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Silver plate butter dish, awarded to E.M. Gunn for the best watercolour painting at the Southern Counties Exhibition, 1885

Silver plate butter dish, awarded to E.M. Gunn for the best watercolour painting at the Southern Counties Exhibition, 1885

Date1885
Credit LineGift of Robert H. Stiefel, Grandson, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2021.
Object number2021.014.003
Label TextLondon artist Emily Gunn Fried (1862-1953) received this butter dish as an award for having submitted the best watercolour painting at the Southern Counties Exhibition in 1885. Emily Gunn attended Hellmuth Ladies College and the Western School of Art and Design. As well, she was an early member of the Western Art League, formed in 1887. She is listed among the attendees at the first recorded meeting on January 9, 1889. Her contemporaries include Mildred Peel, Mary Ella Dignam, Carolyn Farncombe, and Florence Carlyle. Gunn particularly excelled at china painting and won awards at the Western Fair where she even beat London’s famous son, Paul Peel. Gunn worked at Hellmuth Ladies College for several years as an assistant to J. R. Seavey. She taught china painting among other things. In the late 1800s, Gunn moved to California.
NameDish, Butter