Early Newcomb Pottery

This exhibition features a private collection of 28 examples of early Newcomb Pottery assembled over the past three decades by Barbara Fuldner, a great-granddaughter of Gustav Stickley and a Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms Trustee, and her late husband, Henry Fuldner.

The dining room of the Log House—Gustav Stickley’s own home which he not only designed but built and lived in from 1910 to 1917—will be the setting for the exhibition, affording a rare opportunity to see Newcomb Pottery in an authentic period Arts and Crafts setting. Stickley’s Craftsman furniture and the home’s interior will serve as the backdrop for the pottery, and examples of textile work from both Stickley and Newcomb will provide a rich, visual context.

Founded in 1895 as part the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, the women’s coordinate of Tulane University in New Orleans, Newcomb Pottery produced some of the most distinctive and recognizable works of art of the period. During the 45 years it was in operation, approximately one hundred women were affiliated with the enterprise; the majority of the craftswomen were decorators of pottery, but others worked in needlework, metal-smithing, and book-binding. While Newcomb Pottery embodies its southern origin—decorators were encouraged to draw inspiration from their immediate surroundings—the designs demonstrate a thorough understanding of contemporary design reform principles such as conventionalized, repetitive motifs based on nature.

This is a companion show to Women, Art and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise, prepared jointly by The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the Newcomb Galley at Tulane University, which is scheduled to be on display at the Princeton University Art Museum May 7 – July 6, 2016.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website