Porcelain Perfection: Ann Marie Murray's Delicate Designs

There’s an immediate feeling of timeless elegance when looking at hand-painted porcelain. Whether dishes set for a dinner party, gorgeous trays used to display food or drinks, a teacup for toasting at high tea, or a gift for a special occasion, these durable pieces not only have modern beauty but a nostalgic charm to them.

Upper Makefield Township resident Ann Marie Murray is a master at creating these beautiful works. Forty years since founding her own porcelain business, Ann Marie Murray LLC, she continues to produce high-quality ceramics with a sense of grace.

Artistry Defined

Born in Brooklyn, Murray attended Hunter College and completed her graduate work in political science. After marrying a man from Trenton, they settled in Bucks County, where she started her career as a teacher. She had a daughter and was a stay-at-home mom for a few years, but when she wanted to return to teaching, there were no full-time jobs available in her district. She decided to try a different career path—in the porcelain industry.

“My mother had been an antique dealer, and I sat at auctions when I was a little girl,” Murray says. “I loved antiques and I liked porcelain a lot; that’s what drew me to it.”

She first worked in sales at a porcelain manufacturing company in Trenton called Edward Marshall Boehm. Shortly after, she took a different job running the gift and china department at Philadelphia’s high-end jewelry and gift store J.E. Caldwell & Co. Murray worked there for 10 years.

“I always had a good eye and enjoyed interacting and selling to people,” she says. “Then, someone who worked with me said their family, who were prosperous in the Trenton ball-bearing industry, wanted to invest in small businesses, and thought I could be successful running a porcelain company. I did a six-month sweat equity, where they put the money up and I went to France to visit the factories in Limoges, found the porcelain blanks, hired a local china painter, and made six dinner plate samples to sell to clients.”

One of Murray’s first in-person sales calls was to Tiffany & Co. in New York City, where she shared her samples. The buyers were very impressed with the porcelain designs and quality to the point that they wanted to buy the whole business. Once they discovered she didn’t have a large-scale factory yet, they connected her with industry people to help grow her business. Another recommendation was to set up a booth at a New York City trade show, and that first year, Murray sold her entire $6,000 worth of inventory.

A Durable Business

When Murray’s trial period was over, her investors ended the partnership. In 1986, she decided to continue in the industry on her own by starting Ann Marie Murray LLC. She grew her client base and sales by going to four trade shows a year and hiring additional china artists. Today, she employs local china painters who have their own kilns at home.

Although trends in china have changed over the years, Murray’s company continues to thrive. It specializes in producing bespoke porcelain pieces. She works closely with clients on their vision and conceives many of the designs herself.

“I have a list of a thousand or so customers, including many high-end gift stores, in addition to online orders,” she says. “We’re not entertaining at home like we used to, so my business stopped making dinnerware a few years ago. We now do a lot of giftware for milestone occasions like weddings, babies, and religious celebrations, to name a few. People like to order small, round, pierced items or rectangular trays.”

The company has created some standout pieces, including ornaments for U.S. Congress and items for The Garden Club of America. Some of the most popular designs feature butterflies, ladybugs, and bees.

Murray says creating each handcrafted piece is an intricate process. “Porcelain is a finer grain and fired at higher temperatures than faience, which is what you see in pottery places,” she explains. “When painting on porcelain, you’re painting over a clear glaze and with natural elements that have been ground up and mixed with oils. My painters use fine brushes that have as little as three or four boar’s hair bristles. It’s painstaking to do, but I have great people who work for me.”

A Dream Come True

When walking through Murray’s Upper Makefield home, hundreds of her porcelain pieces are on display as well as her mother’s antique collections. But what makes her 250-year-old home even more unique is its fascinating history.

According to Murray’s research, the land was purchased by the London Company in 1699 and then owned by the Smith Family. It was recorded that Mahlon Doan of the notorious Loyalist Doan family had a one-room stone-and-log house on this site around 1794.

After changing hands a few times, the structure was expanded into a two- or three-room tavern to serve stagecoach riders on Riverside Road (now River Road) in 1820. Then in 1827, entrepreneur Stacy Brown purchased the structure and much of the surrounding area and ran the property as the Brownsburg Tavern.

When Murray bought the home 25 years ago, it took her a year to restore and renovate it to its historic splendor. “It was exactly what I wanted in an old house,” she says. “It has a great slate roof, five original fireplaces, and most of the floors are all hundreds of years old. Living here in Upper Makefield Township is so pretty, and you’re near the river. I can’t think of a better place to live. And I have some of the nicest people who live around me. This is a dream come true. It’s such a fun house to entertain in. I’m so lucky.”

Murray wraps and packages all her porcelain orders from a workspace addition she added onto her home. Some of her best accounts are high-end gift stores like F. Gerald New in Morristown, New Jersey; Hoagland’s in Greenwich, Connecticut; and A Mano in Washington, D.C. Locally, she plans to hold her annual sample sale at her home on April 17 and 18.

Murray says she’s been very lucky with her business. “I have lovely customers, and I deal with gifts for lovely occasions,” she says. “A woman called me recently and wanted an engagement ring design in a small, round, pierced bonbon dish. I told her which store she could buy from closest to her home, and she said, ‘I’ve bought your things for years. Everybody who gets engaged in my family gets one of your engagement ring pieces.’ It makes me happy that we are able to still do that and be a part of someone’s tradition.”

Dari Kotzker resides in Bucks County with her husband and four kids. She has worked as a reporter in television news and print media since 2001.

Photograph by Jennifer Janikic Photography