Celia Laighton Thaxter, R. Hollings & Co., and others
Oil Lamp
1879-1887
Scroll
- Decorator: Celia Laighton Thaxter
- Retailer: R. Hollings & Co.
- Manufacturer: Boston China Decorating Works
Oil Lamp
1879-1887
Physical Qualities
Ceramic, paint, metal, 26 x 8 x 8 in. (66 x 20.3 x 20.3 cm)
Credit Line
Purchase with exchange funds from Gift from the Estate of Mrs. Charles R. Weld, Bequest of Alice Worthington Ball, Bequest of Ellen Howard Bayard, Gift of Mrs. C.C. Felton, Bequest of John M. Glenn, Gift of J. Gilman D'Arcy Paul, Bequest of Philip B. Perlman, Gift of William D. G. Scarlett, Young Friends of the American Wing Fund, and Gift of Lydia Howard de Roth in Memory of her Sister, Nancy H. DeFord Venable
Object Number
2006.121
Celia Thaxter’s painted decoration on this elegant Victorian parlor lamp coincides with the rise of china painting in America, made fashionable by prominent figures such as First Ladies Lucy Webb Hayes and Caroline Harrison. Her work also represents the advent of an acceptable means of profitable employment for genteel American women. A poet and journalist, Thaxter turned to china painting to supplement the income from her family`s resort hotel on Appledore Island off the Maine/New Hampshire coast. Proceeds from her china painting also supported her own literary efforts. The graceful olive branches seen here are Thaxter’s most distinctive pattern. The inscription is taken from Sophocles’s Oedipus at Colonus: “watched by the eye of olive-guarding Zeus and by gray-eyed Athena.”
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 2006; Skinner Auctioneers, Boston, Massachusetts; by decent through the family of the artist
AMW Reinstallation 2014
American Wing Rotations 2020
Sharon Paiva Stephan, "One Woman's Work: The Visual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter," New York: Portsmouth Athenaeum, 2001, p. 148.
"Making the Connection," The Baltimore Museum of Art, Annual Report 2007, p. 32, ill.
David Park Curry, "Childe Hassam: An Island Garden Revisited," London: Denver Art Museum, 1990, pp. 17-57.
Inscribed: Stickers affixed to topside of base: 1. yellow sticker reads "117853" 2. auction sticker reads "2340 Skinner 113" Sticker affixed to bottom of base reads: "Ms. Celia T. Hubbard 29 Highland Street Cambridge, MA 02138-2209"
Markings: Mark on knob reads: "R. Hollings & Co. Boston Mass." Marked in Greek on vase "...my olive trees are the special care of Zeus, ' watched by the eye of olive-guarding Jove and by gray-eyed Athena.'"
