American Collectibles Guide

The Van Briggle Pottery has been producing Arts & Craft style pottery since 1900. Founded by Artus Van Briggle in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the products of this company include vases, bowls, book ends, candle holders, figures, paperweight, plates and plaques.

The tiles are available at local home improvement stores. The other products are available from the company or through secondary outlets (eBay, etc.)

See Van Briggle pottery.

Artus Van Briggle worked for the Rookwood Pottery at the end of the Nineteenth Century, but his health forced him to move West. He established the pottery in Colorado Springs in 1900, and his early work sold out quickly. The Van Briggle Pottery, now including his wife Anne, won awards at the Paris Exposition in 1903-4, shortly before Artus died. Anne continued the work of the Van Briggle Pottery for another eight years, before the pottery was leased to Edwin DeForest Curtis, the first of several owners in the Twentieth Century. Through fire, flood and economic downturns, the company continued to make tiles and art pottery, as it does today.

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The Iroquois China Company was established in 1905 in Solvey, Syracuse, New York, in a plant built for another china company that never even took possession. Simply designed and decorated lines were made for the commercial china arena, and Iroquois china was used in some of the finest hotels and dining cars in the US in the first half of the Twmeiteth Century.

Iroquois employed some of the big industrial designers of the time to design their china forms, including Russel Wright, Ben Seibel, Michael Lax, and even Peter Max. The modern forms coming from these designers fit the modern decal decorations well. Some of these china designs called for stacking salt and pepper or sugar and creamer, for space saving as well as modern design.

Iroquois also produced a number of patterns on a china design of an older style named Museum White, or Henry Ford Museum, with squared off handles and angled rather than round shapes in the serving pieces.

All Iroquois china is marked. Production ceased in 1969.

Iroquois china shapes and designs are the Twentieth Century at their best. Find a pattern you like and collect it, or go for various pieces from several shapes and patterns. Most will give an authentic retro feel to your dining table.

See Iroquois China.

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