Rosemaling

Artist rosemaling a plate
Wisconsin Folk Museum Collection

Violet Christophersen of Marinette, Wisconsin created this piece, combining traditional Norwegian rosemaling motifs taken from published folios with Per Lysne's distinctly Norwegian-American plate form. The folk phrase on the plate reads, “The smorgasbord is now spread. Enjoy!”

This later Christophersen work displays similar decoration but now the message is in English.

Extending rosemaling a step further, an unknown maker decorated this bowling pin and thus combined two elements of twentieth-century Wisconsin culture.