Manitou Springs, CO: Van Briggle Pottery

MLA is having problems with her sinuses so we stayed at home most of today except for a brief tour of the Van Briggle Pottery studio/factory.

Apparently Van Briggle Pottery has been around since just before the turn of the century. Aurtus Van Briggle was an interesting artist. He was an American who was famous throughout the world as a painter in one of Paris' top salons.

While exploring a museum he became fascinated with the satin matte glaze used on some ancient Chinese pottery that gave the pieces a marble like look and texture.

He was so intrigued he dedicated three years of his life traveling the world, studying in the great pottery houses various glazing techniques and learning everything he could about the pottery process.
During his travels in Europe he met his future wife and the two of them eventually returned to the states to re-invent this Chinese glazing process.

They had made quite a name for themselves when he was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. No cure was available at the time however it could be treated by moving to a dry climate.

They moved to Colorado Springs where the warm weather and low humidity was just what the doctor ordered.

They quickly established the pottery business here and the business has survived until the present day, although with a couple of owner's since his death.

I had not heard of Van Briggle pottery however MLA had seen it mentioned several times on Antiques Roadshow.

If you have not seen that show, it goes to a different city each week and people bring in items they think might be valuable. A few resident experts help identify and put a value on the items.

Not unusual for someone to bring an item in they bought for next to nothing and find out it's worth a small fortune.
It seems the uglier something is increases its value. I told MLA that's because some of the items are so ugly most people just throw the items away until the few remaining ones are extremely rare.

In any case, we had been saving the tour of the Van Briggle studio/factory for a rainy day. Colorado is in the middle of its worst drought in many, many years so figured I was safe. Wouldn't you know it, today it has rained off and on all day. So off to Van Briggle's we went.

Overall, it is pretty fascinating to see artisans take raw clay, 'throw' it on a pottery wheel, fire it in a kiln, add glaze and then fire again, until the clay is transformed (sometimes) into a thing of beauty.
They did have one of the more unusual signs posted . Unlike most places that have a sign that says "You Break It, You Buy It", they have the sign above encouraging folks to handle the pottery. Given the prices I was still nervous handling the pottery however it was refreshing to see such a customer friendly approach.

Turns out the studio is the old railroad roundhouse where train engines were serviced until ~1910 when the lead & silver mines of Leadville were no longer financially viable. So Van Briggle converted the Railroad shop into his studio/factory. I'm always intrigued when one of these transformation is well done.
Several unusual pottery molds and casting in their collection. The one above is a series of six great Indian leaders, which sell for $425 each. Every home should have at least one, preferably you should collect all six. I can say that since we have zero/zip/nada/no space in the RV for even a small vase...

In any case, we spent the rest of the day at the RV taking care of business.

We did have an enjoyable few minutes this evening when our neighbor returned in their RV after having it services and re-parked next to us. Never seen anyone back one of these beasts into a site so quickly. In fact she parked it about six times, each time backing up quickly, hitting the brakes, backing up quickly, brakes, etc., etc. She did a great job though!

Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Who knows what MLA has saved for another rainy day? Who knows and who cares; it's all good.

See Ya!