The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-27
Squaring
the Circle
With
THE HoosIER EDITOR
WHEN I first glanced at the

u n
w name of that pottery I
thought it wa.s lockwood. But it
isn't. It's lockwood, and there's a
display of the pottery down at
Charley Mayors this week.
lockwood pottery is pretty exclu-
sive, Ike Lily Dasche hat. If
you get a piece of it you can be
pretty sure that there isn't an
other exactly like it anywhere. For
the modelling is done by hand -
none of this modernistic technolog-
ical art where the whole thing is
done by machinery. And the vases
are still turned on the old-time
potter's wheel.
After the potter gets through
does it, the initials of the decorator
goes to work. And just to show who
does it, the initials of the decorator
are put on the bottom. The date
the piece was made is there, too,
right under the lockwood trade
mark.
That trademark was started with
one flame at the side, and another
flame was added each year. Then,
in 1900, they got clear around the
circle and since they didn't want to
quit business they started putting
Roman numerals on the bottom of
the flame. So you can tell just when
any piece was made, and by whom.
T OTIS of famous people have been
IL through the pottery, and in the
display this week there's a vase that
Queen Elisabeth of Belgium signed
when she went through the plant
at Cincinnati It's on the base, and
it says. in her own handwriting,
Elisabeth" with a line extending
from the bottom part of the capital
E clear below her name.
And right below that is ''22 Octo-
Der 1919" No periods or commas.
Then, below the queens name is
the name of the decorator. We
couldn't read it very clearly and
had to look it up in the lockwood
booklet. The decorator was John
d. Wareham, and after we read his
name it was easier to decipher the
name below the queens.
The queen put her name on a big
sort of notified blue vase. Later,
though, it was dropped or Jared
very hard, for a piece was broken
off at the top. But they put it back
together, and you'd never notice it
unless you looked real close.
Albert Louis zoller, who is a part
ner in the Mayer firm, has his own
piece on display, too. It's brown,
and you can tell it's his for he
scratched his initials on the side,
near the base. He put "a. l.. z.
$780,"
A NTON SCHERRER said the
n other day that the Rookwood
people probably have their eyes on
modern trends. They do, for there
are lot of modernistic pieces in
the exhibit. One of them is white
dancer, which was made by young
designer, Louise Abel.
The lockwood people sent her to
Europe to study art, and think she's
pretty good. We do, too. You can
tell her work by the capital A in
a circle. That's how she signs it.
The lockwood folk also have
had their eyes on the past. One of
the colors they use is Rouge
Flambe, which we were told
means RED Flame" For long
time, only the Chinese knew how
to get that color on pottery. But
the lockwood decorators fooled
around with colors and dyes and
finally they found out how to do it.
Oh, yes. Down in Cincinnati folks
are pretty proud of the pottery, and
have prizes for parties designed
especially for them. The lockwood
people are glad to do it, and the
winners are glad to get them. One
man down there a while back had
$50 vases and ash trays made. He
had big party, and gave the vases
to the women, and the ash trays
to the men.
Every one agreed the presents were
nice, and those that weren't at the
party wished they had been.
Contributed by Seymour Francis,
! of The Times staff.
Il Il
A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy had a
"A birthday recently and his IA
ther gave him silver dollar and
an old alarm clock. Naturally, he
liked the alarm clock best.
The family thought that was fine,
until today.
At midnight last night it went off
in the kitchen, farthest spot in the
house from the bedroom.
Papa padded out and turned it
off.