The Roseville Pottery was incorporated on January 4, 1892 with George F. Young as general manager.  Production began in the old J.B. Owens Pottery in Roseville Ohio with home wares such as flower pots and cuspidors.  All of the early wares were unmarked.  Due to the fantastic success of the pottery under Mr. Young's direction, Roseville pottery was operating four facilities by 1901, two in Roseville and two in Zanesville.  The Midland Pottery in Roseville was purchased in 1898, Clark Stoneware (formerly used by Peters and Reed) and Muskingum Stoneware (formerly used by Mosaic Tile Co.) were purchased around 1901 when the main office was moved to Zanesville.  By 1910, both Roseville locations were closed, and in 1917 the Muskingum plant was destroyed by a fire.  The former Clark Stoneware plant on Linden Ave. was expanded to take up the slack.  The Roseville Pottery was closed in November of 1954.

     The success of the Rookwood Pottery prompted similar designs from other companies.  S.A. Weller had great success with thier Lonhuda and Louwelsa lines, and in 1900, Roseville introduced it's first art line.  It was developed by Ross Purdy and was dubbed Rozane Ware after the pottery name and location (Roseville Pottery, Zanesville, Ohio).  Rozane Ware was manufactured in the Linden Ave. plant.  All of Roseville's art pottery was from Zanesville, none from the Roseville locations.  In 1904 Frederick Rhead, formerly of S.A. Weller, began as art director and introduced the Della Robbia line.  His brother Harry took over in 1908 and in 1915 introduced the popular Donatello line.  Frank Ferrell took over as art director when the Muskingum plant was destroyed by fire in 1917.  He eventually introduced the Pine Cone line which was to become one of Roseville's most popular designs.  Mr. Ferrell continued as art director until production ceased in 1954.

     Roseville had many different marks, but the earliest made use of the name "Rozane".  Some other marks used and not readily recognized as Roseville are, RVPCO, RPCO, Lotus, Azurean, Pine Cone, and an "R" with a small "v" in the upper portion of the letter.  Much of Roseville pottery is unmarked and must be recognized by characteristics alone.  A great resource in this respect are Sharon and Bob Huxford's, The Collectors Encyclopedia of Roseville Pottery, first and second series.  These books are laid out well and have great pictures to help you become familiar with the characteristics of the many different lines of art pottery produced by Roseville.  They also include prices to give you an idea of how much a particular piece may be worth.  Don't worry about the prices going out of date, just concentrate on the color photos of all that beautiful pottery.  An updated supplemental price guide is put out each year to keep the prices in both books current.  Kovel's American Art Pottery is also a fantastic resource for both information and color photos of your favorite American art potteries.  A price guide is included with this book published by Crown Publishing.  Also, the Treadway Galleries and Cincinnati Art Gallery, among others, publish auction catalogs with color photos, descriptions, and prices realized for American art pottery.

     Here are some more titles to get you going with your Roseville research. 

Barber, Edwin Atlee. Marks of American Potters. Cracker Barrel Press, 1904. Reprint edition.
Dale, Sharon. Frederick Hurten Rhead: An English Potter in America. Erie Art Museum, 1986.
Evans, Paul. Art Pottery of the United States. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1974.
Humphries. Roseville by the Numbers. Humphries, 1995.
Husfloen. Antique Trader's Pottery and Porcelain Ceramics Price Guide. Antique Trader, 1994.
Kovel, Ralph M. & Terry H. Dictionary of Marks-Pottery and Porcelain. Crown Publishers, Inc., 1953.
Kovel, Ralph M. & Terry H. The Kovel's Collector's Guide to American Art Pottery. Crown Publishers, Inc., 1974.
Lehner, Lois. Lehner's Encyclopedia of U.S. Marks on Pottery, Porcelain & Clay. Collector Books, 1988.