Description
c1890 Kelva American Art Glass Hand Painted Box5.5" wide x 3.5" tall with no<br>cracks, chips, restorations, or wear to decoration, nice strong hinge. Great<br>box.<br><br>Decorated Opal ware was at the height of its popularity from 1890 to 1910, and<br>the C. F. Monroe Company was one of the largest producers of this type glass.<br>Charles F. Monroe opened his shop first shop in 1880; is was located at 36 West<br>Main Street in Meriden, Connecticut and he dealt primarily in imported<br>glassware. By 1882, Monroe was operating his own glass-decorating studio, and<br>was soon employing highly talented local artists as decorators. When the 1890’s<br>arrived and the demand for finely decorated glass was its height, the Monroe<br>company was located in several large buildings on the corner of West Main Street<br>and Capitol Avenue, and employed such fine artists as Carl V. Helmschmied,<br>Walter Nilson, J.J. Knoblauch, Joseph Hickish, Carl Puffee, Flora Fiest, Gustave<br>Reinman, Florence Knoblauch, Emil Melchior, and Alma Wenk, Blanche Duval, Gussie<br>Stremlan, Elizabeth Zeibart, and Elizabeth Casey, The decorators often went back<br>and forth between the G934C Wavecrest Jewelry Box – Helmschmid Swirlcompanies,<br>and sometimes poses a problem of attribution. As is always, the case, public<br>tastes changed, and the demand for decorated Opal Ware began to decline after<br>1910. The C.F. Monroe Company went out of business in 1916. –<br>tw243
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