Rookwood Pottery
Maria Longworth Nichols (later Mrs. Bellamy Storer, Jr) founded Rookwood pottery in the late 1870s as a way to market her hobby - the painting of blank china. Forming the business in Cincinnati, Ohio in an old abandoned schoolhouse bought for her by her father, which she named Rookwood after the family country estate. She was one of a group of talented society women in Cincinnati, Ohio, who painted blank china as a hobby and which prompted her to go into business. Nichols first conceived the idea of establishing her own pottery at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, and she was fascinated by the sophisticated European pottery and exotic ceramics of Japan and China on display in the pavilions. From the beginning, Rookwood was a haven for talented and artistic women who loved their work of decorating pottery.
The quality of the craftsmanship, artistry, and innovative glazes were widely recognized and loved, and the distinctive green and gold of early Rookwood glazes came naturally from the effect of the Ohio clay. Through years of experimentation with glazes and kiln temperatures, she eventually built her own kiln, hired a number of excellent chemists and artists who were able to create high-quality glazes of colors never before seen on mass-produced pottery.
Each era of Rookwood work has its own unique character. The earliest work is relief-worked on naturally colored clay, in pinks, grays and sage or olive greens. Some were gilt, or had stamped patterns, and some were carved. Often these were painted or otherwise decorated by the purchaser of the "greenware" (unfinished piece), a precursor to today's do-it-yourself movement. However, such personally decorated pieces are not usually considered Rookwood for purposes of sale or valuation.
Storer sought a "standard" look for Rookwood, and developed a number of very common treatments: the "standard glaze," a deep gold, red and orange over dark brown fired in such a way as to effect a very high-gloss finish, often in leaf or flower motifs. A series of portraits - often of generic American Indian characters or certain historical figures – was also produced using these particular glazes. Next was the "matte glaze," a flat but textured glaze often painted on soft colored clay, which used "sea green" for aquatic and floral motifs. This pale blue-green glaze was usually applied over a soft yellow, bluish or red base. Another common Rookwood style of this period was the "vellum" glaze, usually a matte light blue, put on top of very lightly colored clay. This was most often used for landscape scenes.
Easy to identify due to excellent markings, Rookwood pottery usually exceeds the quality of other late 19th and early 20th-century ceramics in the United States and Europe. The famous Rookwood R-P monogram was first used in 1886, and a flame was added around the symbol each year thereafter. There are also typically clay or body marks indicating which color or type of clay the piece was made of. "P" stands for soft porcelain, begun in 1914. Shape numbers and size letters correspond to the many shapes used over the years. "S" identified a special piece, while "Z" required a matte glaze. Vellum glaze was marked with a "V" while trial pieces were marked "T". Imperfect pieces were incised with an "X" and sold for a reduced price.
Rookwood Pottery filed for bankruptcy in 1941. A succession of subsequent owners could never recapture the glory years of Rookwood, and production ceased completely in 1960. The original molds were purchased first by a clock company in Mississippi and subsequently by a dentist in Michigan in 1983 that made very limited quantities of tiles each year. |
