Teco art pottery

Characterized by a "soft waxy matte green" color with glaze that resembles the "patina of ancient bronze artifacts", it was created under the direction of William D. Gates in 1881 in Terra Cotta, Illinois. Marketing of what became over 500 pottery designs began in 1902. The name TECO is derived from the first two letters of the words "terra cotta". Gates was the founder of The Terra Cotta Tile Works, which produced drain tile and brick for buildings and architectural decoration. Influenced by the turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts movement, he sought to create pottery as art expression, and experimenting with clays and colored glazes, decided that color and texture were very important in determining public acceptance. Every piece of TECO pottery has a distinguishing bold rectangular stamp with the company name. The Chicago Art Institute was the source of some of the designers including Hardesty Maratta (1864-1942). Other designers were from a group of young Chicago architects espousing Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style, which emphasized ornamentation as merging gracefully with building materials and building design. Source: http://www.tecopottery.info/catalog.html; Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teco_pottery (LPD)