We were told this vase is a Cambridge Otoe piece; however, the mark on the bottom doesn't support that.

We think it may be Harold F. Bopp (Kenton Hills Porcelains/Harold F Bopp Mfg) instead since the initials as we read them appear to be a backwards R followed by a H and a B all connected. The H & the B are exactly shown in Lehner's Book of Marks (pp234) as a decorators' mark for Harold Bopp. We wondered if the backwards R stood for Rookwood and he perhaps worked on this piece when he was the superintendent of Rookwood Pottery (1929-1938).

Then again, we could be totally off - and this piece is just a nice piece of Arts and Crafts pottery.

Any thoughts, opinions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

And here is a picture of the vase itself.

Hi your vase looks like Cambridge Art Pottery circa 1907 the line was called Otoe according to many publications...but I'm not so sure that is entirely correct I once had a vase that looked identical to the Otoe line but was marked Dayton street pottery Cincinnati Ohio it also had a acorn like mark just like Cambridge ...the pottery was established in 1859 then in 1874 Patrick L. Coultry took it over and it became Coultry (Artistic Pottery) ...the acorn mark contains the letters CAP..Cambridge Art Pottery...Coultry Artistic Pottery?? but it would be hard to convince anyone of this since its been long accepted to be Cambridge Art Pottery...But why would Cambridge being capable of producing a much finer product produce such a crude line of pottery...I think both pottery's used nearly acorn identical marks...Harold Bopp was born in 1900 and could not have worked for either of these pottery's.

Hi R.Kelly and welcome to the forum. This is certainly and interesting vase that was posted last November. Did Cambridge use these huge Buttress like handles on many of their pieces?

Best,

Hi Fred and thanks for the welcome.. Cambridge Otoe was said to be a matte green pottery more like Grueby..I don't believe this vase to be Cambridge even though some would claim it to be.. I have seen vases of this type with large flattened rims the handles attached to the rim at sharp right angles..but nothing quite like this.. the design would certainly be ahead of its time.. most have a look more of the Dayton Street Pottery era.. with design elements such as claw feet and lion heads...but the glaze and qualty of the pottery look to be the same.

Pottery is not my strength and so we welcome those with interest in other disciplines. My passion is the metalwork of the period and those who created it. I do have a few pieces of period pottery and will post them when I get my camera fixed. Glad to have you on board.

Best,