By Ben Marks — Some of us look at an eight-place setting of fine porcelain china and see a family gathered for Thanksgiving dinner. Gazing upon a curvaceous piece of art pottery, we immediately picture it up on the mantel, lit by a pin spot and casting seductive shadows on the wall. But when Jim Robinson of Rookwood Pottery looks at a ceramic mixing bowl, a stoneware jug, or even a single piece of architectural tile, he sees rocks. "You don't formulate colors and clay bodies and all that stuff just for...

Cowan Art Pottery of the Art Deco Era

By Maribeth Keane — I’m the curator here at the museum in Rocky River, a suburb west of Cleveland. I look at Cowan pottery from a historian’s angle because this is part of Rocky River’s cultural history. I’m not a collector, but I personally enjoy and value Cowan pottery. I was on the board of trustees of the library about 10 years ago and did a lot of work to make sure that the Cowan Pottery Museum continued and was a strong entity. It’s been a part of Rocky River public library since 1978. I have a library...

Rookwood, Pioneer American Art Pottery

By Dorothea Yaeger — The Rookwood Pottery has gone to war. This pioneer among American art potteries, founded by Maria Longworth Storer of Cincinnati, Ohio, in the last quarter of the 19th Century, has turned over that part of its factory where fine tiles were made for the manufacture of wooden blocks which fit into sections, making water conduits. The government is in need of these at the present time, especially for Army camps, as the metal and cement ordinarily used for such purposes is at a...

Stuart Lonsdale Explains the History and Design of Gouda Pottery

By Dave Margulius — I think it all started with a small pottery vase my mother obtained from the art pottery shop where she worked in the early 1920s and ‘30s. After she died in 1988, I didn’t initially didn’t take much notice of the vase, but then one day I just happened to look underneath and wondered what all the marks meant. I started trying to research it, but it was very difficult because we didn’t have the Internet then. I came across a book by Phyllis Ritvo, The , and it started from there. Then we got...

Bowes Curator Howard Coutts on Meissen, Staffordshire, and Sèvres

By Maribeth Keane — I’m the curator of the ceramics bit of the Bowes Museum. It’s a big museum with 30 galleries of which three or four are devoted to ceramics alone. Within Britain, it’s got one of the biggest and most expensive groups for people to see. We have about 5,000 or so pieces in the collection. We’re not sure exactly. It’s all registered, but of course we get tea sets registered under one number, so I think in total it’s about 5,000. I’ve collected both cups and saucers over the years, which...

Riley Humler Explains the Importance of Rookwood Art Pottery

By Dave Margulius — I don’t remember the first Rookwood piece I ever bought, that’s getting close to 40 years ago. But I must have liked it, because I kept studying and learning, and it’s been a lot of fun and a lifelong thing. I’m originally from Kentucky, about 90 miles down the Ohio River from Cincinnati, where Rookwood was based. So there was Rookwood in the area, and I could also drive up here to look for things. I’m not as aggressive a collector as I used to be, but I still enjoy it. And we auction...