Object Details
- Description
- About the Arts and Crafts Movement:
- Beginning in England in the early 1880s, the Arts and Crafts movement spread across the United States and Europe by the late 1880s. It celebrated the importance of beauty in everyday objects and urged a reconnection to nearby nature. The movement resisted the way industrial mass production undermined artisan crafts and was inspired by the ideas of artisan William Morris and writer John Ruskin. Valuing hand-made objects using traditional materials, it was known for a color palette of earth tones. Its artistic principles replaced realistic, colorful, and three-dimensional designs with more abstract and simplified forms using subdued tones. Stylized plant forms and matte glazes echoed a shift to quiet restraint in household décor. The Arts and Crafts movement also embraced social ideals, including respect for skilled hand labor and concern for the quality of producers’ lives. The movement struggled with the tension between the cost of beautiful crafts and the limited number of households able to afford them. Some potters relied on practical products such as drain tiles to boost income or supported themselves with teaching or publications. Arts and Crafts influence extended to other endeavors, including furniture, such as Stickley’s Mission Style, and architecture, such as the Arts and Crafts bungalow, built widely across the United States. American Arts and Crafts pottery flourished between 1880 and the first World War, though several potteries continued in successful operation into the later 20^th^ century.
- About Arequipa Pottery:
- Arequipa Pottery was established in 1911 as a Progressive Era experiment in occupational therapy for tuberculosis patients at Dr. Philip King Brown's private Arequipa Sanatorium near Fairfax, California. The vision of the pottery was to provide moral and physical benefits to patients while also providing those of limited financial means a way to pay for their healthcare. For two years, Frederick Hurton Rhead, a well-known ceramicist, designed and taught pottery-making; he was succeeded by Albert L. Solon and later by Fred H. Wilde and Eri Richardson. The transition was made to pay young women to finish and decorate the pottery, following artistic guidance from the director. Wilde also developed a line of handmade tiles for home décor. The firm closed in 1918 amid the economic challenges of World War I.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- maker
- Arequipa Pottery Studio
- Physical Description
- monochrome, brown (overall surface decoration color name)
- ceramic (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 10 1/4 in x 5 5/16 in; 26.035 cm x 13.5255 cm
- Object Name
- vase
