Charles Walter Clewell

American, 1876 - 1965

(not assigned)Canton, Ohio, USA

SchoolArt pottery

BiographyCharles Walter Clewell was born in Ohio in 1876. Apprenticed as a metal engraver, he started to experiment with with a variety of metals in the 1890s, casting, hammering, and rivetting copper, bronze, silver, and brass. He started his own business in 1906, and by 1909 had developed a process for cladding ceramics in a metal skin.
Various potters had developed metallic glazes, seeking to give the impression of patinated metals (Norse Pottery, for example). Clewell went one step further. Using ceramics blanks from other Ohio potters like Weller, his secret process sheathed the pot tightly. Probably a form of electroplating, it gave him a surface which would naturally develop a patina, given time. He used mostly copper and bronze, but silver and brass were also employed. Pots are often incised CLEWELL, and may also bear the mark of the potter (Weller, Owens).
Clewell was also interested in developing his own patinations. By 1923, he had developed a blue-green patination for his copper and bronze pots. He worked to find a way of controlling the amount of patination over the next few years, control of colour being of critical importance. His blue green patina was not always stable, and is often found to have minor flakes. Clewell attended the Paris Exposition of 1937, and won a medal for his process. Clewell retired in 1955, and died in 1965. (Source: Anteques.com article on Clewell Pottery, Accessed August 10, 2004, )

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