Hamptons Pottery Maker Was Among The Best

The general term “pottery” covers many forms of the art or craft, including earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. It’s an ancient skill, one of the oldest human inventions, dating back to 29000 BC, before the Neolithic period.

Simply stated, pottery is the process of forming vessels and other objects, normally out of clay, and firing them at high temperatures to achieve a hard, durable form. Pottery can be glazed or not, depending on its design and use.

In the early 19th century, pottery produced all over the East Coast and Midwest answered basic human needs for containers; one pottery company in Huntington listed among its wares dishes, bowls, pudding pans, mugs, jugs, basins, pitchers, chamber pots, butter pots, milk churns and refuse containers. Such commonplace household vessels later were designated “folk pottery.”

Long Island was blessed with abundant deposits of clay, and the Lloyd family of Lloyds Neck was among the first to see its potential profit, mining and exporting white clay to other areas of the country — even to England.

In 1894, Theophilos Anthony Brouwer Jr. established the Middle Lane Pottery in East Hampton, taking the name of his start-up business from its street in the town.

Over the years, pottery had become much more sophisticated, and Brouwer developed a new technique he called “fire painting” in which he would glaze his pottery, then burnish it over an open flame. The process created multi-hued coloring in gray-green, yellow, red, orange and brown, all with iridescent high-gloss surfaces. It gave his wares a metallic, swirled luster, and brought him success and fame in the pottery world.

He did all the work himself, with the help of one or two Native American assistants. He turned the pieces, made his own molds, did his own pressing and casting, and developed techniques for decorating.

Brouwer’s departure from accepted ways of potting was extremely unorthodox at the time. Surprisingly, he had no early knowledge of the art but previously had demonstrated his creativity in metalwork, woodcarving and oil painting.

By 1900, Brouwer had organized his work into five classes, the primary one being fire painting. Anyone who has dabbled in the craft will probably understand what Brouwer had accomplished. The heat of the open furnace quickly matured and lustered his pottery. It would then be withdrawn and placed on a heated iron plate to cool. The method and the flames compounded any decorative effects that became an integral part of the glaze.

It was this fire painting process, involving the manipulation of the raw-glazed piece in an open reduction kiln, that brought him the respect of connoisseurs and ceramics experts who considered him one of the three most innovative potters in the country.

“Iridescent fire painting,” another class of Brouwer work, was similar but of a single tone, with a heavy encrustation of color. “Sea-grass fire painting,” a third class, was decorated with sea-grass forms in tones of green, brown and gray radiating from the center of a plain glaze during the firing process.

Another class was “kid surface” ware, in muted, smooth, solid colors, such as robin’s-egg blue, snow, brown, gray and green. The final class, developed in 1900, he designated “gold leaf underglaze”; it consisted of glazing over pure gold leaf, the metal inlaid between layers of colored glaze, which could be fired without rearranging the gold.

Brouwer sold his East Hampton pottery shop in 1902 and in the following year began working in a new location in Westhampton, where it was known as the Brouwer Pottery.

As a young man, Brouwer had traveled and studied art in Spain and Italy and, for his new location, he built one of three buildings in the shape of a miniature castle, like one he remembered near Seville. He established the pottery works behind the castle, where he perfected his Flame-Ware, in bowls, vases and animal forms. Unlike methods used by Italian and French potters, Brouwer’s iridescent glaze was achieved solely by exposure to the flames of the kiln.

In 1925, he capitalized on his success by incorporating in New York as the Ceramic Flame Company for the manufacture of Fire Painted Brouwer Pottery.

The East Hampton Historical Society maintains a collection of his sample molds and ceramic pieces, and the Smithsonian Institution holds several examples of his work.

Potters identify their products with distinctive marks that are etched into the surface of a piece, usually at the bottom. Brouwer’s mark represents the jawbones of a whale, which had framed the entrance to his original pottery on Middle Lane. The incised bone mark enclosed the letter “M” for “Middle Lane.”

The site of the Theophilus Brouwer House was eventually designated as a heritage resource. Visitors to the East End, including my wife and I, remember the Brouwer site on Montauk Highway in Westhampton as the location of Casa Basso, a restaurant opened by the Basso family in 1928. It was distinguished by 12-foot-high statues of dueling cavaliers — left by Brouwer when he closed his business and sold the property.

The Basso family operated the restaurant until 1958, and it has since changed ownership several times.