Robineau: Another Woman in ceramic's HerStory

Adelaide Alsop Robineau (1865-1919) was my art school biographical subject when I returned to get my degree in the early 1980s.  I found it interesting that a young man who recently graduated from college and taught pottery himself had also studied Robineau as a student...all these many years later.  That proves (at least to me) that she's a classic.



Scarab Vase or (The Apotheosis of the Toiler), 1910 in Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY

The Scarab Vase is carved porcelain...and won the Grand Prize in pottery at the Turin International Exhibition.  Robineau travelled from her home town of Syracuse to University City, Mo, where this vase was created in a workshop of potters.  She experimented with many glazes.

Melting Ice

Robineau and Scarab Vase 1910

Bowl, 1924, A.A. Robineau

Small carved porcelain container, located at Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC.



A short article about Adelaide Alsop Robineau may be found here...
http://syracusethenandnow.org/Nghbrhds/Strathmore/AARobineau.htm

Vase with crystaline glaze developed by A. A. Robineau

There is one book on her life that is available, "Glory in Porcelain", and will contain many of the same pictures that I've shown here.  If they are copywrited, I'm sorry...they were posted several places when the pieces were donated, or sold, to museums and galleries, and sometimes private owners.

I love that this woman developed and experimented with glazes, and won an international award for the vase that took 1000 hours to carve, even after she repaired it following some breakage in the kiln. (see the article)  AND she lived at the time my grandmother did, before women could even vote!

She is inspirational.