This sweet chromolithograph of a parrot and a cockatiel surrounded by a bevy of little birds is from Tried by Fire: A Work on China-painting, a highly popular book during its time by noted Milwaukee artist and ceramics painter Susan Stuart Frackelton (1848-1932), originally published in New York by D. Appleton & Company in 1886. Our copy is an 1892 printing. The image is an illustration for instructions on how to achieve these colors for the birds through the layering of glazes on ceramics.
Frackelton was a student of Milwaukee's pioneering artist Henry Vianden (1814-1899). In 1883 she founded the Frackelton China and Decorating Works, a very successful business for painted ceramics and painting instruction. She held several patents, including for Frackelton's Dry Colors and a home kiln machine, and she founded the National League of Mineral Painters, a predecessor organization to the Milwaukee Art Museum. The Milwaukee County Historical Society notes that:
Her innovation in [pottery, china painting, and book illumination] helped elevate American decorative arts to a standard of excellence and, at the same time, dispelled any myths about women being unable to rise above the rank of an amateur artist. . . . she used her talents as an artist and entrepreneur to break through the bonds of traditional gender roles, both in the art world and society. . . .
Today, she is particularly well-known in Milwaukee for the co-called "Frackelton Manuscript," a 100-page illuminated manuscript titled Voices of Friends Concerning John Plankinton, produced between 1910-1913 by Frackelton and her daughter and now housed in the Milwaukee Public Library's Richard and Lucille Krug Rare Books Room.
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