This is the best example of Zanesville, Ohio stoneware that I have ever seen in New England, which I suspect dates from the circa 1920s-1950 period, standing about seventeen inches tall. It survives in outstanding condition with an incredible blue, green and white drip glaze over yellow.
According to an article written by James L. Murphy for the Journal of the American Art Pottery Association, titled, Zanesville Stoneware Company: After 115 Years -- "The Zanesville Stoneware Co., Ohio's longest-lived stoneware pottery closed its doors this spring, after 115 years of continuous operation - 113 of those years by three generations of the Milman Linn family, at two different locations. At 71, Milman “Bud” Linn determined it was time to retire. His son Andrew, manager and vice president of sales, decided not to continue the enterprise. The pottery has been sold to Robinson-Ransbottom Potteries of nearby Roseville, Ohio.
The Zanesville Stoneware story began in 1883 with the formation of the Ohio Encaustic Tile Co., a would-be rival to Zanesville's famous American Encaustic Tiling Co. Matters did not go well for this fledgling decorative tile factory. It was abandoned by 1886. A new firm, E. G. Bowen and Co., began operation at the site on Coopermill Road the following year. In 1889 it was reorganized as the Zanesville Stoneware Co. At this point, Milman Linn, Sr., joined the company as vice-president. He quickly rose to become president. Originally, the pottery produced a standard line of crocks, churns, jugs, stew pans, butter jars, and milk pans, as well as a stenciled stoneware two-part water filter that remained in production for many years. Although their Albany slip-covered milk crock was elaborately marked on the bottom with large raised letters, most of the ware was unmarked. When it was marked, a cobalt stencil was generally applied in a rather sloppy manner, so leaving many of the stenciled crocks with an almost illegible cobalt mark.
Zanesville Stoneware was the first pottery in Ohio to use a muffle updraft kiln, which protected the ware from direct flame and made for more even burning. In 1889, a state factory inspector listed the firm as employing 25, who were making stoneware and flowerpots. By 1901, the pottery employed 50 men and one woman.
Around 1910, the company began the manufacture of garden ware and shortly thereafter developed a fine matte green glaze. Following World War I, it expanded its glaze lines, to include a variety of drip and multicolored “overflow” glazes. One of the company's first unusual glazes was a light gray with dark blue drip, with pieces occasionally marked “ZASKO” (ZAnesville Stoneware KOmpany) in tiny vertical impressed letters. One of the pottery's most popular shapes, a simple tapered vase with large molded leaf, (Shape #102) dates to this early period and can be found with many different glazes, though not Zasko. Matt green was tremendously popular at the time. Zanesville Stoneware products with this glaze still command premium prices today.
Some Zanesville Stoneware glazes were as unusual as their names—Verdantone (green flow over a gray base), Brunell (brown with light splashes), Vorosa (rose flow over ivory), Ebonello (black flow over yellow), Vulcan (reddish tan blend), Neptune (green with rust mottling), Bacorcy (black flow over light green), Montrose (rose mottling on ivory background), and one named Ebonivor (black flow over white)—which was apparently not all that popular, for examples are not common today. Exceptional glazes are Neptune and Vulcan, as well as a tremendous variety of experimental drip glazes.
For a short period the company offered one of its most artistic lines, “Rubble Ware,” which featured a cobblestone like effect as background for various designs. This line was offered only in matt lavender, matt blue, gloss green and gloss blue. Examples of Rubble Ware in any color are quite scarce today.
By 1921, there were 100 employees, mostly men. Along with the artware, stoneware filters, cuspidors, flower pots and jardinieres were still being made. In the late 1920s, tea sets were produced in a variety of colors. Although the company continued production of standard stoneware crocks, jugs, and kitchenware into the 1920s, including the decorated water filters featured on their letterhead, it was about this time that garden and patio ware also became very fashionable. Zanesville Stoneware began specializing in this product and never stopped—until this year.
A Harrop tunnel kiln was built in 1932 and the plant was enlarged in 1953. Although later wares were frequently embossed “ZSC” on the base, most Zanesville Stoneware is marked only by an impressed shape number. This, along with the usually strong mold mark bisecting the base, the general klunkiness of the pieces, familiarity with ZSC shapes and glazes, as well as referencing copies of old ZSC catalogs, usually make identification easy. Some pieces were even made for specific florists and potteries, such as Zanesville’s Marco Pottery and The Old Pot Shop of Norwalk, Connecticut.
Long after other potteries had abandoned the art of throwing, “Hank” (Lawrence F.) Pickrull, continued to throw large pieces of garden ware. Pickrull, who began throwing for ZSC in 1908, retired in 1946, but not before he posed for a series of photographs for Claude Horan's Ohio State University M.A. thesis. Zanesville Stoneware had a long-standing relationship with Ohio State's ceramics program. Arthur DeVol, son of Edward M. DeVol, an early plant superintendent and later vice-president, graduated from Ohio State and became ZSC's ceramics engineer. Many of the unusual glazes used by the company were developed by the two DeVols."
Note: The Zanesville Museum of Art owns and displays a variety of objects made at the Zanesville Stoneware Company in the 1920s-1930s with an overflow glaze, although nothing exactly like this object. The closest are two forest green overflow vases displayed on the first floor of the museum's Longberger Art Research Library -- vase number 1 -- vase number two.
Drip or Overflow Glazed Floor Vase From Zanesville, Ohio
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