American Terra Cotta and Ceramic Company
Teco is a conjunction of Terra Cotta. The name was given to a line of art pottery produced by the American Terra Cotta and Ceramic Company, which made utilitarian clay products such as drainage tile, brick, and architectural terra cotta. The company and factory was located in Terra Cotta, Illinois, near Chicago.
Although he was a lawyer by education, William Day Gates (1852-1935), the founder and president of the company, became interested in clay and clay-working about 1880. He established the factory shortly thereafter and had it incorporated in 1887. This industrial operation was successful and served as the basis for producing art pottery. Gates continued to make the industrial products while also developing and later producing the art ware. The Teco trademark was registered in 1895, and although experimental ware was produced at this early date, the line was not introduced to the public until 1901. Elmer E. Gorton, a graduate of the department of ceramics at Ohio State University, was the chemist. Gates designed many of the early forms, while others were designed by friends in the architectural profession, including Fritz Albert, Hugh Garden, Blanche Ostertag, W.B. Mundie, and others.
Many colors were used on the art forms in the experimental period, including reds, buffs, and browns, but as interest in matt green grew in the early 1900s with the success of wares made by other potteries, Gates and Gorton decided to focus on developing a distinctive contribution to this type. The result was "Teco green," a micro-crystalline glaze with a matt appearance. Although great care was taken with the modeling and finish of Teco art pottery, painted decoration was avoided as it required additional workers.
By 1930 William Gates had sold American Terra Cotta & Ceramics Company to the family of George A. Berry, Jr. At some point the company was renamed American Terra Cotta Corporation. The pottery resumed making garden pottery as well as architectural terra cotta under the new owners, but not art pottery. A company brochure from 1937 showed a small selection of garden pottery including vases in blue, yellow, brown, white and matte green. During the 1930s, the company began referring to itself as Teco Potteries. Workers at the Teco potteries reported that garden pottery was produced until 1941.[1]
Notes:
[1] Paul Evans. Art Pottery of the United States: An Encyclopedia of Producers and Their Marks, 2nd ed. (New York: Feingold & Lewis Publishing Corp., 1987), pp. 278-281.
