Poillon Pottery Pitcher
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 Poillon Pottery:
label: Description
content: William Poillon expanded the Salamander Works in Woodbridge, New Jersey, calling it Poillon Pottery and incorporating it in 1871. His son, Cornelius, became president around 1890, and the factory burned down in 1896. His wife, Clara Louise Poillon, spearheaded a reorganization into C.L. and H.A. Poillon Pottery in 1903, in partnership with her sister-in-law, Mrs. Howard Poillon. They built a new kiln at the Salamander Works, and Clara Louise Poillon led the artware design and production. Several lines of molded earthenware with glossy glazes in blue, green, and yellow, as well as golden and orange lusters, were produced by Poillon Pottery. Clara retired in 1928.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
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: Mrs. Marcus Benjamin
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.379597
label: catalog number
content: 379597
label: accession number
content: 150313
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pitcher
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: monochrome, yellow (overall surface decoration color name)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 5/16 in x 6 1/2 in; 31.3055 cm x 16.51 cm