Roseville Pottery - Roseville & Zanesville Ohio - Wisconsin Pottery Association

Roseville America's Decorative Art Pottery
Wisconsin Pottery Association's 1999 Exhibit

Roseville Identification

THE NUMBER AND DIVERSITY of Roseville lines may be confusing (and a little daunting) to new collectors and those with a casual interest, but most Roseville is easily recognizable with experience.

Bottoms Up If you want to learn about antique or collectible pottery, always look at the bottom. Notice the clay color, the distribution of glaze, the width and appearance of the rim, the shape of impressed numbers or letters, and other distinguishing features. Learn to associate these features with the maker's mark and the rest of the pot, and you learn to identify that company's pottery when the mark is absent.

Roseville Marks From 1900 until the late teens or early 1920s, Roseville used a variety of marks including "RPCo," "Roseville Pottery Company," and the word "Rozane," the last often with a line name. The underglaze, ink, script Rv mark was used on lines introduced from the mid-to-late teens through the mid- 1920s. Around 1926 or 1927, Roseville began to use a small, triangular black paper label on lines such as Futura and Imperial II. Silver or gold foil labels began to appear around 1930, continuing for several years on lines such as Blackberry and Tourmaline, and on some early Pine Cone. From 1932 to 1937, an impressed (indented) script mark was added to the molds used on new lines, and around 1937 the familiar raised (in relief) script mark was added to the molds of all new lines. The relief mark always included "U.S.A." Most Roseville artware was marked when it left Zanesville. Some early artware, and some middle period pieces that had a removable paper label, are unmarked today.

The Shape-Size Number Roseville Pottery pieces have shape and size numbers, which are usually part of the in-mold marks used after the mid-1930s. For example, the number 728-10 refers to a 10 inch form in the Silhouette line, while the number 991-12 refers to a 12 inch vase in the white Rose line. Roseville assigned numbers to pieces produced before the in-mold marks, but these do not ordinarily appear on the pot. (These numbers occasionally are handwritten in pencil or crayon on the bottom.)

Roseville Experimentals and Trial Glazes Pots

One of the special displays in today's exhibit is the experimental vases. Most "Roseville experimentals" for sale at antique malls or on the internet are imposters. Many are routine production items from other potteries, while others may have been cast from Roseville pieces by unknown makers. Roseville experimentals differ from production pottery in that the raised patterns were hand-sculpted rather than molded, many had notes and information etched on the blank side, and most were done on four basic shapes. Roseville experimentals are one-of-a-kind items created by Frank Ferrell to assess his designs in concrete form; some were selected for mass production, others were not.

While these rare items occasionally turn up for sale at Art Pottery shows, most are already in the hands of collectors. But it does pay to know the difference. A few years ago, two genuine Roseville experimentals, including the Firethorn on display today, were purchased for under $75 at a rural Wisconsin flea market. It remains a mystery how they got there.

Roseville Trial Glaze vases were often made on standard production forms. They were used to assess colors and glazes in addition to those ordinarily appearing in the line. Roseville trial glazes can also be identified by lines of handwritten, underglaze numbers and notes on the bottom. (Note. a few handwritten, underglaze numbers are common on ordinary Roseville, and do not indicate a trial glaze piece.) Roseville vases may appear in odd colors without this profuse notation, and the status of these items as trial glazes must be judged on a case by case basis. Wincraft, Baneda, Pine Cone, Ferrella, Jonquil, and Water Lily trial glaze vases appear in today's exhibit.

Robinson-Ransbottom Pottery The Robinson-Ransbottom Pottery Company in Roseville, Ohio is still in operation today. It has used "Roseville, Ohio" in conjunction with "RRPCo" in several of its marks. This ware, often large planters or garden pottery, is often mistaken for the more-valuable ware of the Roseville Pottery Company. The two companies are unrelated.

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