Mary Bacon Jones the Jungle Folk Design Plate,1910

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The Jungle Folk Design Plate #1, 1910
Hand painted, Limoges porcelain plates 1.16 х 10.7 in
Plate signed, under glaze … Read more The Jungle Folk Design Plate #1, 1910
Hand painted, Limoges porcelain plates 1.16 х 10.7 in
Plate signed, under glaze in blue,"DESIGNED & COPYRIGHTED/by/MARY BACON JONES/Wm GUERIN & CO/FRANCE/LIMOGES" under glaze in green"LIMOGES/W.G./CO/FRAMCE
The individually hand painted Limoges plates based on Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book’ explore a different quote from the scenes of Mowgli’s life such as “The White Seal”, “Tiger!Tiger!”, “The Spring Running”, “The Miracle of Purun Bhagat”, which encircles the plate. After the designs were completed by Mary Bacon Jones, they were sent to William Guerin of Limoges to be hand painted on porcelain plates. Very few of these sets were ever made. These works are significant due to the fact that it was incredibly rare for a woman of the early 20th century to design, copyright, and commission her work in such an entrepreneurial endeavor.

A complete set of ‘Jungle Folk Design Plates’ is currently housed in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Mary Bacon Jones, the designer of what were called "The Jungle Folk Design Plates," was born August 13, 1879, in Fort Shaw, Montana. A painter, craftsworker, printmaker and teacher, she never married, studying and working primarily in Boston, New York City and Provincetown, MA. She died in Nice, France, in 1924. I have one of at least five known sets of the 12 final Limoges plates, as well as several smaller test Sample pottery plates created earlier, her copyrights (including a French copyright), and other personal photographs and correspondence. Three other sets remain in the possession of our extended family. She designed the first six plates prior to May 31, 1903, when she applied to the Library of Congress Copyright Office for copyrights for the first six plates, "Design for Set of Kipling Plates for a Child." On May 6, 1910, after the new U.S. copyright laws became effective July 1, 1909, she applied for and received copyrights for all 12 designs. The final plates were fabricated in 1910 by Wm. Guerin & Cie. of Limoges, France, later known as Guerin & Co., and Guerin Pouyat Elite before the factory closed in 1933. Mr. Kipling was aware of Mary Bacon Jones's designs for the plates. In November 1909, with the support of Mr. Kipling's New York publisher (who felt "the sale of the plates would have a beneficial effect upon the circulation of the Jungle Books") she appealed to Mr. Kipling's literary agent in London, Mr. A.P. Watt, for Mr. Kipling's permission to call the plates 'Kipling Plates Illustrating the Jungle Books' [to be placed on the back of the plates]." However, Mr. Kipling replied through his agent that although he had "no objection to the designing, colouring and production of the set of plates to which you refer....He [Mr. Kipling] cannot allow any mark to be made thereon connecting the set of plates with him or with 'The Jungle Book.'" See less