Pottery & Porcelain maker
Rookwood Pottery Company marks
Maria Longworth Nichols (later Storer) founded Rookwood in Cincinnati in 1880.
- Active
- 1880–1967 (revived in Cincinnati from 2004)
- Based in
- Cincinnati, Ohio; later Starkville, Mississippi, United States
- Marks listed
- 4
- Typical pieces
- vases, tiles, bookends, paperweights
The marks, by date
Each mark’s wording is written out as a transcription: the words and line breaks, not a picture of the mark. Where a source describes a mark instead of quoting it, the description is shown in italics.
Where: base
The name is in block letters, impressed together with the year the piece was made.
Where: base
A reversed R and P placed back to back. With no flames around it, the mark dates to 1886, the year the monogram was introduced.
Where: base
One flame was added around the monogram for each year after 1886. Count the flames and add the number to 1886: four flames = 1890, fourteen flames = 1900.
Where: base, Roman numeral below the monogram
From 1901 the monogram always has all fourteen flames, and the year is given by a Roman numeral below it: I = 1901, XIV = 1914, and so on up to 1967.
History
It became one of the leading American art potteries, known for hand-decorated glazes such as Standard and Vellum as well as architectural tile. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1941, was bought by the Herschede Clock Company in 1959 and moved to Starkville, Mississippi, and stopped production in 1967. Investors revived the name in Cincinnati in 2004.
Dating clues
- Rookwood is one of the easiest American potteries to date to the exact year: count the flames (1887–1900) or read the Roman numeral under the fourteen-flame mark (1901 onward).
- Other letters on the base are not dates. They record things like clay or glaze: 'V' = Vellum glaze (from 1904), 'W' = white clay, 'R' = red clay, 'G' = Sea Green, 'Z' = mat glaze (c. 1900–1904). Letters A to F give size, A being largest.
- An 'X' scratched into the base marks a piece pulled from normal sale, usually a second.
- Artist ciphers, incised or painted under the glaze, identify hand-decorated pieces.
Other names on the marks
Rookwood
Where sources disagree: The sources consulted don't describe marks on revival pieces made after 2004.
Sources
Marks help identify a maker and a date range, but they can’t prove a piece is genuine. Reproductions and later reissues can carry old marks. This entry isn’t an appraisal.