There’s art for art sake, and then there’s redware pottery, humble artifacts produced one at a time, sometimes uniquely decorated and other times not decorated at all.

Not intended as a means of artistic expression nor for display, these pieces were seldom signed. They often went directly from the potter’s kiln to the homes of anxiously awaiting customers, often neighbors. In the beginning, no one expected these utilitarian objects to survive more than a few years. Certainly, no one could have imagined that they would still be treasured nearly two centuries later.

Called “part of the soul of America,” redware is cherished for its simple roots as well as its aesthetic appeal, elevated from kitchens and workrooms to the shelves of collectors and the showcases of museums. Recognizing its place in the study of folk art, Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum in Lancaster, Pa., has mounted a landmark two-year, two-part exhibit, co-curated by Jennifer Royer, head curator at the museum, and guest co-curator John Kolar. In all, some 300 iconic redware examples will be on view; many pieces are never seen by the public.

Thrown, Fired, and Glazed examines the tradition of redware made in settlements along the East Coast, as well as in Europe (especially Germany and England). But it is those from South-Central Pennsylvania, where German immigrants began making redware pottery as soon as they settled, that are the focus of the exhibit. Royer pointed out that William Penn encouraged craftsmen, including potters, to settle in the new colony. What they found was an abundance of clay in the earth that, when fired, turned red.

Techniques practiced in Germany were handed down to younger male family members. And when some of them moved southward along the Shenandoah and into North Carolina, they took these traditions with them. Others learned the trade serving as apprentices. Many pieces of redware were made on a potter’s wheel, but pieces such as plates were made by lining a mold with clay, which was then allowed to dry. Figurines and the like were made in two-part molds.

A wide range of wares were produced using the red-firing clay. Kitchen wares included jugs, pots, and storage jars, as well as nested pots for apple butter, mixing bowls, pie plates, and colanders. Coffeepots and cups, platters, covered casserole dishes, pitchers, mugs, and plates were made for the table. It has been suggested that if Germans ate or drank it, there was a redware to accommodate it.

Other examples of redware include washbowls, candlesticks, lamp steads, hot water bottles, soap dishes, shaving bowls and mugs, and flowerpots and hanging pots, as well as bedpans, tools, and roof tiles. Reflecting this culture’s tradition of “fancy” were miniatures: little plates, mugs, flowerpots, and jugs, fashioned at the end of the day and “very cute,” in Royer’s words. She noted the existence of amusing pieces in the form of dogs and lions, as well as one of her personal favorites, a jug-swigging monkey atop an elephant.

As for decorated redware, distinctive “slipware” was achieved by the application of watered-down colored clay, or “slip.” Worked on a wheel or freehand, this German technique involved the use of a slip cup and quills, which allowed the slip to trickle down in streams onto the piece.

Probably the most popular examples of Pennsylvania German redware, though are “sgraffito” pottery. Here, artisans expressed themselves using a tool to scratch out a design or motto from a thin, colored layer of applied slip. Sometimes in English, other times in German, and often difficult to translate (“they don’t always make sense”), sayings might be words of wisdom or names and dates, religious sayings or a statement on social issues of the day. Royer said it has been suggested (half-jokingly) that the farmers-turned-potters who expressed themselves in this way “weren’t scholars” and “maybe one more year of school might have helped.”

There were drawbacks to redware. Although the clay was abundant, the resulting wares were fragile. And every time a piece was handled (for signing or decorating) or fired, the opportunity for breakage arose. Redware was porous. To counteract that, clear lead-based glazes were applied to seal the wares, and with the addition of powdered oxides, beautiful colors emerged. Manganese oxides produced blackish purples and cobalt produced blues, while iron and copper resulted in brown and green hues, respectively. Some pieces, such as flowerpots, might be glazed only on the inside, while others were given the treatment all over.

But the lead-based glazes sickened people, often to death. Even though this medical fact was known for years, “Redware was cheap, and so they ignored it,” Royer commented. By the end of the 19th century, however, inexpensive whiteware, imported from Europe, was deemed a better choice, and what had been the “Golden Age of Redware” drew to a close.

With a resurging interest in folk art in the 1930s came a “redware revival.” The Stahl brothers of Powder Valley, Pa., rejuvenated their family business; spurred on by the prices their father’s signed and dated redware was realizing at auction, they studied broken pieces of his output and consulted their father’s notebook of glazes, Royer said. At the same time, the Landis brothers, founders of the museum where this exhibit is installed, were among those purchasing these Pennsylvania German artifacts.

The tradition continues. In addition to the exhibit, demonstrations at Landis Valley keep the art form alive. Women potters have joined the ranks. And pieces made by those working today’s kilns are available at the museum’s top-notch gift shop.

Meanwhile, antique examples of redware continue to hold their value at auction. Condition and provenance affect value, pieces signed and dated are worth more than anonymous pieces, and sgraffito designs and “unusual” pieces are sought by serious collectors. Many of the same motifs found on blanket chests and fraktur decorate collectable examples. Although collectors can obtain a plain pot or plate for “a few hundred dollars,” high-end decorated pieces might fetch $15,000 to $30,000, according to Royer. She added that a John Smith bowl used at Love Feasts at Ephrata and Snow Hill is arguably the “holy grail” of redware.

Landis Valley has not presented a redware exhibit for a long time, even though it is “the premier Pennsylvania German institution,” Royer noted. A preponderance of important examples led to the decision to display half of the artifacts this year and the remainder next year. Without this schedule, “We would have had to cut out too much,” she concluded. Drawing on its own collection, as well as private collections and those from the Barnes Foundation, the Hershey Story, and Winterthur Museum, the first half of the exhibit will continue through Dec. 31; a second installation will open on March 8, 2020, and close on Dec. 31, 2020. An extensive catalogue accompanies the exhibit.

For more information, visit www.landisvalleymuseum.org.