Overview of Utopian lines of the Owens Pottery Company

As one begins collecting Owens Pottery, the first thing that becomes apparent is the overwhelming availability of the various Utopian lines. With their mass appeal, millions of artist-decorated Utopian vases found their way into turn-of-the-century homes. While Owens was not the first to create under-slip-decorated "brownware", they may have been the most prolific.

While most of the designs were floral, Owens also used the same themes as the other potteries of the time, including animals, landscapes, Indians, famous people, and much more. The non-floral themes were produced in smaller quantities, and are therefore fairly scarce.

The first Utopian pieces were produced in 1896, originally decorated on a plain brown background. This was quite late to the genre as Rookwood had perfected and produced pieces of their "Standard Glaze" twelve years earlier in 1884. However, 1896 was the same year that Weller acquired the formulas and processes from Lonhuda and began the production of their competing Louwelsa line. All of these featured a deep and rich high-gloss glaze that was popular at the time.

The success of the Utopian line led management to expand on the line as their competitors had, and in 1900 they released the first Utopian on a solid blue background. By 1901 they had mastered the techniques of the airbrush for slip and were able to produce blended backgrounds as a canvas for their artists.

Like their competitors, Owens explored sterling overlay on their high-glazed under-slip line, but they may have been the only major manufacturer to experiment with their own silver-plated overlays. Clearly the idea was to reduce cost, but few examples of silver-plate have come to light suggesting it was a failed experiment.

Owens also created a line of Utopian collectors refer to as "Lightweight". These pieces have much thinner walls, have more delicate slip designs, and usually come numbered in the 700's or 800's. It is unknown when this line evolved, but the artwork is among the finest produced by Owens decorators.

1902 brought the addition of the Matt Utopian line. The background became lighter and softer, and the decorations blended into the pastel backgrounds.

In 1903, Owens released their "Poster" line, which many consider a subset of Utopian. The process was the same, but with a specific color blend for the background, and featuring images of famous actors and musicians of the time. The concept of a collectible line was a bit ahead of it's time, and few pieces were sold.

In 1905 Owens introduced their Opalesce line, and with it, Opalesce Utopian. The pieces were covered in a rough coral-like colored glaze, usually malachite or white. Some area was left untreated, allowing for the artist to produce an under-slip design, almost always floral.

1905 also saw the introduction of their Vellum glaze. Similar to Rookwood's Vellum glaze, it was used primarily on pieces that in every other aspect would appear to be standard Utopian. Unlike Rookwood which expanded into scenic designs and landscapes for their Art Vellum glazed-wares, Owens seemed content to continue with the themes they had used since the inception of Utopian.