EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A 20th Century Chinese Blue Glazed Vase from the Pewabic Pottery in Detroit with an Interesting Connection to the New Hampshire Seacoast

Thursday, March 20, 2025

A 20th Century Chinese Blue Glazed Vase from the Pewabic Pottery in Detroit with an Interesting Connection to the New Hampshire Seacoast

This is a very cool piece of iridescent glazed stoneware that I found yesterday in Boston, which is decorated in a Chinese blue glaze, similar to the types found with art pottery produced in North Carolina during the 1920s-1960s. For instance, a very good example marked "JUGTOWN" from Seagrove, North Carolina just sold as part of the Carole Wahler Collection at Crocker Farm in Maryland for $20,400 including the buyer's premium: https://www.crockerfarm.com/stoneware-auction/2025-01-31/lot-281/Exceptional-Large-Sized-JUGTOWN-WARE-Art-Pottery-Vase-w-Chinese-Blue-Glaze-North-Carolina-circa-1930/.

However, I believe this vase was made at the Pewabic Pottery in Detroit, Michigan, circa 1910-1967, where the color is a good example of Pewabic’s interpretation of the classic Chinese Sang de Boeuf glaze.

According to the Detroit Historical Society, "Pewabic Pottery was founded in 1903 by Mary Chase Perry (1867-1961) and her partner Horace James Caulkins at the height of the Arts & Crafts Movement in America. The Pottery's first home was a carriage house on Alfred Street in Detroit. Four years later, Pewabic Pottery moved to a new facility on East Jefferson designed by architect William Buck Stratton in the Tudor Revival style.

Through Caulkins’ “Revelation Kiln” and Stratton’s artistic direction, Pewabic Pottery produced nationally renowned vessels, tiles, and architectural ornamentation for public and private installations featuring their unique iridescent glazes. When the Great Depression reduced the demand for costlier wares, ceramic jewelry was produced by Pewabic. Works fabricated by Pewabic Pottery can be seen throughout the United States in such places as the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., the Nebraska State Capitol, the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and the Herald Square installation commissioned by the New York Metro Transit Authority.

In Michigan, Pewabic installations can be found in countless churches, including Most Holy Redeemer Church and the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Detroit, schools like Eliel Saarinen’s Cranbrook-Kingswood School, and a long list of commercial buildings and public facilities. These include Detroit's Guardian Building, the Detroit Public Library Main Branch, Comerica Park, the Belle Isle Aquarium, and Detroit Metro Airport’s McNamara Terminal. Works by Pewabic also grace public spaces like several Detroit People Mover stations and private residences, particularly in Detroit's Indian Village neighborhood and nearby suburbs of Bloomfield Hills and Grosse Pointe. Pewabic art pottery can also be found in many private and public collections including the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C."

But Pewabic Pottery also produced a wide range of vases, both small and large in size, some of which are displayed today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. However, what really caught my attention about this object was an original paper label adhered to the base; although this was not a paper label used at the Pewabic Pottery and instead one from a gift shop located on Route 1a on the New Hampshire seacoast. The label reads, "The Whistling Buoy At Rye Beach New Hampshire."

I conducted a quick internet search yesterday and found two newspapers records indicating that this seasonal gift shop was in operation in 1945 and 1955. But I suspect that the gift shop existed before and after these years. This is also how some of the early art pottery from North Carolina was distributed with it being shipped to stores in New York City and in parts of New England before 1970.

Furthermore, I cannot find another example of Pewabic Pottery retaining a label from this gift shop so this may present new information on how some of this pottery was distributed in New England.

20th Century Chinese Blue Glazed Vase from the Pewabic Pottery in Detroit