Vase with flowers

The Newcomb Pottery grew out of the arts program initiated for the newly formed Sophie Newcomb College, founded as part of Tulane University to provide higher education opportunities for women. As was typical of many Arts and Crafts potteries, men were employed to handle the more demanding tasks of throwing, glazing, and firing, while the women executed the decoration. The designs were largely based on the flora of the south, the motifs of which were conventionalized and repeated in a rhythmic manner around the vessel. Such was the success of their products that they exhibited not only across the country, but also in Paris in 1900, at the Paris Exposition Universelle. The dominant palette was one of blues and greens on the cream-colored clay body, making this vase something of an exception in its deep purplish red against a lighter red glaze. The decorator was Louisiana native, Roberta Beverly Kennon, who was a decorator at Newcomb from 1901 to 1905. The design of the vase exhibits the influence of the design teachings of Arthur Wesley Dow, whose summer school Kennon attended in 1902.