Peters & Reed Standard Glaze Pottery

I have collected pottery for years. Right after the gigantic Victorian carved walnut bedroom suite overfilled the one bedroom apartment I decided that something smaller and more portable would be a better collection. Somehow I decided on pottery with an emphasis on Arts & Crafts period American art pottery.

One of my favorite potteries is Peters & Reed of South Zanesville, Ohio. Part of the famous Zanesville area Ohio potteries of the early 1900's that included Weller, Roseville, Owens, McCoy, Robinson-Ransbottom and Zanesville, Peters and Reed (later Zanes Pottery after both Peters and Reed retired) produced a number of very handsome lines of art pottery. I like the looks and the obscurity of the lines. It is good pottery, but mostly unmarked. Many collectors have ignored it because you actually have to work at identification. Peters & Reed used a redware clay which gives most of its wares a subtle red hue.

Rookwood, 1888

Around 1900, standard glaze pottery was the fashion. The above mentioned potteries in addition to Rookwood in Cincinnati and a few other potteries from West Virginia to Denver made these pieces. Most have brownish to greenish backgrounds with subtle floral or even figural designs on top. The Rookwood pieces are the most valued and the figural designs, especially those featuring Indians, are the most desired.

Peters & Reed made line of pottery featuring its variation of standard glaze. It has a high gloss with a brown,beige, green blended glaze and is often called sprigware because of the use of laurel wreath-like multi-colored applied designs.

One of my favorite pieces of Peters & Reed is this huge jardiniere. It has applied lions and a fabulous blended glaze.

The pottery continued into the early 1930's disappearing in the dust of the Great Depression. The standard glaze pieces were produced from about 1900 to 1910 when other designs became more popular.

Mr. Flannery