American Garden Pottery 
A GARDEN BOWL 
Designed by T. H. Pond Made at The Poillon Pottery 
patterned after a vessel found at Pompeii. 
Nothing else shown in this article matches 
it in a certain crispness and vigor of style. 
H as it not a touch of the pagan pride 
that claimed the place and period for its 
own ? By its side the vase marked S is 
diffuse, almost garrulous, without saying 
half so much, while T, another antique 
shape, is more beautiful without possessing 
the peculiar incisive tang of its neighbor. 
All of these were well worth imitating in 
American pottery, but again this polished 
perfection of surface is regrettable. Pom¬ 
pous and yet characteristic of its time is a 
large Louis XIV vase, “ The Triumph of 
Neptune ” (W), while in X and Y, baroque 
superfluity and heaviness have already made 
their appearance. 
The Grueby Faience Company, of Boston, 
has included in its outdoor pottery decora¬ 
tive bits for fountains and balustrades, insets 
for garden walls and tiles for piazza screens, 
as well as the usual jars and vases for plants. 
No other American pottery excels this one 
in the cool and agreeable surface of its ware, 
and none has put forth a more artistic or 
personal piece of work than the large shal¬ 
low bowl shown in the illustration. Grueby 
ware, whose shapes are designed by George 
P. Kendrick, has a texture softly luminous, 
without hinting at polish. Its skin is smooth 
and fine, but not inanimate. In this bowl, 
for example, it is particularly luscious and 
desirable. This, in fact, is one of the not 
too numerous examples of American garden 
pottery that may properly be the subject of 
enthusiasm. It is far superior to the taller 
Grueby pot reproduced here. 
From the same establishment came the 
lion’s head in terra-cotta, for a fountain in the 
Dublin, N. H., garden of Mr. J. Lawrence 
Mauran, the St. Louis architect. Phis was a 
happy idea, and the surroundings are es¬ 
pecially fortunate. It is included here as a 
hint at the scope of terra-cotta, when prop¬ 
erly treated, as a decorative factor in the gar¬ 
den. Quite novel is the piazza railing of 
perforated tiles, glazed on both sides, for a 
Cambridge house whose architect was Mr. FI. 
Langford Warren. The danger of breakage 
may be less than it looks, but terra-cotta, 
though an inch cube, will resist 6,500 pounds 
if thoroughly hardened. Probably this was 
experimental ; but it is pleasing enough to 
suggest a repetition, and, in that case, the 
design might profitably be varied in adjoin¬ 
ing sections of the railing. 
Seeking “ structural, simple lines,” and 
aiming to adapt his designs to the exact need 
and peculiarity of each new set of conditions, 
Theodore Fianford Pond, designer for the 
Poillon Pottery at Woodbridge has, con¬ 
sciously or not, drifted into the pathway of 
“ L' Art Nouveau." Fie has sought to give 
his work “ absolute suitability to uses and 
materials, without a blind adherence to classic 
or stereotyped forms and lines.” But has he 
A PIERCED JARDINIERE uu 
Designed by T. H. Pond Made at The Poillon Pottery 
