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Pottery in the 20th Century Niloak Pottery - The Niloak Pottery was founded in Benton,
No matter what era or area you collect your pottery from, finding Arkansas, in 1909 by potter Charles Dean Hyten as the art pottery
those made in the time of our Founding Fathers always brings strong branch of the family’s Eagle Pottery Company, which produced utili-
historic references with it. But when reviewing the incredible makers of tarian wares. The name is the reverse spelling of the word “kaolin,” an
the 20th century—names that include Grueby, Marblehead, Roseville, important component of the local clay. Niloak became known for its
Pewabic, Weller, Fulper, and more, the exploration of pottery takes a “Mission Swirl,” a multicolored pattern resembling marbled paper
turn to a freer approach to design, decoration, and color with the made by mixing colored clays together. Niloak popularized the style,
century kicking off with both Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau. You can however, and apart from a three-year hiatus in the late 1910s, Niloak
learn and see more when you search for “pottery” at the Journal of was successful until the Great Depression put sales into a slump. It
Antiques and Collectibles website, here. The arrival of the American struggled for some years and went out of business in 1947.
Art Pottery movement takes these wares into a whole new world of
form without too much function, but became all about form and beauty. Paul Revere Pottery - The Paul
Revere Pottery was founded in Boston in
1908 by Helen Storrow, Edith Guerrier, and
Notable Makers of American Art Pottery Edith Brown to provide employment and
skills to young women. It grew in part out of
A Wiki(pedia) Walk through the American Art Pottery Movement a reading group formed by Guerrier, the

Saturday Evening Girls club, and it was
Dedham Pottery - The Dedham Pottery, which operated in managed entirely by the club members. For
Dedham, Massachusetts, between 1896 and 1943, was founded by this reason, the Paul Revere Pottery is some-
Saturday Evening Girls /
ceramicist Hugh C. Robertson, who had previously worked with his times referred to as the Saturday Girls. It last- Paul Revere Pottery rabbit
father and brothers at another pottery. Robertson was deeply interested ed up to World War I. The pottery produced band plate decorated with
in glazes, and he developed both an oxblood glaze (inspired by the vessels with floral and animal motifs in a highly a white rabbit and cab-
Chinese glaze) and a fine crackle glaze, the latter of which became simplified graphic style, with matte or low- bage border designed
Dedham’s signature, along with its frequent use of a crouching luster glazes predominantly in tones of green, against a yellow band.
rabbit motif. blue, ochre, and brown.

Dryden Pottery - Dryden Pottery was founded in Ellsworth, Rookwood Pottery Company - The Rookwood Pottery
Kansas in 1946 by Alan James Dryden Jr. There he developed a Company was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1880 by Maria
Volcanic Ash Glaze, and he created a popular pottery business with the Longworth Nichols Storer, who was influenced by Japanese and French
imaginative slogan, “A Melody in Glaze.” Dryden made ceramics that ceramics. Rookwood was known for experimenting with glazes and for
were considered art pottery, but also advertising materials and tourist the exceptionally high quality of the painted and incised work. The
wares. The company’s signature piece is a Grecian pitcher (still being company was badly affected by the Great Depression and declared
produced today), the mold form was sold to Van Briggle along with a bankruptcy in 1941. It reopened in 1959 in Mississippi and struggled
Black Volcanic Ash glaze he developed, to supplement the company’s through various ownerships for several decades. In the early 2000s, it
move to Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1956. It is now a third-generation, moved back to Cincinnati, where it now operates.
original family operated.
Roseville Pottery - The Roseville
Grueby Faience Company - Pottery was founded in Roseville, Ohio, in
Founded in Revere, Massachusetts in 1894, 1890 and moved to Zanesville eight years
the Grueby Faience Company produced later. It began by making housewares and only
vases and glazed architectural terra cotta and began making art pottery around 1900.
faience tiles. Grueby vases were notable for Frederick Rhead was Roseville’s art director
their simple shapes and a hallmark matte for five years (1904-09). Many Roseville pots
cucumber-green glaze. New York City’s carry floral decoration, frequently in low relief.
Astor Place subway stop is decorated with Roseville ceased producing original art pottery
large Grueby tiles featuring a beaver, in in 1953.
honor of the fact that John Jacob Astor’s for-
tune derived from trade in beaver pelts. The Teco Pottery - The Teco Pottery was
company ran into financial difficulties in the 1931 Roseville Pottery founded in Terra Cotta, Illinois, in 1899 by
The Grueby Faience early 1900s and went out of business in 1920. vase, Red Ferella, William Day Gates, as a specialty branch of
Company, founded in small, handled, his American Terra Cotta Tile and Ceramic
1894, was an American #500-5 Company, which made architectural terra
ceramics company that Marblehead Pottery - The
produced distinctive Marblehead Pottery was founded in cotta items like drain tiles and chimney tops.
American art pottery Marblehead, Massachusetts in 1904 as a Gates’s experiments with glazes and forms led him to found Teco (an
during the Arts & Crafts therapeutic program by a doctor, Herbert acronym for Terra Cotta) to create art pottery, especially vases. Teco
movement. This seven- Hall, and taken over the following year by became known for its distinctive architecturally styled wares with little
handled glazed earthenware Arthur Eugene Baggs. The pottery’s vessels to no surface decoration and for a medium-green matte glaze. Gates’s
vase was designed by are notable for simple forms and muted ceramics business closed as a result of the stock market crash of 1929
George Prentiss Kendrick, and the ensuing Great Depression, taking Teco Pottery down with it.
glazes in tones ranging from earth colors to
ca. 1898. photo: Sotheby’s
yellow-greens and gray-blues. It closed in 1936.
Van Briggle Pottery - The Van Briggle Pottery was
Newcomb Pottery - The Newcomb Pottery, also known as the founded in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1901 by Artus
Newcomb College Pottery, was located at H. Sophie Newcomb and Anne Van Briggle. The pottery favored the Art
Memorial College in New Orleans, Louisiana, between 1895 and 1940. Nouveau style. It is still operating today, making it
Vessels of various types were produced for the pottery by the college’s the oldest continuously operating art pottery in
students, who were all women. Typically these were vases with floral the United States.
decorations in a strongly Art Nouveau style, often incised as well as
painted and glazed. An antique Van Briggle Arts & Crafts sculptural art
pottery dresser pin or ring tray, depicts a young American
Indian girl grinding corn, signed on base, 20th century
34 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles