posted on June 11, 2007 10:36:51 AM new
Done some research but couldn't find anything really definitive...Can anyone identify Susan Frackelton mark? The second photo hard to see and I MAY have the third photo upside down...Any help or guidance is appreciated...Thanks!
[ edited by blueyes29 on Jun 11, 2007 10:39 AM ]
[ edited by blueyes29 on Jun 11, 2007 10:39 AM ]
[ edited by blueyes29 on Jun 11, 2007 12:22 PM ]
posted on June 11, 2007 01:08:23 PM new
I couldn't find an example of her mark but I found this article about her - seems like she was most famous for her blue and gray salt glaze pieces. I am no expert but your piece reminds of 1970's pottery and not turn of the century era pottery:
Susan S. Frackelton
(1848-1932) of Milwaukee began her artistic career as a landscape and china painter, like many women artists in the late 1800s. But for Frackelton, this was just the beginning. She soon became a major contributor to the arts in America as a businesswoman, inventor, author, and artist. She transformed her love of decorating china into a prolific business and began throwing her own pieces. Frackelton eventually developed her own style of art pottery featuring distinctive blue and gray designs on stoneware.
A Woman of Many Talents
Susan Frackelton began decorating ceramics in the 1870s as she worked in her family's crockery import business. She became well known for her 1885 instructional manual for china painting, Tried by Fire. A year later she patented a special kiln designed for use in the home. Frackelton's own pieces, exhibited throughout the United States and internationally, received numerous awards and accolades.
Later, she started to throw her own pottery and experimented with salt glazes, coatings produced by throwing table salt into the hot kiln. At the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Frackelton earned several medals for her salt glaze stoneware.
Frackelton Blue and Grey
By 1894 Frackelton had shifted away from the painting and glazing of manufactured ceramics and had begun to create "art pottery," ornamental pottery conceived and fabricated as works of art. She experimented with a variety of forms, decorations, techniques, and motifs and threw many, but not all, of her pieces herself. She specialized in gray glazes and painted blue designs under the glaze, a style that became known as "Frackelton Blue and Grey." Her notoriety continued to grow at international expositions, most notably in Paris (1900) and Buffalo (1901). Frackelton's greatest contribution in art pottery was her diverse, almost experimental, painted and applied exterior treatments, which incorporated a number of naturalistic and geometric patterns.
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I Googled "Susan Frackelton mark" and came across this reference in a page, About The Mad Potter of Biloxi, The Art and Life of George E. Ohr.
"George liked to travel and it is known from at least three of his pots, also carrying the overlapping script F-S mark of Susan Frackelton, along with the inscribed date '99, that Ohr probably visited Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that year."
Note the description of her mark as overlapping script F-S.
posted on June 11, 2007 03:24:55 PM new
Thanks, Neglus and Ohmslucy...I searched further too...From the description of the clay and glaze, it looks like my plate MIGHT be similar...On the other hand, on one of the Frackelton (the preferred spelling of her name), it looks like she inscribed at least one of her pots with her initial & name (S Frackelton)...I did e-mail one of the sites with my questions...I do think the mark on my plate looks a bit "contemporary" and the beet design also smacks of more recent vintage...
So...will wait to see if I hear anything more but do appreciate your help...
posted on June 13, 2007 07:38:29 AM new
Thanks, "Twig"...I agree and, even though the plate does appear to have some similarities to Frackelton work, think it's probably newer. I didn't think I'd be so lucky to have a Frackelton piece! Sigh...
At any rate, I went ahead a listed it and didn't make any mention of Frackelton and just noted the "SF" backmark...it's got some "lookers" but no bids so far...It IS an attractive and unusual plate so we'll see...thanks for the observations and thoughts...
posted on June 13, 2007 07:55:43 AM new
Latest Info...Just got an email from a wonderful Mr. Kapler, the Curator of the Wisconsin Historical Museum, who forwarded a photo of a legit Frackelton backmark...For info purposes, it's generally a cobalt blue "SF" with the letters superimposed on each...the "S" appears to be beneath the "F"...So, for any others out there who may think they have an original Frackelton piece, hope this helps...Mine is NOT...and is probably more recent vintage, as suspected.
