American Art Pottery
Company Histories
 
 

Some Company Histories.

Roseville Pottery
The Roseville Pottery Company was organized in 1890 with George F. Young as the general manager and on January 4, 1892 the company was incorporated in Oho. Mr. Young eventually gained control of all the company shares and under his guidance the Roseville Pottery Company became a major force in the production of American Art Pottery. George lead the company until his retirement in 1918 when he turned over operation to his son. The company was in continous operation until 1954 when operations ceased and the plant was sold.

In 1898 Roseville Pottery Company moved its administrative offices to Zanesville, Ohio and began aquiring production facilities. By 1910 all production had ceased in Roseville, Ohio. After a fire destroyed the 'German Cookware' plant in 1917 all Roseville pottery was produced at a single facility in Zanesville.
For more visit RosevillePlace.com
Teco Pottery
In 1881, William Gates founded the Terra Cotta Tile Works for production of terra-cotta bricks, drain tiles and pottery. In 1902 a line of art pottery called Teco was introduced to the public. While the exact date is unknown, it appears that production of Teco Art Pottery ended sometime in the mid 1920s.

The Teco Pottery line included over 500 designs by 1911. Gates himself created nearly half of the shapes with many of the others being created by some of the best outside designers available. For the most part Teco Pottery lacked formal decoration and relied on geometric, organic or architectural designs to make a statement. The geometric forms with angular handles and buttresses made Teco a perfect fit with the "Prairie School" style of Frank Loyd Wright. Teco Pottery is most highly valued by todays Arts and Crafts collectors.

The Pottery is most famous for simple, matte green glazes some of which exhibit a charcoaling effect in the form of a metallic, black overglaze. Other successful Teco colors include brown, yellow, blue, pink and maroon. It is not widely known but Gates Potteries was among the first (if not first) to create a first chass crystalline glaze.
Van Briggle Pottery
Van Briggle Pottery was founded by Artus and Anne Van Briggle in 1900 in Colorado Springs, Colorado where they began producing art pottery in 1901. Both had been accomplished decorators for Rookwood Pottery prior to leaving because of Artus's failing health. Artus suffered from tuberculosis and it was believed the climate and altitude change in Colorado would benefit his health. Artus Van Briggle passed away in 1904 from complications related to his illness. Anne continued to run Van Briggle and produced many of the arts and crafts shapes until 1912.

The following is from an early Van Briggle Pottery catalog.
The full catalog can be seen at VanBrggle.info.

To those who are not familiar with the name of VAN BRIGGLE POTTERY, a condensed sketch of its beginning may prove of interest. Through years of unremitting toil and discouragement, Mr. Van Briggle found that Colorado clays would produce those mysterious velvety glazes of early Chinese pottery which have been lost to the world for so many centuries, and which are now to be seen only in the larger museums of this country and Europe. At the Paris Salon the fruits of his discovery were rewarded with the highest praise and honor.

Upon this wonderful achievement the present plant (the second largest in the United States) was made possible in 1907. A site was chosen in the upper end of MONUMENT PARK (Colorado Springs’ most beautiful playground), where an unsurpassed view of Pikes Peak and the Front Range would be a constant inspiration for those actively engaged in carrying on this great work. Neither layman nor artist is here hampered by the humdrum of factory life, but both are lifted to those higher manifestations of a living art of which the VAN BRIGGLE product has come to be representative.