Laura Ann Fry (1881-1886)

Laura Anne Fry was born just outside of Lafayette, Indiana in 1857. She moved to Cincinnati with her parents at an early age. In her teens she opened a small professional studio in Cincinnati where she worked on wood carving, china painting, and furniture design.

Due in large part to poor sales, she soon closed her studio and took a job at the Rookwood Pottery in 1881. Laura worked there until 1888, teaching modeling and pottery design to students in addition to executing a large volume of various Rookwood designs.

She is credited with inventing the mouth-blown atomizer used to create colored slip backgrounds for lines such as the Standard Glaze. Laura left Rookwood for a position at Purdue University in 1890, as head of the Art Department. She moved to Indiana for this job and, with the except for a multi-year hiatus working for Lonhunda pottery in Ohio, Laura worked for Purdue until her retirement in 1922. Laura died in 1943. Collector interest in her work is considered to be above average.