Roseville Pottery

American, (1890–1953)

The Roseville Pottery Company was founded in 1890 by J. F. Weaver in Roseville, Ohio. It was one of the three major art potteries located in Ohio around the turn of the twentieth century. Though the company originally had great success producing stoneware flower pots and other practical household items, the Arts and Crafts–inspired designs proved more popular. In 1898, the company headquarters moved to Zanesville, Ohio. In 1900, Ross C. Purdy was hired to create the company's first art-pottery line, named Rozanne, combining “Roseville” and “Zanesville.” By 1901, the company owned and operated four plants and employed 325 people.

Beginning shortly after the Civil War, potteries that had been producing utilitarian work began seeing the advantages of adding an art-pottery line. Scientific knowledge of clay and glazes encouraged growth in this direction, and art potteries proliferated around the country. They mostly used mass production methods, while retaining a degree of hand decorating. Prices were kept at a moderate level, enabling the middle class to acquire art objects previously unattainable. However, the original intent of the Arts and Crafts movement was slowly subverted by increasing industrialization. The Roseville Pottery Company produced its final designs in 1953.