Lenox sells tabletop, giftware and collectible products sold under the Lenox, Dansk and Gorham brands. The company sells its products through wholesale customers who operate gift, specialty and department store locations throughout the United States, Canada and other countries, as well as through company-operated retail stores and direct-to-consumer channels. Lenox remains the only major manufacturer of bone china

Bone china

Bone china is a type of soft-paste porcelain that is composed of bone ash, feldspathic material and kaolin. It has been defined as ware with a translucent body containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from animal bone and calculated calcium phosphate...

 based in the United States.

History

Lenox was founded in 1889 by Walter Scott Lenox

Walter Scott Lenox

Walter Scott Lenox was the American businessman who established Lenox china, supplying the first complete American-made bone china table service for Woodrow Wilson's White House.-Biography:...

 as Lenox's Ceramic Art Company, Trenton, New Jersey

Trenton, New Jersey

Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...

. From the start it was organized as an art studio and not as a factory. It did not have full lines of ceramics but rather one-of-a-kind artwares. The company at first had just eighteen employees. Their products were carried in shops specializing in high-quality pottery. Lenox's products were first displayed at The Smithsonian Institution in 1897.

Lenox's products became popular in the early 20th century when separate dining rooms and hostess parties became the new trend. Lenox then started making custom-designed, elaborately decorated dining plates. He faced European competition but commissioned famous American artists such as William Morley to decorate his plates. He gained success at this and eventually turned his attention to complete sets of dinnerware. In 1906 he changed his firm's name from the Ceramic Art Company to Lenox Incorporated to show the widing scope of his products.
Two of the first patterns Lenox produced were introduced in 1917, the Ming and Mandarin, which were eventually manufactured for over fifty years. Lenox products also became well known in the US thanks to Frank Graham Holmes, chief designer from 1905 to 1954, who won several artistic awards such as the 1927 Craftsmanship Medal of the American Institute of Architects and the 1943 silver medal of the American Designers Institute. Lenox pieces were chosen for display in 1928 by the National Museum of Ceramics in Sèvres

Sèvres

Sèvres is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.The town is known for its porcelain manufacture, the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, making the famous Sèvres porcelain, as well as being the location of the International Bureau of Weights...

, France - the only American porcelain to receive this honour.

In the 1950s Lenox offered five-piece complete place settings, three-piece-buffet/place settings and individual tableware pieces. Its products was now within reach of the average US family. Lenox was the first company to develop a bridal registry

Bridal registry

A bridal registry is a service provided by a website or retail store to assist engaged couples in the communication of gift preferences to wedding guests. Selecting items from store stock, the couple lists desired items and files this list with the chosen merchant. The list is then made available...

.

In 1983, Lenox was acquired by Brown-Forman Corporation

Brown-Forman Corporation

The Brown-Forman Corporation is one of the largest American-owned companies in the spirits and wine business.Some well-known brands of the corporation include Jack Daniel's, Southern Comfort, Finlandia Vodka, Woodford Reserve Bourbon, Canadian Mist, Early Times, Old Forester, and Korbel champagne.-...

. Brown-Forman acquired Dansk International Designs

Dansk International Designs

Dansk Designs was an American distributor and retailer of cookware, tableware, and other home accessories based in Mount Kisco, New York...

 and its Gorham Manufacturing Company

Gorham Manufacturing Company

The Gorham Manufacturing Company is an American manufacturer of sterling and silverplate.-History:Gorham Silver was founded in Providence, Rhode Island 1831 by Jabez Gorham, a master craftsman, in partnership with Henry L. Webster. The firm's chief product was spoons of coin silver. The company...

 division in 1991, which were incorporated as part of Lenox.

American by Design

On March 16, 2009, a group of investors led by Clarion Capital Partners LLC purchased the assets of Lenox and renamed the company Lenox Corporation. A key strategy of the new Lenox is focused on the American heritage of the Lenox brand. Lenox continues some manufacture of bone china dinnerware in its plant in Kinston, North Carolina, built in 1989. The 218000 square feet (20,252.9 m²) plant is situated on 40 acres (161,874.4 m²). Its manufacturing capabilities include enamel dot, etch, color and microwave metals. It was also this plant that manufactured the Bush White House bone china. The company markets its products under the Lenox, Dansk and Gorham brands.

Presidential collection

Lenox was the first North American bone china to be used in the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

, and the company has since made tableware for six U.S. presidents. They are officially titled:

• The Wilson
  Woodrow Wilson
  Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
  
   Service: Designed by Frank Holmes. Delivered to the White House between August and November 1918. The pattern is a deep ivory border surrounding a brighter ivory body and two bands of matte gold encrusted with stars, stripes, and other motifs. This first set of American made tableware of 1700-pieces from Lenox cost $16,000.
• The Roosevelt Service: Ordered October 1934. It is described as suitably patriotic, bearing a border of 48 gold stars, and the presidential seal in enamel colors on a lustrous ivory body.
• The Truman Service: Consisting of 1,572 pieces, the pattern includes a border of celadon green flanked by an etched gold band and a 24 karat gold rim on an ivory body. Delivered in early 1952.
• The Reagan
  Ronald Reagan
  Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
  
   Service: The pattern are bands of scarlet varying in width depending on the scale of the piece and are framed on each side with etched gold. The presidential seal
  Seal of the President of the United States
  The Seal of the President of the United States is used to mark correspondence from the U.S. president to the United States Congress, and is also used as a symbol of the presidency. The central design, based on the Great Seal of the United States, is the official coat of arms of the U.S...
  
  , in raised gold, partially overlays the red border.
• The Clinton
  Bill Clinton
  William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
  
   Service: The pattern features a border of pale creamy yellow, and images of the White House facades. Each piece in the place setting is decorated with a different pattern, the motifs derived from outstanding architectural elements found in the State Dining Room, East Room, and Diplomatic Reception Room. No presidential seal appears.
• The Bush
  George W. Bush
  George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
  
   Service: Laura Bush first displayed this newest service on January 7, 2009. The porcelain place setting service features a green basket weave border based on a French dinner service believed to have been owned by James and Dolley Madison. The dessert plates replicate a laurel wreath found on the Madison's Parisian c.1799-1805 dinner plates. The serving plates and the rim of other pieces also feature an eagle emblem inspired by an American Bald Eagle inlay found on the center drawer of the Massachusetts sideboard, believed to have been owned by Daniel Webster.

Lenox tableware is at the vice president's official residence, more than 300 United States embassies, and more than half of the governors' mansions. Dignitaries of the United States Congress and Department of State have received Lenox giftware. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

 and Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

 have as centerpieces in exhibitions of American decorative arts Lenox pottery. The Lenox backstamp is on about half of all fine porcelain dinnerware purchased since the 1950s in America. Beside collectibles, Lenox also produces flatware, serving pieces, vase

Vase

The vase is an open container, often used to hold cut flowers. It can be made from a number of materials including ceramics and glass. The vase is often decorated and thus used to extend the beauty of its contents....

s and Department 56

Department 56

Department 56 is a manufacturer of holiday collectibles, ornaments and giftware, known for their lit Christmas village collections and their Snowbabies collection. It is owned by Enesco.-History:...

items.

Books

• Klapthor, Margaret Bown. White House China: 1789 to the Present. The Barra Foundation and Harry N. Abrams: 1999. ISBN 0-8109-3993-2.

External links

• Lenox website Official homepage