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FACTORY MARKS
The factory mark identifies the manufacturer of the ware. Rookwood
has used a number of factory marks. It has employed both its name, in various
forms, as well as the picture-symbol type of representation associated with
most European furnaces. The symbol that comes quickly to mind is the world
famous monogram mark of the reversed R and P, with its wreath of flames.
This unique factory mark was used longer than any other, and was in
use at the time the pottery enjoyed its greatest prestige. As a result it is this
mark that is as often found on the finest of Rookwood productions. Prior to its
institution the factory marks were widely varied in design and survived but a
short time. They are herein explained and illustrated in the order of their
occurrence, beginning with the earliest.
The most common marks
prior to 1882 were the name of the
pottery and the date of manufacture,
either painted or incised on the base
of the piece by perhaps the decorators or potters. A variation of
this consisted of the initials of the
Pottery, and of the founder:
R.P.C.O.M.L.N. (Rookwood
Pottery, Cincinnati, Ohio, Maria
Longworth Nichols. Mrs. Nichols
remarried in 1886 and became Mrs.
Storer.) Illustrations of two of
these marks are at the right:
From 1880 to 188Z another
design used was that prepared by
the famous Cincinnati artist, H. F .
Farny. This factory mark was
printed in black beneath the glaze,
and represents a kiln with two
Rooks.
The following oval mark
bearing the name and address of
the factory was also used for a
short time.
from Rookwood Pottery by Edwin J. Kircher
In 1882 the following two
types of marks were used. Both
were impressed in a raised ribbon,
and the upper one appeared only on
a commercial project - a large
beer tankard made for the Cincinnati
Cooperage Company.
Prior to 1883 an anchor was
sometimes impressed or placed in
relief. It occasionally occurred in
connection with an impressed date,
and often in conjunction with a
decorator's mark. (The illustration
to the left is impressed; the one to
the right appears in relief.)
The regular mark adopted in
1882 was the word ROOKWOOD and
the date in arabic numerals,
impressed. This mark was in
continuous use until 1886, the date
being changed each year.
In the year 1883 a small kiln
mark was impressed in the ware, and
may or may not appear with the word
ROOKWOOD and the date, also
impressed.
The monogram mark of the
reversed R, and P was adopted in
1886.
The monogram mark and the
"ROOKWOOD 1886" both exist denoting the year 1886, the ROOKWOOD
mark having been used in the earlier
part of the year. In 1887 a flame
point was placed above the RP monogram, and one point was added each
year until 1900, at which time the
monogram mark was encircled by
14 flame points.
In 1901 the same mark used
to indicate 1900 was continued, and
the Roman numeral I was added
below, to indicate the first year of
the new century. The Roman
numeral was subsequently
changed to denote the correct
year.
ROOKWOOD
1882
ROOKWOOD
1882
ROOKWOOD
1883
Society Collection
Mrs. Maria Longworth Storer, 1849-1932
Founder of Rookwood Pottery
Overture of Cincinnati Ceramics
The following handwritten manuscript was given to the
Society by the Ohio Mechanics Institute April 1,1949. The author
is unknown, though probably an early associate of Rookwood
Pottery. The paper was written in 1890.
Editor
In connection with the Centennial Art Gallery, although not
immediately represented therein, the subject of ceramics should hold
an important and honored position. In a department of the grand
display, there were groups of pottery by Cincinnati artists and experimenters which attracted the scrutinizing attention of all whose knowledge of the subject enabled them to trace the western growth of this
ancient and beautiful art as it developed here in the hands of individuals who were almost entirely untaught in the mechanical methods which have brought the art to the perfection reached in the studios
and kilns of the old world from ancient China to modern Europe.
No intelligent observer could but admire the inventive genius, the
handy skill and indefatigable persistence of purpose, the undismayed
perseverance against seemingly unconquerable obstacles until the
crowning triumph was attained — the art that has distinguished
Cincinnati the world over. This is an achievement upon which we
look with increasing pride when we reflect that it was done alone by
women who were obliged not only to rediscover and invent those
features artistically applicable to ceramic decoration but, by close
observation and tedious experiment, also to improve the local
methods of firing and other mechanical appliances.
It is exceedingly difficult to reconcile the various claims as to
priority of individual successes in different stages of development
owing to the fact that these ladies were more intent upon accomplishing the common object than securing personal glory and applause.
The first impulse given to the subject appears to have come from the
active brain of Benn Pitman but was actually suggested by his wife.
In 1874 Mr. Pitman formed a class for the study of china painting
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The Bulletin
composed of Mrs. E. G. Leonard, Miss Louise McLaughlin, Miss
Clara Newton, Mrs. William Dodd, Miss Agnes Pitman, Miss
Elizabeth Nourse and others who, under the instruction of their
versatile master, made satisfactory progress and produced many
admirable examples of their skill. This enterprise led directly to the
second and more difficult step, the production of pottery proper
similar to the Haviland Faience.
In September 1875, the first piece of underglaze ceramic work
made in Cincinnati was executed by Miss Louise McLaughlin on a
porcelain plate requested from the kilns of Messrs. Thos C. Smith
'&§>>£ iJ;>f>£Su.
.••.
• : •
:
'• '. -. .•^••:'
•.
Courtesy of Cincinnati Art Museum
Left: First piece of underglaze ceramic work made in Cincinnati in 1875.
Right: First experiment in Cincinnati in the reproduction of Haviland Faience in 1877
Both pieces were executed by Miss Mary Louise McLaughlin.
Overture of Cincinnati Ceramics
75
and Sons of the Greenpoint Pottery, Long Island, New York. This
plate is now in the Cincinnati historical collection in the Eden Park
museum. The enameled faience of the Havilands, sometimes called
Limoges Faience from the city in which the industry was established,
was exhibited in the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876. Here its great
beauty and exquisite enamel excited the liveliest interest and curiosity
as to the means by which such remarkable effects were brought about.
In September 1877 Miss McLaughlin made first experiments at
the Coultry Pottery in Cincinnati with the aim of reproducing the
Haviland Faience, and in December of that year the first piece that
demonstrated this possibility was taken from the kiln. This piece, in
a shape known as the "Pilgrim Vase", has also been deposited in the
Cincinnati museum. The main feature of the process is the mixture
of mineral paints with white slip or liquid white clay universally used
in potteries for striping wares, after the same fashion adopted by the
painter in oil to obtain the hues on his canvas. Her idea was that, as
clay is also a mineral formed from aluminum, an admixture such as
she purposed to make could be successfully united in the firing.
A long course of experiment was required to perfect the process. She
was, however, able to exhibit pieces which received unbounded praise
at the Loan Exhibition of Decorative Art in New York in October
1878. The following year her work shown in the American Section of
the Paris Exposition received great attention from art collectors.
As soon as she had mastered all details of the underglaze effects,
a complete description of this process was given by Miss McLaughlin
in her book entitled Pottery Decoration. The practical result was the
founding of a new industry in Cincinnati. Her method of painting
ceramic wares is the one in use in the Rookwood Pottery and in all
other potteries in this country where underglaze work is done. The
decoration is placed upon a vase or other object as soon as it comes
from the hand of the potter, the clay being kept moist during the
painting. When the articles are thoroughly dried, they are fired; this
causes the body of the ware and the decorated surface on it to shrink
equally in the firing. Subsequently, the pieces are dipped in glaze and
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fired the second time. All parts of the process were experimentally
arrived at by the inventor and the entire originality of her method is
established by the fact (since ascertained) that it is the exact reverse
of that used at Limoges, which is guarded there as a valuable secret.
From the meager outline of the Limoges method, published some
years since, it is a process adopted under the supposition that it was
impossible to successfully accomplish the shrinkage of the ware and
the decorated surface on it at the same firing. This was the very aim
which Miss McLaughlin successfully attained in her experiments.
At Limoges the paint is placed on the ware after it has been fired once;
therefore, the shrinkage of the body of the ware is ended before the
decoration is made. Mineral paint is mixed with white clay slip in the
proportion required to give the necessary variety of hue. These mixtures are then fired in separate masses in order to bring about a
shrinkage equal to that which is likely to occur in the body of the
ware on which they are to be placed. These masses of mixed clay and
paint are then crushed and ground to the requisite degree of fineness
and used by the decorator for painting on the dry body of the ware.
The pieces then are dried, dipped in glaze, and fired a second time in
the usual manner.
Simultaneously with the studies of Miss McLaughlin, others were
experimenting, if not with the identical end in view, at least with the
purpose of finding out what could be done in all ramifications of
pottery. During her residence in Paris, Mrs. C. A. Plimpton had
given the subject considerable attention and dabbled, as she called
her efforts at that time, in that most beautiful method of mixing color
with slip; but, having found the method plain, she was inclined to
another branch of ceramics. She was particularly attracted to the
progress of American pottery and on her return to Cincinnati immediately joined with the enterprising ladies who were engaged in the
art's development. Ever ready to give her fellow workers the advantages of her extended knowledge and ready invention, she became a
potent influence in enabling students to solve many problems. She
left the mysteries of underglaze and directed her attention to the use:
Overture of Cincinnati Ceramics
11
of our native clays for the purpose of producing effects similar to the
work of the cameo cutter — making the design in relief of different
colored clays, embracing modest hues of a very considerable gamut,
and presenting wonderfully rich and striking effects. Clays from
various parts of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee were procured, and under her skillful fingers they assumed
shapes and colors worthy of the ancient Greeks.
Mrs. Plimpton believed that, like the ancients, we should take the
materials which we find convenient at hand to express our ideas. She
has wrought this common earth that sticks as a clog to our feet into
thoughts unique and forms of exquisite beauty. She has become the
inventor of a method of decoration commonly believed to be impossible; by inlaying and superimposing designs wrought in combinations
of the different kinds and colors of clays, she has made unique effects
without any painting whatever.
The colors used by Mrs. Plimpton range from white to black,
embracing browns and yellows of many hues, rich reds and soft
delicate greens. Some of the designs are inlaid with black lines almost
of a hair's fineness and demonstrate the almost unlimited extent to
which her method can be carried. Specimens calling attention to the
inexhaustable wealth of our country in potters' materials can be seen
in the Cincinnati museum. Already their example has been felt in the
more solid texture and richer color of many common utensils, and it
only remains for the higher orders of art to be applied to ensure the
development of that exquisite taste which the Greeks desired as much
from their common surroundings as from examples of higher art.
The first piece of chromatic relief, if we may so designate it, made in
Cincinnati was a little vase bearing a stork, also now in the Cincinnati
museum.
The Cincinnati Pottery Club was organized April 1, 1879. The
original membership was limited to twelve. From the ladies present
at the first meeting, the officers were elected who served throughout
the eleven years the club existed and consisted of the following distinguished persons:
The Bulletin
78
Miss Mary Louise Mclaughlin,
1847-1939
President of the
Cincinnati Pottery Club
Gift of Miss Clara C. Newton
President
Secretary
Treasurer
Miss Mary Louise McLaughlin
Miss Clara Chipman Newton
Miss Alice Belle Holabird
The membership was later increased to twenty. The object of the club
was to promote the growth of ceramic art in Cincinnati. The impetus
given by joint and individual experiments made at their club rooms
in the old Hamilton Road Pottery form the basis of the work that has
made Cincinnati famous for its art pottery. Later the attention of the
club was given to china painting. The results obtained from the use
of metals combined with the mat backgrounds gave the club a reputation in the art world so enviable that exhibits of its work were solicited for all the leading ceramic expositions in this country and in:
Europe.
Overture of Cincinnati Ceramics
79
Some of the most active and efficient members whose names can
readily be called to mind, besides the officers named above, were:
Miss Elizabeth Nourse, Mrs. G. S. Sykes, Mrs. Ferguson, Mrs.
Louis C. Leonard, Miss Louise Devereux, Miss Laura A. Fry,
Mrs. E. G. Leonard, Mrs. Meredith, Mrs. Plimpton, Miss Mary
Spencer, Mrs. M. V. Keenan. These and several others put their
heads together on the principle that two or more heads are better than
one to promote the common cause, their patriotism (the patriotic
impulse is always better in woman than in man; so are all good and
noble impulses as for that matter) causing them to care more for the
general result than for individual glory. The writer cannot call to
mind particular works so as to designate them, but of those mentioned above Mrs. Keenan achieved distinction both by her many
fine examples and as a most genial and efficient teacher. She was far
along with her work before the formation of the Pottery Club but
upon invitation became a member. Her studies were, however,
mainly carried on at her own studio as were those of several other
ceramic artists, or rather, artists who were giving their attention temporarily to ceramics, certain limitations adopted by the club not
seeming to them to favor their special desires. Her first experiments
were mixing black stamping ink with yellow clay and slip to produce
olive backgrounds and then mixing cobalt and yellow for various
shades of pea-green. She took her experiments to Mr. Baily, manager
of the Dallas Pottery, who exclaimed, "That's limoges". Mr. Baily
was so delighted that he requested her to paint samples of colors on
plates which he fired to see how they would stand the heat of the kiln,
putting the delicate reds and yellows in a cooler place so that they
would not be burnt out. Several pieces were wrought into excellent
artistic results. One shaped like a soap bubble is now in the Boston
Art Museum and has elicited much praise. The appreciation of
connoiseurs has been expressed by the liberal purchase of her work
both at home and in England.
Miss Mary Spencer is another of these artistic workers in the field
of mingling fine art thought with the somewhat rougher element of a
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common industry — the limning of poetic sentiment that is too often
left beyond the reach of prosaic everyday life upon articles of absolute
necessity, utensils of household utility, so that varied feeling and
sentiment can be carried into the midst of the matter-of-fact and
hurry of living, causing one to stop a little and see the beauty of
nature as one must, while plowing the fields or reaping the grain, and
by listening to the birds to unconsciously become the finer. Miss
Spencer had for some time engaged a portion of her time with china
painting, producing beautiful objects of many sizes and styles, and
had also tried in a modest way the effect of the plastic clay combined
with colors. Her first successful piece of pure Limoges (it seems to
the writer a better name for this product would be "The Cincinnati
Faience", differing as it does in method from the Limoges of France),
using the process of painting with mineral emulsion colors upon the
moist clay, was made in June 1878. This was a mere trial block or
small piece without any significance in point of design. It excited
considerable remark at the time on the part of those engaged in the
work. Afterwards she produced several other pieces reaching designs
of great beauty; one a sugar bowl with a soft liquid mingling of hues
with a flower cropping out here and there as from a deep cavernous
shade. Another which the writer remembers was a vase resembling
the Portland Vase in shape with light airy figures, like those of Pompeian mural decoration, relieved against a rich blue sky.
Miss Mamie Owens also contributed a liberal share to the stock
of knowledge and successful proof of skill. At first she experimented
at the Dayton Street Pottery. Through working with Miss Connally,
who had studied at Dresden, she received some valuable hints and
instruction in the use of overglaze paints. She also studied at the
Rookwood Pottery, assisted by Miss Laura Fry. After teaching at
Dayton and Hunt Street Pottery, she went to Chicago where she
received instruction from a lady who had studied the latest effects in
mineral painting in Europe. Returning to Cincinnati she again engaged in teaching, then went to New York where access to material
and facilities enabled her to finish the group which she was preparing
Overture of Cincinnati Ceramics
81
for the probable Cincinnati Centennial Exposition. In one New
York collection she saw pieces done by a process entirely new to
amateurs. To imitate it, Miss Owens applies an underglaze blue over
the glaze on white china giving the effect after being fired of the genuine Royal Dresden blue. This effect, says Miss Owens, has never been
produced with an overglaze color.
In the Centennial Exposition we noticed many of the laity as well
as the learned connoisseur attentively examining her works. One
very handsome piece, done in the blue described above, was finished
with a simple decoration of delicately raised gold design with bands
and perforated parts of raised gold. One small antique shape was
done on the order of the Crown Derby. The body was a delicate
cream; the neck was pink and blue in alternate sections divided by
conventional designs in raised gold. Another large piece was decorated with a bold design of pink azalias and soft green bands, all with
raised outlines of gold and grasses of gold in the distance. The
background was mother of pearl. On the shoulder and base were
clusters of white roses with outlines of raised gold on a background
of deep golden bronze. The handles, band, and cover were of bronze
and gold to match the other parts. Another piece was decorated with
purple wisteria, raised leaves of green and yellow gold, with handles
and perforated parts of the two golds. Another was a Bird of Paradise
sitting on a bunch of golden ferns on an ivory ground with delicate
grasses of shadowy colors in the distance. On the neck was a conventional design of blue flowers and green bands on a dark golden
bronze background. Several small pieces with conventional designs
of both jewels and enamels were perhaps the most beautiful objects
in the group. Altogether these works reflected credit upon the talented
and persevering artist and upon that branch of art in Cincinnati.
A number of ladies whose works became as equally well known as
those already mentioned would, considering the importance of the
work in which they were engaged, be entitled to the dignified compliment of a separate biography. Unfortunately the material at hand
does not permit the writer to make even a meager particularization
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of their principal works. We must therefore delegate some future pen
for a complete history of this overture of Cincinnati ceramics. Such
names as Mrs. Meredith, Mrs. George Dominick, Miss Holabird,
Miss Alice Fletcher, Miss Laura Fry, and several others are not to be
forgotten. Nor are the works and encouraging enthusiasm of Mrs.
William Dodd (without whose unselfish help to others many a fine
thought and almost accomplished purpose would have come to
naught) to be passed over in silence. Mr. Wheatley too should come
in for his share of praise and fame. Working and importing all the
knowledge which he gained from his experiments and producing
many admirable specimens of his skill, he became the owner of a
pottery and kilns where the works of the Pottery Club members and
others were fired.
Even after certain mechanical methods had become solved, others
invented, and the good points found attached to other ceramic productions incorporated, there still was a lack. Limits in perfecting the
finer qualities of the pottery glaze were apparent; that is, mechanical
defects existed in passing those delicate manipulations of glaze compound through the gradation of fiery furnace, which everything made
of clay must endure to determine if the vase, the pitcher, and the
plaque, like the three noted Children of Israel, would come out unscathed. In consequence all of the work alluded to above, particularly
the underglaze, while admirable, exhibiting noble and beautiful artistic
forms and colors of most harmonious and expressive combination,
lacked that certain completeness of finish and signet of certainty
necessary to obtain the appreciation of the great mass of people who,
though able to admire and even understand the perfect rhythm of the
completed whole, could not make allowance for the occasional halts
in the rehearsal.
It fell to the lot of Joseph Longworth's daughter, Mrs. Maria
Longworth Nichols (now Mrs. Bellamy Storer), to supply this deficiency. Herself an artist of fine attainments and education, she
entered upon the problem described above. About the time others
began the work in Cincinnati, fourteen or fifteen years ago, she began
Overture of Cincinnati Ceramics
83
painting on china but was not satisfied with the limits of overglaze
decoration. After two or three years, learning that Mr. Dallas of the
White Ware Pottery on Hamilton Road was willing to have amateur
work fired in his kilns, she went there to see what could be done in
underglaze work. She worked there two years and became interested
in the development of the art. Her father, noticing her zeal and apprepreciating the still apparent mechanical deficiencies, proposed to
furnish her with a place where she could have full authority and
control. Accordingly, he gave her the old schoolhouse on Eastern
Avenue which she turned into a pottery [1880]. Her object was to see
if beautiful things could not be made out of common clay — the red
clay of bricks and the yellow clay of kitchen bowls. This was the
foundation of the Rookwood Pottery. These ingredients form the
largest portion of Rookwood works still in use. The pottery at first
did only experimental work. Everything was untried and we were all
inexperienced. Two years later, after Mr. Baily came to the Rookwood, we began to make really salable and presentable wares. The
decorators all had to serve a long apprenticeship. The rich colors and
deep effects of glaze have been a slow and gradual development, the
success of which was crowned last year (1889) by a gold medal at the
Paris Exposition. One of the Rookwood Pottery's principal discoveries, for which Mrs. Storer holds a patent, is the superimposing
of colored glaze on colored and painted bodies. The ordinary white
glaze would only look like a thin varnish, leaving a bald staring effect
underneath. The delicate tinting of the ground is a discovery made by
Miss Laura Fry working at the Pottery.
These different original methods have given the Rookwood Pottery its distinction and individual peculiarities but for which its product would be like other underglaze earthenware. The Rookwood
Pottery, enthused still by the zeal and inspiration of Mrs. Storer
(although she has now returned to those branches of higher art which
she temporarily laid aside to help on what she believed would become
an important industrial element and a promotion of refined taste) is
making every effort to reach a higher and higher ideal of perfection.
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As soon as the Pottery began to pay expenses, which was last year,
Mrs. Storer made it over to a stock company. Mr. Taylor, to whose
labor and interest it owes its business success, the delicacy of finish in
the decoration, and the mechanical excellence of its wares, is now the
chief owner of the Pottery. With a liberality characteristic of all the
workers and promoters of the Cincinnati Faience, he still extends the
superior advantage of his facilities to deserving amateur practitioners
of the art who it is hoped will keep on with their work, adding year by
year something of higher artistic excellence as well as more complete
and certain mechanical processes.
William Watts Taylor became Mrs. Storer's partner in 1883. In
1891 Mrs. Storer retired from the Rookwood Pottery, transferring all
her interest to Mr. Taylor, who remained its controlling influence until
his death in 1913. Under Mr. Taylor's direction as president, the Rookwood Pottery buildings in Mt. Adams were erected in 1892 and extended
in 1899 and 1904.
Editor