The Faience Manufacturing Company (FMCo.) was well established prior to Lycett’s arrival in 1884. It was common practice in the ceramic industry for potters to join forces with financial backers to start up a business. It’s likely that an enterprising potter approached Bernard Veit — a partner in the prosperous millinery goods company Veit and Nelson — to establish the Faience Manufacturing Co. in February 1881. On the business side, FMCo. was virtually a family affair: Veit appointed his son-in-law, Joseph Baruch, a former glove manufacturer, as secretary and treasurer; Veit’s brother and sons were among the directors. The firm produced ornamental pottery in their Brooklyn factory that was sold in Veit and Nelson’s showrooms in lower Manhattan.

Despite the great beauty of FMCo.’s wares, especially during Lycett’s tenure, the company’s sole focus on art pottery proved to be its downfall. Producing ornamental wares without a commercial line of goods to offset the expense forced them to cease pottery production in 1890 and reorganize as agents for a French porcelain manufacturer.

How typical — or unusual — was FMCo.’s work in terms of the Brooklyn craft trade in the 19th century? In terms of the wider American market?

During the last quarter of the 19th century, there were at least 12 potteries operating in Greenpoint. They produced a broad range of wares. Some manufactured coarse wares, including jugs, jars, crocks and flowerpots; others made fancy table wares as well as household articles such as doorknobs, drawer pulls, push plates and buttons for clothing. The Faience Manufacturing Co. was unusual in that it produced strictly artistic wares for display. FMCo.’s semi-porcelain vessels are of amazing scale, a characteristic that distinguishes them from the art porcelains produced at the time. The flamboyant vessels produced by FMCo. under Lycett’s supervision echo the expansive spirit of late 19th-century America.

How do the works on show change over the time period covered by the exhibition?

At first, FMCo. advertised that they would introduce new styles of artistic pottery weekly. In the competitive pottery industry, adaptability to changing taste was critical to viability. Objects on display from the pre-Lycett period of production range from French-inspired faience and Limoges wares with applied three-dimensional flowers or underglaze slip decoration, to an experimental vase with a Chinese-style red flambé glaze, and English-inspired, ivory-bodied wares painted with colorful flowers or birds and insects perched upon branches.

In 1884, FMCo. underwent a dramatic transformation that attests to their ambition to succeed at art pottery production. The firm expanded its Brooklyn pottery-making facilities, moved its Manhattan showrooms, and recruited Lycett, a renowned ceramic artist, as art director. Within two years of his arrival, Lycett had transformed FMCo.’s artistic agenda, creating bold and eclectic designs that continued to draw inspiration from fashionable English and European wares, as well as from venerated ancient, medieval, and Renaissance objects in major museum collections.

The firm used progressive production techniques, such as interchangeability of parts, that resulted in the creation of large-scale exotic shapes of Near and Far Eastern derivation that recombine a variety of elements. The vessels were embellished with exotic motifs in vivid enamels, with raised gold paste as well as jeweled and luster decorations that were also used interchangeably.

Who bought and displayed these works? How expensive were they?

In 1886, FMCo. made a big push to promote their stylish new wares in trade publications oriented towards jewelry and fancy goods wholesalers, as well as periodicals aimed at elite consumers. Positive press accelerated FMCo.’s success, and they soon sold at all the major retail establishments across the country.

Their opulent, large-scale ceramic objects were expensive to produce because fewer could be fired at once. Displayed on a mantel, or table, FMCo.’s vessels were prominent objects in a fashionable interior, the physical manifestation of their owner’s artistic and cultural sophistication. Try as I might, I have yet to locate a FMCo. vessel with provenance traceable to the original owner — or a period image depicting a FMCo. vessel in situ. These are some of the missing puzzle pieces from the firm’s story that would be thrilling to unearth!

The firm’s only surviving trade catalog dates from the pre-Lycett period, and lists objects that range in price from 40 cents to $30.  In contrast, a much-lauded monumental FMCo. vase made during Lycett’s tenure was promoted in the New York press as being the most expensive piece of American pottery offered for sale, and it cost between $300 and $500.

What drew you to study Lycett and his work?

As a graduate student searching for a fruitful thesis topic, I was drawn to the atmospheric interiors and eclectic objects of the Aesthetic Movement. The synthesis of Near and Far Eastern designs, exemplified by the Faience Manufacturing Co.’s exotic wares, resonated with me. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 1986 exhibition catalog, “In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement,” identified the Faience Manufacturing Co. and Edward Lycett as significant, but there was more to discover about the enterprising pottery and its eminent art director, and I embarked on a re-examination of Lycett’s multifaceted career.

Many times, I imagined entering the Faience Manufacturing Co.’s Manhattan showroom, or the decorating department of the Greenpoint pottery, and the exhilarating visual impact of seeing the myriad colorful and eccentrically shaped vessels displayed together. This exhibition is a realization of that dream. It also presents the exciting opportunity to incorporate new research facilitated by the Internet and digitization of numerous 19th-century primary sources.

“Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn’s Faience Manufacturing Company” will be on display at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York, from May 3, 2012, through June 16, 2013.

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