Weller Pottery
The S. A. Weller Pottery Pottery Company was a major competitor of Rookwood Pottery and Roseville Pottery. The company began production operations at Fultonham, Ohio in 1872 by its founder Samuel Weller and operated from 1872 to 1948. Weller started out making jars, jugs, tiles and other utility pottery. The business thrived being bolstered by the local availability of of high quality clay also sought after by Hull and Roseville. Weller moved operations to Zanesville, Ohio around 1889 and expanded lines to include a variety of flower pots, hanging baskets, and umbrella stands. Spurred by the success of Rookwood, Weller started looking toward art pottery as a major source of income. Over the years the company produced some of of the finest examples of Ohio Art Pottery.
The company purchased Lonhuda Pottery in 1895 and began production of Louwelsa line. This became one of Weller's most popular lines. Weller introduced the Eocean line in 1898. It differed from Louwelsa by using shades of gray or cream as background for the decoration. Also in 1895 Charles Upjohn joined Weller Pottery as chief art director. He was responsible for creating the well known Dickens Ware line in 1900 based on illustrations from the novels of Charles Dickens.
In 1902 Jacques Sicard replaced Upjohn as art director . Sicard created the very popular Sicard line which had a unique and lustrous glaze not seen in other pottery work at the time. Around the same time Weller reorganized the company into two divisions. One division focused on more automated production techniques trying to keep quality high but costs low, while the other division focused more on the creation of high end, hand crafted art pottery. Rudolph Lorber, an Austrian native, joined Weller in 1905. He created many of Weller's embossed lines including Woodcraft and Coppertone. Most Zanesville firms discontinued their expensive hand-painted lines around WWI, but Weller modernized his ware and created Weller the Hudson line in 1917 which became one of the firm's greatest lines, and certainly one that is prized by today's collectors. Most Hudson vases are artist signed.
By the 1920s Weller shifted to higher production commercial art pottery but still continued to introduce significant lines such as Hudson. In the 1920s some Weller pieces were nearly copies of other competitors lines such as Roseville pine cone. These pieces are often pieces mistakenly identified as being Roseville.
Sam Weller died in 1925 and left his nephew Harry to run the business. Harry died in 1932 and the business passed to two of Sam Weller's son-in-laws but the business was never the same. Weller Pottery continued production of high quality pottery into the 1930s but by 1935 abandoned hand decoration and began producing only molded pottery. Weller continued in operation until finally closing its doors in 1948.
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