Showing posts with label glaze. Show all posts
Showing posts with label glaze. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Affordable Italian Majolica

 

QUESTION: Recently, I’ve fallen in love with Italian majolica pottery. While some consider it garish, I find the colorful motifs uplifting. The prices I’ve seen for it online seem to be all over the place. But there are some lovely pieces available for around $50. Is this a good item to collect? The styles also seem quite varied. Can you tell me more about its history and about some of the styles?

ANSWER: Compared to English majolica, the Italian versions, for the most part, are still relatively low in price, so therefore, affordable. And as with any other antique or collectible, you should collect what you like, regardless of what other people think. Italian majolica of one sort or another is still being produced from Tuscany in the north to Sicily in the south. 

Even though the English Victorians displayed the bright colors and fanciful shapes of majolica pottery to give the appearance of wealth, no one made majolica like the Italians.  

So what exactly is majolica ware? Majolica is a soft and porous earthenware with molded designs that artists hand decorate in brilliant colors. It has a thick coat of clear metallic glaze made up of metallic oxides added to clear lead sulfates which produces its vivid colors.

This type of pottery originated over 2,000 years ago in North Africa, where potters introduced the technique of adding an opaque tin glaze to baked clay. During the 8th century, when the Moors joined together to conquer Spain, they brought the secrets of majolica with them.

During the Renaissance, Spaniards exported their version of tin-glazed pottery to Italy from Majorca, an island shipping port in the Mediterranean. The Italians called the colorful pottery “majolica,” as this was how they spelled the Spanish island's name.

From the late 13th century, potters in central Italy, especially in and around Florence, refined production of tin-glazed earthenware. But it wasn’t until the 15th-century that potters began to appreciate the full artistic potential of majolica. Famous 15th-century sculptor Luca della Robbia wanted to add color to his creations, and the new material was perfect. He and his family became renowned for creating large wreaths of naturalistic majolica fruit. The success of their wares encouraged the production of majolica in both Arezzo and Siena.

But by the second half of the 15th century, Florence had lost its pre-eminence as a center of majolica production, and its manufacture scattered out among small communes..

Potters from Montelupo set up the potteries at Cafaggiolo. In 1490, twenty-three master potters of Montelupo agreed to sell the year's production to Francesco Antinori of Florence. Montelupo provided the experienced potters who the Medici family set up in 1495 at the Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo.

In the 16th century, potters began to produce majolica at Castel Durante, Urbino, Gubbio, and Pesaro. The early 16th century witnessed the development of istoriato wares on which artists painted historical and mythical scenes in great detail. And by the end of the 16th century, potters in Venice, Padua, and Turin and as far south as  Palermo and Caltagirone in Sicily began producing majolica.

The variety of majolica styles that arose in the 16th century defies classification. Dozens of styles emerged with even more sub-groups, each with its own shapes and decorative motifs. Italian city states encouraged the pottery industry by offering tax relief, citizenship, monopoly rights, and protection from outside imports.

Cipriano Piccolpasso compiled an important mid-16th century document that discussed  the techniques of majolica painting. He noted the work of individual 16th-century masters like Nicola da Urbino, Francesco Xanto Avelli, Guido Durantino and Orazio Fontana of Urbino, Mastro Giorgio of Gubbio and Maestro Domenigo of Venice.

During the 18th century, majolica wares came under increasing competition from porcelain manufacturers. To  face this competition, majolica potters introduced the process of third firing, called  piccolo fuoco in the mid-18th century. After the traditional two firings at 1750°F, potters painted the vitrified glaze with colors that would have degraded at such high temperatures, then fired the pieces a third time at a lower temperature, about 1100 to 1200°F. Potters introduced new vibrant colors, particularly red and various shades of pink obtained from gold chloride. 

Historians believe that one of the first to introduce this technique in Italy was Ferretti in Lodi, in northern Italy. Lodi majolica had already reached high quality in the second quarter of the 18th century. With the introduction of the third firing technique and increasing interest in botany and scientific observation, potters developed a refined production of majolica decorated with naturalistic flowers.

The Ginori family founded a factory to produce majolica in Milan in 1735. The company's head chemist, Giusto Giusti, began experimenting with traditional majolica techniques in the 1840s, and the company began producing outstanding examples of Victorian majolica in the 1850s.

Ginori made monumental display vases and wall plaques to decorate the halls and stairwells of middle class Victorian homes. The company's 's specialty was its “grotesque” decoration. Taken from ancient Roman art, the bizarre creatures were a combination of animal, human and plant forms. Ginori was a very successful majolica producer and enjoyed royal patronage. Most majolica items made by the firm are marked with a crown above the word "GINORI. ".

Ulisse Cantagalli of Florence was another large producer of 19th-century Italian majolica. From the 1870s until 1901, Cantagalli produced a tremendous amount of majolica to be sold at moderate prices. A company catalog dated 1895 lists almost 1,100 majolica pieces. Catagalli's early wares were replicas of the reliefs by della Robbia. His luster glazes showed a strong Spanish-Moorish influence. The company’s pieces bear the mark "CANTAGAL FIRENCE" and an encircled rooster seal.

Production of Italian majolica wares continues today, mainly in reproductions of the historical style. Contemporary majolica looks different from old majolica because its glaze is usually made more opaque with cheaper zircon rather than tin. However, some potteries specialize in making authentic looking Renaissance-style pieces with genuine tin glaze.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Advertising of the Past" in the 2023 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Thursday, December 30, 2021

Be There or Be Square

 

QUESTIONS: I really like the look of Mid-Century Modern design. I’ve started to gather furniture and accessories to decorate my apartment. I’ve been looking for a distinctive set of dishes to use in my kitchen. Can you recommend any?

ANSWERS: Yes, I can. While not many people are familiar with this, I recommend dinnerware from the Blair Ceramics of Ozark, Missouri. While often similar in price to its modern day counterpart, the 1950s dinnerware is superior in that it is often hand-painted and decorated. No two pieces are exactly alike 

Originally from Mount Vernon, Ohio, William Blair graduated from the Cleveland School of Art, after which he studied art and traveled throughout Europe. After returning to Ohio, he painted children’s portraits for a year before he apprenticed in ceramics for a pottery in Mount Vernon. His sister, Dorothy, and her husband, Bernard Purinton, opened the Purinton Pottery Company in 1936. Blair went to work for them painting decorations on their pieces. In 1941, Bernard and Dorothy moved their pottery to Shippenville, Pennsylvania.

Blair directed his artistic talent toward the production of pottery and was instrumental in the design of Purinton's characteristic handpainted wares. While there, Blair designed several of the most recognizable patterns including Apple which was the most popular while the factory was in operation. He also created the off-round shapes of the dinnerware lines with the Heather Plaid and Normandy Plaid motifs.

Blair believed that the design of American dinnerware needed to be overhauled. So he left Purinton and sought the help of his nephew Bart Higgins, who blueprinted molds while Blair worked on the designs. When they were ready, they traveled to the Springfield area and began searching for a building to convert to a factory. In Ozark, they found the old Fray Johnson Ford auto agency building, located just north of the Ozark square,  which was just the right size. For a year, they worked to convert it into a ceramic factory. They bought a $15,000 kiln from West Virginia and installed it into their factory. By 1946, they were hiring local workers and training them  to work in mixing, molding, glazing, painting, and kiln rooms. Each piece had to be painted by hand. 

By 1949, the company employed 32 workers, who produced as many as 3,600 pieces per week during peak production times. The firm shipped dinnerware to all 48 states, Hawaii, Cuba and Canada, to be sold by such retail outlets as Neiman Marcus and Marshall Field's department stores.

Blair Ceramics produced several lines of dinnerware, most with innovative square-shaped plates and platters. Blair frequently voiced objections to round plates and dinnerware while employed  by the Purinton Pottery. At his own company, Blair had the opportunity to produce what he considered more pleasing and appropriately shaped dinnerware. These distinctive pieces are also characterized by unique twisted handles and leaf-shaped knobs on the lids of serving pieces.

Blair had all his pieces hand-painted and marked most of them with an underglaze backstamp "Blair decorated by hand" The firm’s most popular pattern was Gay Plaid which it distributed and made continuously during its operation. This design featured horizontal forest green stripes and chartreuse and brown vertical stripes. Also produced were Rick-Rack with yellow stripes and brown zigzag bands; Yellow Plaid, similar to Gay Plaid except the predominant color is yellow; Bamboo, an ornately decorated design with multicolored leaves and bamboo in brown; and Autumn Leaf, consisting of a three deaf pattern in several shades.

The era of Blair Pottery came to and end in the Mid-50’s when lightening struck the factory building in Ozark and the resulting fire burned it to the ground. Bill Blair, who had overseen the operation each day, was weary of being tied to the business, and chose not to rebuild.

Prices for Blair dinnerware are still reasonable. For example. a coffee server sells for approximately $45; a five-piece place setting, $35; a creamer and sugar or 14-inch platter, $20; a stick-handled gravy bowl, $18; and ice-lip jug, $25. Prices for most patterns are approximately the same for comparable pieces.

While dinnerware produced in the 1940s-1950s was out of favor with the public for many years, recently it has been rediscovered by savvy collectors who see a certain charm in the quirky designs. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the "Antiques of Christmas" in the 2021 Holiday Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.


Thursday, November 5, 2020

The Origin of American Studio Pottery

 


QUESTION: I’ve always loved handmade pottery. And looking back over history, it seems to have existed since ancient times. Recently, a friend told me that Charles Binns was the father of American studio pottery. Exactly what does that mean? Isn’t all handmade pottery made in a studio?

ANSWER: While pottery, itself, has existed for eons, what’s referred to as “studio pottery” is a relatively recent phenomenon, dating to the very late 19th century and early 20th. 

Although now nearly forgotten, Charles Fergus Binns, a studio potter and instructor, enjoyed a national reputation during the early years of the 20th century for his classic stoneware pots. Binns' made many of his legendary stoneware vases, bottles, bowls and jars during the height of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the U.S.

Born in England in 1857, Binns left school at age 14 to become an apprentice at the Royal Worcester Porcelain Works, where his father was a co-managing director. Eventually, he occupied an administrative position at the Royal Worcester factory and  became a recognized scholar and lecturer concerning world ceramics. In Paris, in 1878, he exhibited his early experiments with clay bodies and glazes. Binns accompanied the Royal Worcester exhibit of 1,400 pieces to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and made the United States his home in 1897. 


Binns's ceramic technique focused on his pots as utilitarian objects. His work included vases, urns, and bowls. He threw each piece in three forms on a wheel, turning them on a lathe and piecing them together afterwards. One of the concepts Binns taught was “dead ground,” in which the parts of making pottery that couldn’t be precisely controlled, such as firing temperature or glaze calculations, were mitigated by control over glaze placement.

In 1899, Binns helped found the American Ceramics Society. His role in this organization led to the directorship of the newly formed ceramics department of Alfred University, the first United States college to combine programs in ceramic art and science. In the years that followed, Binns shared once-secret clay recipes and glaze formulas with his students, including Arthur Eugene Baggs, William Victor Bragdon, R. Guy Cowan, Maija Grotell and Elizabeth Overbeck, who were largely responsible for fostering the idea of the artist-potter in America.  

Binns is commonly referred to as the "father of American studio ceramics." This title reflects not only his creation of unique stoneware pots in the Arts & Crafts style, but additionally acknowledges his accomplishment of bringing vital information about ceramic clay bodies and glaze recipes to ordinary people, thus laying the foundation of the flourishing studio ceramics movement in the United States that began in the early 1900's.

In 1900, New York Governor Teddy Roosevelt signed a bill establishing the New York State School of Clay-Working and Ceramics—now the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Appointed as the founding director at that time, Binns held the position for over 30 years until his retirement in 1931, during which time he became known for his classic pots with rich monochrome glazes.

Before Binns' arrival at Alfred University, it was customary for one
person to throw art pottery on the wheel and another person to glaze or decorate surfaces mar reflected his respect for the natural materials he used. He admired Oriental forms and glazes. and sometimes signed his pieces by putting his initials, “CFB" inside a circle closely resembling Chinese marks. His signed pieces ;following Asian tradition, Include his initials along with the year in which he made them.

Binns' work was widely exhibited during his lifetime, including his earliest documented stoneware vase, signed and dated 1905, and his final creation, a fragile bisque vase that he

signed and dated 1934, which he left unglazed and unfired at the time of his death. A memorial exhibition Of Binns’ works drew admiring crowds at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1935.

American studio ceramics really began with Charles Fergus Binns, who introduced the principles of chemistry and materials science into the ceramic arts. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the Retro style in the Fall 2020 Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.


Thursday, August 27, 2020

Carrying on a 150-Year-Old Pottery Tradition




Catawba Valley swirlware vase
QUESTION: Last Fall, I discovered several pieces of pottery with a swirl design at a local antiques show. The dealer called it Catawba Pottery but couldn’t tell me much more than it had been made somewhere in Appalachia. What can you tell me about this pottery? And where did it originate?

ANSWER: Catawba Valley Pottery describes an alkaline glazed stoneware made in the Catawba River Valley of Western North Carolina from the early 19th century to the present day.

Early Catawba pottery jar
Before modern conveniences such as electricity, plastic and refrigeration, pottery jugs. jars and crocks stored a family's perishables. A springhouse or pantry were the equivalent of the Frigidaire. Local potters were essential. When refrigeration and inexpensive glass came to the South between 1900 and 1930, the use of pottery to store food declined. However, a few potters in North Carolina's Catawba and Lincoln counties began making pottery for tourists attracted to the small stoneware pots with their distinctive alkaline glaze. The smarter potters kept their traditional pottery-making ways and shapes, but added customer-friendly swirl pitchers, miniatures, exotic vases, umbrella stands and, in a burst of creative marketing, face jugs.

Beginning with river-dug clay, potters turned milled clay on a foot-powered wheel, glazed the green-ware with a slurry of wood ashes, powdered glass, clay and water, and then fired it in a pine fueled ground hog kiln nestled against a hillside. This has been an unbroken 150-year-old tradition.



Stoneware, hard but not as brittle as earthenware, is durable, vitreous, easy to clean and non-toxic. Its strength made it ideal for the 5- to 20-gallon food storage jars needed by 19th-century farmers.

Catawba Valley potters used alkaline glazes on their wares
Catawba Valley potters used alkaline glazes in shades of brown or green instead of the commonly used salt glaze. Potters from Edgefield, South Carolina, originally brought alkaline glazes to the Catawba Valley. These potters made alkaline glazes by combining hardwood ash or crushed glass with clay and water. Catawba potters had an abundance of wood ash from burning their kilns but didn’t have plentiful salt deposits in their region.

The Catawba potters initially fired their alkaline glazed wares in what were known as "groundhog kilns." These kilns were a unique southern U.S. variation of climbing kilns built into hillsides. Semi-subterranean in construction, the groundhog kiln featured a door leading into a long, low passage of brick or rock construction, with a stack or chimney poking out of the ground up hill. Potters loaded pieces in the low passageway or "ware-bed" and built a fire in a sunken firebox, located just inside the door. The design allowed the stack to draw heated air, flames and ash through the pottery grouped inside and created the draft needed to generate the intense heat required to create stoneware. This type of firing or "burning " worked particularly well with large pieces of pottery. Contemporary Catawba Valley potters still use variations of these kilns, usually referred to as "tunnel kilns."

Pre-Civil War bulbous jug
Before the Civil War, jars from the area were bulbous with a flared top, gradual widening body, fat waist, and narrow base. After the war, jars maintained the same overall shape, but got bigger and fatter. By the 1930s, influenced by Ohio pottery jars, they became straight-walled, open top cylinders.

Jugs held all kinds of liquids from water to whiskey. During the 1920s and 1930s, Catawba potters added faces to these jugs, easily identified by their strap handle, pulled in shoulder and narrow spout. Catawba Valley potter Harvey Reinhardt was one of the first to produce this grotesque, but extremely popular form. However, potters made few face jugs until Burlon Craig, who produced thousands between the late 1940s and the present day.

Early Catawba Valley potters also made swirlware. Made by layering light and dark clays, they created a swirl pattern by moving diagonally up and around the body of a jug, jar, pitcher, birdhouse, vase, or dozens of other forms.

Burlon Craig face jug
Among the 150 to 200 potters scattered throughout the area between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a dozen individuals and two families stand out. Neighbors Daniel Seagle and Sylvanus Hartsoe were two of the most prolific potters with signed pieces surfacing at area auctions and antique shops. The meticulous work of Samuel Propst, called 'the best turner of all" by Burlon Craig, is less frequently seen. Enoch and Harvey Reinhardt were business partners between 1932 and 1936. Many of their larger pieces, produced by Enoch, and small tourist items, Harvey's specialty, have the stamp "Reinhardt Bros,/Vale, N.C." The Propsts and Reinhardts began making blurred, mottled edged swirlware in about 1930.

Two area families also produced several generations of potters. The Ritchie family, the largest, began making pottery with Moses and ended their work, 12 potters later, at the death of Luther in 1940. Producing 10 noted potters, the Hilton family established a half dozen potteries in and around the valley. By the 1920s, they dallied in decorated dinnerware and figurines for the tourist trade which locals called "fancyware." The Hilton family pottery-making business ended in 1939 or 1940. Crisscrossing nearly all of the prominent families as an apprentice, neighbor or co-worker, is Burlon Craig. It was he who kept traditional 19th-century pottery-making alive and continuous.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about  world's fairs in the 2020 Summer Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Thursday, August 13, 2020

As a River Flows, So Does Flow Blue



QUESTION: My mom loved collecting odd pieces of old china. She died recently and now I have her collection. Among the many pieces are some with designs that are all dark blue and blurry. Are these mistakes or are they some sort of china I’ve never heard of?

ANSWER: No, those blurry pieces are not mistakes. They’re what’s known as Flow Blue. And while many people call this type of ceramics “china,” it’s actually pottery not porcelain. Beginning in 1820, potters in Staffordshire, England, began making it as a way to provide a more affordable alternative for middle-class people who coveted the fine blue and white porcelains being imported from China. As dinnerware, it enjoyed its greatest popularity between the mid-19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. And as an antique, it has gained popularity in recent years.

Potters used cobalt oxide pigment to create the darker hue of flow blue. The porous earthenware absorbed it and blurred when the pottery glaze fired. Although it blurred by itself, potters discovered that it could be made to really flow by the addition of a cup of lime or chloride of ammonia during glaze firing. This had the additional advantage of covering over printing faults, bubbles, and other defects in the pottery. As a result, some flow blue is so blurred that all details are invisible.

Josiah Wedgwood first produced Flow Blue around 1820. But it wasn’t until 15 years later that mass production began. Since flow blue was a decidedly Victorian era phenomenon, its production fell into three time periods.—early Victorian from 1835 to 1850, mid-Victorian from   1860 to 1879, and late Victorian from 1880 to 1900. During the early Victorian period, the most popular styles imitated the Chinese porcelains. But they were largely inaccurate depictions of the Chinese designs, mixing Chinese, Arabic and Indian motifs. Scenics and florals were also  popular during this time.



The mid-Victorian period brought greater creativity to Flow Blue wares, as potters mixed styles and ornamentation became elaborate and varied. Also during the mid-Victorian period, styles began to mix and merge with one another. So, there were things like Oriental-style plates with floral, Gothic, or scenic borders. Other elaborate motifs, like scrolls, pillars, columns, urns and wreaths became quite common. The pieces themselves included toilet wares and teapots, plates and platters, vases and garden seats, and even dog bowls.

Flow blue designs of the late Victorian period exhibited a marked Art Nouveau influence, with stylized florals and beautiful symmetry.

By the end of the Victorian Era, there were thousands of Flow Blue patterns. Though most Flow Blue wares came from English potteries, those in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United States all made it as well. The most noted English potteries included such names as  Wedgwood, Grindley, Davenport and the Johnson Brothers, while in the United States, Wheeling, Mercer, and Warwick. 
By World War I, U.S. potteries were producing most of the flow blue for the domestic market, causing English potters to close up shop since these wares had never been popular in England. The desirability of the ware waned in both countries between the wars, but interest picked up again in the U.S. in the 1960s.

Antique dealers determine the price of Flow Blue wares mostly based on their pattern, color, and rarity. Patterns range from Blue Danube to Iris and Classic Willow. Especially sought after ones include Amoy, Cashmere, Scinde, Shell, and The Temple, as well as the La Belle pattern by American maker, Wheeling Pottery Company.

Collectors are always on the hunt for the early patterns from the 1840s. Unusual items such as rare shapes, egg baskets and egg cups, large sized platters and early tea and coffeepots command high prices. Egg baskets with eggcups will fetch over $1,000. A single eggcup in a rare pattern can fetch over $400, whereas a not so rare one would fetch maybe $65. Rare coffeepots could he worth over $2,000, and large turkey platters from the 1890s, $600 to $800 if the pattern is right.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about  world's fairs in the 2020 Summer Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.




Thursday, July 9, 2020

Not Quite Fit for a King



QUESTION: I purchased an old Dewers pottery flask in an antique shop a while back. The brown glazed pitcher features two characters from Charles Dickens’ book, Oliver Twist—The Artful Dodger and Oliver Twist. The tag on the flask said it was kingsware by Doulton Pottery of England. What can you tell me about kingsware

ANSWER: Kingsware is one of the most unusual and colorful items produced by the Doulton Pottery Company. It was very popular when it was made in 1899 because the owner could drink the contents and then display the attractive stoneware container.

Charles Noke, an artist at Doulton, experimented with glazes and eventually  developed kingsware. Born in Worcester, England, near the Worcester porcelain factory, to a father who had one of the largest old china collections in the Midlands. Through his fathers influence, he was often allowed to roam freely through the local potteries and see all phases of their operations. What fascinated Noke the most was the process of modeling and sculpture.



Charles took some clay home from the pottery and sculpted it into different forms which he showed to the top modelers at the company. They thought his work showed promise. At the age of 16 he became an apprentice modeler and designer at Worcester Porcelain. Meanwhile, he enrolled at the Worcester School of Design to study sculpture. Noke worked under direction of such noted Worcester modelers as George Evans and George Owen.

After working at Worcester for 16 years, John Slater, the General Manager at Doutlon’s Burselm Pottery, asked him to come work for him at the Doulton Company. The main reason his joined Doulton was for artistic freedom. Eventually, Noke became Doulton’s chief modeler.

Noke helped develop the glazes for Doulton’s Sung, Chinese Jade and Flambe wares. In 1895, he developed an unusual method of slip painted underglaze called Holbein. It gave the effect of an "old masters" painting with the application of slip in yellow, green and shades of brown on a cream earthenware body.

In 1899, Noke introduced a new method of stoneware production called kingsware which was much cheaper to produce than Holbeinware. He applied colored slips of subdued green, yellow and reddish brown to the interior of plaster molds into which he had impressed a design. When he poured another brown slip, the colors fused to give a deep and soft effect to the embossed design. Noke most commonly used a dark brown glaze, but also used an unusual paler yellow one which he called "kingsware yellow glaze."

Noke also used a method of finish on kingsware known as "aerographed brown." Using an ivory earthenware base, he added the colors to the shape after it left the mold. These colors lacked the soft effect of the usual kingsware and were sharper and more vibrant. These wares were also different because they had handles and necks and bases aerographed with a spray painting technique. One of these embossed pitchers features a golf scene, one of Noke's favorite pastimes.

 produced kingsware flasks to hold whisky. The pottery produced it in large quantities for firms such as John Dewars & Sons of Perth, Bullock Lade, Greenlees & Watson and the Hudson's Bay Company. Not only did kingsware flasks hold products from these firms, it also became a way of advertising. Many of the flasks had a company name embossed on them. The flasks also had designs depicting the pleasures of drinking and smoking. For example, an ovoid flask, called "Connoisseur,"  showed a gentleman studying the quality of a glass of wine. A wine pitcher featured an image of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. Doulton also produced a variety of other items in kingsware, such as vases, water jugs, pitchers, mugs, and tobacco humidors.

The range of characters used on kingsware was extensive. Besides his work, Noke loved to play golf and read the works of Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, and Robert Burns. It’s no wonder that he used so many characters from these literary works on kingsware. For example, a kingsware water jug called "Memories" shows Dickens characters wearing wigs. A flask called the "Artful Dodger and Oliver Twist" portrays two Dickens' characters from his book Oliver Twist. This gave kingsware a universal appeal.

Collectors look for kingsware for a variety of reasons. Some pieces have amusing mottoes and express fitting sentiments, such as "A bumper to her who adores me and another to her to adore" can be found on a loving cup. The motto, "Be content the sea has fish enough," can be found on an ashtray. On a whisky jug a motto would read, "It's hard for an empty bag to stand straight up.”

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about  La Belle Epoque in the 2020 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.


Wednesday, September 12, 2018

The Beauty of Ceramic Wall Art




QUESTION: At a recent antique show I saw a framed ceramic wall plaque that, according to the dealer, Rookwood Pottery had made. I know about Rookwood art pottery and own a couple of pieces, but I never knew the company made plaques. This particular one depicted a snow scene and came in a simple wooden frame. It seemed rather expensive to me, so I passed on it for now. What can you tell me about Rookwood plaques? Were they only produced for a limited time? And did they come framed or did people frame them?

ANSWER: Rookwood scenic plaques aren’t as well known as their art pottery. They were more artistic and more expensive than their art pottery pieces, so the average person didn’t usually buy them.

Rookwood Pottery perfected the production of ceramic tiles based on an ancient form of pottery craftsmanship. Many consider it to be America's finest pottery, beginning in the early 1900s and continuing through the 1930s.

Shortly after the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876, American ceramic artists began making utilitarian wares. But unlike utilitarian objects, Rookwood produced tiles for architectural and utilitarian reasons, while its plaques were purely decorative. The company produced plaques depicting landscapes, seascapes, and the occasional figural paintings from 1910 to 1930.

Primarily, Rookwood produced these plaques using slip decoration, finishing them in a vellum glaze. Most featured landscapes, and many took on a tonalist quality. Plaques displayed a variety of pastel colors, a few had snow scenes, and the majority had a bit of crazing resulting when the outer glaze contracts at a different rate than the underglaze painting or the ceramic body, rendering a lightly checked outer surface. Most early plaques had crazing. In later years, Rookwood learned how to make uncrazed plaques.

Rookwood produced many more ceramic vases and such than plaques, thus fewer people know about them. The original price hand-written on the back of an uncrazed plaque was usually higher in comparison to the price shown on the reverse of a crazed plaque.

Though the production of a plaque was simpler than that of a vase because an artist had a flat tile "canvas" on which to work, they did warp, but in spite of this, the value of plaques today exceeds that of their vase counterparts from the same time period.

Plaques are also more expensive because they’re classified as fine art. Rookwood made fewer of them than vases. A typical plaque originally cost around $175. Very few scenic vases with a vellum glaze would have been that expensive. Usually, the original price workers wrote the original price on the backs of tiles in pencil in the upper right-hand corner.

Artists who painted Rookwood plaques took their inspiration from local landscapes, with the exception of the Venetian scenes, painted by Carl Schmidt and Ed Diers. Though a plaque may have depicted a scene of snow-capped mountains, that certainly wasn’t part of the surrounding landscape, but more likely taken from a painting viewed at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Art Museum. located near the Rookwood pottery works. Early standard-glaze plaques, produced between 1900 and 1905, often feature Dutch or English gentlemen, as well as American Indians. The images of the European gentlemen came from famous paintings while those of the Indians probably came from photographs.

Around the turn of the 20th century, Rookwood produced faience plaques or tiles, usually made for installation into homes or commercial buildings. They almost always  covered these in a matt glaze, occasionally made with a painted and carved design, but primarily in a cloisonne fashion.

Rookwood plaques come in a variety of sizes, the smallest usually being 4 by 8 inches, and the largest, 14 by 16 inches. Most of the time, these plaques are uncrazed and unaffected by warpage. Because of their impressive size and fine decoration, they  bring a premium price today.

While artists who painted with oil on canvas could view the colors and brushstrokes as they produced them, those who painted Rookwood plaques with clay slip, couldn’t be sure how a color would look after firing. They may have applied the slip heavily, thus rendering “crawling” to the glaze. Perhaps the green trees would appear more blue, the pink sky too pale, or blue water some other shade.

Artists such as E.T. Hurley, Fred Rothenbusch, Ed Diers, Lenore Asbury, Sara Sax and Sallie did some of the best quality and most artistic work for Rookwood. Hurley was among the best at producing quality tonalist plaques, from nocturnal scenes to beautifully painted beech trees to landscapes with a vivid pink sky and exquisite mountain ranges.

Fred Rothenbusch produced some of the best large plaques. His color palette leaned towards deep purples, dark blues, and light rose. Ed Diers painted great landscapes and was one of the best at painting trees. Some of his plaques included forest interior scenes with bold tree trunks and an almost three-dimensional quality. Lenore Asbury also painted distinctive trees and employed a wonderful range of colors and was one of the best at painting tonalist landscapes. Carl Schmidt was famous for his Venetian scene plaques.

Some collectors seek plaques by a certain artist. Others go by theme or other criteria.  For instance, some want snow scenes while others prefer harbor scenes. Some want only uncrazed examples, and some want colorful ones.


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Monday, April 11, 2016

Tile It



QUESTION: In the last few years, I’ve begun to buy decorative tiles from the early 20th century. I buy what I like and not because a particular company made them. One I purchased recently supposedly came from the Moravian Tile Works in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Since I live in the Midwest, I haven’t had an opportunity to visit the Tile Works. What can you tell me about this tile?

ANSWER:  Go to any Arts and Crafts auction and you're sure to find art tiles, ranging from $20 to several thousand dollars. But what makes one tile worth more than another? And what makes these late 19th/early 20th century tiles any different from the ones we see today at our local home renovation store?

Combine the rise of the Aesthetic Movement, the desire to get back to basics, and a variety of unique techniques, and tiles can represent some of the most interesting objects made during the heyday of the Arts & Crafts Movement." It’s these "art" tiles that are of real interest to collectors, and these are the tiles that command the highest prices. Commercial production tiles, while they're old, even when made by a well-collected maker, are usually only valued in the $20-$30 range.

Although a large number of American potteries made tiles, six are most popular with collectors and/or the most historically significant---American Encaustic, J.G.Low, Grueby, Rookwood, Batchelder, and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works.

Henry Chapman Mercer, an archeologist and antiquities collector, founded the Moravian Tile Works in 1898. His intent was to bring back the medieval craft of tile making and established the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works on his family's estate in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Mercer chose the name Moravian to represent the German immigrants who brought tile making to Pennsylvania in the 18th century.


Although Mercer designed all the tiles, using patterns derived from European an Middle Eastern ones, as well as photographs of ones from Mexico, he trained a crew of men to produce them by pressing wet local clay into handcarved molds. Workers slow fired these molds in a wood burning kiln, painted the bisque ware with glaze, and fired them again.

Mercer gained a reputation as a serious proponent of the Arts & Crafts Movement. Many of America's top tile makers, including Grueby and  Batchelder, copied his tile designs. Mercer also produced several lines of four-inch molded tiles representing tall ships, zodiac signs, and farming. He also used them to build items like inkwells and bookends. For more elaborate installations, Mercer produced cookie-cutter-shaped paving tiles referred to as “brocades.”

Mercer remained active with the company until his death in 1930. The company remained in business until 1964, and in 1969, it opened as a museum.

The reproduction tiles made today come from Mercer's original molds, locally dug clay, and have properties similar to those of Mercer's slips and glazes that follow his final formulations, although some have been modified to reduce the lead and heavy metal content to less toxic levels. The manufacturer of reproduction tiles began in 1974, but there’s no danger of deceit. When the Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Department of Parks and Recreation took over the Tile Works as a working museum, they insisted that all the tiles made at the museum bear the mark of a stylized "MOR," the words "Bucks County," and the year of manufacture.

Today, collectors can expect to pay from $30-100 for common tiles, $35-250 for brocades, $300-3,000 for “built items” made from tiles, and $1,000-5,000 for the more unique medieval-style tiles.

You can find some of the largest collections of Mercer tiles at John D. Rockefeller's New York estate, Grauman's Chinese Theater, and the Casino at Monte Carlo. Your tile represents "Virgo," a sign of the zodiac.