Modern pottery is either moulded by hand, thrown on the potter’s wheel, or cast in moulds. After it has been formed, it is generally decorated, either by the artist-potter himself or by some young man or woman who has learned design as applied to pottery. The decoration is either painted with colours which have been mixed with clays, like some of the Rookwood ware, or incised, modelled in relief, or built up, as the Volkmar pottery.
After it is quite dry, the pot is fired in the great kiln, this time without glazing, or in the biscuit. It is then glazed, and fired for the second time.
The philosophical potter—and every potter needs philosophy—will not despair if, in the second firing, the piece is not satisfactory. He glazes it again, with every care, in time for the next firing, and is often rewarded by having this ugly duckling of one kiln turn out the swan of the next.
Among the pioneers of art pottery in this country was Mrs. Maria Longworth Storer, a Cincinnati woman, who in 1880 opened a pottery called by the name of her father’s place, Rookwood. Mrs. Storer had, in addition to an artistic temperament, the patience and determination, as well as the financial resources, necessary to such an undertaking. The first kiln of the new pottery was drawn on Thanksgiving Day. By 1889, the pottery had become self-supporting. Rookwood has always been a distinctively American pottery. From the first, native clays were used, and their possibilities were discovered with the firing of each new kiln. Clays that fire at a comparatively low heat were used at first, and this necessitated employing the soft glazes. Later, the yellow, or Rockingham, ware formed the body of the pieces, and now a creamy-white body is used, which produces a strong and beautiful pottery. This is finished with a mat-glaze. At first, the tint of the native clay inclined the colour scheme to warm browns, yellows, and reds. This ware was decorated with flower or figure designs under a brilliant glaze. It is known as Standard Rookwood. The Tiger Eye and Goldstone are other wares with glaze effects not unlike the Standard Rookwood. Both of these have dark grounds with an occasional luminous gleam of gold—one of the interesting accidents of the kiln. Other varieties of Rookwood, in the order of their development, were Sea Green, in which an opalescent green effect is sometimes relieved with a touch of yellow or red, and Iris, which has the creamy-white body already referred to. This enables the potter to produce gray tones in his glazes. In Rookwood, which is coated with the flowing glaze, there is a quality not unlike some of the old Chinese wares. It has a richness of texture luminous and beautiful. The decorations are painted in relief, so simply that the glaze flows charmingly over them. There is also a variety of the Rookwood pottery with a mat-glaze. In this, the process is entirely different from that used in making the other kinds of Rookwood. The glaze is of the greatest importance, the forms are simple, sometimes almost rugged, and the decorations are subordinate. There are even pieces entirely undecorated, which depend upon their beauty of colour and texture alone. Decorations adapted from Indian designs are often modelled in relief or incised. Occasionally, metals are applied. Mantels, wall-panels, drinking-fountains, and architectural reliefs are also made of the Rookwood faience.
Many are the potters’ marks that have been used at Rookwood. Before 1886 there were eight in all. At that time, the mark shown in Fig. 66 was adopted. This was used, with the addition of a flame mark for every succeeding year, until 1900, when the mark was like Fig. 67. Since that date, a Roman numeral has been added below the mark, according to the year the piece was made. For example, the pieces of the present year have the Roman number IV. below the mark used in 1900.
