More Pottery and Porcelain
From Haviland to Haeger, the difference in value is the clay AND the manufacturing process.
The art pottery of Rookwood and Van Briggle were manufactured using the same methods as production potteries Haeger and Mc Coy. The difference is in the finishing!
Same Clay, Same Process
Last time, we talked about the difference in clay types and firing temperatures that determine the finished product. This week, our discussion will concern the process of manufacturing. It's important to understand the basics, as the value of a piece of pottery (like the value of almost anything else) is dependant not only upon what it's made of but more importantly, how it's made. Of course there will always be freak occurrences on the collectors market when a piece of lesser quality pottery achieves a higher price then a better one due to hot market conditions and rarity, but typically it's safe to generalize that a piece of Mc Coy will fetch a lower price than a similarly sized and shaped piece of Rookwood, Cowan, or Roseville. How can that be, when they're essentially made of the same clay (stoneware) and are subject to pretty much the same manufacturing process?
Advanced Technology & Ancient Techniques
Pottery manufacturing today is a mixture of advanced technology and hands on craftsmanship, and except for the computerized shuttle kilns, is still done the way it always has been. Typically, from creation to completion, even a piece of common production pottery is handled 26 separate times before its finished! Pottery is created in a variety of ways, including hand building & throwing, pressing, casting, and jiggering. Hand building, and to a degree, throwing are methods NOT used in large scale pottery-making operations. Pressing is a process in which a thick wad of clay is stamped out by machine. This is used for shallow bowls and plates. Casting is so called because the object is created with the use of plaster casts. In the casting process, very liquid clay is pumped into 2-piece plaster molds. When the clay in contact with the mold hardens to the proper thickness, the excess is poured out (and reused). The molds are taken apart, and the object is trimmed, washed and dried before glazing and firing. This is the method that was used for all production vases from those sold in Jewelry store to the ones you could pick up in the five and dime.
Van Briggle & Mc Coy
The finishing process is where the Van Briggles and the Mc Coys parted company in ways that had to do with company philosophy and market niche. Nelson Mc Coy once told me that Mc Coy Pottery took great pride in producing . . ."the most attractive and best possible product for the money" but that their line was value and mass market driven. And, although I'm far too young to have had any conversation with Artus Van Briggle, it's safe to say that he was known for his sculptural artistry as well as unusual glazes unique to his pottery. Mc Coy's success was based on quantity-frequent (annual) additions to their line, and a minimum of hand work on the basic line items. Van Briggle and the rest of the art potteries had limited product lines, attracted world renowned decorators, placed much more emphasis on hand work, and spent years developing glazes whose formulas were so closely guarded that they frequently vanished upon the death of the formulators.
