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ROSEVILLE
 
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Roseville Pottery was incorporated on January 4, 1892 with George F. Young as general manager. Production began in the old J.B. Owens Pottery in Roseville, Ohio with home wares such as flower pots and cuspidors. All of the early wares were unmarked. Due to the success of the pottery under Mr. Young's direction, Roseville pottery operated four facilities by 1901, two in Roseville and two in Zanesville. The Midland Pottery in Roseville was purchased in 1898, Clark Stoneware (formerly used by Peters and Reed) and Muskingum Stoneware (formerly used by Mosaic Tile Co.) were purchased around 1901 when the main office was moved to Zanesville.

By 1900 Young believed that the Roseville Pottery Company was sufficiently equipped and staffed to contend with Weller for market share. He hired Ross Purdy to develop Roseville's first art line. His creation, a duplication of Lonhuda and Louselsa, was called Rozane--a word coined from the firm's title and location. Rozane was a finely modeled line, ranging from shapes with full rounded bowls and long slender necks ending in deeply fluted rims to those of simplest classic proportions. Fine artists decorated the dark, blended backgrounds with nature studies, floral sprays, animals, and portraits of well-known personalities and American Indians. As subsequent art lines were developed, the trade name" Rozane" became a generalized term used to indicate all art lines.

The pottery industry had always been plagued, and production hampered by losses incurred in the firing process. Although usually discarded, the company marketed some of these pieces, making public how the unexpected action of the fire had produced results of such beautiful and artistic nature, such that the value of the piece would actually increase. Each piece was inspected after firing and priced according to its individual merit. There were many pieces produced by most companies of this time, with much individuality due to production and human differences. These "factory original condition" pieces carry real value.

By 1910, both Roseville locations were closed, and in 1917 the Muskingum plant was destroyed by a fire. The former Clark Stoneware plant on Linden Avenue was expanded to take up the slack. The Roseville Pottery Company was closed in November of 1954.

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