Appendix II
Details of exhibits and exhibitors at Howell and James
Howell and James set up in 1819 as silk merchants and retail jewellers. It became
Howell & James Ltd in 1884. The firm exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and
moved to new premises in Regent Street in 1860. By 1865 the building housed a staff
of over 140 women, many in separate bedrooms. The company closed in 1911.
Extracts from the catalogues and newspaper reports relating to the China painting
exhibitions between 1876 and 1893,1
Names in bold print are detailed in the text or in Appendix I.
The Times, 26th June 1877 “Painting on China” 2nd annual exhibition
Daily News, 19th July 1877 “Modern Art Pottery”
Name of prize winner
German Crown Princess Gold Medal
Award to lady amateurs
Mrs George Stapleton
Professional
Miss Linne Watt, pupil at Lambeth
Professional
Mr A. de Mol
15 gns prize
Amateur class
Miss Howard
Colonel Hope Crealock
Mr Louis Fagan
Miss Pattison
Miss E.S. Hall
Comtesse de Villermont
Description of decoration (quoted from
the report)
3 plaques. “with blackberries, buttercups
and daffodils in a designedly
conventional way. They are impressed
with a quaint and graceful formality”
“Perfectly natural picture of fair haired
English children, playing see-saw in a
meadow with green trees and a rid tiled
cottage in the background
Two tiles with a group of children
intensely listening to one who is reading
aloud all about the wonderful adventures
of some fairy Prince, she has painted with
grace and beauty in form and fortunate
mellowness of colour, a perfectly real but
very pleasing scene of country life.”
“Two vigorously shaded outlines of
Bacchanals surrounded by a blue sky
hastily touched in.” (possibly two female
figures)
Landscape
“As pants the hart” A stag by a stream
1
The last newspaper report traced is dated 1892. If the exhibitions continued after this date they no
longer appear to have formed part of the London Season or been reported in the press.
300
Amateur class
Miss Louisa Duff
Mrs Barratt
Miss Etheridge
Lady Augusta Cadogan
Lady Rawlinson
Mr Rochford
“Artists who devote themselves to this
work as distinguished from amateurs”
Samuel Jones
M. Dauge
H. Watson
Miss Charlotte Spiers
First prize for ornamental designs
Sidney Smith
Miss [Ellen] Welby
Mrs Mallam (Ellen Ross)
Heads
“ ‘Marriage Plate’ after the style of the
old Italian majolica portrait plates, so
prettily presented on marriage with the
name Faustina Bella, or what not, is
treated with much good taste, the portrait
well placed as to composition with the
dainty ornament of the white lily, the
Giglio, on a blue ground and downy
winged moths introduced in the quaint
fanciful spirit of the artist.”
“Ariel flitting on a bat’s back with gauzy
drapery outspread across the white face
of the moon.”
“Bridge at Ruysbroeck, a pretty village in
South Brabant.”
Illustrated a chapter in the history of the
Savoy
Pink chestnut blossoms
“A long series of tiles with peacock, his
purple breast chosen King of the Birds
and the smaller fowl, the yellow linnet
tits with blue polls, the brilliant
kingfisher, the owl and the raven,
assembled in their Parliament.”
A portrait set in deep purple clematis
“ ‘A Fair Puritan’, whose gray eyes
betray no consciousness of the coquetry
which lurks in the arrangement of her
white mob cap and cloak under the
primroses at her throat.”
301
The Times, 18th March 1878 “Modern Majolica Ware”
Professional
Mrs C.A. Sparks
Professional
Miss C.H. Spiers
Amateur
Mrs Mallam
German Crown Princess Gold Medal
Award to lady amateurs
Countess of Warwick
“Two fine plaques, painted with pretty
figures in the romantico-rustic style – a
girl and boy making cowslip balls, the
other with a similar pair going
blackberrying, in which the little girl is
caught in the briars and about to be
rescued by her gallant little knight
errant.”
“Hollyhock, with much freedom and
good colour”
Portrait plates are “high commended”
“Pleasing head surrounded by apple
blossom”
The Era, 23rd May 1880 “Paintings on China”
Year
1880
Painter
Miss M.A. Cleig
1880
1880
Miss O.R.H.
Liberty
Miss Everett Green
1880
Florence Lewis
1880
Percy Anderson
1880
Charlotte Spiers
Subject
Other
“Satyr and Nymph”
after Cabanel
A study of Marsh
No. 1503
Marigolds
A study in Green
Crown Princess
medal No. 1485
Hollyhocks
Professional 5 gns
Queen magazine
“true to
nature…show true
feeling for beauty”
Atalanta after the
No 1490.
Race
Excellence in
figure drawing by
an amateur
The Poppies and
No. 1488
the Tiger lilies
10gns prize
302
Daily News, 24th May 1881 “Porcelain Painting”
1881
Florence Lewis
1881
Lucy Whitaker
1881
Charlotte Spiers
1881
Viscountess Hood
1881
Rebecca Coleman
1881
Miss Crombie
1881
Miss E.J. Smith
3 pieces,
Chrysanthemum,
gladiolus and
jasmine
Wild roses against
a background of
wattled diaper
A daughter of the
South
Among the Flowers
(head paintings)
Linwood
Mabel and Dorothy
Hood
Morning Glory
Fishermaidens
Nasturtiums and
Lillies
Rhodendrons
Orchids
1881
Miss Everett Green
No title
1881
Miss Marion
Gemmell
No title
1881
1881
Miss Linnie Watt
Mrs Swale
Landscape
Sunflowers
1881
Mrs George Purdie
1881
1881
1881
Miss Ellen Welby
Miss Kirkham
Mrs Mallam
1881
1881
1881
Miss Alice Willey
Mrs Collins
Miss Bovill
1881
Countess of
Flanders
Lady Julia
Wombwell
Honeysuckle
(doorplates)
No title
No title
“charming female
figure”
Japanese design
Summer
Normandy peasant
girl
“Spring” after
Kaulbach
Autumn Tints
1881
Crown Princess,
professional prize
Crown Princes
Amateur prize
Princess of Hess,
professional prize
Princess of Hess
Amateur prize
Queen magazine
Professional prize
Queen magazine
Amateur prize
Prince Leopold
prize
Princess Christian
prize
Duchess of
Mecklenburgh
Streliz prize
Judges’ prize
Countess of
Flanders’ prize
Highly commended
303
The Times, 18th May 1882 p. 8 “Exhibition of Paintings on China”
1882
Miss J. Scott Smith
1882
Miss Everett Green
1882
Miss R.J Strutt
1882
Miss A.R. Popham
1882
Mrs Nesbitt
1882
Miss Madeleine
Cooke
1882
Miss A.K. Barclay
1882
1882
1882
1882
1882
Miss Amy Vigers
Miss Lucy
Whittaker
Miss C.J. Barber
Mrs Rose Swain
Miss Marion R
Henn
Miss May Dixey
Miss Marion
Gemmell
Countess of
Cottenham
Lady Willoughby
Mr G.R. Smith
Mrs Morant
1882
Miss E.M. Flack
1882
Captain Hughes
1882 Professionals
Miss Rebecca
Coleman
Miss Ellen Welby
Miss Charlotte
Spiers
Miss Linnie Watt
1882
1882
1882
1882
1882
1882
Two portraits
Crown Princess of
Germany amateur
medal
Plaque in Japanese Princess Alice of
Style. Love birds of Hesse prize
brinces of bamboo
Gay plumaged bird Princess Christian
among flowers
prize
White cactus
Prince Leopold
flowers on large
prize
plaque
Pair of eagles in
Princess Mary of
flight
Teck prize
Pair of Owls
Orange boughs
Countess of
bearing fruit and
Flanders prize
flowers
A wreath of briony Judges’ prize
with geometric
border
Mirror border
Founders’ Prize
No title
Queen magazine
prize
No title
Art Journal Prize
No title
Silver medal
Door plates
Bronze medal
No title
Studies of heads
Studio prize
Silver medal
8 miniatures
Bronze medal
Portrait
Landscape
Autumn swallows
among roses
Conventional
design
Portrait of Lady
Brooke
Bronze medal
Bronze medal
Silver medal
Bronze medal
Very highly
commended
No detail of prize
values
304
Daily News, 19th May 1883 “Pottery Painting”
1883
Miss Linnie Watt
1883
Miss Chatfield
1883
Miss Ada
Hanbury
Miss C. Spiers
Miss Rosa
Jameson Strutt
No title
1883
Miss Lucy
Whittaker
Miss Barber
Chrysanthemums
and anemones
Cherry Blossom
1883
Miss Everett Green
Japanesque plate
1883
Miss Jessie Scott
Smith
No title
1883
1883
1883
Landscape with
figures are the
manner of Lessore
Landscape
No title
Pair of panels
Princess Alice
prize
Queen magazine
prize
Founders’ prize
Crown Princess of
Germany prize for
amateurs
Princess Alice
prize
Princess Christian
prize
Prince Leopold
Prize
Crown Princess
medal for
professional (prev.
amateur)
305
Extracts from the catalogue of “4th Annual Exhibition of Paintings on China by
Lady Amateurs and Artists”, published by Howell and James. 1879
Report on prizes for the 1878 exhibition
The Gold Medal for the best work by an amateur was awarded to the Countess of
Warwick for her portrait of Lady Eva Greville.
Miss Edith S. Hall
Miss Ada Hanbury
Miss H. Lee
Lady Willoughby
Mrs Nesbitt
Miss Welby
Conventional wide roses
Fruit blossom and horse
Chestnut
Conventional heliotrope
Portrait of Miss Gertude
Willoughby
Italian Arabesque
Feeding Doves
2nd prize, amateur
10 gns first prize
professional
st
1 prize for ornament
Amateur
rd
3 prize for heads
Amateur
Purchased by the
Prince of Wales
1879 Exhibition catalogue list
There were 16 amateur awards ranging from the Crown Princess of Germany’s Gold
Medal to Viscountess Hood to presentations of copies of Amateur Pottery and Glass
Painting by E. Campbell Hancock awarded to Mrs Willis, Mrs George Stapleton
(who had won the Gold medal in 1877), Mrs Leith Hay.
Other amateurs commended were:Miss Edith Hall
Miss Ada Beard
Lady Rawlinson
Miss Everett Green
Percy Anderson
Lady Nicholson
Mme. Camille Moreau
Miss F.B. Hartzhorne
Miss Childe Pemberton
Capt Talbot Coke
Mrs Talbot Coke
Miss Cosserat
Miss Rischgitz
Miss F.M. Boys Smith
Daffodils
Lillies
Persian Design
‘Birds of a feather flock together’
Head
Landscape
Ornament
Birds and Flowers
Derwent Scarborough
On the Thames
Magnolia and Palm Lilies
The Tower of Alderman on Lake Geneva
Other professional awards were made to
Linnie Watt
Florence Lewis
Princess Alice Medal
Charlotte Spiers
Ellen Welby
Kate Hammond2
2
It is possible that this professional artist was related to Edward Hammond, designer at Minton
306