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brief history at end

Newcomb Pottery/New Orleans Art Pottery

The very early beginnings represented 20 student members of the Ladies Decorative Art League in 1885 in New Orleans.  In 1886, the New Orleans Art Pottery Company was formed.  Some thirty women from the league joined the new company.  One of the first potters was Joseph Fortune Meyer, who had come from France, and was an active potter until his death  in 1931, but not before he worked at the school as chief potter until 1925 throwing almost every piece that was decorated at the factory.  The other potter hired to work in the early years was George Ohr, who had already started his own pottery in Biloxi, but was fired in 1898. Two more pottery names would follow before William Woodward, a professor of art at Tulane University, convinced the Sophie Newcomb College to support a pottery class in 1895.  The history of Newcomb Pottery is quite interesting as new potters, designers and decorators worked at the “factory” up through the fourth and fifth time period from 1930-1945 giving the world some of the most beautiful and decorative pots from the early beginnings of American art pottery.  

Sourced from Kovel’s American Art Pottery, Ralph and Terry Kovel, 1993