Cowan Pottery & Cleveland School: Arts Crafts Movement

Table of Contents

Cowan Pottery and the Cleveland School offers an intimate portrait of R. Guy Cowan and his circle of family, colleagues, designers, and students. Over 1120 photographs chronicle Cowan's pottery, pottery marks, and artist signatures. Scores of previously unknown Cowan shapes are illustrated (both unique and molded). This book is a compendium of information about Cowan Pottery products. The accessories, table lamps, tea sets, vases, and other utilitarian wares. A comprehensive "Cowan Pottery Glaze and Shape Guide" simplifies identification and dating.

The engaging stories of Cowan's children, artists, and employees are retold within a historical framework that brings Cowan and his generation to life. As a key member of the group of artists known as "the Cleveland School," R. Guy Cowan taught American potters to make the transition from handmade Arts and Crafts pots to quality, mass-produced modem wares. His influence was felt in the artwares of countless American concerns and in the studio pottery and ceramic sculpture produced in later life by his students at the Cleveland School of Art.

This volume is arranged by subject. Entire chapters are devoted to the Art in Industry Movement, ceramic sculpture, Art Deco, sculptor Waylande Gregory, and other subjects. Of universal interest are detailed discussions of the ceramics program at Alfred University; the Arts and Crafts Movement; the manufacturing process of molded and jiggered wares; the difficulties of firing; variable glazes; connections between Cowan and other American potteries; design piracy and inspiration; trade shows and exhibitions; and more. Also described are Cowan's years in Syracuse, New York (from 1932 to 1957), where Cowan designed dinnerware for Syracuse China and served as juror and trustee to the National Ceramic Exhibitions.