Hampshire Pottery Cover
date: label: date made
content: ca 1830
name: label: maker
content: Hampshire Pottery
notes: label: Description
content: About the Arts and Crafts Movement:
label: Description
content: Beginning in England in the early 1880s, the Arts and Crafts movement spread across the United States and Europe by the late 1880s. It celebrated the importance of beauty in everyday objects and urged a reconnection to nearby nature. The movement resisted the way industrial mass production undermined artisan crafts and was inspired by the ideas of artisan William Morris and writer John Ruskin. Valuing hand-made objects using traditional materials, it was known for a color palette of earth tones. Its artistic principles replaced realistic, colorful, and three-dimensional designs with more abstract and simplified forms using subdued tones. Stylized plant forms and matte glazes echoed a shift to quiet restraint in household décor. The Arts and Crafts movement also embraced social ideals, including respect for skilled hand labor and concern for the quality of producers’ lives. The movement struggled with the tension between the cost of beautiful crafts and the limited number of households able to afford them. Some potters relied on practical products such as drain tiles to boost income or supported themselves with teaching or publications. Arts and Crafts influence extended to other endeavors, including furniture, such as Stickley’s Mission Style, and architecture, such as the Arts and Crafts bungalow, built widely across the United States. American Arts and Crafts pottery flourished between 1880 and the first World War, though several potteries continued in successful operation into the later 20^th^ century.
label: Description
content: About Hampshire Pottery:
label: Description
content: Hampshire Pottery was established in Keene, Vermont, in 1871 by James Scholly Taft and James Burnap, one of several successful potteries using rich local clay deposits for utilitarian household items. In 1879, Thomas Stanley joined the firm, and highly-glazed Majolica ware was developed. Decorative pottery lines were expanded in the 1880s, and molded souvenir pieces with transfer-printed scenes sold well. Hampshire Pottery benefited from the expansion of middle-class tourism, as urbanites visited resort towns and sought souvenirs. Chemist Cadmon Robertson joined the firm in 1904 and developed over 900 new glaze formulas for art pottery. Robertson died in 1914, and the pottery was sold in 1916 to George M. Morton, formerly connected with Grueby Pottery. The Keene location continued to produce until shortages caused by World War I contributed to its closing in 1917. After the war, operation resumed and came to specialize in white china for hotels and mosaic floor tiles. Hampshire Pottery closed permanently in 1923.
label: Description
content: About the Object:
label: Description
content: Brown glazed redware cover for large jar or bean pot. Made at Hampshire Pottery, Keene, New Hampshiore, after 1830.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New Hampshire, Keene
topic: label: Subject
content: Art Pottery
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Lura Woodside Watkins
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.392487
label: catalog number
content: 392487
label: accession number
content: 196885
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cover
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: ceramic, earthenware, coarse (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 1/2 in; 13.97 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 1/4 in x 5 1/2 in; 3.175 cm x 13.97 cm