News
University of Richmond Museums
Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art * Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center
Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature
Richmond, Virginia 23173
http://museums.richmond.edu

Contacts: Heather Campbell, Curator of Museum Programs, University Museums,
804-287-6324, hcampbel@richmond.edu or Brian Eckert, Director of Media and
Public Relations, 804-287-6659, beckert@richmond.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - December 9, 2010

THE UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND MUSEUMS OPENS AESTHETIC AMBITIONS: EDWARD LYCETT
AND BROOKLYN'S FAIENCE MANUFACTURING COMPANY

The University of Richmond presents Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and
Brooklyn's Faience Manufacturing Company, on view from February 16 to June 19,
2011. From 1881 to 1890, the Faience Manufacturing Company was a pre-eminent
Brooklyn, New York, art pottery that earned praise for producing ornamental
ceramics. These bold and eclectic wares display a synthesis of Chinese,
Islamic, and Japanese influences characteristic of the Aesthetic Movement
style.  The firm owed its artistic and commercial success to Edward Lycett, an
English china painter who became its artistic director in 1884. This
exhibition includes forty objects drawn from public and private collections.

Edward Lycett (American, born England, 1833-1910) immigrated to New York City
in 1861. His early career included a White House commission to paint
additional pieces of the Lincoln administration's porcelain dinner service for
President Andrew Johnson, and he held teaching positions in St. Louis,
Missouri, and Cincinnati, Ohio. Lycett was employed by the Faience
Manufacturing Company beginning in 1884, where he experimented with ceramic
bodies and glazes, and designed opulent wares.  He supervised a team of
talented artists, including James Callowhill of the English firm Worcester
Royal Porcelain, who decorated the vessels with exotic motifs in vibrant hues
and costly gold paste.  Lycett and his team of decorators produced pieces that
were sold in the foremost jewelry and china shops throughout the United States.

Highlights of the exhibition include an exceptional fish-bowl form vase by
Edward Lycett and the Faience Manufacturing Company produced between
1886-1890.  The cream-colored earthenware vase displays cast and applied fish
and seashells, swimming amidst painted polychromatic seaweed, and enriched
with a raised gold paste decoration.

Also featured is a monumental ewer, of 1886-1890, embellished with
naturalistic decoration depicting a bird guarding a nest of chicks on a
raspberry bush branch.  This ewer is the only known object that matches in
form and motif a vessel depicted in Edward Lycett's signed illustration
published in November 1886 in The Decorator and Furnisher, a monthly
periodical that offered advice about interior decoration and illustrated
houses of the wealthy.  The illustration accompanied a review in which a
critic praised the Faience Manufacturing Company for their "remarkable
evidences of the advancement of art pottery making in this country."

A large covered vase, circa 1887, impressive in size and technically complex
in decoration, demonstrates the widespread appeal of the firm's merchandise
and the flamboyant wares that appealed to the affluent West Coast clientele. 
The covered vase is painted on the base with the retail mark for fine crockery
retailers Nathan, Dohrmann & Company of San Francisco and displays unusually
intricate Royal Worcester-style reticulation in the beaded handles and pointed
arch and acanthus leaf border that encircles the neck.  A broad band of
daisies on a lustered mesh ground encircles the spherical body. The polychrome
enamel decoration, enriched with matte and burnished gilding, required
multiple firings in the kiln.

Also on view in the exhibition are Lycett's formula books, family photographs,
and ephemera that illuminate the life and work of this prominent figure in
American ceramic history.

The exhibition, organized by the University of Richmond Museums, was curated
by Barbara Veith, independent scholar of American ceramics and glass, New
York, and coordinated by Richard Waller, Executive Director, University
Museums.  The accompanying catalogue, published by the University Museums,
Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn's Faience Manufacturing
Company is available for purchase at the University Museums. The exhibition
will travel to the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC, and be on view September
17, 2011 to February 25, 2012, and then to the Brooklyn Museum, opening in
April 2012.

Programming

Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 7-9 p.m.
7 p.m., Lecture, International Commons, Carole Weinstein International Center
Edward Lycett and Brooklyn's Faience Manufacturing Company,
Barbara Veith, independent scholar of American ceramics and glass, and
curator of Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn's Faience
Manufacturing Company
8 to 9 p.m., Opening reception and preview of the exhibition
Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature

All programs are free and open to the public.

Note: Images for press are available by contacting Heather Campbell,
804-287-6324 or hcampbel@richmond.edu

University of Richmond Museums comprises the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of
Art, the Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center, and the Lora Robins Gallery
of Design from Nature. Admission to all museums is free and open to the
public. For group visits and tours, please call 804-287-6424 at least two
weeks prior to your visit for reservations. Call 804-289-8276 for information
and directions or visit our website at museums.richmond.edu

The Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art is located in the George M. Modlin
Center for the Arts. Museum hours (1/12-4/22/2011): Sunday through Friday, 1
to 5 p.m. Summer hours (4/27-5/20/2011): Wednesday through Friday, 1 to 5 p.m.
Closed Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (1/17/2011), Spring Break (3/5-14/2011),
Easter Sunday (4/24/2011), and Summer Break (5/21-8/16/2011).

The Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center is also located in the George M.
Modlin Center for the Arts. Museum hours (1/12-4/3/2011): Sunday through
Friday, 1 to 3 p.m., and by appointment (804-287-6424). Closed same schedule
as above.

The Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature is located in a separate wing of
the Boatwright Memorial Library with its entrance on Richmond Way. Museum
hours (1/12-4/22/2011): Sunday through Friday, 1 to 5pm. Summer hours
(4/26-7/22/2011): Tuesday through Friday, 1to 5 p.m. Closed Martin Luther
King, Jr. Day (1/17/2011), Spring Break (3/5-14/2011), Easter Sunday
(4/24/2011), and Summer Break (7/23-8/16/2011).