Abstract

T en years ago a review of the history of Roseville's National Pottery left unanswered the question-of whether the pottery manufactured its own art ware or simply purchased ware from other pot-teries (notably Robinson-Ransbottom) for resale (Murphy 2001). National was best known for its earthenware cooking ware, often marked by the large head of a Native American embossed on the base of the ware, and for its yel ~ ware and Rockingham kitchenwareiJ;n-pressed "NATIONAL " on the base. But a vari-ety of more artistic ware is also known to bear the ink-stamped, shield-shaped mark of the National Pottery. Whether this fancier ware was actually made by National or not has re-mained something of a mystery, although most people think that at least some of it was ob-tained from Robinson-Ransbottom (Murphy 2001a). A second possibility is that gesign ideas were carried from one pottery to another. The Skillman's (2001) noted that when the Pace and Sons Pottery closed, Willard Pace worked for the National Pottery before mov-ing to Robinson-Ransbottom, where he devel-oped artware lines and decorating patterns into