EARLY OBSESSION WITH FLORAL HAND PAINTING ON BONE CHINA & PORCELAIN

From the dawning of man the wild flower has been an amazing sight to transcend the mind into altering states of meditation whether it is happiness, sadness or tranquility.

F. THOMAS, SEVRES, BAVARIAN PLATE

F. THOMAS, SEVRES, BAVARIAN PLATES

It has captivated the mind of the simplest to the most intelligent. It is nature's way of giving freely to the world something that creates its own unique feeling and interpretation for each individual who wishes to utilize his or her five senses.

Consequently female and male artists over the centuries have tried to depict the flower in its most naturalistic state upon bone china and porcelain to evoke all the senses. Many bone china and porcelain pieces are so exquisitely hand painted that they depict the very essence and vitality of life in its’ purest and simplest form being that of a wild flower in its’ natural environment exuberant in its beauty. All hand painted porcelains have different floral themes that evoke beauty from the simplest thing - the wild flower. Flowers always say love and evoke emotional feelings of warmth and tranquility within the sole of ones being.

As a subject for artist of fine porcelains, flowers have always ranked high on the scale of porcelain and bone china painting and have been exonerated at many world exhibitions representing the quality work by the great artists of the many world famous factories who boasted their wares to the world. The sincere naivety and purity of the flower is what captures and has captivated artists for many centuries.

As we know from research, many years ago it was commonplace for factories in Europe to ship blanks to convents worldwide so that the nuns could lend their hands to try the art of hand painting to pass the time while on their sabbatical or during their period of silence where words were not spoken and only thoughts prevailed and prayer was of the essence.

Unfortunately most of them did it in their silent moments and were not doing it for gain. Consequently many great works went unnoticed and were not signed and have been discarded through the decades of time. Hopefully some family members have the innate sense of real art and still preserve such pieces today. Perhaps this is why sometimes beautiful pieces that are unsigned that surface to the marketplace are somewhat discarded by their previous owners. Then we wonder why some of these great hand painted pieces are not signed and then sometimes try to attribute them to a specific factory because the blanks from some factories are recognizable. Then on the other hand in early England, for example, the lady painters were not permitted to sign their works and only men were permitted to sign their works. Yes, this is a historical fact! Even though many pieces are not artist signed, they still deserve to be loved and cherished and some are quality pieces that were executed on exported quality blanks from nearly a century ago.