Museum accessions.(Haviland Brothers and Company)

A recent gift to the New Orleans Museum of Art is an extremely fine pair of French porcelain candelabra that were produced in Limoges for Haviland Brothers and Company, a ceramics firm that had its beginnings in New York City.

The Haviland family were active as dealers and importers of ceramic wares in the city from 1821; later, members of the family also had connected businesses in South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. In 1841 David Haviland left his New York residence and sailed to France, and by 1842 he had established himself in Limoges. In this new and growing ceramics center, he oversaw the production of French porcelain geared to the taste of his American buyers. At first he had molds designed that included elements of both English and French design, and soon he also established his own decorating shop.

The curator of decorative arts at the New Orleans Museum of Art, John Webster Keefe, noted in a recent discussion of the candelabra that "Haviland proved to be a businessman possessing the rare combination of excellent taste, marketing savvy, a flair for innovation, unflagging energy and the ability to turn a profit." While in the process of setting up a complete porcelain manufactory, which was licensed by the French government in 1853, he submitted several fine pieces of ornate porcelain to the New York Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1853-1854.

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A guide to that newly opened exhibition Art and Industry ... in the Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, edited by Horace Greeley in 1853, notes that in vases and in ...