128 
KERAMIC STUDIO 
AMERICAN WORK IN POTTERY 
i the New York Tit 
ALKING to the members of the New York- 
Society of Keramic Arts, Mrs. Horace C. 
Wait, a clever water-color artist, a member of 
Sorosis and a woman who has taken much in- 
terest in pottery for the last few years, said: 
"We Americans are snobbish about our pur- 
chases. We won't buy things that are American, because 
they are American, though they may be more meritorious 
than similar things that come from abroad. I have been in- 
terested in old china, and through it I have come to take a 
great interest in modern work and the people who are doing 
it. But they will never succeed in America in giving us good 
pottery, at reasonable prices, until people become interested 
and buy it I have had a practical illustration of the snobbery 
which refuses to buy home products given me by a man who 
has done some beautiful art work in pottery. He was in 
France studying when he made his first contributions to 
America's stores, and everything he sent over sold well. It 
sold so well that when he came back here to start a pottery 
he had no idea that he would not be entirely successful. But 
the moment that his work was done on American soil, al. 
though its character was unchanged, he found there was no 
demand for it. People would not buy it because it was 
American. 
"I find that people do not know anything about what is 
done in America. I tell a woman who is interested in china 
of work that is being done within a stone's throw of her own 
home, but she has never heard of it. I am taking pains now, 
when I have occasion to send presents abroad, to send as far 
as possible American work. It is particularly appreciated 
there, for we are not entirely alone in a liking for work that 
comes from another country, though in the countries abroad 
they support their home work. 
"Women have had much to do with the production of 
the good pottery we have in America and they must create 
the demand which will make its manufacture a possibility. I 
went into a big department store in New York the other day 
and asked for American pottery. They showed me a number 
of things in simple household articles, but when I asked for 
something in art pottery they acknowledged that they had 
not a piece in the establishment. That was a representative 
store. We are getting a deluge of cheap French and German 
pottery. The Rookwood pottery grew out of woman's art 
club work in Cincinnati. It is original work and only artists 
are employed and the results are beautiful. They are now 
branching out and doing something in imitation of the Royal 
Copenhagen or Iris ware in soft paste with great success, but 
they do not believe generally in imitation. It has been the 
mistake of American potters that they have imitated and not 
originated. The Rookwood ware pottery is beautiful, and it 
would be thought that it might compete with anything, but 
you would find if you should go into a shop where it is sold 
that they excluded all other American pottery to concentrate 
their efforts upon the Rookwood. There is a pottery in 
Zanesville, Ohio, where they are doing work along the lines 
of the Rookwood and have had excellent success. 
"Mrs. Pauline Jacobus of Edgerton, Wis., started a pot- 
tery some time in the eighties and brought out some beauti- 
ful art ware and some household utensils as pot boilers. She 
used the Wisconsin cream-colored clay, which produced beau- 
tiful tones. She did some beautiful underglaze work. But it 
was too much of an art work to be a financial success, and was 
given up. Now a lawyer has undertaken to continue it, as an 
artist would, for the beauty of the results, and not as a money- 
making scheme, and with success. Miss Mears, the clever 
woman artist, has made some designs for him. They have 
done some things that might be called terra cotta work, and 
some beautiful designs in bas relief. 
"Volkmar, who started a pottery on Long Island, strives 
for color and form, but it is difficult for him to make people 
understand that some decoration is not needed. His work is 
exhibited as an art work in one of the art stores in New York, 
where beautiful things in other lines of art are to be found 
from time to time. The Grueby ware of Boston is beautiful; 
there are some wonderful greens to be found in it. Then 
there is an inexpensive ware made in New Milford, Ct., by a 
man who is trying for good and original effects, and his pot- 
tery is sold in one of the New York shops at very reasonable 
prices. 
"In doing work, the best materials should be used, and I 
would not advise using poor paste for decorating because it is 
American. The best paste comes from England and good 
decorative work can not be done with poor paste any more than 
a good gown can be made from poor silk. 1 have some En. 
glish china with a simple border and a monogram in the cen- 
ter that is a continual delight to me, because of the warm 
ivory tint of the white. It is beautiful. I have some Cope- 
land and Cauldon ware that is so hard that it can not be 
nicked, though it goes into the oven. But I want people to 
become interested in the American potteries. 
"As for the old blue ware in this country and in England, 
I have found that there is not much of it here, but that a 
great deal of it is still in existence in the out-of-the-way places 
in England, though that has been denied. I have made cyc- 
ling tours with my husband in both countries, along roads 
little visited by the tourist. I think everything in New Eng- 
land has been very well bought up. I have a house in Maine, 
fifteen miles from a railroad station, and I have made tours 
from there, finding almost nothing. And the people are piti- 
fully poor. I found one old woman with hardly clothes 
enough to hold together, but an old Colonial mirror that she 
would not part with. People will keep anything they can see 
themselves in, and that possibly had some sentiment con- 
nected with it. I bought some things that I did not want ' 
and for what people thought were fabulous prices, because 
they needed the money so much. Seeing an old sugar bowl 
in the window, with broken handles, making it too ugly for 
the table but good enough for a flowerpot in a window, I 
would stop to ask if there was any other old china. 
"The old blue ware with historic scenes that we have in 
this country was made in Staffordshire at the beginning of 
this century, though people always say it is over a hundred 
years old. Then followed light blues and browns and pinks 
that were interesting rather than beautiful. Our New Eng- 
land ancestors showed their severe rugged traits of character 
in their tableware. 
"Near Concord, Mass., I found an old Irish farmer who 
had collected a good deal of china in his barn, but he had no 
idea of the relative value of things. He had some Killarney 
plates for which lie asked an enormous price, but some beau- 
tiful lustre ware that stood beside them I bought for very 
little. I found a Lafayette platter in one place that I visited, 
and bought it for two or three dollars, but there were no 
plates to match it. Those had gone in service to pot roasts. 
"There are some perfectly delightful things to be found at 
