Item #6175 C. A. Jillson. Instructions for Chinese painting. Hartford, Conn. 1884 [effaced cover-title.] Mrs. Jillson’s [cover-title]. Camilla Alroda Jillson Potter.
C. A. Jillson. Instructions for Chinese painting. Hartford, Conn. 1884 [effaced cover-title.] Mrs. Jillson’s [cover-title].
C. A. Jillson. Instructions for Chinese painting. Hartford, Conn. 1884 [effaced cover-title.] Mrs. Jillson’s [cover-title].
C. A. Jillson. Instructions for Chinese painting. Hartford, Conn. 1884 [effaced cover-title.] Mrs. Jillson’s [cover-title].
C. A. Jillson. Instructions for Chinese painting. Hartford, Conn. 1884 [effaced cover-title.] Mrs. Jillson’s [cover-title].

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C. A. Jillson. Instructions for Chinese painting. Hartford, Conn. 1884 [effaced cover-title.] Mrs. Jillson’s [cover-title].

Hartford, Connecticut, 1880–1889. 2 sm. 8vo notebooks: 7.5” x 4.75”, brown cloth over boards. 55 pp. of manuscript, with several tipped-in notes and numerous blank pp.; 6.75” x 4”, flexible sheep with printed grocer’s account-book text. 44 pp. of manuscript. CONDITION: Vol I: Good; front board of one vol. partially detached, and spine heavily cracked; contents good, no losses to the text. Vol. II: Good, no losses to the text.

Two extensive notebooks on preparing colors for painting China as well as techniques for decorating, kept by a Connecticut woman who later married the noted Connecticut architect Dwight E. Potter.

During the later half of the 19th century, China painting—the decoration of glazed porcelain objects such as plates, bowls, vases or statues—was a respectable activity for middle-class women in both North America and Europe. These two notebooks kept by Camilla Alroda Jillson (1846–1931) contain recipes and instructions for mixing colors across the entire color-spectrum, along with many entries concerning the application of color to achieve certain desired effects when painting. Jillson’s first notebook commences with a note stating she has begun taking “lessons” (evidently in China painting) with one Mrs. G. H. Wright on 18 Oct. 1880. Her entries range from the brief (“Grounding colors are not safe to use for flower painting”), to the more lengthy. Recipe titles include: “Gold,” “Crab Apple,” “Pink Flower,” “Olive Green Background,” “Raised Gold Effect,” “Reddish Purple for Pansies,” and “White Flower.” The notebook includes several laid-in notes such as one from L. Cooley of Boston China Decorating Works (on their business letterhead and addressed to Jillson) on how to remove spots. The second notebook contains the entry “Hints on China painting,” notes on using alcohol, and numerous paint recipes (“Lavender color,” “For Violets,” “Branches of Trees,” “For Peaches,” “For Doors,” etc.). While undated, this second volume was also likely kept by Jillson during the mid 1880s.

Examples of China painting recipes from both volumes:

“For Green Leaves”: For any light green leaves use grass green, with a little miling yellow, shaded with brown green, for brighter leaves. Grass green shaded with brown green, mixed with a little brown no. 3 or a little deep purple. If you desire a cold and dark green—use cobalt or deep blue with the grass green & shaded with brown green.

“Crab Apple”: For apples put on a wash of miling yellow & add a broad brush stroke of Carnation for rosy cheek. The stems are deeper yellow shaded to brown green. For the leaves, use grass green with a very little cobalt added & brown green for shadows. The under part of leaf is quite grey; for this use grass green mileal with a little deep purple shaded with the same tint. For the branch where the fruit stems join use brown green, shaded with brown no. 3. These deepen the color of miling, brown green with brown 17 & a little purple…

“Reddish Purple for Pansies”: Crimson purple can be used for the reddish purple leaves of pansies, or a little Carmine No. 1 can be mixed with deep purple. To obtain a dark rich tint, put on the color in two separate washes not painted heavily but clear even washes.

In 1907, Jillson married Dwight E. Potter (1840–1911), an architect, carpenter and builder based in Willimantic, Connecticut, who over his career worked extensively throughout Tolland and Windham counties. In 1881, Potter and his first wife Mary Ann Hazen (1837–1904) moved into a house he had designed and erected at 76 Windham Road, which is presently the home to the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Potter moved to Hartford after marrying Jillson, where she resided; here his health quickly declined, and he died in 1911. Shortly before Jillson’s death in 1931, she donated $100,000 to the Windham Hospital Fund; Jillson and Potter are also known to have patronized Presbyterian Foreign Missionary work.

REFERENCES: “Dwight E. Potter: a one-man beautification committee.” Chronicle, 12 Jan. 2002 at threadcity.epizy.com; “Dwight Potter House (1881)” at historicbuildingsct.com

Item #6175

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