A subject that may not be widely recognized today is that there were some types of artistic salt-glazed stoneware produced at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia in the early twentieth century. Salt-glazed stoneware art pottery is a subject that is well-recognized today with some potters who worked during this period in Massachusetts, such as Russell G. Crook (1869-1925) in South Lincoln, Massachusetts, who had previously worked at the William Grueby (1867-1925) Pottery in South Boston, Massachusetts, but salt glazed stoneware art pottery is lesser known in other parts of the American Northeast.
The Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (PMSIA), chartered in 1876 and opened in 1877, is the parent institution that eventually split to become the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the University of the Arts. Its historical connection to stoneware and ceramics is rooted in its founding mission to train craftsmen for industrial design and to document the history of American manufacturing.
However, in 1938, the institution formally separated into two distinct
entities; the museum became the Philadelphia Museum of Art, while the
school became the Museum School of Industrial Art, later the Philadelphia
College of Art, and eventually The University of the Arts in 1985, which just closed in 2024.
The museum and school's first home, known as Memorial Hall in Fairmont Park in Philadelphia, was originally built for the 1876 Centennial World's Fair Exposition, although the school later acquired the former Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb (now known as Hamilton Hall) in 1893.
One of the students who studied at the school was Parke Edwards (1890-1973), where an example of his stoneware art pottery from 1913 is displayed as part of the Robert A. Ellison Jr. (1932-2021) Collection of Art Pottery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Pottery was one of the fields that students were exposed to at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art; other areas included textile engineering & design, industrial arts and applied arts. Overall, the institution was foundational in combining artistic design with industrial application.
The skill of the stoneware vase displayed at the MET is comparable to some stoneware produced by Susan S. Frackelton (1848-1932) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Frackelton's art pottery is displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among other museums across the country today: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2021/12/outstanding-stoneware-manufactured-by.html.
Parke Edwards was born in Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania in 1890; his parents were Jesse (1858-1924) and Mary Eckman
Edwards (1865-1952). Census records from 1900-1920 list Jesse Edwards as both a
cabinet maker and a farmer in Lancaster County.
Parke was a career artist in the twentieth century,
where he became a prominent Arts and Crafts metal designer and craftsman
in the Philadelphia area, best known for his intricate architectural metalwork. In fact, Winterthur Museum in Delaware gained an interest in his work in the twentieth century;
according to Winterthur, “Parke’s formal
education took him as far as the 8th grade. Edwards became interested in art and enrolled in a
mail-order course in show-card writing and sign painting with the International
Correspondence School. He then attended the Pennsylvania Museum School of
Industrial Art, now known as the University of the Arts. As a sophomore, Edwards was awarded a scholarship
to travel in Europe, where he documented the artistic talents of
After his studies, Edwards major work included as undertaken at the
Swedenborgian Cathedral at Bryn Athyn, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where he was responsible
for making and installing much of the decorative metalwork, such as decorative doors, windows, and hardware
using traditional techniques. Later he worked at the residence of
Raymond Pitcairn (1885-1966), the financial sponsor of the Bryn Athyn Cathedral.
Furthermore, his designs often featured neo-Gothic and Moresque
influences. Collections of his work, including sketches and metal objects, are
held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the
Winterthur Museum.
Interestingly, another example of salt-glazed
stoneware art pottery recently emerged in southeastern Pennsylvania, which is most likely related to production at the Pennsylvania
Museum School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia. The shape of the vase is
similar to some ancient styles, as well as some vases made at the Grueby
Pottery in South Boston in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The
base of the vase is inscribed and highlighted with cobalt, "E. Warwick / Jan 1910," along with the number "322."
This represents the work of Edward
Warwick (1881-1973), a well-known Philadelphia painter,
printmaker, and art educator. He was the son of Charles F. Warwick (1815-1913), who served
as the mayor of Philadelphia in the late 1890s.
Warwick also taught at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art for at least twenty years before serving as its dean from 1933 to 1955. He frequently exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and the Philadelphia Watercolor Club. His wife, Ethel Herrick Warwick (1881–1961), was also a distinguished artist.
Nonetheless, even though there is no evidence that Parke Edwards studied with Edward Warwick, they were both at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art in 1913, where Warwick served as a teacher and lecturer, although Warwick was most likely already at the school in 1910, when he created the stoneware vase, perhaps linking Edwards and Warwick through stoneware art pottery.
Note: For more information about this type of production in Massachusetts - see a feature story I wrote for the February 9, 2024 issue of Antiques And the Arts Weekly, titled, The Salt-Glazed Stoneware Made By Russell Crook, South Lincoln, Mass.: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2024/01/published-feature-story-in-antiques-and.html.
Also see my eighteenth book, titled, An Influential Family of Early Potters: The Clarks of New Hampshire and Related Businesses: https://historicbeverly.net/product/an-influential-family-of-early-potters-the-clarks-of-new-hampshire-and-related-businesses/#:~:text=In%201775%20when%20Peter%20Clark,White%20Mountains%20and%20into%20Vermont.
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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