(pronunciation: as spelled)

Rookwood Pottery has been popular and highly identifiable since its beginning. Many styles of pottery have been made by the pottery in the years since its founding in 1880. Various lines of pottery, including both those with a hard, glossy finish and those with matte glazes have been remarkable for their profusion of designs and shapes. When the pottery was closed in 1967, the formulas and molds were kept together until economic support could be gathered to reinstate the pottery name and production in the 1980′s and the first decade of the Twenty-First Century. Work continues to this day to reuse the Rookwood Pottery molds and glazes in production pieces for modern sensibilities.

Vase, Chief Shavehead © by ego technique.

All Rookwood pottery is marked with the RP (R reversed), with a way to determine the date of production, some shape or line designations, and with the initials of the decorators in many cases.

See Rookwood Pottery.

My opinion: Some of the lines of Rookwood are heavy and dark, but the matte glazed forms can be beautiful. Those so-called “reproductions”, made in white or other colors after the revival of the pottery in the 1980′s may well show off the forms even more completely by the absence of heavy colors or thick glazes. Look for those forms and decorations, modern or original, that speak to you, and pray the entire Rookwood production does not all call your name. The tiles are very nice.

Product lines:
Standard Glaze: deep, rich under-glaze backgrounds with floral motifs or genre scenes. Frequently these pieces are most notable for the dark overall tone of the pieces. Vases, jugs, mugs, plaques; shades of ochre and brown predominate.
Sea Green: combinations of green and blue with touches of warm colors like brown or golden yellow. Vases predominate.
Arial Blue: shades of blue similar to the porcelain of Royal Copenhagen.
Iris Glaze: a hard, shiny glaze over decorations of shades of similar colors, in the Royal Copenhagen aesthetic. Vases predominate.
Iris/Black Iris: incised objects or those with a deep, black background. Some of these have metal overlays or metallic lids. Vases primarily.
Matte glazes: also called the Z class for the Z impressed on the pieces from 1900 to 1904. Pieces may be modeled, incised or painted with various matte glazes. Vases and bowls.
Vellum: pieces with normal, painted designs but retaining an overall matte finish. Vases, plaques, bowls.
Soft, porcelain body, used after 1914. Previous stoneware body continued to be used for some of the previous glaze lines. Several lines of glazes were created or re-developed for the new porcelain body. More variation in line and style of decorations as well as shapes. Vases, bowls, tiles.
Production Wares: products considered to be more mass produced than the hand-painted wares of the other lines. Molded, usually simply decorated or covered in one glaze. Bookends, bowls, candlesticks, flower frogs, figures, ginger jars, planters, vases.

Prices:
From almost reasonable to out of the question, depending on the piece. Hold out for those you like best, and save your money until the right time comes to buy.

Collector’s Society: None.

The official company site is: http://www.rookwood.com/

History
Rookwood, named after the family estate, was established in 1880 by Maria Longworth Nichols. She was heavily influenced by the pottery on display at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Her pottery expanded and began to employ full-time decorators in 1881.

Over the years the Rookwood Pottery decorators and molders kept pace with the changing fashions of the time, including Art Nouveau and Arte Deco. The pottery survived economic depressions and world wars. Their success invited imitation by J.B. Owens, Roseville, Weller and other area potteries throughout the first half of the Twentieth Century. Finally changing tastes and the availability of other materials led to the end of production in 1967. Even still, the Rookwood molds and glaze formulas were kept together and several attempts at re-establishing production have occurred since. Arabic numerals indicate those efforts after 1967 from the originals.

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Read more about porcelain collectibles in the Porcelain Collectibles Guide.