And the winner is....... Rookwood

Well, I randomly chose an item from the list and up popped a piece of Rookwood pottery. Rookwood is preeminent in American art pottery and is probably the mose well known after Roseville (which seem to be more commom at most antiques shows and flea markets). The piece that got pulled from the hat is the following:

This 12 inch matte ox blood red and green tinged vase is representative of Rookwood production ware from the Arts and Crafts period of American style, it could have been found in almost any Craftsman styled home of the period. This is the type of pottery that would have been chosen by Frank Lloyd Wright for one of his designs.

One of the best features of Rookwood pottery is how well they were marked and documented, this marking system makes Rookwood fun and a joy to collect. The pottery itself is an aid in identifying and dating a piece. Take the gander at the bottom of this piece in the photo below:

The first thing most people notice is the large lightbulb shaped mark at the top; this is the Rookwood Flame mark. It consists of a conjoined back to back RP surrounded by small flame marks.It was first used in June 1886, and consisted of only the RP without any flames, it became their standard mark at that time replacing the previously used "ROOKWOOD". In 1887 a single flame was added to the mark, and an additional flame was added for each following year until 14 flames surrounded the RP in 1900. Pieces made after 1900 have an additional Roman Numeral stamped below the flame mark. In the photo above we see the 14 Flame mark with an impressed VII below, this denotes the year 1907. 

Below the Flame/Date mark is found the shape number followed by the size letter. In this case this is shape 951 and is in size B. The size letter does not stand for a particular measurement but more a relative measurement. There were six size categories of Rookwood pottery, A through F, with A being the largest and F the smallest. So A was larger than a B, which is larger than C, ans so on though F. So this was the second largest size in this shape. This shape according to recorsd published in books on Rookwood was made in sizes A, B, C, D, and E only.

All Rookwood has a minimum of the Flame mark with/without date stamp and the shape/size mark, if it was made from the second half of 1886 on. Pieces prior to this had a different series of marks but are marked.

This piece being production ware is not Artist signed as many Rookwood ware are, and  at 12 iches it is larger than most Rookwood pieces. Rookwood tends to found in sizes 10 inches and under.

Tomorrow I will examine an additional Rookwood piece which is an Artist signed piece, and review the similarities and differences in the markings, as well as other pertinent information not covered here.

To All a Good Night!