Chas W Shonk Royal Vienna Tin Lithograph Portrait Plate Poesie #104
Product Description And Additional Pictures
This beautiful antique tin lithograph portrait plate titled Poesie #104 was originally painted by a talented Royal Vienna Porcelain Factory artist. Poesie features a beautiful, bare shouldered woman, wearing a green laurel leaf headband in her lush, cascading brunette tresses. Soft layers of peach colored fabric create a tasteful, demure cover, keeping the subject appropriately, yet tantalizingly decent. Rich, jewel tones in the backgound and frame create a visually appealing contrast to the subject's creamy rouged skin and pastel draped garment. The Chas W Shonk Co. Sign Manufacturer - established in the year 1891 in Chicago, Illinois - reproduced a series of Royal Vienna portrait plates featuring beautiful women as advertising pieces for a variety of businesses and industries. Poesie #104 was produced between1900 and1910.
Tin has long been an acceptable medium for painting and portraiture, and during certain time periods was used as often as canvas or board. Tin was the primary medium for signs and advertisements. Unlike porcelain or pottery, however, images could be scratched off of a tin surface. They could be also easily bent, with many quickly finding their way into the refuse pile. Tin plates with handsome designs decorated Victorian parlors for a fraction of the cost of real porcelain.
We have seen a number of other tin portrait plates, but none have been in as good condition nor as attractive as ours. We photographed this plate from a variety of angles so that you could see that the surface of the picture is not perfect -- it is riddled with crackelure and superficial scratches, none of which are deep enough to remove the paint and expose the tin beneath. You will see the superficial marks in a number of our photographs, but you will also undoubtedly notice the beautiful subject and the equally handsome border that frames her!
