American art pottery
American art pottery (sometimes capitalized) refers to aesthetically distinctive hand-made ceramics in earthenware and stoneware from the period 1870-1950s.
Ranging from tall vases to tiles, the work features original designs, simplified shapes, and experimental glazes and painting techniques.
Most of the potteries were forced out of business by the economic pressures of competition from commercial mass-production companies as well as the advent of World War I followed a decade later by the Great Depression.
[1] The American art pottery movement is a development from a tradition of individual potters making utilitarian earthenware and stoneware vessels for local use that dates back to the Colonial period.
Some pieces have three-dimensional features, such as designs that are incised into the surface rather than painted on top, or raised elements like slip-trailed patterns or low-relief sculptures.
[2][1] While many of the key figures in the movement founded or were affiliated with specific potteries, a few remained essentially independent throughout their careers.
Notable in this group are John Bennett, who worked in New York and New Jersey, and Adelaïde Alsop Robineau, whose Scarab Vase is considered one of the finest examples of American art pottery.
[3] Also operating "independently" was the vast factory of Edwin Bennett in Baltimore which periodically produced fine examples of art pottery, although the overall focus of the business was industrial.
Many Cleveland School artists worked there at one time or another, including Arthur Eugene Baggs (founder of the Marblehead Pottery) and ceramics sculptor Waylande Gregory.
It grew into a large factory production and was sold all over the U.S. Sheer dedication has sustained the Dryden Pottery through the boom and bust cycles that affect any industry.
JKDryden and Zack Dryden are currently producing many experimental one-of-a-kind Art Pottery pieces, thrown and molded wares, and utilizing the signature developed glazes and application techniques.
The pottery's vessels are notable for simple forms and muted glazes in tones ranging from earth colors to yellow-greens and gray-blues.
Typically these were vases with floral decorations in a strongly Art Nouveau style, often incised as well as painted and glazed.
Niloak became known for its "Mission Swirl," a multicolored pattern resembling marbled paper made by mixing colored clays together.
The pottery produced vessels with floral and animal motifs in a highly simplified graphic style, with matte or low-luster glazes predominantly in tones of green, blue, ochre, and brown.
[14] Pewabic Pottery was founded in Detroit in 1903 by Mary Chase Perry Stratton and Horace James Caulkins.
The pair began the company by creating objects for everyday use that also utilized interesting glazes, which Perry Stratton developed.
The Rookwood Pottery Company was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1880 by Maria Longworth Nichols Storer, who was influenced by Japanese and French ceramics.
Gates's experiments with glazes and forms led him to found Teco (an acronym for TErra COtta) to create art pottery, especially vases.
Gates's ceramics business closed as a result of the stock market crash of 1929 and ensuing Great Depression, taking Teco Pottery down with it.
