It was probably about 10-15 years ago that I found a good late nineteenth century green glazed red earthenware vase in a group antique shop near Concord, New Hampshire, although I was told that the dealer's inventory in this space often came from the Boston area, seeing that he was based out of Swampscott, Massachusetts. The base of the vase was inscribed with the initials "E.D." I never knew what the initials represented, but I always felt it was an American made object.
However, it was in the spring of 2021 that Brandt Zipp of Crocker Farm in Maryland figured out the history of this mark, which is known with both hand inscribed initials and impressed initials; this is basically a forgotten potter's work who should be much better known today. This potter migrated from Europe to Chicago in the latter part of the 1800s.
According to Crocker Farm, "The initials "E.D." for Emanuel Duschek (1852-1921), an important Chicago potter for whom no work has been previously identified. Born in or about 1852 in Bohemia (Austrian Czechoslovakia), Duschek immigrated to the United States in 1883; the passenger list of his ship into New York lists him as a "potter."
He arrived in Chicago by 1888, when he married his wife, Mary (1853-1916), who herself had come from a family of potters and is described in period accounts as heavily involved in the development of the pottery and in the production process. Duschek's pottery appears for the first time in the following year's Chicago city directory. By the earliest years of the 20th century, Duschek would take on almost folk hero status in the city, his name appearing in numerous newspaper items and advertisements of the time. Perhaps the most interesting of these is a 1903 story in the local Inter Ocean headlined "King of Chicago Potters." In it, Duschek is pictured in his shop with numerous recently-thrown vases upon a board; extoling the potter's skill and the operation he ran alongside his wife, the author accentuated Duschek's Austrian accent as he quoted him multiple times: "I can make mit my hands anyt'ing I see, and I t'ink prettier than I ever saw."
By this time Duschek was supplying large quantities of pottery to local department stores, who advertised them regularly with ads like this January 1903 one: "New and artistic pieces from the pottery of Emanuel Duschek will be given a wide representation during the remainder of the month. Each piece, being modeled and turned by hand, possesses a peculiar uniqueness and individuality. The varied shapes embody many pleasing and original ideas of rare artistic merit. Rich shades of green predominate."
Duschek's green glaze is referenced numerous times in primary documentary sources; one 1912 article claimed that the person responsible for glazing the ware was Mary Duschek, "whose artistic touch and experiments with coloring have won for her the sole right in the household to attend to the glazing," her "Secret Process." Indeed, a 1910 article in the Chicago Tribune written to highlight "Successful Business Women" profiled her and claimed, among other boasts about the couple's large output, that schools as far away as the west coast were routinely using the couple's pottery as models for art students.
In 1912, Emanuel Duschek was selected to exhibit at the massive International Clay Products Exposition held at the Chicago Coliseum, which drew the chief American potteries of the day from the east and west coasts and in between, and was visited by President Taft. Emanuel Duschek died in 1921 and across the ensuing decades has fallen more or less completely out of the history of American ceramics, while Mary Duschek died in 1916.
Furthermore, according to the 1900 United States Federal Census, the couple's two oldest children, Rosie and Adolph were adopted; they also had two biological children, Frank and Johanna "Jennie" Duschek. Also according to local legend in the Chicago area, Emanuel and Mary ran a successful pottery business, which started when Mary dug up some clay from her back garden to make a flower pot; this happened about the time the couple was married.
For more reading on the subject - here is a link to one of Crocker Farm's auction listings for Duschek's work: https://www.crockerfarm.com/stoneware-auction/2021-04-09/lot-277/Rare-Mocha-Decorated-Redware-Pitcher-by-Emanuel-Duschek-Rediscovered-Potter-of-Chicago-circa-1900/.
Nevertheless, a green glazed vase stamped twice with Duschek's initials just sold out of Pennsylvania on eBay, whereas I think this is a more typical French form, but it was clearly made by Duschek: https://www.ebay.com/itm/387869570262.
Two other examples of Duschek's production may have sold as part of the John Wine Collection at Miller & Miller in New Hamburg, Ontario in 2020, and as part of Lewis Scranton's Collection at Skinner in 2016; here are links to both of those lots --
John Wine Collection Bowl or Vase: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/signed-ontario-redware-dish-556-c-1c441538f4?objectID=146447071&algIndex=undefined&queryID=5d61b4ce31eef46889e19c13510c19f3.
See Lot 317 in Lewis Scranton's Collection; a Handled Pitcher: https://issuu.com/skinnerinc/docs/2897m?e=1175486/35051073.
Some Examples of Emanuel Duschek's Production in Chicago
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