“WALTER SCOTT Lenox & American Belleek,” on view at Charlotte’s Mint Museum from September 23rd to January 21st of next year, tracks Lenox’s career and contributions to the ceramics industry in Trenton, New Jersey. The exhibition examines his position at three major pottery manufacturers, along with the parallel rise of American Belleek—first produced around the turn of the 20th century and regarded as an inventive take on products created by the Irish porcelain company.
In an essay entitled “A Master Craftsman—Walter Scott Lenox,” which was published in in 1925, author George Sanford Holmes describes Lenox (1859–1920) as that uniquely American innovator: equal parts artist, businessman, and starry-eyed idealist. The Trenton native was first drawn to the artistic-century champion of early industrialized artistic wares. Both men spent their careers balancing business acumen with daring creativity.
