The Potteries of Trenton Society in partnership with the New Jersey State Museum and the Trenton Museum Society is pleased to present Trenton Potteries Company: Art and Commerce. This year’s Trenton ceramics symposium will examine the history of the Trenton Potteries Company with special emphasis on the four monumental vases made for the company’s display at the 1904 St. Louis world’s fair and the imaginative decorative wares made in the 1930s and 1940s alongside the sinks and toilets for which the company was famous.
Close-up of the Woodland Vase, one of four distinct and highly decorative vases produced for the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis by the Trenton Potteries Company.
The Potteries of Trenton Society in partnership with the New Jersey State Museum and the Trenton Museum Society is pleased to present Trenton Potteries Company: Art and Commerce. This year’s Trenton ceramics symposium will examine the history of the Trenton Potteries Company with special emphasis on the four monumental vases made for the company’s display at the 1904 St. Louis world’s fair and the imaginative decorative wares made in the 1930s and 1940s alongside the sinks and toilets for which the company was famous.
For the St. Louis fair in 1904, known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the company conceived a grand scheme to advertise its faultless porcelain body by presenting it in the form of four lavishly decorated monumental vases, each standing nearly five feet high. The decorative design engaged Trenton’s leading modelers, decorators, gilders, and enamellers as a demonstration of the skills available in the city’s ceramic industry.
Directions to the State Museum’s auditorium on West State Street.
Program Schedule
| 9:00 a.m. | Registration and Coffee, New Jersey State Museum Auditorium |
| 10:00 a.m.-12:00pm | Morning Program, New Jersey State Museum Auditorium |
| David Conradsen, Curator of Decorative Arts & Design, St. Louis Art Museum, Art Ceramics at the 1904 St. Louis Fair | |
| Robert Cunningham, Trenton Museum Society Board Member and collector, The Four Monumental Vases of the Trenton Potteries Company | |
| 12:00-1:30 p.m. | Lunch, New Jersey State Museum, with time to view the Trenton Vase |
| 1:30-3:00 p.m. | Afternoon Program, New Jersey State Museum Auditorium |
| Ulysses Dietz, Curator of Decorative Arts, Newark Museum, History of Newark’s Vase as an Art Museum Object | |
| Tom Rago, Collector and author of Collector’s Guide to Trenton Potteries (2001), Trenton Potteries Company Art Wares, 1930s and 1940s | |
| Summary and Questions | |
| 3:15-4:40 p.m. | Reception and viewing of Woodland Vase at Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, Cadwalader Park |