Denver China and Pottery Vase

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 Denver China and Pottery:

William A. Long was one of the three founders of Lonhuda Pottery in Ohio in 1892 and organized the Denver China and Pottery Company in 1901, producing underglaze decorated brownware from native Colorado materials. The firm continued Lonhuda designs and in 1903 created Denaura, a new line featuring low-relief Art Nouveau flowers. Commonly fired in a matte green glaze made popular by Grueby, Denaura had a distinctive smooth satin texture. The company merged into Western Pottery Manufacturing Company in 1905, and Long relocated to Newark, New Jersey, where he established the Clifton Art Pottery. Denver China and Pottery continued successful production, and in 1920 its two large kilns provided employment for twenty workers.

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