A HAND PAINTED CANADIAN TREASURE

Article first published in Porcelain Artists of Canada / Peintres sur porcelain du Canada magazine, (May / mai 2018, p.14-16 and August / août 2018, p. 14-15).

Since its inception, the Canadian hand painting movement was an artistic endeavor which, in some cases, was also an expression of patriotism and love of country having historical scope.The story as to why, how and when a Canadian patriotic hand painted dinner service created to celebrate the discovery of Canada came to adorn the residence of the Marques of Aberdeen is an endearing narrative that has influenced this art form in Canada.

By the end of the 19th century, many properly educated young ladies knew how to paint on porcelain. Some had studied at an art school while others had learned the rudiments of the techniques in a young ladies' seminary or with a private instructor. Some amateurs became very good, their work being as good as that of professional china decorators. As Professor Keith McLeod states in his comments on This Splendid Gift, an exhibition organized in 1997 by the Canadian Museum of Civilization: ''These artists took the first step in 1886 towards establishing the Woman's Art Association. At that time, a group of women in Toronto organized a self-governing art society. In 1890, this group became the Women's Art Club, and in 1892 the Woman's Art Association of Canada, and there were soon branches in many parts of Canada''.

This movement led to the creation of the Cabot Commemorative Dinner Service. In 1896, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of Canada by John Cabot, the Women's Art Association of Canada proposed to commission a State Dinner Service of hand painted china for the Governor General's residence in Ottawa. The Service was to be painted by Canadian women and illustrated exclusively with Canadian landscapes, flora and fauna.

Mary Elwood stated in the introduction to the exhibition This Splendid Gift: ''As a project it was an early expression of nationalism in Canadian art and it was also an expression of confidence in the ability of Canadian women to carry out such a task, at a time when British and European art, especially ceramic art, was much more highly esteemed than colonial products''. In 1997, a comprehensive temporary exhibition dedicated to this “Canadian Historical Dinner Service” was prepared by Dr. Peter Rider of the CMC with the help of guest curators: Marie Elwood, principal curator at the Nova Scotia Museum and Professor Keith McLeod of the University of Toronto. My own contribution to this project was to research and arrange the table settings.

The quality and scope of the amateur china painting in Canada were amply demonstrated in 1898 when members of the Canadian Senate and House of Commons presented the Canadian Historical Dinner Service as their farewell gift to Lady Aberdeen, wife of Governor-General Lord Aberdeen. As the daughter of Sir Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, her maiden name was Ishbel Maria Marjoribanks. In 1877, she married John Campbell Gordon, seventh Earl of Aberdeen. Lady Aberdeen had been a very energetic promoter of women’s rights and a vigorous advocate of social reforms. During her years in Canada as vice-regal consort, she founded the National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC) in 1893, the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) for Canada in 1897 and the first May Court Club of Canada in 1898.

Fig. 1 Lord and Lady Aberdeen, Governor General of Canada from 1893 to 1898, skeleton leaves portrait (A. & P. Vachon postcards collection).

The initiative for the creation of the dinner service came from Mary Ella Dingham, the Founding President of the Women's Art Association of Canada (WAAC), a position she held for many years. She was a versatile artist who had received her art training in London (Ontario), the town where John Howard Griffiths the well known teacher of hand painted porcelain lived. She was a successful speaker and writer, teacher and organizer. In late 1897 or early 1898, she proposed the commemorative dinner service to be bought by the Government and offered to the National Gallery or to Rideau Hall as a state dinner set. Finally members of the Canadian Senate and the House of Commons agreed to buy the service as a gift for Lady Aberdeen in recognition of her services to the women of Canada.

The blanks for the Cabot Commemorative State Service were supplied at cost by the English firm of Doulton. The President of the WAAC wrote to the artists that: "the cost of the blanks would be $6.00 a dozen to each artist”, and the pieces were to be finished by May 18th 1897. As stated by Marie Elwood in her historical introduction to the 1998 exhibition, a special red back-stamp was designed, displaying a stylized rendering of John Cabot's discovery ship, the Matthew, in which he had set sail from Bristol on 2 May 1497. This stamp was impressed on the bottom of each piece to which the artists were required to paint a gold border.

On the soup and meat plates were to be represented, from coast to coast, "the Historic Landscapes of Canada" after William Henry Bartlett’s engravings illustrating Nathaniel Parker Willis’ Canadian Scenery (1842) and after John James Audubon’s illustrations in Birds of America (1842, American ed.). Fish plates featured fish found in Canadian waters, the game course depicted Canadian wild ducks in their habitats, the salad plates were decorated with Canadian ferns, the dessert dishes showed Canadian fruits and songbirds, and the cups and saucers were dedicated to the wild flowers of Canada.

I found the information regarding the painters of the “Canadian Historical Dinner Service” in Professor McLeod’s article This Splendid Gift published in 1998 in the publication Antique Showcase which stated: ''The painters selected were Clara Galbreaith from Hamil­ton, who painted 12 soup plates with historic scenes that ranged from the various gates of Quebec and the old Citadel, to Brock's Monument and ‘the Old Magazine’ at Annapolis Royal; Phoebe Watson from Galt, who similarly painted 12 soups which included the Old Mohawk Church at Brantford, and scenes of Halifax, and the Chateau Ramezay in Montreal. Lily Adams and M. Louise Couen of Toronto did the 24 fish plates; they decorated them with 24 kinds of Canadian fish together with shells and water plants. Of the 24 dinner plates, Margaret Irvine and Martha Logan, both from Toronto, each painted 12; among the sites the artists included were scenes of Fort Garry, St. Regis, Fort Nanaimo, and Fort Chambly. The 24 game plates were painted by Alice Egan (later Mrs. Hagen) of Halifax and Eliz­abeth Whitney of Montreal; these plates featured Canadian game birds. Hattie Proctor and again Elizabeth Whitney, painted the cheese plates displaying 24 songbirds of Canada. The salad plates, done by M. Roberts and Justinia Harrison, both of Toronto, were decorated with Canadian ferns. The 36 coffee cups and saucers were shared equally by Jane Bertram (Toronto), Annie Kelly (Yarmouth) and Juliet Howson (Toronto). The three dozen cups and saucers were deco­rated with Canadian wild flowers. It fell to Howson to paint the Limoges pieces (there were not enough Doulton blanks and the artists completed the set with 12 Limoges blanks, a very common practice at that time)''.

The Cabot Commemorative State Dinner Service is an eight course service with 24 place settings comprising 204 pieces. It is now exhibited in the Canadian Passage in specially built cabinets at Haddo House on the Aberdeen estate in Scotland. For more detailed information and illustrations on this topic see the site of the Canadian Museum of History: https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/cadeau/caint02e.shtml.

We know of at least one example where an artist was inspired to continue this tradition of patriotic hand painted porcelain illustrated with significant Canadian historic landmarks or events and identified with heraldic representations, namely Alice Mary Hagen. Just after the WWI, she was inspired to create a tea service to celebrate the war efforts of the allies. The service was offered for sale in an undated Toronto Exhibition Catalogue titled Decorated China by Alice M. Hagen which includes an entry that reads as follows: “ALLIED TEA SET—Coat of Arms of Allied Nations; Views of the War zone in Belgium, etc. (66 pieces) . $325.00.” This information is found in the Mount Saint Vincent University Gallery database (see http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/sgc-cms/histoires_de_chez_nous-community_memories/pm_v2.php?id=record_detail&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000637&hs=0&rd=149301).

The Allied Tea Set was presented to Governor General Jeanne Sauvé on 19 November 1984, as a gift to Rideau Hall by Rachel Dickinson, daughter of Mrs. Hagen. Dr. Marie Elwood, Chief Curator of History, Nova Scotia Museum (1973-1992) was instrumental in the presentation of the tea set to the Governor General's Residence in Ottawa. The set is still exhibited in the Spouses Gallery at Rideau Hall and the documentation and the image reproduced here were kindly furnished to the author by the Visitor Services and Exhibits for the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General of Canada.

Fig. 4. Plate from the 1919s Allied Tea Set illustrated with a Belgian port landscape. At the top, the flags of Belgium and France are within branches of laurel.

By a stroke of luck, I discovered on eBay a patriotic luncheon service painted in 1924 by Alice Mary Egan Hagen. It is evidently inspired by the Canadian Historical Dinner Service. On sale were the teapot, the sugar and creamer, the stand cake and two platters. Each piece featured a coat of arms, and one or two representations of historical building found in all the Canadian provinces, thus covering all 10 Canadian provinces. The set was painted on Limoges blanks produced by Tresseman & Vogt Factory which is identified with a green mark between 1907-1919 (teapot, sugar and creamer). Others are marked A.K. France (dated after 1891) which identifies the Limoges Klingerber A. Factory (plates). The footed cake plate is not marked.

The teapot bears the arms of New Brunswick. One side depicts the Parliament Buildings in Victoria, British Columbia; the other side shows a view of Halifax Harbor with Forts George & Clarence from Citadel Hill, Nova Scotia.

The creamer is painted on one side with a New Brunswick Martello Tower; the other side features a painting of Victoria Park, Prince Edward Island. The sugar is painted on one side with Fort Henry, Ontario, while the other side shows a painting of Fort Garry, Winnipeg. The creamer displays the arms of New Brunswick; the sugar, those of Ontario.

The footed cake stand has on bottom the inscription: “Parliament Buildings Ottawa / Dominion of Canada Coat of Arms”. This coat of arms was formally assigned to the Dominion of Canada by Royal Proclamation in 1921. It has no manufacturer mark.

One of the platters is inscribed on the bottom “Painted by / Alice Mary Hagen / Halifax N.S. / Can. / Quebec.” The platter is illustrated with an image of the Citadel in Quebec City looking from the St Laurent River (?) and has the coat of arms of the Province of Quebec at the top. The other platter, which I was able to acquire, is dedicated to Alberta and displays the coat of arms of that province.

The provenance of this service is also interesting as it was acquired by the vendor from a gentleman who worked as a hair stylist in Winnipeg (Manitoba) for many years and sometimes acquired interesting pieces from his customers.

Another of my acquisitions, a large luncheon service painted with floral decorations in 1909 by Mary Alice Hagen, indicates that she sometimes worked on commission. The inscription on bottom of two pieces clearly states that the service was created for a Mrs. E. Donohoe who probably belonged to a prominent Halifax family (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7. Bottom of luncheon plate and cake stand from a 48 piece luncheon service painted by Alice Mary Hagen in 1909 in Halifax (Nova Scotia) for a Mrs. E? Donohoe on various Limoges blanks (plate: George Borgfeldt (Coronet) Mark 1 in green, 1906 to 1920; cake stand: Gerard Dufraisseix and Abbot, Mark 2 in green, early 1900).

While it is possible that both luncheon sets, the armorial set (Figs. 5-6) and the large set (Fig. 7) were commissions from interested patrons, this does not exclude the possibility that Mrs. Hagen painted the armorial service on a patriotic impulse as she did for the Allied Tea Service which was painted just after the heroic acts of the Canadian soldiers in the WWI. Be that as it may, it is almost certain that the primary source of artistic inspiration for Mrs. Hagen’s armorial luncheon set is rooted in the 1896 initiative of the Women's Art Association of Canada which resulted in the creation of a Canadian Dinner Service to be offered to Lady Aberdeen as a farewell gift from the women of Canada.

It is possible that other porcelain pieces decorated with Canadian patriotic symbols have been produced by Canadian hand painted artists during the first half of the 20th century. They are only to be discovered in family attics or museums repositories!