Schmitz-Horning Co. Ming Floral Scenic Wallpaper Pattern

By Janet Dodrill

Schmitz-Horning Co. “Ming Floral” Scenic Wallpaper (Artist’s Rendering).

Recently, I was contacted by someone online who asked if I knew anything about the Schmitz-Horning Company’s “Ming Floral” wallpaper pattern. They stated that their grandfather was a painter/wallpaperer in the 1930s through ’60s, and that he had saved three panels of the wallpaper.

I know the pattern, a lovely one — we had it in a bedroom at our family home where I grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The house originally belonged to my grandfather, Warren R. Schmitz, who ran the company after my great-grandfather’s (Hugo M. Schmitz) death in 1938.

Schmitz-Horning Co. “Ming Floral” Scenic Wallpaper Panels.

The Cleveland-based company employed and contracted with many Cleveland area artists, and I believe that artists/illustrators were used from England and that the paper was distributed there as well. The papers were printed using presses capable of oversized printing, the only of their kind in the country at the time. High quality oil-based inks were used on sturdy paper, that enabled the papers to be washed and to retain colors. The company did art murals/wall scenes or friezes that were tastefully designed but affordable, and later scenics and continuous panoramics that surrounded a room were available for homes and public buildings.

A patent was filed in 1906 for the printed frieze for walls by Hugo M. Schmitz, his business partner William Horning, and his top salesman, Warren R. Cox. An article he wrote was published in an architectural decorating magazine at the turn of the century about the friezes. He was an artist himself and designed some of the paper.

On the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum web site, scenic panel, “Ming Floral,” is a 1939 chromolithograph, but they are in the process of digitizing images of S-H wallpaper (gifts of the Wallpaper Council, Inc.).

According to a 1950 S-H Scenic Paper price list, Ming Floral was available in white, pale yellow, gray, and turquoise. A full set of four panels was $30.00, and price per section was $8.50. In another, perhaps earlier catalog, it was priced $7.50. Each panel was 40″ x 80″ in size. The panels contained imagery of plants, flowers, birds, bamboo trees, and turf. It was from an original hand-painted Chinese design.

Copyright article and images. All rights reserved. Not to be used without permission.

Artist George Kozmon Impresses at IngenuityFest

By Janet Dodrill

George Kozmon is a Cleveland-based internationally-known artist specializing in large-scale drawing and painting. I learned of George through our high school art teacher, Vincent Ferrara, in the 1970s. Then, he was producing energetic action figures for weekly art class critiques, and soon after incorporated figure and portrait drawing using students as subjects that he would ask to pose outside of school. I followed his career, through is time at The Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA), and remember seeing his large drawings at a student show there. Most memorable were architectural renderings, and an expressive black and white drawing of a lawn mower. His drawing skills were becoming expert and there was a certain confidence to his work even early on. Upon graduating, he remained in Cleveland but at that time exhibited primarily outside of the city, around the country. He moved into large architectural works. Then into more figurative work. And most recently, uses mountains and clouds as his primary subject matter. I recently saw him at Cleveland’s IngenuityFest ‘performing’ his art with paint and brush onto an 80-foot long curved canvas over the course of three days combining architectures with mountains and clouds. He became the real-life action figure walking in and out of his invented environment. I was very impressed with the piece and his idea to do it, as documented in these few moments with him on day two of the three-day project.

George Kozmon artist at Cleveland IngenuityFest 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

George Kozmon artist at Cleveland IngenuityFest 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

George Kozmon artist at Cleveland IngenuityFest 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

George Kozmon artist at Cleveland IngenuityFest 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Links:

George Kozmon’s Web Site

George Kozmon’s Facebook Page

Cleveland Institute of Art: Ingenuity Fest 2013

JakPrints Blog Article on George Kozmon (see Meet George Kozmon)

Three Sisters Sanctuary

By Janet Dodrill

Good Time Stove Company

Unrevealed from the roadside and from the front of the Good Time Stove Company in Goshen, MA, lies a treasure — a healing garden, built by stove store and property owner Richard Richards to honor his three daughters (Tina Marie [late], Sara Wenona, Megan Elizabeth), called Three Sisters Sanctuary.

Three Sisters Sanctuary

The unique backyard grounds includes fire pits and stages, ponds and fountains, sculptures and mosaics, and is open to the public to walk through, ponder, take time, and enjoy this artistic and spiritual dream land. Additionally, events can be scheduled on the premises such as weddings, plays, parties and music concerts. There is beauty, fun, surprise, and thought provoking creative visual work and landscaping throughout the garden. Giant boulders including quartz lined-up to create energy fields are carefully arranged, and all excavated from the property.

An old friend took me there and Richard was there talking to people as they visited this special place. The stoves are a treat to see too.