Rare Finds | The Latta collection
This exhibition closed in 2020
Mark and Marie Latta started collecting American Art Pottery over three decades ago. Today, these Iowa natives have created a sizeable and distinguished collection that demonstrates the incredible range of ceramics manufactured in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries at regional and national potteries in the United States, including Ohio companies like Weller, Roseville, and Rookwood potteries.
Rare Finds |The Latta Collection is an intimate exhibition featuring forty unique pieces from their extensive ten-thousand-piece pottery collection. Discerning collectors, the Lattas’ sought out extraordinary pieces featuring unusual glaze variations or colors that deviate from others in their line, works with virtuoso surface decoration, or those that have unusual subject matter. Examples that may surprise the most seasoned art pottery collector include: a vase manufactured by Weller Pottery Company from the Louwelsa line that features a red glaze rather than the typical brown glaze; the largest example of a Rozane Woodland vase designed by Gazo Foudji for Roseville Pottery Company; and a standard glaze tray decorated with a cat and mouse by Harriet Wilcox, a Rookwood Pottery Company artist and one of Mark and Marie Latta’s favorite decorators.
Passionate collectors, the Lattas’ are also deeply committed to art pottery education. They are long-time members of pottery organizations like Pottery Lovers, the American Art Pottery Association (AAPA), and the Iowa Art Pottery Association. Mark and Marie Latta have also held leadership positions in these organizations; Mark Latta as a past president of the AAPA and Marie Latta as the organization’s long-standing membership coordinator.
The Iowa Art Pottery Association, which was formed in August 1999 by seventeen pottery collectors in Mark and Marie Latta’s home, funded and installed the Ohio State Historical Marker on Linden Avenue in Zanesville, Ohio commemorating the site of the former Roseville Pottery Company plant.
Founded in 1890 in Roseville, Ohio, Roseville Pottery Company…The company moved to this Linden Avenue location in 1898, and began creating art pottery. By 1917, all production of pottery was moved to the Linden Avenue Plant. The Roseville Pottery Company was among the most commercially successful producers of art pottery in America until closing in 1954. During its span of sixty-four years, Roseville opened four plants and produced an enormous quantity and variety of pottery made primarily from native Ohio clay. The hallmark of Roseville Pottery is its unmistakable dynamic and artistic quality, designed for the average consumer in a modern age. Roseville's great success can be attributed to its ability to blend commercial enterprise with the highest standards of ceramic artware production.
Advocates of not only American Art Pottery but also the arts in general, Mark Latta holds a position on the Board of the Muscatine Art Center, Muscatine, Iowa and both are deeply committed to the Brunnier Museum, Ames, Iowa. Rare Finds |The Latta Collection will be on view through July 2021.
Image Above: Weller Pottery Company, Sicardo Vase with In-Mold Flowers, circa 1907, earthenware. On Loan from Mark and Marie Latta.
