Maud Lashbrook, the China Painter, Her Story & Vanity Set

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Note, this is a multi-part blog post, this part will discuss Maud, her painting, some personal history and how Man and I came to own a vanity set she painted.  Part 2 of this series will be the transcription of an interview she gave in 1932, so interesting, packed full of history.  Part 3 will discuss our visit to the World Organization of China Painters, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

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Maud, nee McLaury, Lashbrook was a world class china painting artist. Not sure what that is? Neither was I till I started researching her and her art.

Maud was born August 15, 1875 in Troy, Lincoln County, Missouri to C. B. Laury and his wife, Virginia. She married Charles Clinton Lashbrook in 1898 in Kansas, possibly in Arkansas City, Cowley County, Kansas. Maud and Charles had 2 sons, Charles Arthur and Max Allen.

Maud started painting china, became accomplished, really accomplished, and prolific. She painted day in and day out, she sold china, she taught lessons, she wrote articles, she was a star. Maud painted well into her 90's. When she passed she was buried in the Greenlawn Abbey Mausoleum, Blackwell Cemetery, Blackwell, Kay County, Oklahoma with her parents, husband, both sons and her daughter-in-law.

Jump to late 2004, I have been researching the Lashbrook clan for several years, and had left trails all over the Internet, queries about Lashbrooks here and there, famous and not so famous. Then, I received an unexpected email from California, which read, something like: “I see you are interested in Lashbrooks, I have this painted china vanity set, signed on one piece, ‘Lashbrook’, would you be interested?”

WOULD I??? Well, of course, mmmm, sorta. Over the next few weeks, this wonderful gal, told me what she could about her vanity set, offered it to me, no $$, simply a gift, since I am so interested in the Lashbrook clan. I’ll have to say, at first, I refused this wonderful offer, but after a couple more weeks of contemplation, I decided to ask my benefactor if the offer still stood.  It did, she mailed me the vanity set.

My benefactor was not sure if the vanity set was indeed painted by Maud, so, I set about trying to find out. This was several years back, when the Internet was in a growth spurt, lots of organizations were jumping on. However, finding a specific organization was still hit or miss. I looked high and low, for some time, and still just could not find a china painting organization in Oklahoma City. I would try every few months, same results.

Then, kismet stepped in. One of my other interests, as many of you know, are yorkies. I was involved with an online group of others with the same interests. One afternoon, one of the gals mentioned that her mother was a china painter and a member of a china painting organization. I immediately wrote her, she gave me information that lead me to the World Organization of China Painters.

I contacted the organization, sent them photos of the vanity set and the signature, and I was pleased to hear back that yes, what I had was a Maud Lashbrook.

And, here it is:

Top left, ladies face powder bowl.
Top right, Maud's signature on bottom of bowl.
Bottom left, one of two vanity lights, that look
like vases, but are made as lamps.
Bottom right, one of the lamps
partially taken apart.

* My benefactor paid $5.00 for this vanity set some years ago, probably at a garage sale.  She used it for a while on a dresser.  Eventually the set found it's way into a storage shed, which my benefactor was cleaning out as she was moving to new and much smaller digs.  You might want to remember that price as you read the next installment of Maud Lashbrook, the China Painter.

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