Ceramics - Ceramic Art Company, Trenton

The Ceramic Art Company, which operated under this name from 1889 to 1906, was an early incarnation of the present-day Lenox Company. According to one source, Walter Scott Lenox left the Willets Manufacturing Company in 1889 and went into partnership with Jonathan Coxon, superintendent of Ott & Brewer, another Trenton pottery. Together they founded the Ceramic Art Company (CAC) of Trenton. Their partnership lasted until the spring of 1896, when Coxon sold his interest to Lenox.(1)

“Lenox's Ceramic Art Company . . . was different from all other potteries. It was organized as an art studio, rather than a factory, and offered one-of-a-kind artwares in lustrous ivory china, rather than a full line of ceramics. The exquisitely painted and modeled vases, pitchers, and tea sets, produced at first by just 18 employees, were met with an enthusiastic reception and carried in the most exclusive shops. By 1897 examples of Lenox's work were included in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.”(2)

After Jonathan Coxon left CAC, “The company continued as the Ceramic Art Company with the word ‘Lenox’ added beneath the CAC mark. In February 1906, the name of the company was changed to Lenox, Inc. It is one of the few Trenton potteries from the 19th century that has survived to the present.”(3)

References:

(1,3) Ellarslie.org (see link below).

(2) Lenox.com (see link below).

Belleek vase with lilacs

Belleek vase with lilacs, 16 3/4 inches tall, signed “N.L. Jackson.” Photograph courtesy Laurel Antiques of Maine, Buxton (see link below).

Belleek vase with roses, 1905, 13 inches tall, signed “M. Cullis.” Photograph courtesy Laurel Antiques of Maine, Buxton (see link below).

The two vases shown above, signed “N.L. Jackson” and “M. Cullis,” respectively, are the type of hand-painted, one-of-a-kind artware produced by Lenox’s Ceramic Art Company. Both are examples of Belleek, a high quality ceramic ware also called “eggshell china,” that was originally produced in Ireland.