Elmore arboretum gets world’s largest lithophane collection
ELMORE — Schedel Arboretum and Gardens’ 19th century manor house will soon become a showcase for the famous Blair Museum of Lithophanes collection, with all 2,300 pieces to be moved from Toledo to Elmore.
Lithophane is a European decorative art form dating to the early- and mid-19th century in which images are carved into wax with thin porcelain added. When the porcelain is backlighted, the lights and darks in the carving are seen in detail and give the pieces a three-dimensional look.
Rod Noble, executive director of Schedel Arboretum and Gardens, said Toledo’s city council approved the transfer of ownership in trust of the largest collection of lithophanes in the world.
“Hopefully, by the middle of September, they should be ready for display,” Noble said Wednesday.
According to a Schedel news release, Laurel Blair of Toledo assembled the collection of some 2,300 pieces over many years.
Founded in 1965, the museum was originally located in Blair’s home in Toledo’s Old West End neighborhood.
In 1993, Blair reached an agreement with the city to take ownership of the collection.
Since 2002, the collection has been housed in a 1,500-square-foot building in the Artist’s Village at Toledo Botanical Garden.
In 2018, the city transferred ownership and control of the Toledo Botanical Garden to the Toledo Area Metroparks.
Last year, Metroparks notified the Friends of the Blair Museum, a nonprofit group that supports the collection, that the building was being planned for an alternative use and that the space needed to be vacated by Sept. 1, 2020.
The 1993 agreement between Blair and the city expressly prohibited the sale of the collection but did allow for its donation to an entity capable of caring for it in the event the city was no longer able to do so.
Those same provisions are included in the agreement between Toledo and Schedel Gardens.
Noble is also the executive director of the Joseph and Marie Schedel Foundation, the nonprofit foundation accepting the donation of the collection.
The collection will be open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (8 p.m. on Thursday) and noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays from April 1 through Oct. 31.
Noble said the museum was open only four hours on Saturday and Sunday
from May through October at the Toledo Botanical Garden.
“We’re going to be open four times that much,” Noble said.
Noble said the Toledo site drew about 18,000 visitors annually to view the liphophanes.
Julia Labay Darrah will continue in her role as the museum’s curator and director after the move to Schedel.
The Friends of the Blair and Schedel announced that current members of the Friends of the Blair will automatically have their memberships transferred to Schedel.
The 17-acre Schedel garden estate, at 19255 W. Portage River Road South in Elmore, opened in 1991 with more than 15,000 annual and perennial flower beds, Yoshino Cherry Trees, and an 1800s Manor House that contains archaic bronze, antique jade pieces, and oriental and Persian rugs.