cowan pottery for sale

After a few more years of schooling geared specifically toward his craft and the influence of Horace Potter (a famous craftsman), Cowan began working on pieces of his own design. By 1912, Cowan’s expertise was noticed by the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, and this led to his eventual start as an independent potter and the first era of Cowan Pottery.

The first era of Cowan Pottery lasted from 1912 to 1917, and is marked by Cowan’s self-described journey to create art pottery that was “sound in design and correct in taste”. Cowan worked with deep red clay and relied on glazes of solid color and luster to produce the proper finish. These early, handcrafted pieces won First Prize at the International Show at The Art Institute of Chicago. The success was short-lived, as Cowan soon left for the army.

Cowan's return marked the second era of Cowan Pottery, lasting from 1920 until 1931. The classic redware was replaced with high-fired porcelain, and the slow, manual assembly was replaced by specially commissioned molds. Some criticized these decisions, but the shift into a more commercialized product allowed Cowan and his new designers to spend more time crafting innovative styles and particularly elegant lines. All of this paid off, and the second era of Cowan pottery received awards from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Cleveland Museum of Art, and many more. Pieces were often coated with black slip, and aesthetic designs were etched into the coating. Despite the switch to porcelain, the lustrous glazes of the past were still created and implemented, with many of the pieces bearing these deep reds, greens, and blues. 

Cowan pottery is almost always carefully marked. In the first era, pieces bore the incised “Lakewood” script. Later lines of the same era often bore some variation of “Cowan Pottery”. After the switch to porcelain, a simple “Cowan” engraving marks the bottom of many pieces. Later works in this era bear Cowan’s cipher - an overlaid “C” and “R” or “Cowan” with a stylized “R” and “G” underneath.

Though Cowan Pottery ultimately stopped production in 1931 with the onset of the Great Depression, the impact that a single man’s work had on the art pottery community is astounding. Many of the pottery lines were purchased as public collections, and you can find several of these on display at The Western Reserve Historical Society and The Cleveland Museum of Art.