Clifton Art Pottery Vase
date: label: date made
content: ca 1905-1907
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 Clifton Art Pottery:
label: Description
content: William A. Long, a druggist from Steubenville, Ohio, experimented with pottery glazes in the 1880s and formed Lonhuda Pottery with two partners in 1892. After the firm moved to Zanesville, Ohio, to join Weller Pottery, Long went to work for the J. B. Owens Company there and subsequently moved to Denver, Colorado, where he founded the Denver China and Pottery Company in 1901. In 1905, he moved to Clifton, New Jersey, and founded the Clifton Pottery, together with chemist, Fred Tschirner. Clifton Pottery was known for several lines. A dense, white ware was decorated with a pale green crystalline glaze or with a flowing blend of pale, semi-matte colors. The Clifton Indian Ware echoed Southwest Native American forms, with unglazed clay exteriors and high-gloss black interiors, which were waterproof. Floral and Art Nouveau designs were also produced. Clifton ceased art pottery production in 1911 and shifted to tile production, changing its name to Clifton Porcelain and Tile Company.
label: Description
content: About the Object:
label: Description
content: Decorated in style of Pueblo pottery from Homoluhi pueblo. Clifton's Indian line introduced mid 1906, later copied by Owens & Weller.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New Jersey, Newark
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: Marcus Benjamin Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.379667
label: catalog number
content: 379667
label: accession number
content: 150313
objectType: label: Object Name
content: vase
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: polychrome (overall surface decoration color name)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 15.5448 cm x 21.59 cm; 6 1/8 in x 8 1/2 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 5/8 in x 9 1/4 in; 16.8275 cm x 23.495 cm