Louise’s Doulton Story

Fantastique FaienceForty years ago this summer, The Doulton Story exhibition opened at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and launched my career in the world of ceramics. I have been taking a trip down memory lane and tracing many of the original objects on display at this ground-breaking exhibition

Continue reading

Votes for Women

One of the most popular additions to the WMODA collection is the Royal Doulton inkwell entitled Votes for Women. The virago also amused the late Diana, Princess of Wales, when she visited the Sir Henry Doulton Museum in 1984. The grumpy old woman and her ugly baby date from 1908

Continue reading

Chasing the Rainbow

At the end of the 19th century, several British potters were inspired to “chase the rainbow.” One of the most successful was the Pilkington factory in Lancashire, which was established in 1891 to make tiles and later art pottery. Their talented glaze chemists developed lustrous glaze effects which were called

Continue reading

Knock Me Down with a Feather

by Louise Irvine Ostriches in Ceramic Art I have been fascinated by ostriches since my childhood. I treasured a photograph of my grandma riding an ostrich that she sent to me after she went to live in South Africa when I was a little girl. Sadly, I didn’t get a

Continue reading

The Human Form Divine

George White painted “the human form divine with beauty, grace, and delicacy” according to Doulton’s Art Director, Charles J. Noke. He also had the “unusual power of fixing the personality of his subject and caught the likeness which is more than could be said of many who profess to paint

Continue reading

The Wiener Legacy at WMODA

Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” In this spirit, Arthur Wiener is donating most of his ceramics and glass art collection to the Wiener Museum of Decorative Art in South Florida and has funded its establishment

Continue reading

Across the Pond

I have been enjoying a visit back home in London this May. Not only have we been able to catch up with our son Ben and his wife Anna, both busy doctors, but we have seen some exciting exhibitions featuring our WMODA favorites. Top of our list was a visit

Continue reading

International Museum Day

Around 400 visitors celebrated International Museum Day at WMODA on May 18. Many brought their family heirlooms for evaluation by Linda Saft ISA AM at our popular Treasure or Trash event. She was particularly struck by an incredible Imari charger decorated with rabbits and a beautiful pair of Old Paris

Continue reading

VoyageMIA Feature of Louise Irvine

  Louise Irvine, the Executive Director & Curator of WMODA, was interviewed recently for VoyageMIA magazine which features inspirational stories in our community. Every neighborhood in South Florida has its own vibe, style, culture and history. VoyageMIA features various neighborhoods and what they all have in common.  From South Beach

Continue reading

Women in Culture – Ardmore

By Louise Irvine The theme of this year’s Museum Week is ‘Women in Culture’ and so we are celebrating the woman behind one of the most popular collections at WMODA, Ardmore Ceramic Art. Fée Halsted has been nurturing artistic talent in the Natal Midlands of South Africa since 1985 and

Continue reading