Featured Limoges Haviland Kate Greenaway Update

As I expected nobody was able to find an artist E.G but, after a lot of detective work I finally came up with an answer (sort of) and wonder what you might think.

Below is a photo of the plates that I bought. All are marked H&Co for Haviland Limoges. All the prints are signed E.G

I found a book titled Under The Window written and illustrated by Kate Greenaway

Four of the illustrations as shown are identical or mostly identical to those on the plates so they are Kate Greenaway illustrations. My question to you is why E.G.?

Was this a deliberate attempt to copy Kate G ? Or was it a combination of the initials Edmund Evans who engraved the plates and Kate Greenaway?

I imagine that we won't get a definitive answer but would welcome your thoughts?

 

I spent a little time searching this in your original post with no result.

This may answer the E.G. question. In the early phonograph record recording industry it was not uncommon for musicians with a hit song to get around the details of their contract by using a pseudonym. They would re-record the same song for a new record label and get paid again.

James.

 

Nice idea James. Certainly makes sense.

 

The plates only have the greenware mark, right? So anyone could have purchased the blanks, put on the decals, and initialed them.

 

A possibility - if there were any official collaboration between KG & Limoges I would expect there to be some sort of info somewhere, she is a well recognised and researched artist.

Also sounds plausible.

Don't forget there was lots of copying at this period and companies made slight changes to designs and marks to try and 'get around' copyright. This may also be a possibility.

 

No. Her mother was Elizabeth. Her real name was Catherine.

 

Under The Window was her first book.

 

Final update. The plates arrived. Some are marked on the back Moirinat. Moirinat was a Paris supplier of artists' materials in the late 19th century. The plates are almost certainly Haviland Limoges blanks sold by Moirinat. The mark dates to c1876-1886.

The book from which the illustrations have been copied was published in 1877 so this all ties in. The pictures are all entirely hand painted and not printed and hand coloured as I originally thought. They copy the originals to such an extent that they may have been traced. If not traced, the artist was a perfect copyist.

So there is no artist EG (other than a talented amateur copyist). They are very nice indeed but unlikely to have much value. (Never mind, it has been an interesting bit of detective work).