Rago Auctions

Founded in 1897 in Newburyport, MA as The Merrimac Ceramic Company by Thomas Nickerson, the firm’s original purpose was the manufacture of inexpensive flower containers. In 1900, Nickerson became more interested in decorative and glazed pottery, renaming the company to The Merrimac Pottery Company in 1902. He had studied pottery and glazes with English chemist Sir William Crookes and, as a result, was able to experiment with an array of glaze colors and finishes. Most of the pots were hand-thrown and only a small percentage of them were embellished with hand-tooled decoration. Nickerson exhibited in 1899 and 1907 at the Society of Arts & Crafts Boston exhibitions and was awarded a silver medal for color and form at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. In 1908, Nickerson sold the pottery to Frank A. Bray and, in October that same year, it burned to the ground and never resumed operation. Though its existence was brief, Merrimac Pottery created some of the most impressive, and nuanced, glazes and shapes of the Arts and Crafts ceramics movement.