Newcomb Pottery
Newcomb Pottery, also called Newcomb College Pottery, was a brand of American Arts & Crafts pottery produced from 1895 to 1940. The company grew out of the pottery program at H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, the women's college now associated with Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Pottery was a contemporary of Rookwood Pottery, the Saturday Evening Girls, North Dakota pottery, Teco and Grueby.
The program
Newcomb College had been founded expressly to instruct young Southern women in liberal arts. The art school opened in 1886 and production of art pottery on a for-profit basis began in 1895 under the supervision of art professors William Woodward, Ellsworth Woodward, and Mary Given Sheerer.Potters
Among the first persons to be hired by the Woodwards to assist with the new pottery program were the potters. Unlike the artists who created and carved the designs for the Pottery, the potters were all men, as it was believed that a "male potter would be needed to work the clay, throw the pots, fire the kiln and handle the glazing." The first potter hired was Jules Garby in 1895. He was followed by one of Newcomb Pottery's most recognized potters, Joseph Meyer, in 1896. Notably, George Ohr was hired as a potter at approximately the same time as Joseph Meyer, but Ohr left Newcomb to work on his own sometime in 1897. Meyer's cipher is found on more pieces of Newcomb College Pottery than any other person. Meyer won awards for his work at Newcomb at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo and the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition. Meyer stayed with the Pottery until his retirement in 1927. He was replaced by Jonathan Hunt in 1927 and later Kenneth Smith in 1929. After Hunt left the Pottery in 1933, he was replaced by Francis Ford. Both Smith and Ford stayed with the Newcomb Pottery program through its termination in 1940.Craftsmen
When the Pottery was first established, any woman who studied art at Newcomb College was allowed to sell wares that she had decorated, provided it was judged to be adequate for sale by the faculty at the school. Over the years, the Pottery employed dozens of women.Some early Newcomb College artists included:
- Sadie Irvine
- Harriet Coulter Joor
- Selina Bres
- Marie and Emilie De Hoa LeBlanc
- Cynthia Littlejohn
- Mazie T. Ryan
- Sarah Henderson
- Henrietta Bailey
- Frances Lawrence Howe Cocke
- Roberta Kennon
- Sara B. Levy
- Ada Lonnegan
- Mary Given Sheerer
- Leona Nicholson
- Amelie and Desiree Roman
As the Pottery grew and expanded, new craftsmen joined the program including:
- Anna Frances Simpson
- Aurelia Arbo
- Juanita Gonzales
- Corinne Chalaron
- Lucia Arena
Pottery
Early pieces at the Pottery closely reflected the arts and crafts era in which the Pottery was operating. The pottery often depicted Louisiana's local flora, done in blue, yellow and green high glazes. The high point of Newcomb is generally considered to be from 1897 to 1917. During that period the Pottery experimented with various glazes and designs, and won numerous awards at various exhibitions throughout the country and in Europe. As the school entered the 1920s, new professors arrived and began to introduce influences from the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art. Highly carved pieces done in matt glazes of blue, green and pink marked this period. Perhaps one of the most famous Newcomb Pottery designs, the "Moon & Moss" style was introduced in this period.Marks
The Pottery used an elaborate system of marks to indicate a piece came from Newcomb College. The marks would include an "N" inside of a "C" to indicate the school, along with the ciphers of the potter and craftsman who both created the piece.Also typically included would be a registration number indicating the year the piece was made. The registration number for a Newcomb piece consisted of a letter or combination of letters to indicate the year the piece was made, along with a number from 1-100. While most Newcomb pieces do have a registration number, some pieces, particularly earlier ones that were glazed but not otherwise decorated, do not.
In addition to the marks already mentioned, pieces prior to 1915 sometimes also had marks indicating the type of clay and glaze used for the piece.
These marks include:
| Mark | Clay and glaze used | Years used |
| U | White clay | 1895–1902 |
| W | White clay | 1895–1908 |
| Q | Buff clay | 1895–1909 |
| R | Dark red clay | 1895–1910 |
| F | Dark red clay body with opaque glaze | 1895–1907 |
| FR | Dark red clay body with red glaze | 1895–1907 |
| B or B | Buff clay with a semi-matte glaze | 1910–1912 |
| C or C | Buff clay with a semi-matte glaze | 1913–1915 |
| A, D, E, F, G, K or T | White clay with a glass glaze |