Date in History: c. 1900
In 1883 Pauline Jacobus [jukO’bus] founded the Pauline Pottery Company, the first art pottery company to open in Chicago. Just five years later Jacobus moved her studio to Edgerton, Wisconsin where a high quality white clay was available. At the height of its production, Pauline Pottery employed 40 people and its art pottery lines were sold in Marshall Fields of Chicago and Tiffany’s of New York.
After the company went bankrupt in 1894, Jacobus continued to produce pottery – first for the new Edgerton Pottery studio that took over for Pauline Pottery and later at her home as an independent studio potter.
You can find Pauline Pottery in a wide range of forms including jars, teapots, cups, lamps and vases. It is very difficult to find today and so is avidly sought by collectors.
This historic document aired on the radio as an Historic Minute on 01/26/2004.