Antique Haviland Limoges Porcelain Plate Signed 1890s Montreal School of Art

This is a lovely antique porcelain plate made by Haviland & Co of Limoges. The H&Co L France backstamp was used between 1888 and 1896. The backside also has a red stamp on it that reads School of Art Applied Design Montreal. The School of Art and Applied Design was originally named the Victoria School of Art, changing its name to the School of Art and Applied Design in 1895. It was located at 2278 St Catherine Street and its principle was May Phillips, a woman who was a serious artist at a time when women artists were not taken seriously (she studied art at the Art Association of Montreal, taking advanced classes with Robert Harris in 1883, and teaching art in New York from 1884 to 1889). They taught oil painting, drawing, wood carving and china painting at the School of Art Applied Design and had a staff of five teachers and 75 students during the 1890s. This plate is signed E Whitney, who was Elizabeth Whitney, who had trained at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and was the staff teacher at the school between 1893 and 1895 for china and glass painting. The scene is rendered in an impressionist style and features seashells in a rather vague setting. Obviously, the plate was produced as a blank by Haviland and decorated by Whitney. The plate is in very good condition with no chips, cracks or pronounced wear. It measures 7 3/8 in diameter and weighs 8.3 oz. Very pretty display plate and an interesting piece of Montreal history!