Pauline Jacobus
Encyclopedia
Pauline Jacobus was an American
studio potter
from Chicago
who worked in Edgerton, Wisconsin
.
Jacobus, the wife of a Chicago merchant of the 1880s, was an accomplished painter of porcelain before she decided to try her hand at crafting and decorating the very first art pottery in Chicago in 1883. Her firm "Pauline Pottery" moved to Edgerton in 1888. Although the move to Edgerton allowed the firm to expand, employing up to 40 people during its most active phase, the 1893 death of Pauline Jacobus' husband, businessman Oscar, and the simultaneous financial panic
that spread across America that same year, doomed the struggling art pottery company. A studio phase of the pottery continued until Jacobus' rural Edgerton home, "The Bogart," was destroyed in a fire in July 1911. Jacobus died decades later at a Dousman, Wisconsin
, retirement home, neglected and forgotten.
Largely at the instigation of Ori-Anne Pagel, formerly an Edgerton art and antiques dealer, a large collection (over 40 pieces) of Pauline Pottery (and other Edgerton art clays) went on permanent display in a museum located in the former Edgerton 1906 train depot in August 2005. The collection is owned by the Arts Council of Edgerton, which was co-founded by Pagel. Her book about the ware, Pauline Pottery: A Pictorial Supplement to Edgerton's History in Clay, was published by the Arts Council of Edgerton in 2003. The book (which provides photos and text to supplement former Rock County
Historical Society archivist Maurice J. Montgomery's earlier history of the Edgerton pottery companies, Edgerton's History in Clay, is the most complete and richest sample of illustrated Paulineware ever published.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
studio potter
Studio potter
A studio potter is one who is a modern artist, who either works alone or in a small group, producing unique items of pottery in small quantities, typically with all stages of manufacture carried out by themselves. Studio pottery includes functional wares such as tableware or cookware, and...
from Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
who worked in Edgerton, Wisconsin
Edgerton, Wisconsin
Edgerton is a city in Dane and Rock Counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 4,933 at the 2000 census. Known locally as "Tobacco City U.S.A.," because of the importance of tobacco growing in the region, Edgerton continues to be a center for the declining tobacco industry in the...
.
Jacobus, the wife of a Chicago merchant of the 1880s, was an accomplished painter of porcelain before she decided to try her hand at crafting and decorating the very first art pottery in Chicago in 1883. Her firm "Pauline Pottery" moved to Edgerton in 1888. Although the move to Edgerton allowed the firm to expand, employing up to 40 people during its most active phase, the 1893 death of Pauline Jacobus' husband, businessman Oscar, and the simultaneous financial panic
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
that spread across America that same year, doomed the struggling art pottery company. A studio phase of the pottery continued until Jacobus' rural Edgerton home, "The Bogart," was destroyed in a fire in July 1911. Jacobus died decades later at a Dousman, Wisconsin
Dousman, Wisconsin
Dousman is a village in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,584 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Dousman is located at ....
, retirement home, neglected and forgotten.
Largely at the instigation of Ori-Anne Pagel, formerly an Edgerton art and antiques dealer, a large collection (over 40 pieces) of Pauline Pottery (and other Edgerton art clays) went on permanent display in a museum located in the former Edgerton 1906 train depot in August 2005. The collection is owned by the Arts Council of Edgerton, which was co-founded by Pagel. Her book about the ware, Pauline Pottery: A Pictorial Supplement to Edgerton's History in Clay, was published by the Arts Council of Edgerton in 2003. The book (which provides photos and text to supplement former Rock County
Rock County, Wisconsin
-Unincorporated communities:-Further reading:* . Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1879.* Brown, William F. , Chicago: Cooper, 1908.* Brown, William F. , Chicago: Cooper, 1908....
Historical Society archivist Maurice J. Montgomery's earlier history of the Edgerton pottery companies, Edgerton's History in Clay, is the most complete and richest sample of illustrated Paulineware ever published.