One of the many tasks we are working on during the Kaminski House Museum’s temporary closure due to COVID-19, is an inventory of the collection. Inventories are taken periodically at all museums and we thought this would be the perfect time to check on the condition of all of our collection items.
Curatorial Assistant, Lisa Stalvey has been very busy assessing all of the collection items and updating our records to make sure that our collections database matches all of our other collection lists. She is also re-photographing the items and doing a thorough condition assessment to make sure that all of the items remain in stable condition.
Along the way, Lisa has developed a fondness for some of the items she has been handling. This week’s favorite is a set of gold ceramic demitasse and tea cups that are usually displayed in the dining room china cupboard. Lisa especially likes the intricate floral design seen on the sugar bowl, creamer, and demitasse sets.
As seen in the photo at the top of this post, we have two different gold encrusted sets
The demitasse set has a floral design. These porcelain pieces were made by Heinrich & Co in Selb, Bavaria and were decorated by the Pickard China Company of Chicago, IL sometime between 1930 - 1938.
The tea cup and biscuit/cookie plate set was likely also made in Bavaria and was decorated in Chicago by the J. H. Stouffer Co. between 1920 - 1924.