TURTLECREEK REDWARE Merry Christmas Holiday Plate Circa 1990s

Offering a wonderful redware plate by the renowned TURTLECREEK POTTERS of Morrow, Ohio.  Turtlecreek Potters was one of the first 20th century pottery companies to begin re-creating authentic American redware using old techniques.  Many excellent potters have worked with Turtlecreek Potters, including Greg and Mary Shooner.

Weighing nearly 2 pounds, the 10" redware plate is from the 1990s. Redware is an earthenware pottery utilizing a red to pinkish burning clay body and was among the very first commercial products to be manufactured and used by European settlers to North America. Its fragile nature and its lead glaze rendered it obsolete as soon as an economically feasible alternative (salt-glazed stoneware, tin or glass) was available. 

The holiday design celebrates Christmas with the words Merry Christmas in script across the front of the plate in yellow glaze.  Three green pine trees are centered in the middle.  The back of the dish is incised with the Turtlecreek Potters logo.  There is no signature or date.

The plate is in excellent condition and would be a perfect gift for your antique lover, folk art collector or pottery collector.

ABOUT TURTLECREEK POTTERS 

Turtlecreek Potters originated in 1984 and is part of the Workshops of David T. Smith located in Morrow, Ohio.  The "Workshops" are a village-like atmosphere of board and batten shops that are the home to many skilled designers, cabinetmakers, finishers, potters and other artisans employed by David Smith.

In the early years of his business, Smith devoted himself to reproducing American antique furniture reproductions in New England, Shaker, and Pennsylvania German styles. However in the 1980s, in an attempt to fulfill the need for hard-to-find quality accessories for his furniture line, Smith spent many hours in museums and their archives researching early American redware. He developed an original lead glaze and built an outdoor wood fired kiln. The result was a very authentic line of redware plates and thrown forms that antique and pottery collectors embraced. 

The work of Workshops of David T. Smith has been prominently featured in two books by Tim Tanner (Early American Country Homes and Early American Country Interiors) and in national magazines, including Old House Interiors' Early Homes and A Primitive Place & Country Journal, in which David frequently contributes as a writer. Throughout the years, The Workshops has been honored to be featured in numerous national magazines, books, and publications.