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Finding sources for Kate Greenaway-style decoration

Finding sources for engraved, painted or carved decorations on glass, ceramic and other objects is one of the oldest and best established forms of scholarship in the decorative arts. Prints, in particular, were a common source of designs throughout the ages. They were widely and freely copied in the period before copyright.

Kirk Nelson, executive director of the New Bedford Museum of Glass, has led the search for sources for glass objects decorated in the style of Kate Greenaway. He found the inspiration for this image in Greenaway's first best seller, Under the Window:

In the original the taller girls appear younger and it is a sunny rather than rainy day. The vase is therefore inspired by, rather than a copy of, a Greenaway illustration.

Kirk started this search to better document a group of vases made by the Mount Washington Glass Co. of New Bedford that were decorated in Kate Greenaway style by Smith Brothers of that same city.

Kirk maintains a page of objects with Kate Greenaway-style decoration here.

Smith Brothers Fine Decorated Glassware (1874-1903)
Kirk J. Nelson
Chapter 23 of Mt. Washington and Pairpoint Glass, Volume 2
Kenneth M. Wilson and Jane Shadel Spillman
The Corning Museum of Glass, 2011
For objects decorated in the style of Kate Greenaway, see pages 348 to 353.