It's not a big number, although an auction record seems to have set been set last night at Farrin's Country Auction in Randolph, Maine for a potter's work from Chicago that was just recently identified in 2021 by Brandt Zipp of Crocker Farm in Maryland. This migrant potter's name is Emanuel Duschek (1852-1921); he came to America in the 1880s and produced various types of red earthenware in Chicago during the circa 1890-1910 period.
There was a lot happening in Illinois in the second-half of the nineteenth century in terms of hand-thrown pottery production. The production included red earthenware made in Jo Daviess County, along with the famed stoneware made by the Kirkpatrick brothers in Anna, Illinois, as well as other types of production. But the wares made by Duschek were just as much a part of the history this state's pottery production. Nonetheless, the pitcher sold for $400 plus the buyer's premium, which I think is encouraging to see this potter's work beginning to receive some recognition.
According to Crocker Farm, "The initials "E.D." stand for for Emanuel Duschek, 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.
Note: I have also posted an example of Duschek's production that was found about twenty years ago in Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada.
A Good Example of Red Earthenware from Chicago
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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