(Wheaton, Illinois, April 29, 2008 – ) The graceful modernist vases manufactured one hundred years ago by the American Terra Cotta & Ceramics Company are poised to make a comeback, thanks to the efforts of three ardent thirty-somethings passionate about modern design. Teco pottery (an abbreviation of Terra Cotta pronounced “tea-ko”) was originally produced between 1899 and the 1920s in Terra Cotta, Illinois. With vintage pieces expensive and hard to find, the Prairie Arts studio is reproducing choice examples, in order to make these iconic objects—designed by leading architects of the Prairie School—affordable to a broad audience. Husband/wife partners Bryan and Lisa Kelly, along with Lisa’s brother Eric O’Malley, together founded Prairie Arts in 2005. Their goal: to make Teco and selected Frank Lloyd Wright decorative accessories visible to an XY generation essentially unfamiliar with Prairie School modernism. Since then, the studio has became the youngest Frank Lloyd Wright licensee and has placed its Teco Art Pottery Collection™ in more than 70 retail and specialty stores nationwide.
COLLECTION. The Teco Art Pottery Collection™ revives seven century-old shapes, and utilizes the same process as the original: slip cast formed, glazed and finished by hand. Each shape is currently offered in three historical glaze colors (green, yellow and blue) and three contemporary glaze colors (dark brown, white and natural), all finished in a watertight matte satin. Two new hues, orange and aqua, are premiering in May.
REVIVING A MODERN HERITAGE. American Terra Cotta and Ceramics founder William D. Gates developed Teco in 1899 as an offshoot of his main business manufacturing construction bricks and tiles. He invited such prominent architects as William LeBaron Jenney and Frank Lloyd Wright to design the pottery, as well as a handful of younger Chicago architects, proponents of the Prairie School led by Wright. It was this latter group who had the most impact on Teco’s style. Their desire to devise an original American architecture true to the tenets of modernism carried over to their vision for the ceramics, with a vocabulary of spare geometry, architectural references, and minimal decoration. Thus did Teco arise and flourish simultaneously with the first purely American modern architecture movement.
The Teco Art Pottery Collection™ is available nationwide through design and specialty retailers. Suggested retail prices: $45-$165.
PRESS INFO: susan@susanharkavy.com or 212.873-4687
READER INFO: www.prairie-arts.com or 1-800-594-3148
The Teco Art Pottery Collection™ is a registered trademark of
Prairie Arts.
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AVAILABLE SHAPES:
Rocket Vase
8.5 x 4”
Four Buttress Vase
10.5 x 6”
Large Classical Vase
16 x 8”
Double Gourd Vase
13 x 11”
Orb Vase
8 x 9”
Two Buttress Vase
6.5 x 4”
Kiss Vase
4.5 x 5.5”
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