Plate
Possibly decorated by Roberta Beverly Kennon American
Not on view
This meticulously hand-decorated plate with a conventionalized pink and green floral design is an example of late nineteenth-century china painting. Usually inspired by nature, women carefully embellished imported porcelain blanks with enamel paint prior to firing. An increase in leisure time and new technology, like the portable kiln that could be used within the home, popularized the practice across the United States beginning in the 1870s. While china painting was an amateur hobby for some, it also offered professional opportunities for working-class women as it became part of the curriculum in schools, like Newcomb College, that trained girls as artisans and designers.
While it lacks her identifying mark—R.B.K.—this plate may have been designed by Roberta Beverly Kennon while she attended the Normal Arts program at Newcomb College from 1896-1898. Kennon went on to the graduate art program in 1899 and later worked as a decorator at Newcomb Pottery between 1901-1905.
