Edward Marshall Boehm-a farmer, veterinarian, and nature lover living near New York City-was convinced by his wife and friends to translate some of his clay animal sculptures into pieces for possible sale to the gift and art markets. Boehm recognized that porcelain was the best medium for portraying his creations because of its trans- lucent beauty, permanence, and fidelity of color as well as form. But the finest of the porcelains, hard paste por- celain, was largely a secret art about which little techni- cal literature existed. Boehm studied this art relentlessly, absorbing whatever knowledge artbooks, museums, and the few U.S. ceramic factories offered. Then, after months of experimentation in a dingy Trenton, New Jersey, base- ment, Boehm and some chemist friends developed a porce- lain clay equal to the finest in the world.
Next Boehm had to master the complex art of porce- lain manufacture. Each piece of porcelain sculpture is a technical as well as artistic challenge. A 52-step process is required to convert a plasticine sculpture into a completed porcelain piece. For example, one major creation took 509 mold sections to make 151 parts, and consumed 8 tons of plaster in the molds. Sculptural detail included 60,000 individually carved feather barbs. Each creation had to be kiln-fired to 24008 where heat could change a graceful detail into a twisted mass. Then it had to be painted, often
in successive layers, and perhaps fired repeatedly to anneal delicate colors. No American had excelled in hard paste porcelains. And when Boehm's creations first appeared, no one understood the quality of the porcelain or even believed it was hard paste porcelain.
But Boehm began to create in porcelain what he knew and loved best-nature, particularly the more delicate forms of animals, birds, and flowers. In his art Boehm tried "to capture that special moment and setting which conveys the character, charm, and loveliness of a bird or animal in its natural habitat." After selling his early creations for sev- eral years during her lunch hours, his talented wife, Helen left an outstanding opthalmic marketing career to "peddle" Boehm's porcelains full time. Soon Mrs. Boehm's extraor- dinary merchandising skills, promotional touch, and sense for the art market began to pay off. People liked Boehm's horses and dogs, but bought his birds. And Boehm agree- ably complied, striving for ever greater perfection on ever more exotic and natural bird creations.
By 1968 some Boehm porcelains (especially birds) had become recognized as collector's items. An extremely complex piece like "Fondo Marino" might sell for $28,500 at retail, and might command much more upon resale. Edward Marshall Boehm, then 55-though flattered by his products' commercial success-considered his art primar- ily an expression of his love for nature. He felt the orni- thological importance of portraying vanishing species like
U.S. prairie chickens with fidelity and traveled to remote areas to bring back live samples of rare tropical birds for study and later rendering into porcelain. A single company, Minton China, was the exclusive distributor of Boehm products to some 175 retail outlets in the United States. Boehm's line included (1) its "Fledgling" series of smaller, somewhat simpler pieces, usually selling for less than
$100, (2) its profitable middle series of complex sculptures like the "Snowy Owl" selling from $800 to $5,000, and
(3) its special artistic pieces (like "Fondo Marino" or "Ivory Billed Woodpeckers") which might sell initially for over $20,000.
Individual Boehm porcelains were increasingly being recognized as outstanding artistic creations and sought by some sophisticated collectors. Production of such designs might be sold out for years in advance, but it was difficult to anticipate which pieces might achieve this distinction. Many of the company's past policies no longer seemed appropriate. And the Boehms wanted to further position the company for the long run. When asked what they wanted from the company, they would respond, "to make the world aware of Mr. Boehm's artistic talent, to help world wildlife causes by creating appreciation and protection for threat- ened species, and to build a continuing business that could make them comfortably wealthy, perhaps millionaires." No one goal had great precedence over the others.
BY CASE (EDWARD MARSHALL BOEHM, INC.) analysis
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