MORRISON HECKSCHER: Around the mid-nineteenth century, a wave of immigration brought skilled English potters to American shores. And with them came a new type of pottery that was shaped in molds rather than thrown on the wheel. This case features the variety of inventive forms that followed. They range from figurines and picture frames to pots and pitchers, and are often embellished with sculptural decoration. Factories sprung up in Ohio, Maryland, Vermont, and New Jersey to produce these wares. Decorative Arts Curator Alice Cooney Freilinghuysen.

ALICE COONEY FRELINGHUYSEN: This was a middle-class genre. This was a ceramic that was made in multiples. It was much less expensive than fine porcelain and could really be brought into most middle-class homes.

MORRISON HECKSCHER: These molded wares shifted the skill from the potter to the designer of the molds. One of the greatest was English-born Daniel Greatbach. Among his accomplishments is introducing the popular pitcher with a handle shaped like a hound. You can see a number of examples here. You’ll also notice that many of these wares are mottled or streaked with a lustrous brown glaze. This was called Rockingham because pottery first glazed like this was made at the Rockingham estate in Swinton, England.

ALICE COONEY FRELINGHUYSEN: The brown glaze was really achieved by adding manganese to the glaze and it gave it this brown color. But if you look, particularly on the right-hand side of this case, you see wonderful greens and blues and yellows incorporated into the design, becoming almost like an abstract painting.