Antique Signed Weller Pottery Hudson Hand Painted Art Vase with Floral Decorations. Blue top lightening to an ivory gradient from top to bottom, with soft-toned flowers and leaves primarily on one side in a freehand design. Signed along bottom edge by (Claude) Leffler, who created the Hudson line, and dated '25 next to signature. Label attached to inner rim with previous price and description. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Size: 6 x 6 x 13 in. 

In 1872 Samuel Augustus Weller founded Weller Pottery in Fultonham, Ohio. Originally his business consisted of a small cabin and one beehive kiln, and Weller by himself produced flower pots, bowls, crocks, and vases. Between 1882 and 1890 he expanded enough to build a factory along the riverside in nearby Zanesville. In 1893 he saw William Long’s Lonhuda ware at the Chicago World’s Fair, and Long joined Weller to produce a faience-glazed pottery line. However, Long left after less than a year due to business disagreements, and Weller continued to produce similar works on his own, later renaming the faience line Louwelsa after his daughter Louisa. From 1895 to 1904 Charles Babcock Upjohn was Weller’s head designer, developing the Dickensware I, Dickensware II, Eocean and Corleone lines. In 1897 Henry Schmidt designed Weller’s Turada line with an innovative technique, the “squeeze-bag” pottery. Decorators used squeeze-bags similarly to cake decorators, squeezing the paint onto the ceramic rather than painting it on with brushes. This allowed them to create unique and refined shapes with crisper lines. By 1905 Weller Pottery was the largest independent pottery company in the country. This was due in part to their constant innovation and to the work of Jacques Sicard and Henri Gellie, who brought metallic glaze techniques from France, first introduced by Clement Massier as Reflets Metalliques. The process was difficult, with only about 30% of each batch surviving, but this only made them more highly sought by collectors and built their reputation significantly. In 1904 Frederick Hurten Rhead left the company to become Roseville Pottery’s first art director, and later used the knowledge and experience he had gained at Weller to design the incredibly popular Fiesta ware line for the Homer Laughlin China Company. In 1908 Rudolph Lorber developed Dechiwo, which led to Burntwood, Claywood, and other similar lines as he became their primary designer. In 1917 Claude Leffler introduced the Hudson line, incorporating flowers and Art Nouveau shapes that remained popular for almost two decades even as tastes began to shift towards more utilitarian designs and wares. Weller mass-produced art pottery until about 1920 when the company shifted more towards their commercial lines. John Lessell headed the decorating department from 1920 to 1924, developing luster-glaze lines including LaSa, Marengo, Cloudburst, Lamar, and others. In 1922 Weller Pottery incorporated as “S.A. Weller, Inc.” Samuel Weller died on October 4th, 1925, and his nephew Harry Weller became president, introducing continuous kiln operations to expand their activities further. He consolidated the Weller plants in 1931 to cope with the worsening Depression, but his death in a car crash in 1932 heralded the decline of the company. Sam Weller’s son-in-law Frederic Grant was the president for one year, but after his divorce from Weller’s daughter Ethel Weller’s other son-in-law, Irvin Smith became president, running the company until 1937. By 1935 freehand decoration had ended at Weller Pottery, leading them to produce simplified embossed lines on their pieces instead. The last president of Weller Pottery was Walter Hughes, a ceramic engineer and former employee at American Encaustic Tiling Company. The War years were difficult, and in 1948 Essex Wire Corporation acquired a controlling share in Weller, closing the pottery factory later that year.

Commensurate with age.