Factory Marks and Labels Used by Roseville Pottery

Nearly every pottery company, and indeed even the craftsmen and guild throughout history provided for some way to identify the providence of the wares they produced. Whether painted, molded, carved, or stamped, whether shape numbers or companies, artists or clay color, marks of all kinds can tell us volumes about a piece, if the information about them is available. It is for that reason we provide this guide to the marks used by the Roseville Pottery Company.

Although The Roseville Pottery Company was in business beginning in 1892, their early wares were unmarked. It was not until the majolica A & P "vase assortments" were released in 1896 that the first labels appear. They were simple paper stickers, with the letters "RPCo" in a scroll. The second stickers were the "rectangle" stickers, found on their majolica jardinieres, umbrella stands, and cuspidors.

In 1900, Roseville began producing their under glaze-decorated brown-ware under the "Rozane" brand, and used a simple ROZANE die-stamped mark in the base. In 1903, with the arrival of the blue-tinted Azurean line came the occasional die-stamped AZUREAN mark, although most received no identifying mark. In 1904, some of the Chloron line pieces were given a blue ink-stamp with "Chloron" and "TRPCo" in cursive.

Later in 1905 an attempt was made to standardize their marks with the "Wafers". These "Wafers" were clay-molded pieces that were attached to the bases of the various products. Each of the five major lines had a rocker added to the bottom of the wafer identifying that particular line. These five lines were: Egypto, Royal, Mongol, Mara, and Woodland. Around 1906 the rockers were abandoned, and most of the artware received the standard "Rozane ware" wafers, expanding to such lines as Della Robbia, Aztec, and Crystalis. The major exception was the Olymipic line, which received a three line ROZANE "OLYMPIC" POTTERY hand-printed in ink under the glaze..

Beginning around 1910 the application of the blue Rv ink-stamp became fairly common across many of the lines until 1928. In 1914 The early "shield" stickers were introduced and were used well into the 1930's. The popularity of the Donatello line in 1915 prompted it to occasionally receive it's own "Donatello" wafer-style impression. From 1930 until about 1937 the later shield sticker which included the ""Rv" trademark was used extensively.

Beginning in 1936 and continuing until around 1938, the incised Roseville marks appear. It is interesting to note that during this transitional period examples of many pieces can be found with either no marking or with the Roseville mark. This led to a great deal of confusion for early collectors before the actual dates of production for the various lines were known. These marks can be found on Pinecone, Dawn, Iris, Fuschia, Teasel, and a few others, some of which can also be found unmarked and with a shield sticker.

During the period from 1939 and continuing until their bankruptcy in 1954, the raised Roseville USA marks appear. The raised Roseville USA marks are certainly the most recognizable to collectors. Some patterns can be found during the transition with either raised USA or incised without USA marks such as Cosmos. One of the last of the floral patterns, Mock Orange was introduced in 1951, and with it came an unusual mark. Many of the pieces from this pattern are actually marked as "Mock Orange" in the mold along with the typical Roseville USA and shape number.

The Raymor line of cookware was introduced in 1953, and Roseville added both Raymor and other marks to the base such as PATPEND.

After their bankruptcy in 1954, the Roseville name passed to a group of Connecticut businessmen, who produced the Keynote line through 1956. These pieces were generically marked without even the Roseville trademark use.

With the failure of the Connecticut keynote lines, a long night fell upon the Roseville brand. For several decades no pottery branded as Roseville was created, and the trademark expired. Beginning around 1970, a small number of antique devotees began collecting Roseville, and by the late 1980's prices began rising. By the early 1990's it became almost a craze, and collectors sought more than was available. It was this environment that gave rise to the import Roseville. Several businesses had already established themselves in the states with the model of selling reproduction popular antiques. It did not take them long to take advantage of the expired trademark, and they ordered hundreds of thousands of reproduction pieces from Chinese factories. They spread them generously through antique malls, retail outlets, and especially auctions. There were many variations on the Roseville marks, and some are shown below for identification.

Another group of marks to examine are trial marks. These are usually beneath the glaze in crayon, with series of numbers which are believed to correspond to specific color combinations. The pieces marked as as trials or that have trial numbers can have wildly different color schemes or designs than production pieces.