The best American art pottery transcends the region of its manufacture. This is true of Boston’s Grueby, Cincinnati’s Rookwood, and certainly the Newcomb College pottery made in New Orleans during the Arts & Crafts period at the turn of the 20th century. Widely honored at the time of its manufacture, winning eight medals in international competition, Newcomb is now avidly sought after by collectors from coast to coast.
As art pottery expert David Rago points out in The Arts & Crafts Collector’s Guide, “From about 1875 until about 1925, there were over 200 American companies producing American art pottery. Yet I cover fewer than twenty ...” His reasons for including Newcomb on this exclusive list are succinct: “Handmade, individually crafted and designed, centered in spirit, and evocative of the Old South, this is art pottery of the highest order.”
In 1886, when Josephine Louise Newcomb founded H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College for Women in honor of her late daughter, she expressed a desire that the students receive both a literary and practical education. The work of the Art department became strongly involved in the latter goal. The Newcomb College pottery works were established in 1894, and an accomplished artisan of that period, Mary Given Sheerer, came from Cincinnati to teach the students the art of ceramic decoration. Also on the faculty was noted artist Ellsworth Woodward, who had trained at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Amanda Winstead is the Newcomb pottery expert at the Neal Auction Company in New Orleans and an alumna of Newcomb College. Like many collectors, she reserves her highest praise for the pottery covered with a clear, glossy glaze made during Newcomb’s early days, roughly 1886-1909. Designs focused on stylized interpretations of regional flora, often incised on the pot and then painted, but there are other motifs including fruit, animals, and even sailboats. One unusual piece is circled by local alligators; another, by peacocks.
These desirable high-glaze examples bring the highest prices at auction. “Less of it was made,” explained Winstead. “These pieces were the pottery’s first productions during the early developmental years of the Arts & Crafts movement. The high-glaze material tapers off around 1910. Then the pottery moves into the next period of production with the landscape pieces, and a lot more of those were made.”
Winstead pointed out an interesting fact: long before Demi Moore’s classic scene in the movie Ghost, making clay pots was considered a bit too “hands-on” for ladies. She said, “The men potted the pieces – Joseph Meyer probably worked there the longest. They always have their marks on the pieces and are listed in the description. Then the women decorated them and added their marks. There are many period photos of them at work on benches in the studio – carving the pots, painting and glazing them.”
Ruth Winston, Director of Business Development and an auctioneer at New Orleans Auction Galleries, also has a personal link with Newcomb College – her grandfather was on the faculty – and a strong admiration for the pottery that passes through her hands on the podium: “The stars of Newcomb are those decorators. It’s wonderful that they didn’t think it was ladylike for them to be throwing the pots and that these men came in and did it. But it’s the decorators who are the famous ones these days.’
“It was more than an artistic outlet, because I think historically women were stuck with nothing but artistic outlets like stitching and knitting. Hel-lo! For me, it always represented a way out of the norm. These women said, ‘I can create an income. I can be an independent, fulfilled person. It may be through my art, but it’s also a business.”‘
Fortunately for collectors, Newcomb’s products were well marked, not only with the pottery’s stamp also but with indications of the item’s decorator, potter and date. So the design work of the most outstanding artists is recognized and celebrated. One of the most famous of these was Marie de Hoa LeBlanc (1874-1954), who was born into a local Creole family. Active at Newcomb 1898-1914, the multilingual LeBlanc traveled widely and studied abroad in Munich and Paris.
Her work was awarded a bronze medal in 1904 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and a gold medal in 1914 from the Art Association of New Orleans. Today LeBlanc’s mark brings a premium at auction. For example, a tall, high-glaze vase decorated in 1903 with yellow iris buds and blossoms brought $22,325 during Neal Auction Company’s 2005 Louisiana Purchase Auction.
Regional fine and decorative arts, including Newcomb College pottery, are a major emphasis of Neal’s sales inventory. In June 2007, a 1908 Leona Nicholson high-glaze vase decorated with tall pine trees soared to $67,000; and at this year’s Louisiana Purchase Auction, in October, a narrow, high-glaze 1908 vase by Henrietta Davidson Bailey sold for $14,687.
While these high-glaze pieces are most desirable, perhaps the most widely recognized type of Newcomb College pottery dates to a later period – during and after World War I – when decorators at the workshop specialized in the famous “moon and moss” bayou landscapes. Most are executed in muted shades of blue and green and covered with a matte glaze developed at Newcomb.
The best known of Newcomb’s designers, Sarah Agnes Estelle Irvine (1887-1970), decorated many of the vases with Southern oak, moss, and moon motifs. These appealed strong to the American buying public at the time and continue to attract collectors today. Irvine was mentored by Ellsworth Woodward and maintained a life-long association with Newcomb College.
At the preview of the Neal’s October 2007 sale, Amanda Winstead pointed out the variety of offerings from every period of the pottery’s production as being available to bidders. Two fine Moon and Moss pieces, a 1919 vase and a 1918 covered jar – both by decorator Anna Frances Simpson – sold for $14,100 and $11,456 respectively. Other matte-glaze pieces from Newcomb’s later period are ornamented with floral designs, and some sell in the low four-figure range, giving buyers an entry point when forming a collection.
Another indication of Newcomb’s broad national appeal is the enthusiasm of dealers in regions far from New Orleans. Don Treadway, of the Treadway Gallery in Cincinnati, has been selling art pottery for 35 years and holds five auctions annually. “I would say most every one of the sales will have Newcomb,” he said in an interview with Style Century Magazine. “We have half a dozen pieces in the December 2nd sale.”
Treadway loves the romantic bayou landscapes – infinite in variety – on the later Newcomb ceramics, and said, “I think the mass of collectors identify Newcomb with the later matte-glazed ‘moss and moon’ scenic pieces. They are the typical Newcomb style that everybody relates to. In all corners of this country, people will see a piece of matte-glaze Newcomb scenic pottery and know what it is.”
Since every piece of Newcomb pottery is unique, collectors should learn to make their own aesthetic judgments when they consider a piece for purchase. Rarity of design, the decorator’s skill, color scheme, glaze quality and condition are important considerations. As with all art pottery, one should look at how the design covers and adapts itself to the shape of the object. Distinctions such as these make the difference between a $5,000 vase and a $65,000 one.
Learn More: The fight to preserve Newcomb’s legacy
Collectors around the country have heard about the controversy surrounding Tulane University’s appropriation of the independently established and endowment-rich Newcomb College in the tumultuous days following Hurricane Katrina. Background on the situation can be found on the Web site www.newcomblives.com.
The site also contains up-to-date information on the current status of the legal battle Newcomb College alumnae are waging (currently at the appellate level of the Louisiana State Supreme Court) to preserve their alma mater as a distinctly separate educational institution.
Learn More: Newcomb on display
The best public collection of the Crescent City’s most famous pottery is at the Newcomb Art Gallery in the Woldenberg Art Center at Tulane University in New Orleans. Visitors to the area may also want to view Newcomb displays at the Louisiana State Museum and the Historic New Orleans Collection in the French Quarter.
