Rookwood Pottery

Punch Bowl, 1900 -- Rookwood Pottery -- Anna Marie Valentein, sculptor

Fountain of the Water Nymphs -- Rookwood Pottery -- Clement J Barnhorn, sculptor


This past weekend, I went to visit Tess Avelland, a dear friend of mine (and proprietress of Midnight Muse) who is a kindred Pre-Raphaelite spirit. She, her husband (a big admirer of William Morris as well) and I went to visit the Cincinnati Museum of Art together, and of course they knew exactly what sort of things would catch my eye. I'll do a post soon with some of the general items there that I thought were appealing to Pre-Raphaelite sensibilities, but I wanted first to do a post on the Rookwood Pottery.

Rookwood was founded in 1880, when Maria Longworth Nichols Storer wanted a way to market her hobby of painting blank tableware. The company consistently expanded until the Great Depression, and expanded to create architectural installations for many of Cincinnati's landmarks.

Personally, I admire that Rookwood was a place where a woman artist could create beautiful works and sell them. I'll admit I know very little else about this company besides what I could find on a quick search online, but I saw many beautiful figural works of art in the museum that seemed inspired by the romanticism of the Pre-Raphaelites.