Rookwood Returns
A group of Cincinnati investors armed with original Rookwood molds and secret glaze recipes fires up the kilns once again.
Maria Longworth Nichols
Maria was a girl with a goal-the production of artistic pottery at affordable prices. When her vision combined with her husband’s deep pockets, The Rookwood Pottery was born. From its start in 1880 in an abandoned schoolhouse to its status as medal winning exhibitor at international expositions in Paris and Chicago, the Rookwood name became synonymous with excellence in art and innovation. For Nichols, the emphasis was art not business, so she hired William Watts Taylor to manage the pottery in 1883. Under Taylor’s leadership, Rookwood achieved artistic and technical eminence, emerging as America’s premiere art pottery.
Top Decorators and Gold Medals
In 1886, the company adopted the reversed R connected to a P logo as the official Rookwood pottery stamp. Later, individual flames were added surrounding the RP to provide production dates. More importantly, however, was the addition to the staff of decorators with national and international renown. Japanese artist Kataro Shirayamadani joined the pottery in 1887. In 1889, Rookwood was awarded the First Prize Gold medal at the Exhibition of American Art Industry in Philadelphia and a gold medal at the Exposition Universalle in Paris.
Matte Glazes for Changing Tastes
Rookwood continued to experiment to produce new products in line with the new aesthetic movement that emphasized simplicity in design. In 1904, the company unveiled its new line of matte glazes that had been in the works for eight years, glazes that emphasized form rather than the surface decoration abandoned during the Arts and Crafts movement. The company flourished until the 1920’s, when the world’s problem became the pottery’s problems. The collapse of the stock market and the depression had a predictable effect on the pottery that produced luxury items. By World War II, Rookwood was declared a non-essential industry, and the raw materials for pottery were diverted to the war effort.
Rookwood Returns to Cincinnati
After closing its doors in 1941, the pottery was sold at auction and went through a series of owners until it closed for good in 1967. In 1982, Arthur Townley, a dentist from Michigan and an avid Rookwood collector, bought the Rookwood assets including original molds, shape books, and glaze formulas. Dr. Townley considered himself Rookwood’s caretaker, safeguarding company secrets until they could be returned to Cincinnati.
If you ask a Cincinnati native about Tiffany or Steuben, they might not have much to say, but almost everyone over a certain age grew up with or around Rookwood, or knows about the Rookwood vase now residing in the Cincinnati Art Museum, that sold in 2004 for $350,750, the highest price ever achieved for a piece of American Art Pottery. From the lobbies of public buildings, the ice-cream parlor in Union Terminal, the water fountain surrounds at area schools, to countless residential bathrooms, kitchens, and fireplaces, the city is full of examples of the Rookwood art. And for the first time in almost forty years, pottery lovers will be able to buy new Rookwood products for their homes.
Rookwood Pottery President Christopher Rose heads a group of investors (including Cincinnati native, pop-singer Nick Lachey), that purchased the Rookwood assets from Dr. Townley. True to Maria Longworth Nichols’s original vision, the New Rookwood Pottery www.therookwoodpottery.com plans include moderately priced pottery along with high end items. Rose says that the company will initially produce architectural products and plans to add art pottery when it moves to a permanent location. That location won’t be the old Rookwood pottery building in historic mount Adams, a part of Cincinnati that was once almost wholly owned by Maria’s grandfather, Nicholas Longworth. The pottery was converted into a restaurant and night club in the mid seventies, featuring private dining in the old kilns.
