When a design is radically ahead of its time – say, 100 years or so — it’s bound to have staying power. So it is with the bold, architectonic shapes of Teco art pottery, originally produced between 1899 and the late 1920s by the American Terra Cotta and Ceramics Co. of Illinois, and often designed by prominent Prairie School architects associated with Frank Lloyd Wright.
Hard to come by in recent years, Teco is back in a big way, with the recent re-introduction of some dozen designs in eight historic and new colors. At prices ranging from $60 to $195, the new line — the brainchild of three young Chicago-area entrepreneurs who admired the vintage pottery but couldn’t afford it — is never going to match up to the real thing, some of which fetches in the high five and low six figures.
Still, for décor and function, the inexpensive doppelgangers are a welcome offering. Manufactured in Illinois by a process close to the original, the slip cast stoneware begins with models made from scratch by artisans using the exact measurements of antique pieces, and is finished by hand with a matte satin glaze. “The glaze is as close as we can get,” says Bryan Kelly of Prairie Arts,
“but the antique vases have a smoky ‘charcoaling’ effect because of the lead that was used.”
The company speaks of ‘reviving,’ not reproducing, but they are proud of their product’s fidelity to the original. “A collector came to the office one day and brought an original vase to compare to our production pieces,” Kelly says. “When he was ready to leave, he grabbed ours by mistake. There’s a difference, but it’s pretty darn close.” prairie-arts.com
