Rookwood Pottery
Rookwood Pottery was founded in 1880 by Maria Longworth Nichols and was the forerunner of the great Ohio pottery companies. Maria founded the company in an abandoned schoolhouse in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company and pottery was named Rookwood after her father's country home on Walnut Hills. At first, Maria worked alone in the pottery but in 1881 she hired her friend Clara Chipman Newton in to be her secretary and assistant. Maria insisted that the pottery's production would be artistic rather than commercial, and she hired only artists who were accomplished painters and sculptors in their own right.
The first artist hired was Henry Farny,well known for his American Indian subjects, also hired was Albert R. Valentine in 1881, and Laura Fry in 1882 as the pottery's first full-time decorators. With the arrival of decorators to Rookwood, the subject matter of the decorations on the wares began to change. The Japanese inspired decorations painted by Maria were being replaced by elaborate floral and natural subject matter.
In 1883, William Watts Taylor became the general business manager of Rookwood Pottery. Mr. Taylor encouraged innovation in all phases of production and hired top chemist, Karl Langenbec, to develop unique glazes never before seen. The proper mixing of materials was critical to consistently produce quality pottery at the level the company was trying to achieve. Taylor is credited with developing the Rookwood Shape Book, a ledger containing shape numbers, descriptions, and decorators of wares produced by Rookwood thru 1903. From the very beginning, Rookwood was considered to be the finest quality and is prized by collectors partially due to the detailed and accurate markings which reflect style, model number, artist, date of manufacture. The Rookwood company mark or logo consisting of a reversed R connected to a P, was first used in 1886. In later years a flame was added to signify each additional year subsequent to 1886. In 1900, the Rookwood mark became fixed at of fourteen flame marks circling the reversed R and P. All future marks continue this logo with the year of production impressed below it in Roman Numerals. Rookwood also used clay or body marks indicating which color or type of clay the piece was made of. "P" stood for soft porcelain, begun use in 1914. "S" identified special pieces, while "Z" desigmated a matte glaze item. Vellum glaze pieces were marked with a "V" while trial pieces were marked "T". Imperfect or seconds were incised with an "X" and sold for a reduced price.
There were over 120 artists and decorators employed by Rookwood in its 87 years. Some of the most famous artists are Katoro Shirayamadani, Schmidt, Matthew Andrew Daly, Artus Van Briggle, Sarah Sax, Grace Young, Sarah Coyne, Laura Ann Fry, Edward Timothy Hurley, Sarah Alice Toohey, Lorinda Epply, Elizabeth Barrett.
Rookwood operated one hundred retail outlets nationwide by 1904. To expand it's business further, Rookwood published The Rookwood Book which was Rookwood's first mail-order catalogue. By the 1920's Rookwood began using molds to produce it's pottery. Some of the master molds used to produce these items contained the artist initials along with other identification of the piece.
The stock market crash in 1929 created financial difficulties for Rookwood and the company began operating at a loss. By October of the following year, nearly the entire staff was laid off. Very little pottery was being produced, and in 1936 the Architectural wares department was closed. Rookwood eventually filed for bankruptcy in April 1941 and was purchased by Walter and Marge Schott and a group of others.
During WWII, Rookwood was forced to curtail production due to lack of supplies. Part of the plant was used for war work, and pottery was produced on a limited scale.
By 1948, most of the decorators were laid off and production of signed decorated pieces decreased. In the early fifties the pottery of Rookwood consisted of simple shapes and commercial wares that were inferiorly produced.
In 1959, The Herschede Hall Clock Company purchased Rookwood and moved the pottery opperation to Starksville, Missouri the following year. Pieces continued to be produced with the Rookwood mark on a limited basis until 1966. By 1967, Rookwood Pottery was no longer producing pottery although tiles have occasionally been produced.
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