Rookwood Ewer

Description:

About the Arts and Crafts Movement:

Beginning in England in the early 1880s, the Arts and Crafts movement spread across the United States and Europe by the late 1880s. It celebrated the importance of beauty in everyday objects and urged a reconnection to nearby nature. The movement resisted the way industrial mass production undermined artisan crafts and was inspired by the ideas of artisan William Morris and writer John Ruskin. Valuing hand-made objects using traditional materials, it was known for a color palette of earth tones. Its artistic principles replaced realistic, colorful, and three-dimensional designs with more abstract and simplified forms using subdued tones. Stylized plant forms and matte glazes echoed a shift to quiet restraint in household décor. The Arts and Crafts movement also embraced social ideals, including respect for skilled hand labor and concern for the quality of producers’ lives. The movement struggled with the tension between the cost of beautiful crafts and the limited number of households able to afford them. Some potters relied on practical products such as drain tiles to boost income or supported themselves with teaching or publications. Arts and Crafts influence extended to other endeavors, including furniture, such as Stickley’s Mission Style, and architecture, such as the Arts and Crafts bungalow, built widely across the United States. American Arts and Crafts pottery flourished between 1880 and the first World War, though several potteries continued in successful operation into the later 20^th^ century.

About Rookwood Pottery:

Rookwood is one of the most famous of the late nineteenth century art potteries, and it is the most extensively represented in the Smithsonian collection. Maria Longworth Nichols, its founder, began work as a china painter in 1873 and was part of the China Decorating Group in Cincinnati (see About Mary Louise McLaughlin). Inspired by French and Japanese pottery displayed in the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876, she began to learn ceramic techniques, and in 1880, her father offered her “an old schoolhouse” that became her working pottery. Her family continued financial support until her father’s death in 1883, when William Watts Taylor joined Rookwood Pottery as an administrator and partner, bringing a new business-oriented approach. Taylor expanded production and hired men decorators for the first time, though the majority of artists employed over the years were women. In 1884, artist Laura Frye innovated the application of underglaze slips using an atomizer, which allowed the subtle gradations of color that became a signature of Rookwood pottery and was adopted elsewhere. In 1889, Rookwood was awarded a Gold Medal at the Paris Exposition, “placing the enterprise at the forefront of the world’s potteries” (Evans 1987:257). In 1890, Maria Nichols, now married to Bellamy Storer, withdrew from the firm, leaving Taylor as director. The firm continued to grow, developed rich matte and bright glazes, and emphasized plant and floral designs. The company employed a Japanese artist, Kataro Shiryamadani, who produced many designs reflecting a Japanese aesthetic. Later subjects included portraits of native Americans and historical figures. The firm also introduced pottery with electro-deposited silver overlay designs.

Rookwood developed a matte glaze around 1900 to compete with the forest-green hues of the popular Grueby Faience Company. Unlike Grueby’s glaze, which appeared waxy and leafy, Rookwood’s interpretation often used pastel tones with a vellum-like finish. Rookwood’s earlier Standard Glaze (a deep mahogany brown color graduating into yellow) transitioned into a number of popular blue, green, and lavender glazes, following consumer trends. Rookwood’s prize-winning vellum glaze brought international recognition. Architectural tile production began in 1901, and examples can be seen in the New York subway stations. After 1915, production shifted to more mass-produced ware, “rich, heavy, and simple in color,” which allowed the pottery to survive through two World Wars and the Great Depression (Evans 1987:257). An astonishing “forty thousand glaze formulas were listed at the factory and more than five hundred glazes were in daily use” (Kovel and Kovel 1993:189). In 1956, the firm was moved to Mississippi and finally closed in 1967.

(Evans, Paul, 1987. Art Pottery of the United States. New York: Feingold and Lewis Publishing Corp.; Kovel, Ralph and Terry Kovel, 1993. Kovels’ American Art Pottery: The Collector’s Guide to Makers, Marks and Factory Histories. New York: Crown Publishers.)