The Lenox Legacy Incorporated in May 1889 by Walter Scott Lenox and Jonathan Coxon Sr. as the Ceramic Art Company (later Lenox Inc. and currently Lenox China), this small pottery soon became the market leader for luxury wares, selling only through carriage trade retailers such as Marshall Fields in Chicago, Bailey, Banks & Biddle in Philadelphia and Tiffany & Co. in New York. In their first catalogue of 1891, Lenox and Coxon avow that their 'aim and ambition was to create a class of artistic ceramics that would merit the distinction of high esteem, in that they might be treasured, not only for their beauty and present worth, but for their prospective value to posterity as legitimate works of art.' To this end, the factory developed a bone china body and concentrated their efforts on their Lenox line of custom wares in the European taste, hiring schooled European painters such as Lucien Emile Boullemier, Bruno Geyer, Hans Nosek and William H. Morley in an attempt to duplicate and surpass the elaborately decorated cabinet plates and vases being produced by such august firms as Minton, Royal Doulton, Royal Worcester, Berlin (K.P.M.), Vienna and others. Their aim is expounded as an achievement in a 1908 article in Pottery and Glass 'American millionaires have now learned to appreciate this American porcelain and seek it for their tables.' This article is again cited by Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen in her catalogue, American Porcelain 1770-1920, published in conjunction with an exhibition held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 8 April 1989 until 25 June 1989. Their ambition produced a legacy of custom workmanship that encouraged prestige special orders by the robber barons of the day and ultimately made Lenox China the dinner ware of choice gracing the table of The State Dining Room at the White House. In recent years Brown-Forman Corporation, the parent company of Lenox 1983-2005, has been working to preserve the archive by placing donations with regional institutions near the original factory sites. Literally thousands of artifacts and support documents have been donated. The Lenox paper archives have been given to Rutgers University Special Collections, and the sample porcelain archive is currently being reviewed by the New Jersey State Museum and the Newark Museum among others. All of the lots offered here are from the Lenox Corporate Collection. A number of them were exhibited over the years at the Lenox Headquarters and Showrooms. They represent early pieces which are rarely found on today's market. Others are sample and research pieces which were never marketed. The following lots include items which appear to correspond to items depicted in vintage photographs of the Lenox Showrooms, including: lot 301, 302, 316, 317, 322, 324, 325 and 341. This installation was part of a 1920's expansion. The new elegant oak panelled room was intended to showcase Lenox for the china buyers of Lenox's retailers. Other works can be traced to a variety of exhibits by various labels on the pieces themselves. All are documentary to the historic legacy of this renowned firm. PROPERTY FROM THE CORPORATE COLLECTION OF LENOX/GORHAM

A PAIR OF TRANSITIONAL CERAMIC ART COMPANY/LENOX 'JEWELLED' IVORY-GROUND VASES

1903-1904, GREEN CAC MONOGRAM AND WREATH MARK, SIGNED BOULLEMIER.

Details

A PAIR OF TRANSITIONAL CERAMIC ART COMPANY/LENOX 'JEWELLED' IVORY-GROUND VASES
1903-1904, GREEN CAC MONOGRAM AND WREATH MARK, SIGNED BOULLEMIER.
Oviform, each with gilt flared mouth, the shoulder enamelled with a ruby, pink, and turquoise 'jewelled' gilt band above arabesques suspending beaded swags, finely painted with a Turkish maiden standing before a wall, a jug or a bowl of fruit at her feet, the footrim with upright scrollwork centering fleur-de-lys above a patterned anthemion and 'jewelled' gilt band
18 3/8 in. (46.7 cm.) high (2)

Literature

Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, American Porcelain 1770-1920, New York, 1989, pp. 246-248, pl. 94 and 95. Also see Richard E. Morin, Lenox Collectibles, Tulsa, 1993, p. 67, pl. XIV for a photograph of these vases in the Lenox showrooms (illustrated at left).

Exhibited

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Porcelain: 1770-1920, 8 April - 25 June 1989

Lot Essay

The son of a porcelain painter at Sèvres and Minton, Lucien Emile Boullemier found employment at several English factories, including the Worcester Royal Porcelain Works, before his arrival to America in 1903 or 1904. During his brief stay, he is known to have executed the monumental Trenton Vase for Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis, as well as the present pair. By 1905, Boullemier was back in England, recorded as an artist at Shelton in Stoke-on-Trent.

One with gilt foil sample label, both with dymotape Inv. no. 27.

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