howeenterprise.com
Old church gets new windows; committee meets
Monday, September 14, 2015
Learn about antiques and collectibles with Georgia Caraway china painters. Later the portable gas kiln for porcelain was developed and patented.
Renovation continues on the old First Christian Church that has stood at the corner of Denny and O'Connel Streets for 122 years. Last week, new windows were installed to replace the broken ones thanks to a donation by Oscar Blankenmeyer and Georgia Caraway. On Thursday, the Save the Church committee met to further their plan of the live auction, silent auction and bbq dinner on November 7 that will take place in several downtown locations. The plans are for the bbq dinner and the live auction to be held in the old Price Hanning Garage on Huges Street. That building has been remodeled by Buddy Baker. The silent auction items will take place in the old church and in the Howe Development Alliance building. All auction bids and the bbq dinner are 100 percent tax deductible and all proceeds go towards the renovation of the structure. A complete list of aution items can be found on page 12.
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Around the turn of the twentieth century, romanticism with its sympathetic interest in nature was being usurped by a modern design attitude, one that preferred abstract and conventional motifs, and simpler, uncluttered settings.
The birthplace of the American china painting movement was Cincinnati, Ohio. Karl Lagenbeck and his neighbor Maria Longworth Nichols experimented with overglaze china paints. Classes were taught at the McMicken School of Design. Some of this student-painted china was exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. Millions of people attending the Exposition were exposed to the new art form and embraced it. Many women turned to creative occupations that allowed them to beautify their homes with their own artistic creations and china painting was one such outlet. Whiteware and painting supplies were easily attainable from American shops and studios that imported these from Europe. Women chose their own patterns to decorate their own pieces. But one of the difficulties china painters encountered was locating kilns to fire their pieces. This led to the development and distribution of a portable and economical kerosene-fueled kiln specifically geared to
China painting grew unpopular during the Depression and World War II when discretionary income and a shortage of materials and imports decreased. Porcelain painting was virtually extinct until 1958 when a group of Dallas women organized a club that is still active. The World Organization of China Painters based in Oklahoma City, boasts a membership of over 9,000 china painters in the United States. However those who took up china painting predominantly did so as a hobby. As an art form, it never regained the same number of practitioners as it had in its heyday prior to World War I. Come see come beautiful examples of hand painted china at Texas Home Emporium and Howe Mercantile. Dr. Georgia Caraway, former director of the Denton County Museums for 14 years, and her friends opened the Howe Mercantile at 107 East Haning, Howe. Store hours are Thursday through Saturday noon until 8 p.m. In addition to Tips, Tools, & Techniques: Caring for Your Antiques and Collectibles, she has written four Denton history books and is working on a 5th history about the North Texas State Fair and Rodeo.
