tiles for installation - Rookwood Pottery

ookwood Company informaTion 6
our legacy
STayinG TrUE
founded in 1880 by maria Longworth
nichols, rookwood pottery was the first
female-owned manufacturing company
in the United States. from the beginning,
maria expected her pottery shop to be
exceptional. She hired a team of famous
artists, talented art students and daring
glaze technicians, encouraging them to
exchange ideas and experiment. Less than a
decade after its founding, rookwood pottery
surprised the international art community by
winning the Grand prize at the 1889 Exposition
Universelle in paris. This international attention
transformed the world’s perception of american art,
paving the way for the american art pottery movement of the early 20th century. it also
marked a turning point for rookwood, who was still making its world-class pottery in an
abandoned schoolhouse.
after 1889, rookwood continued to receive a great deal of publicity worldwide for
winning the top awards in other international competitions. museums from around the
world began requesting rookwood for their permanent collections. rookwood, like
Tiffany & Company, became a staple in elite households and was sold across the United
States through select retailers.
always on the vanguard of design
trends and technology, rookwood
developed an airbrush, called a
mouth atomizer, which was used
to apply glazes. This innovative
technique helped to standardize
“Le Type rookwood” allowing for
a gradual change and layering of
color. This rookwood technique is
still used at the pottery today and
widely used across many industries.