Albert Robert Valentien, decorator, Rookwood Pottery Company, 1893, earthenware with mahogany glaze line. Cincinnati Art Museum. Photograph by Daderot, 2013, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons. (Related image located during this archive's reconstruction.)
The Cincinnati Art Museum is pleased to announce that it has received a generous gift from the Rookwood Pottery Company. The gift from Rookwood proprietors Marilyn and Martin Wade consists of award certificates, corporate records, minutes of the Board of Directors, and eight shape books. Shape books are books of blank paper with vase shapes drawn on the pages; each shape has a number. When Rookwood made a vase in a particular shape, the vase was impressed with the shape number for inventory. Some pages have comments in the margins regarding the shapes, like “sold well,” or who suggested the shape.
According to Anita Ellis, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, and author of four books on Rookwood, “It is a fantastic treasure trove of Rookwood’s history that will greatly benefit the Cincinnati community and all lovers of Rookwood. Marilyn and Martin Wade have given the Queen City an added jewel for her crown, and we are all most grateful for this kindness. The material is currently being processed by the Art Museum’s Mary R. Schiff Library Archives.”
Sara Sax, decorator, Rookwood Pottery Company, 1908, stoneware with Vellum glaze line. Cincinnati Art Museum. Photograph by Daderot, 2013, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons. (Related image located during this archive's reconstruction.)
The donation consists of Rookwood’s primary records of the Rookwood Company. It offers a testimony to the everyday workings of the pottery, and sheds light on the philosophy, meaning, and purpose of the product. Ellis, a recognized authority on Cincinnati Decorative Arts, especially ceramics, says, “It not only adds to the Art Museum’s collection of Rookwood archives, it enhances the importance of our Rookwood pottery collection with its invaluable historic information.”
The archival material will need to be processed and conserved before it can be available to the public, which will involve obtaining a grant to bring in a paper conservator for the purpose. As proprietors of the Rookwood Pottery Company, the Wades are donating the material to the Cincinnati Art Museum.
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