Teco Table Lamp (No. 339)
Design Date 1900-1905
Designer William Bryce Mundie (1863-1939, American, b. Canada)
Manufacturer Gates Potteries (1899-1929), Terra Cotta, IL
Media ceramic
Dimensions 12 x 10 3/8 x 10 3/8 inches
Teco Ware was a line of pottery by Gates Potteries, named for the first syllables of Terra Cotta, which was the Illinois town where Gates was situated, as well as a type of clay. William Day Gates, the founder of Gates Potteries, commissioned architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and William James Dodd to create designs for Teco pottery. As a result, the Teco aesthetic is heavily influenced by Wright’s Prairie School, with simplified shapes and architectural handles and supports, like the stout legs on this lamp. Teco pottery is characterized by a matte, sea green glaze and a surface mostly devoid of ornamentation. The pots were molded, rather than thrown by hand on the potter’s wheel, which made them easier to mass-produce and therefore more affordable.
ON VIEW in Arts & Crafts Gallery 3
Markings Four Teco "T"-shaped logo marks impressed in bottom, one under each foot
Credit Line Collection Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art
Accession Number 2000.0037
