Stockton Vase
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 Stockton Art Pottery:
label: Description
content: Growing from Stockton Terra-Cotta Company, which produced pipe and bricks, the Stockton Art Pottery was formed in 1896 in Stockton, California. Led by Thomas W. Blakey and his son, John W. Blakey, the firm continued the Rekston line, which had been developed at Stockton Terra-Cotta. Rekston was semi-porcelaneous, high-gloss tableware, largely decorated in-mold, with some pieces hand-painted with gold. Stockton Art Pottery expanded artware lines to include monochrome and mottled glazes, with considerable success; in 1897 ten decorators were employed. The death of Thomas Blakey in that year saw supervision transferred to John Blakey, and the firm shifted emphasis more toward brick, pipe, and tiles. The plant was destroyed by fire in 1902, and art pottery was discontinued.
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
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1980.0738.001
label: accession number
content: 1980.0738
label: catalog number
content: 1980.738.001
objectType: label: Object Name
content: vase
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: black (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: blue (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 in x 3 1/2 in; 15.24 cm x 8.89 cm