladys C. Trismen.”[8]

Back in Yarmouth, Miss Kelley set up a studio on Main Street, where she taught art, mostly china painting, for many years.[9]

The exhibition The splendid gift presented at the Museum of Civilization in 1998 included 12 coffee cups and saucers that she painted for the dinner service, but offered few details on her life.[10]

Fig. 4 Coffee cup and saucer decorated with Violets. Painted by Anna L. Kelley. National Trust for Scotland, Edinburgh. 79.4048.24v, photo copyright Canadian Museum of History-Musée canadien de l’histoire, T2004-203.

“In 1896, a State Dinner Service for Canada was proposed and a Committee of the WAAC began work on the ‘stupendous task’ of producing a State Service of 16 dozen pieces. A competition was organized among the membership of the Association throughout Canada, to select artists of sufficient competence. Sixteen women were chosen by competition ‘to whom the work was apportioned according to their individual proficiency in the painting of various subjects.’ A Ceramics Committee was set up: ‘Material was then searched for by the committee in the shape of photographs, drawings and direct sketches of old forts, battlefields, old gates and other historical scenes, also reproductions of game, fish, shells, ferns and flowers of Canada ... Wild flowers of Canada were to decorate the cups and saucers.’ ”[11]

Another acquisition consists of a large platter purchased from a BC vendor who bought it at an important local estate auction in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island. The platter bears the mark “Tressemann & Vogt / Limoges / France” in green and is dated from 1907 to 1919, which makes the platter a later work of the artist. It is illustrated with a well-known motif of autumn grapes making it a beautiful display piece.

Fig. 5 The 11 inch platter is signed in black on bottom A.L. Kelley and bears under glaze the mark of T & V Limoges, France in green. The colours are bright and the gilded handles are in perfect condition.

It is regrettable that so few elements of Anna Lucy Kelley's life are known. It seems that she never married, died in Yarmouth in 1920 and was buried in the local cemetery. She was an accomplished artist as demonstrated by the exquisite work she did for the Cabot Commemorative Service, which now can be admired at Haddo House, residence of the Marques of Aberdeen, located near Tarves in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Several other pieces made their way into museums and a few pieces are preserved in private collections.

It is disturbing that the works and lives of so many artists who contributed to the creation of the Canadian Historical Dinner Service are not better known and displayed publicly for all to enjoy.

NOTES

[1] formation kindly provided by Nadine Gates, Director of the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives, and by its archivist Lisette Gaudet, on October 1, 2019.

[2] See: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/coiffe-limoges-handpainted-signed-basket-roses

[3]See: http://laurenandtristan.net/datafolder/p2868.htm#i87677

[4] See: http://epluribus.me/2012/04/17/capt-james-kelley-pioneer-patriot-progenitor-of-sea-captains/

[5] See: http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/cadeau/caser14e.html

[6] See: https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/cadeau/caser14e.html which reveals that Anna Lucy Kelley ''studied in Liverpool, Edinburgh, New York, Philadelphia and Boston''.

[7] Mary Frances Cordato, “Toward a New Century: Women and the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, 1876” in: The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 107, No. 1 (Jan., 1983), pp. 113-135, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press on the site: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20091742

[8] “China Painting” in the Earth into Art catalog, chapter II, p. 3. The exhibition Earth into Art was mounted in 2018 at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, Florida, see http://www.morsemuseum.org/assets/uploads/ dfs/Earth_into_Art_WEB.pdf

[9] Yarmouth Town Directory, 1890, p. 65 and 1895, p. 64.

[10] See: http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/cadeau/cadcu00e.html#kelley

[11] Mary Elwood, The Cabot Commemorative Service for Canada - A History, in: https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/cadeau/cahis01e.html