Newcomb Pottery, also called Newcomb College Pottery, was a brand of American Arts & Crafts

Arts and Crafts movement

Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...

 pottery produced from 1895 to 1940. The company grew out of the pottery program at H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College

H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College

H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, or Newcomb College, was the coordinate women's college of Tulane University located in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was founded by Josephine Louise Newcomb in 1886 in memory of her daughter....

, the women's' college now associated with Tulane University

Tulane University

Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...

 in New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

. The Pottery was a contemporary of Rookwood Pottery, the Saturday Evening Girls, University of North Dakota-School of Mines Pottery, Teco

Teco pottery

The American Terra Cotta Tile and Ceramic Company was founded in 1881; originally as Spring Valley Tile Works; in Terra Cotta, Illinois, near Chicago by William Day Gates. It became the country's first manufactury of architectural terra cotta. The production consisted of drain tile, brick, chimney...

 and Grueby

Grueby Faience Company

The Grueby Faience Company, founded in 1894, was an American ceramics company that produced distinctive vases and tiles during America's Arts and Crafts Movement....

.

The Program

Newcomb College had been founded expressly to instruct young Southern women in liberal arts. The art school opened in 1886 and production of art pottery on a for-profit basis began in 1895 under the supervision of two art professors, William and Ellsworth Woodward.

Potters

Amongst the first persons to be hired by the Woodwards to assist with the new pottery program were the potters. Unlike the artists who created and carved the designs for the Pottery, the potters were all men, as it was believed that a "male potter would be needed to work the clay, throw the pots, fire the kiln and handle the glazing." The first potter hired was Jules Garby in 1895. He was followed by one of Newcomb Pottery's most recognized potters, Joseph Meyer, in 1896. Notably, George Ohr was hired as a potter at approximately the same time as Joseph Meyer, but Ohr left Newcomb to work on his own sometime in 1897. Meyer's cipher is found on more pieces of Newcomb College Pottery than any other person. Meyer won awards for his work at Newcomb at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo and the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition. Meyer stayed with the Pottery until his retirement in 1927. He was replaced by Jonathan Hunt in 1927 and later Kenneth Smith in 1929. After Hunt left the Pottery in 1933, he was replaced by Francis Ford. Both Smith and Ford stayed with the Newcomb Pottery program through its termination in 1940.

Craftsmen

When the Pottery was first established, any woman who studied art at Newcomb College was allowed to sell wares that she had decorated, provided it was judged to be adequate for sale by the faculty at the school. Over the years, the Pottery employed dozens of women.

Some early Newcomb College artists included:

• Sadie Irvine
  Sadie Irvine
  Sarah Agnes Estelle Irvine was an American artist and educator. Her work is associated with the Newcomb College pottery school, where she was trained and taught until her retirement in 1952.-References:**...
  
  
• Harriet Joor
• Selina Bres
• Marie and Emilie De Hoa LeBlanc
• Cynthia Littlejohn
• Mazie T. Ryan
• Sarah (Sallie) Henderson
• Henrietta Bailey
• Frances Lawrence Howe Cocke
• Roberta Kennon
• Sara B. Levy
• Ada Lonnegan
• Mary Sheerer
• Leona Nicholson
• Amelie and Desiree Roman

Eventually the women who worked regularly with the Pottery were designated as Craftsmen with a preference given to those who had completed an undergraduate degree and a later graduate studies program with the art department.

As the Pottery grew and expanded, new Craftsmen joined the program including:

• Anna Frances Simpson
• Aurelia Arbo
• Juanita Gonzales
• Corinne Chalaron
• Lucia Arena

While the Craftsmen did not typically pot their own pieces, they were responsible for creating and carving designs for each piece of pottery the program put out. During the lifespan of the Pottery, over 70,000 unique pieces were created and carved by the women.

The Pottery

Early pieces at the Pottery closely reflected the arts and crafts era in which the Pottery was operating. The pottery often depicted Louisiana's local flora, done in blue, yellow and green high glazes. The high point of Newcomb is generally considered to be from 1897 to 1917. During that period the Pottery experimented with various glazes and designs, and won numerous awards at various exhibitions throughout the country and in Europe. As the school entered the 1920s, new professors arrived and began to introduce influences from the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art

Armory Show

Many exhibitions have been held in the vast spaces of U.S. National Guard armories, but the Armory Show refers to the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art that was organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors...

. Highly carved pieces done in matt glazes of blue, green and pink marked this period. Perhaps one of the most famous Newcomb Pottery designs, the "Moon & Moss" style was introduced in this period.

How to Identify Newcomb College Pottery

The Pottery used an elaborate system of marks to indicate a piece came from Newcomb College.

Newcomb College, Potter and Crafstman Marks

The marks would include a "N" inside of a "C" to indicate the school, along with the ciphers of the potter and Craftsman who both created the piece.

Registration Numbers

Also typically included would be a registration number indicating the year the piece was made. The registration number for a Newcomb piece consisted of a letter or combination of letters to indicate the year the piece was made, along with a number from 1-100. While most Newcomb pieces do have a registration number, some pieces, particularly earlier ones that were glazed but not otherwise decorated, do not.

Marks Indicating Clay and Glaze Used

In addition to the marks already mentioned, pieces prior to 1915 sometimes also had marks indicating the type of clay and glaze used for the piece.

These marks include:

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Mark	Clay/Glaze Used	Years Used
U	White Clay	1895–1902
W	White Clay	1895–1908
Q	Buff Clay	1895–1909
R	Dark Red Clay	1895–1910
F	Dark Red Clay Body with Opaque Glaze	1895–1907
FR	Dark Red Clay Body with Red Glaze	1895–1907
B or B (enclosed in a circle)	Buff Clay with a Semi-Matt glaze	1910–1912
C or C (enclosed in a circle)	Buff Clay with a Semi-Matt Glaze	1913–1915
A, D, E, F, G, K or T	White Clay with a Glass Glaze

Newcomb Guild and The End of Newcomb Pottery

As tastes changed, and arts and crafts-style pottery became less popular and profitable for the college, the Pottery ceased production in 1940. It was replaced by the Newcomb Guild program that focused more on utilitarian wares, rather than the decorative pottery which symbolized the earlier Newcomb era. Members of the earlier pottery program including Kenneth Smith, Francis Ford and Sadie Irvine continued producing pieces with the Newcomb Guild. However, the Newcomb Guild proved to be less popular than the earlier program and it effectively ended with Sadie Irvine's retirement in 1952.