Roseville 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 Roseville Pottery:

Roseville Pottery was incorporated in 1892 by George F. Young, general manager and later primary owner, and was named for its location in Roseville, Ohio. One of the fastest growing pottery companies at the turn of the century, it rapidly incorporated several other ceramic plants and consolidated production in Zanesville, Ohio, where it remained until it closed in 1954. Zanesville offered abundant clay sources nearby and reserves of natural gas for the kilns. By 1905, Roseville Pottery employed over 300 individuals and produced over 1000 finished pieces a day (Kovel and Kovel 1993:195). The first successful oxblood red ceramics in the United States were developed but not successfully marketed at Chelsea Keramic Art Works (Evans 1987:268). Roseville overcame these difficulties, including deep red as one of many successful glazes. Between 1904 and 1908, Frederick Hurten Rhead served as art director, and in 1904 the pottery received a first prize in the St. Louis Exposition. Roseville produced “a competing line for each new product produced by the Weller Pottery Company” (Kovel and Kovel 1993:194), and some its most successful lines imitated Rookwood’s and other art potteries’ glazes and designs. By 1915, Roseville had standardized high-volume stoneware production methods involving molds and assembly-line decorating and firing.

(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.)

About the Object:

Frank Ferrell, who took over the designs after Frederick Hurten Rhead left in 1909, was responsible for most of the floral and plant design lines produced by the company. This small pink-green vase is an example of the Ferrell’s penchant for botanical wares, which were responsible for the Roseville’s long-lived success. This vase was part of Roseville’s 1940 “White Rose” line, which combined showy white blooms and green leaves with textured two-tone bodies; the color combinations included blue-turquoise, pink-green, and green-brown. This vase, like all Roseville Pottery, was made from stoneware. Unlike earthenware, which is prone to chipping and crazing, stoneware’s non-porous body maintains a tighter chemical composition, ensuring its durability.

Currently not on view