Norse Pottery Bowl
date: label: date made
content: 1904-1913
name: label: maker
content: Norse Pottery Company
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 20th century.
label: Description
content: About Norse Pottery:
label: Description
content: Norse Pottery was established in Edgerton, Wisconsin, in 1903, by Thorwald Samson and Louis Ipson, both former employees of Pauline Pottery. In 1904, Arthur Washburn Wheelock acquired Norse Pottery and moved it to Rockford, Illinois. Norse Pottery was distinctive in creating ceramic versions of bronze vessels excavated in Scandinavia, using a dull metallic glaze. The discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 1738 began an international craze for classical furniture, pottery, and glass that continued into the first half of the twentieth century. Archaeological expeditions unearthed ancient artifacts from Greece to Denmark that inspired countless replicas and redesigns. Focusing on the popularity of these historical objects, the Norse Pottery Company manufactured copies of archaic bronze, iron, or stone vases. Items were sold with information about the history of the original. Production ended in 1913.
label: Description
content: About the Object:
label: Description
content: Earthenware footed bowl "bronzed" with dark matte finish and incising resembling Scandinavian forms. Made by Norse Pottery Co, 1904-13.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Rockford
topic: label: Subject
content: Art Pottery
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.237961
label: accession number
content: 45701
label: catalog number
content: 237961
objectType: label: Object Name
content: bowl
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: green (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: polychrome (overall surface decoration color name)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 in x 7 1/2 in; 10.16 cm x 19.05 cm