Vintage Shawnee Gray Ceramic Pottery Vase

Pottery : Shawnee

 

Here is a fabulous vase made by Shawnee USA. It is in that delicious warm grey tone so popular in the 30's and 40's, and it has a criss cross design with a leaf look edging it, and tiny handles on each side.

This is about 8.75" tall, about 4.25" across, and a little over 3" deep. It has the "Shawnee U.S.A." logo on the bottom. There is one tiny fleabite (1/16" x 1/8") on the base near the edge, not noticable, but we want to point it out.

We love Shawnee; we love this piece; we love the color. This would be GORGEOUS with a bouquet of pale pink peonies & iris with sprigs of columbine, or totally classic with fresh white gardenias, mock orange blossoms and roses! Ah!

Secure shipping of $7.85 to US destinations.

~~~~~ The Shawnee Pottery owes its name and distinctive mark to an arrowhead found on the grounds of the then-unnamed plant in Zanesville, OH in 1937. The area is rich in natural clay, and the Shawnee were known to have lived and produced pottery in the Zanesville-Roseville area long before it was settled.

The site of the pottery, formerly the home of the American Encaustic Company, was once the largest tileworks in the world. It shut down during the Depression, but not before leaving its mark in decorative tiles used on building exteriors as part of the common architecture of the era. For much of the 1880's to the early 1930's, tiles produced at this plant found their way to building exteriors around the world. The tileworks also produced interior tiles that ranged from plain to highly decorative.

The new Shawnee plant employed some of the same craftsmen that had worked for American Encaustic; however, most of the old kilns in the plant were removed and replaced with state-of-the-art equipment prior to Shawnee's opening.

Several names well known to the Ohio potteries were a part of Shawnee. The first president and general officer was A.E. Hull Jr., son of the founder of the Hull Pottery. George Rumrill moved the production of his pottery from Red Wing to Shawnee in 1938, and the designers included those that had worked at Hull, Roseville, Weller, Frankoma and others.

Much of Shawnee's work was intended for department stores and 5&10's, including Woolworth's, McCrory, S.S. Kresge and Sears, and as such, mass production abilities were primary to the pottery and designs. Many of the pieces were intended to retail between ten and thirty cents. The pottery made decorative pieces as well as dinnerware and kitchenware.

Like many of its contemporaries, the pottery could not compete against foreign imports after World War II, and ceased operation in 1961.

~~~~~

Item ID: CW-086