Berea College Art Collection

In the mid-twentieth century, Elva Nampeyo created this clay bowl. Nampeyo is from the Hopi tribe and the bowl is crafted in a traditional style that embraces pre-Hopi cultures. It is a white clay bowl with a wide shoulder, narrowing at the base and neck. The shoulder is red, with a band of white and [...]

This teapot has been first thrown on a pottery wheel and then altered to give the body its bulbous, fluted shape. It has a shino glaze, which creates the teapot’s varied, organic coloration. Shino glazes range in color from milky white to burnt orange and have been a favorite of potters for centuries. Charlie Cummings [...]

  This small nineteenth century teapot is decorated in a style that was developed in the Kyushu region following the sixteenth century Japanese invasion of Korea. With the relocation of skilled Korean potters to the Japanese isles, Satsuma ware developed as a style of Japanese pottery. Though it originally developed as utilitarian, with dark clay [...]

This Tiffany favrile vase was designed and created by Louis Comfort Tiffany in the beginning of the twentieth century. Louis Comfort Tiffany was the premier designer of the decorative arts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, known mostly for his glass work. Tiffany patented favrile glass in 1894 and began its production in [...]

This sixteenth century steel tsuba was crafted for a katana, or what is commonly referred to as a samurai sword. The tsuba is of the Genshu Suruga style and very plain in its overall design. Each tsuba shape has its own name, the simple circular shape being known as Maru Gata. Katanas and other Japanese [...]

This set of two painted porcelain bowls were created in the Jingdezhen province of China. These bowls feature a design of a Western dragon in blue glaze on the inside. The Western dragon is associated with anger and isolation, rather than strength and wisdom like its Eastern counterpart. The outside of the bowl is a [...]

This vase, created by Clément Massier, has a rich aubergine color, mixed with gold and green lustre glaze. Directly under the neck, on the shoulder of the vase, are six half-rings, to be used for suspension. Massier was born into a family a ceramicists and, from an early age, took an interest in continuing the [...]

This tea bowl was created around 1850, by a Kyoto-based potter by the name of Lokuba. As the capital and seat of the Imperial Court in Japan for over 1000 years, Kyoto set the quality standard for arts and crafts. Artists who hail from this region are considered to be some of the best, and [...]

Framed by peonies and plum blossoms, two pheasants grace the center of this dish. The plate is vibrantly colored with rich shades of blue, pink, green, orange, yellow, gold, black, grey, and white. The scene depicted on the plate is heavily influenced by nature, specifically some of the flora and fauna local to the area. [...]

Rookwood Pottery, a prominent American ceramics company, began in Cincinnati, OH in 1880. It was the first female-owned manufacturing company in America. The owner of Rookwood, Maria Longworth encouraged her team of artists to explore new techniques and be creative. This vase features the “Iris” glaze. In the late 1890s, Rookwood Pottery introduced three new [...]