Estate Find

Osborne Art Studio

Falcon Headed

Centerpiece Bowl

Chicago Illinois

We offer a hand painted oval centerpiece bowl from the Osborne Art Studio in Chicago, Illinois which operated from 1919-1973.

Using Limoges porcelain blanks, Osborne Theomun Olsen would decorate his ware with hand painting and gold embellishments.

Our bowl features a gold painted exterior with a hand painted floral field on the interior. Each end terminates in a golden falcon headed handle.

The bowl is artist signed “Osborne” on the interior.

The centerpiece bowl measures 15 3/4” in length and 6” in width. The falcon heads measure 5” in height and the middle sides of the bowl measure 2 1/4” in height.

The Osborne Art Studio centerpiece bowl is presented in excellent vintage condition with no chips, cracks, breaks or repairs.

Osborne Theomun Olsen (1883-1971)

Osborne Theomun Olsen aka Asbjorn T. Olsen, aka Ozzie Olsen. He was the owner of Osborne Art Studios in Chicago which existed from 1910 to 1973. (b. June 09, 1883, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA - d. January 09, 1971, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, 60631, USA)

Crockery and Glass Journal, Volume 94, 1922: "Osborne Art Studios, creators and designers of high grade hand wrought china, have removed their studios and general offices from 2520 Milwaukee Ave. to larger and more convenient quarters at 2311-2313 Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, where they will have a well appointed show room, which permits the showing of many more samples than heretofore." 

Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson write the following for the Scripps Howard News Service: "Osborne Art Studios, which was founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1910 by Osborne T. Olsen. At that time there were a number of companies decorating white china 'blanks' (e.g. pieces that are undecorated and therefore 'blank') in Chicago. The most famous of these was and is the Pickard China Company, whose work is highly prized by current collectors and can be very expensive. There is no question that Osborne did beautiful work, but he is often accused of being a Pickard copyist, and this tends to hurt the value of many Osborne pieces. It should also be noted that Osborne did not always use a backstamp on his pieces, and since they look so much like Pickard's work, this has caused much confusion among those who are interested in this type of ware."

Osborne also appeared in The Collector's Encyclopedia of Pickard China by Alan B. Reed, which had the following information: "Osborne was the only Chicago china artist of any stature to use his first name for his studio name and signature. He was born in Illinois of Norwegian parents in 1884 as Asbjorn T. Olsen. He Anglicized his first name early in his career, and by age 18 (1902) he was already decorating china professionally. In 1908 he married a girl his own age and they had two children, a boy and a girl. During the first seven or eight years of his career, he probably worked for one or more of the decorator wholesalers such as Pitkin & Brooks. By the time of the 1910 Census he describes himself as 'working on his own account', that is, he had his own china-decorating business in his home, and by 1914 he had opened a separate studio at 2520 North Milwaukee Avenue. Osborne did not use a backstamp on much of his product, being content to sign his name on the face of the piece, or in the case of all-over gold pieces, to scribe his signature on the bottom, In other cases, he used gummed foil labels that were easily removed after purchase. Therefore although he did employ other artists one cannot distinguish between unstamped pieces signed by an artist while working for Osborne and pieces which that artist may have made on a freelance basis. He does not seem to have encouraged - or perhaps even permitted - other artists to sign their work for him. An Osborne piece signed by anyone other than Osborne has yet to be found. Although he seems to have been devoted primarily to decorated china, he always characterized his studio as an 'art studio' and himself as simply an 'artist.' The studio was not a large one, and inasmuch as Osborne sold art supplies as well as decorated china from a store at the front of the building, he probably employed no more than six or eight china decorators at the studio's height. Nevertheless, he did employ some very good artists."