Edward Marshall Boehm (pronounced like blame without the l) was a self-taught artist, sculptor and porcelain maker. He was born in 1913 and died in 1969, and was the first American to solve completely the problems of creating sculpture in hard paste porcelain. He was the first American to create true art in porcelain. His most popular subjects with his followers were his birds, for good reason. By not over-glazing most of the Boehm birds, the life-like decoration colors and matte surface recreate the look of real feathers. The birds are posed in plants of their natural habitat, and look so life-like that one expects a turn of the head or flicker of a wing before the bird takes flight. Boehm preferred porcelain for these creatures because of the fidelity in the representation of feathers in bisque, and because porcelain does not age or the colors fade.
The first Boehm bird was a wood thrush in a crab apple made in 1951, but Boehm only made two of these. His first full production bird was a canvasback duck on cattails, starting production in 1951 or 1952. The description of Boehm birds, as least as far as the catalog raisonne goes, always includes the identification of the plant. There are a few birds Boehm produced without plants, placing them on either short or tall bases. In some cases, the bird and plants are reduced in size and also placed on a base to raise the sculpture up off of the table and give the piece more presence.
The Boehm birds guide lists a total of 166 birds. Only 93 were produced during Boehm’s lifetime and with his involvement. Thirty-six were produced by his studio following his sudden death, and thirty-seven birds have been produced in the studio Boehm’s wife Helen built in Malvern, England. Both the Trenton, New Jersey, and Malvern, England, studios were situated to take advantage of trained porcelain workers. Sometimes the male and female are shown in one plant arrangement, and sometimes they are represented on separate figurines, although they count as one item in the catalog as they were sold together. For this and changes in the decorations, there are a total of 220 birds in the Boehm porcelain bird production.
Boehm’s own favorites were the dogs and horses he made in porcelain. His porcelain production began with a line called “Champions on Parade” in 1950, and involved not only horses, but other livestock. As a breeder, Boehm was interested in improving the animals, something not really feasible with birds. Besides livestock and dogs, Boehm eventually also created sculptures of cats and wild animals, and during the early years he produced a number of decorative objects and useful accessories to keep the company in funds. He even created a number of human figurines, including religious subjects and a few pairs of figurines in costumes of the past called “Beau Brummels”.
Most of the Boehm porcelain birds are available in several formats, as undecorated, white bisque (matte), white glazed (shiny), and as decorated (colored) bisque and/or glazed. Because all the molds were destroyed at the end of production, one complete undecorated bisque copy was kept by the studio for reference. The other undecorated birds were produced for those collectors who preferred the white in order to enjoy the sculpting of the subject. Almost all the decorated birds were painted the same for both the bisque and glazed production, and in only a few cases was the original coloration revised in mid-production because of the unsatisfactory coloration of the early figurines. One of the early birds that created coloring difficulties was the cardinal bird. Boehm was not able to truly represent the colors of either the male or female without a resulting gloss on the figure. As the cardinal is several state birds, it was an important figurine and the favorite of many. I must admit that the picture in the book does not look as good as one would expect of a Boehm bird.
The Boehm makers mark has varied over time and location, and on various lines. The name “Boehm” is involved in most of them, but not all, and many have a horse head and/or feather as part of the mark. Once again, the collector must learn to recognize them as part of making his own collection.
Boehm birds are to be found in the collections of many US museums, especially natural history museums, as the representation of the birds is so faithful to the live creatures. Smaller birds are represented at life size, but the larger ones are scaled down to a size suitable for home display. If your local museum does not have any Boehm birds, watch for the occasional touring exhibition of these beautiful sculptures and make an effort to see them.
For a look at all the Boehm porcelain production, see The Porcelain Art of Edward Marshall Boehm by Reese Palley, Harrison House, New York, 1988.
To see photographs of Boehm porcelain, go to my Squidoo lens on the subject.
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