Vase

Frederick Hurten Rhead, an Englishman by birth and training, was one of America’s leading ceramists at the turn of the twentieth century. As a potter, designer, decorator, teacher, and author, his influence was far-reaching. Rhead’s career extended across the nation and included positions not only at large commercial establishments but also at small art potteries, educational facilities, and therapeutic institutions. Well versed in many of the major techniques of decoration employed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Rhead throughout his long career embraced the English Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau styles, and ultimately, Art Deco. Developing relationships with many of the key figures in the international Art Pottery movement, among them William Percival Jervis, Taxile Doat, and Adelaide Alsop Robineau, Rhead proved to be one of the most diverse and influential ceramists working in the United States. He also became one of the leading champions of modern design in America, in both theory and practice.

After tenure at several Ohio potteries, Rhead moved to the East Coast and rejoined his compatriot, William Percival Jervis, who had started a small pottery in Oyster Bay on Long Island, New York, where this vase was made. The elements of the design on this vase—the checkerboard frieze in the top border, the barren tree trunks, and the choice of drab colors—are familiar elements from Rhead’s Della Robbia line at the Weller Pottery, as is the excised, roughly textured background.