About Marblehead Pottery

Marblehead Pottery began as a small studio pottery in 1904. Marblehead Pottery originated to teach ceramics as a convalescent therapy to sanitarium patients. From that humble beginning, Marblehead Pottery grew into one of the most sought-after and respected small studio potteries of the 1900s.

Arthur Baggs became the director of Marblehead Pottery around 1905. Baggs brought to Marblehead a decorating style that focused on hand-incised or surface painted geometric designs on grounds of slightly contrasting colors. In 1915 Baggs became the owner of Marblehead Pottery.

In the 1920s as with many of the American art pottery companies, Marblehead began to focus almost exclusively on production art pottery. However, Marblehead's production pottery still maintained the high quality seen on the hand-decorated items. The production art pottery Marblehead produced was finely thrown and glazed in hard, pebbled matte finishes. Typical glaze colors are blue, green, pink, yellow, brown or gray. It is estimated that 95% of Marblehead's output was production art pottery.

Marblehead Pottery ceased production in 1936. Even at its high point, Marblehead remained a small studio pottery never employing more than six people. To this day, Marblehead continues to be among the most sought-after arts and crafts style pottery ever produced.

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