The Blair Museum of Lithophanes

 The Schedel Arboretum & Gardens is proud to display and maintain the largest collection of lithophanes in the World - The Blair Collection. Originally donated by collector Laurel Blair to the City of Toledo in 1993, the collection was housed in Mr. Blair's Old West End Toledo home until his death. Starting in 2002, the collection was displayed in the Artist's Village at the Toledo Botanical Gardens. Unable to care for the collection any longer,  and pursuant to Mr. Blair's original donation agreement, the City of Toledo passed the collection to the Schedel Foundation as an organization capable of its care as successor donee in July 2020.
Picture
Fine carvings are made in wax and a die is then cast to which thin layers of porcelain are added. This image is of a lithophane with the porcelain in place. In its natural state, the lithophane looks like nothing more than a white plaster etching.
Picture
Once the image is backlit, amazing detail from the original carving pops out
to meet the viewer's eye. The photo at right is the same piece as above only with backlighting..