John Bennett Ceramics

FAPG 20247D John Bennett (1840-1907), New York Plaque with pink and blue phlox, circa 1881-1882 Earthenware, painted and glazed Measures: 14 7/8 in. diameter, 1 13/16 in. high Signed and inscribed (on the back): J B[monogram] ENNETT / E 24 NY. / MC [or] CM If the Herter Brothers was the most distinguished and successful cabinet making and decorating firm in New York in the 1870s-1880s, the transplanted Englishman John Bennett was probably the most gifted ceramicist working in New York in the Aesthetic period. (Bennett was included in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s landmark exhibition, In pursuit of beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement, in 1986–87, and Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen’s chapter, “Aesthetic Forms in Ceramics and Glass,” pp. 216–19, significantly informs this essay). Born in England, the son of a potter who worked in the Staffordshire district, Bennett came under the influence of John Sparkes, head of London’s Lambeth School of Art. Soon thereafter, he was hired by Henry Doulton of the eponymous firm to teach artisans there the new art of underglaze faience decoration, which was part of a revival of the sixteenth-century interest in hand-painted ceramics. A number of Bennett’s works for Doulton were shown in the Doulton display at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, and the considerable success enjoyed by Bennett and Doulton from an American audience undoubtedly played an important role in Bennett’s decision to leave Doulton and England and set up shop in New York in 1877. By the next year, he had already established a studio in New York, where he produced his own pottery in the tradition of the Arts & Crafts innovators, William Morris and William De Morgan, and also taught classes at the new Society of Decorative Art to the growing band of women who had taken up china painting, both professionally and avocationally. Bennett’s pottery developed a very serious following among students and collectors, and was offered for sale at such leading retail establishments as Tiffany & Company in New York. Typically, his work was brilliantly colored, with carefully drawn naturalistic flowers against a monochromatic background. Bennett’s fully developed American work, particularly pieces of larger scale, is exceedingly rare, as he worked in New York only from 1877 to 1883, in which year he withdrew to a farm in rural West Orange, New Jersey, where his production continued on a limited basis. He remained listed as a ceramicist there until 1889. While in New York City, Bennett maintained a studio at 412 East 24th Street. The present charger, boldly featuring pink and blue phlox, is signed by Bennett, and is inscribed “E 24 NY,” indicating its manufacture during Bennett’s time in New York. Although it is not dated, this piece is closely related stylistically to various dated pieces from 1881–82, which would place its production toward the end of Bennett’s New York years. Although we do not know whether Bennett worked out of this 24th Street studio from the outset, he was indeed working there by 1879 when he made (and signed, inscribed, and dated) a charger with white and red flowers now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, which specifically points to “412 East 24 / NY” (acc. no. 1998.317). Additionally, the U.S. Census of 1880 lists Bennett as a ceramicist located at that same address, married to Mary Bennett with whom he had had six children. There are several other examples from Bennett’s time in New York City, which also give his studio address on East 24th Street, including a covered jar in cadmium yellow with indigo and green flowers made in 1881; an undated footed vase with lilac...