January 26, 2023
Honorable Mention
Mary Chase Perry Stratton with a large vase in 1929, photographed by Mach.
Image courtesy of Pewabic Pottery.
Mary Chase Perry Stratton
For people familiar with Detroit, Pewabic Pottery and its architectural tiles are as iconic as Motown music, the Guardian Building, Belle Isle, and the Detroit Institute of Arts. Less well known is the name of Mary Chase Perry Stratton (1867-1961), one of its two co-founders. Stratton, a ceramic artist and teacher, along with her business partner Horace James Caulkins (1850-1923), a dental supplies dealer and ceramicist, founded Pewabic Pottery ceramic studio and school in 1903. It is Michigan’s oldest continuously operating pottery and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991. Pewabic Pottery may be best known for its architectural tiles with signature iridescent glazes developed by Stratton. They grace such notable buildings as the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Catholic Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, Belle Isle Aquarium and Bridge in Detroit, the Guardian Building also in Detroit, the Rainbow Fountain at Cranbrook Educational Community in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and many others including private homes and contemporary installations such as at the Detroit Medical Center Children’s Hospital, several Detroit People Mover stations, and Comerica Park (home of the Detroit Tigers).
Early Life and Education
Mary Chase Perry was born in the mining village of Hancock in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on March 15, 1867. After her father's death when she was ten, Perry moved with her mother and older brother Frederick south to Ann Arbor where Frederick studied to become a pharmacist at the University of Michigan. His graduation in 1881 when Perry was fourteen brought the family to Detroit where Frederick established a pharmacy on Woodward Avenue in the Brush Park neighborhood.
Perry’s enthusiasm for art began early. She learned charcoal drawing from Detroit artist Colonel Charles Lum and took her first art classes at the Art School of the Detroit Museum of Art (now the Detroit Institute of Arts) while attending Detroit High School. She followed up with two years of study at the Art Academy of Cincinnati from 1887 to 1889 under the Italian-born sculptor and educator Louis Rebisso. While in Cincinnati, Perry was introduced to China painting, the application of mineral paints onto pre-made pottery that created a watercolor effect that was very popular among women in the late nineteenth-century. In 1894, Perry encountered the Revelation Kiln, a new design of kiln in use at a local studio and purchased one for her own China painting work.
Pewabic Pottery Michigan Historical Site Marker. Photographed By J.T. Lambrou, May 5, 2021. Image courtesy of The Historical Marker Database.
Horace James Caulkins (1850-1923)
Born in Oshawa, Ontario, on July 25, 1850, Horace James Caulkins first came to Detroit in 1871 as a worker in the dry goods business at the George Peck & Company store. He began his career as a dental supplier in 1877 before turning to ceramic arts. Considered a high heat and kiln specialist, Caulkins developed the “Revelation Kiln” which could reach temperatures of 2,400 degrees and was initially used for firing dental enamel to create strong false teeth.
Caulkins’ kiln innovation came at the height of the Arts and Crafts movement in America which sought “to improve standards of decorative design believed to have been debased by mechanization, and to create environments in which beautiful and fine workmanship governed”. Like the British Arts and Crafts movement that rose in opposition to the mechanization of the Industrial Revolution, the American Arts and Crafts movement also emphasized hand craftsmanship and design. Caulkins, coincidentally a neighbor of Mary Chase Perry in Brush Park, hired her to promote his Revelation Kilns locally in 1896 and by 1897 expanded her work to a national scale because of her connections through the National League of Mineral Painters. By 1899, Perry was listed on Revelation Kiln promotional materials as a partner to Caulkins.
Mary Chase Perry Stratton at work in the East Jefferson Avenue pottery studio on Detroit’s east side, ca. after 1907. Image courtesy of Pewabic Pottery.
Mary Chase Perry Stratton and Horace James Caulkins inside the new Pewabic Pottery Studio on East Jefferson Avenue. Image courtesy of Pewabic Pottery.
Founding of Pewabic Pottery
Combining Caulkins’ technological skills with Perry’s understanding of glazes on ceramics, the partners founded a pottery together in 1903. They called it Revelation, but the next year they changed the name to Pewabic Pottery. The word Pewabic is derived from the Ojibwa or Chippewa word “wabic,” which means metal, or “bewabic,” meaning iron or steel. It specifically refers to clay the color of copper and the Pewabic Upper Peninsula copper mine in Hancock where Perry would take walks with her father as a child.
The business was established in an old carriage house on John R. Street at a time when women could neither vote nor own property. Perry was “the artistic and marketing force” of the company while Caulkins provided technical and financial support. Perry ran the Pottery and ceramic school and under her leadership oversaw production of architectural tiles, lamps, and vessels. The burgeoning enterprise soon outgrew its original space, and the founders hired Detroit architects William Buck Stratton and Frank D. Baldwin to design a new studio on East Jefferson Avenue. The new Tudor Revival style building opened in 1907 and was expanded in 1912. Six years later, in 1918, Perry married Stratton. Mary Chase Perry Stratton continued working at the Pottery over many decades, dying on April 15, 1961, at the age of 94. During her life, she was awarded honorary degrees from both the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Wayne State University in Detroit. She taught at both universities over the years and established the ceramics department at U of M. She was also a charter member of the Detroit Society of Women Painters and Sculptors founded in 1903.
Aerial view of Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, MI. Image courtesy of Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings.
Examples
Pottery Vessels
Vessels from the Gerald W. McNeely Collection of Pewabic Pottery, 2016. Photo: Tim Thayer and R.H. Hensleigh. Image courtesy of Cranbrook Art Museum.
Teardrop vase with contemporary iridescent copper glaze. Image courtesy of Pewabic Pottery.
Decorative Tiles
Hand-painted Downtown Detroit Map Tile, one of many Detroit and Michigan themed designs. Image courtesy of Pewabic Pottery.
6 x 6 Pine Cone Tile in Pewabic Blue, an original Mary Chase Perry Stratton design and glaze, from ca.1907-1910. Image courtesy of Pewabic Pottery.
Installations
Pewabic tile fireplace
Blended Blue and Green Fireplace, an example of a residential installation. Image courtesy of Pewabic Pottery.
Little Caesars Arena, Detroit
Pewabic tile embellishments on the pillar inlays flanking the Little Caesars Arena entrance and building header along the Woodward Avenue façade. Image courtesy of Pewabic Pottery.
Detroit Institute of Arts
Historic harlequin fountain outside Rivera Court, Detroit Institute of Arts,
Detroit, MI. Image courtesy of Pewabic Pottery.
Iridescent niche in the entry to the American wing, Detroit Institute of Arts,
Detroit, MI. Image courtesy of Pewabic Pottery.
Stair risers up to the Crystal Gallery, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI.
Image courtesy of Pewabic Pottery.
Guardian Building, Detroit
Facade niche of the historic Guardian Building (formerly Union National Trust Bank), Detroit, MI. Copyright Jennifer Johnson-Baross, 2012. Image courtesy of Detroit Architecture Book.
Guardian Building north lobby ceiling with Tiffany clock. Image courtesy of the Guardian Building website.
Legacy
Pewabic Pottery is known for the unique iridescent glazes covering its pottery and tiles in colors created or inspired by Stratton in a manner outlined by the International Arts and Crafts movement. All pottery vessels and tiles are still made and fired by hand to this day. Over a hundred years after its founding, Pewabic Pottery continues to operate in its 1907/12 building as a non-profit educational institution that not only offers classes in ceramics, but exhibits and sells pottery made in house as well as from artists across the United States. It also offers design and fabrication services for public and private buildings. Its exhibitions focus on Pewabic’s role in the history of Detroit, in the Arts and Crafts movement in America, and the development of ceramic art in the United States. The galleries regularly showcase new works by contemporary ceramic artists.
If you’ve never been to historic Pewabic Pottery, or if it’s been awhile, I encourage you to visit. When you are there, make sure to leave time for the gift shop. Buy a decorative tile, vessel, ornament, or jewelry item. They make wonderful gifts–for yourself or others. And don’t forget to take a tour of the architectural installations around the area featuring the beauty and craftsmanship of Mary Chase Perry Stratton’s legacy–”enrich[ing] the human spirit through clay.” For more information on Pewabic Pottery, visit their website here.