So many ceramics manufacturers started their lives by making "sanitary ware" or even more utilitarian items like tiles and sewer pipes. Time and circumstances allowed these companies to adapt to the changing times, perhaps seeking higher-end, more profitable output.
The Hill Pottery Company was founded in 1814 in Flemington, New Jersey. Around the time of the American Civl War, Abram Fulper purchased the company (renaming it "Fulper"). By the Turn-of-the-Century, his grandson, William Fulper II, was running the firm. In 1909, William Fulper created the art pottery division, calling it "Fulper Vasecraft."
Fulper needed an experienced ceramicist to develop the cutting-edge forms and glazes of a "studio ceramics" workshop. He hired Johann Martin Stangl, an immigrant from Munich, Germany, who provided the artistic and production know-how. When Fulper died in 1928, Stangl purchased the company, renamed it Stangl (in 1929), and refocussed the company away from labor-intensive "studio ceramics" and toward mass production items suited to the times: vases, bowls and other household items. Eventually, Stangl began to produce hand-decorated tableware (dinner plates, soup bowls and other table service items). This "open stock" production was Stangl's most successful undertaking and was sold in over 3,000 fine shops nationwide. Stangl also operated a very popular "factory outlet" in Flemington, New Jersey, selling its dinnerware items—a site which operated until 1978 (when the company ceased production for good).
The Art Deco vase, shown above, is a classic urn form, embellished with two Art Deco "lop earred" handles. It is finished in a sublime satin white glaze. Please click on the photo above to learn more about it.
More simple, white pottery tomorrow and in the days to come.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
To arrange a visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only), please call 917-446-4248.