Maria Longworth Nichols founded Rookwood Pottery (named after her father’s country home) in 1880. It was a forerunner of the great pottery companies in Ohio. She started work alone in an abandoned school house, but in time started to hire people. She was known to hire only great artists and accomplished painters.
The company’s earlier pottery lines were Oriental or Japanese oriented. Later works had floral and natural designs. From inception works of Rookwood Pottery were accepted as of finest quality and are highly prized by collectors today.
Its logo was a reversed "R" touching a "P" and was used first in 1886. Each additional year, a flame was added to the logo. By 1890 each art piece contained the logo encircled by fourteen flames. After that year no other flame was added. Each piece contained just the logo encircled by fourteen flames and year of production in Roman numerals underneath.
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Rookwood Pottery used marks to indicate the type of clay used. "P" was for soft porcelain, "V" for vellum glazes, "Z" for a matte glaze, items with "S" were special pieces. "X" was for faulty or seconds which sold cheaper. Even pieces with the slightest factory inconsistency got an "X". Rookwood Pottery already had a hundred retail stores by 1904 and employed over one hundred and twenty artists and decorators during its years of existence. It filed for bankruptcy in 1948 and was sold to Walter and Marge Schott. It closed it doors of production in 1966 after many years of steady decline.
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