The Decorative Arts

The Decorative Arts Department of the New Orleans Museum of Art is the largest division of the permanent collection, with more than 15,000 works of art in its care. The collection ranges from antiquity to the present and from a myriad of cultures and continents.

Glass
The single greatest departmental strength is that of glass. The glass collection is ranked among the top five in The United States and covers the history of the glassmaker's art from its ancient Egyptian origins through contemporary studio glass. The NOMA glass collection presently numbers about 12,000 objects.

American Art Pottery
The second greatest area of concentration is American art pottery from circa 1880 to 1960, with notable strengths in the areas of Newcomb, Rookwood and Fulper Pottery. The collection numbers about 800 examples representing the production of American art pottery from coast to coast.

French Ceramics
French ceramics is another strength of the collection, with a major emphasis on the porcelains of Paris from circa 1770 to circa 1870. The Paris porcelain collection at NOMA is the only one in the United States to survey the entire century-long history of these distinguished wares. Three areas of secondary concentration within the category of French ceramics are the Brooke Hayward Duchin Collection of nineteenth-century Palissy wares, Sévres porcelain of the eighteenth through the early twentieth century, and the Stern Collection of porcelain veilleuses which is focused upon the nineteenth century.

Portrait-Miniatures
Another important area is English and Continental portrait-miniatures. The bulk of that collection consists of the notable group in the Latter-Schlesinger Collection of over two hundred examples, dating from the sixteenth to the late nineteenth century.

Fabergé
There are a total of 82 objects on exhibition, not including 44 miniature Easter Eggs by é which are displayed on three separate objects: 13 on a miniature golden tree, 19 on a 17th century gold Russian necklace and 12 on a bracelet. Those that were charmed by the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation Collection of Fabergé, now at its new home at the Cheekwood Museum in Nashville, should also be delighted with the new collection, some of which has never been displayed publicly.

Furniture and More
Other facets of the Decorative Arts at the New Orleans Museum of Art include eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century American furniture; English ceramics, including the distinguished Irving Gerson Collection of Wedgwood, and the Geraldine Colby Zeiler Collection of Belleek porcelain; the H. Lloyd Hawkins, Jr. Collection of Meissen porcelain figures, the Elinor Bright Richardson collection of English silver, which features works by the great Paul Storr; and the Gross Collection of English silver covering works from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century. Museum publications are available through the Museum Shop on the Latter-Schlesinger Collection of portrait-miniatures, American art pottery, Paris porcelains, the Hayward Duchin Collection of Palissy wares, the Gerson Collection of Wedgwood, the Bright Richardson Collection of silver and Fabergé masterworks from the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation Collection.