The Roseville Pottery Company which began operations in Roseville, Ohio circa 1890 was incorporated on January 4, 1892. George Young, who was the first company general manager would eventually gain control of the company and lead it until his retirement in 1918. By the time of his retirement the Roseville Pottery company was one of the largest manufacturers of American Art Pottery. The Company would survive through many ups, and downs, changes in decoration tastes not to mention the Great Depression and remain in continuous operation until 1954. In 1898 Roseville Pottery Company moved its administrative offices to Zanesville, Ohio and began aquiring production facilities. By 1910 all production had ceased in Roseville, Ohio. After a fire destroyed the 'German Cookware' plant in 1917 all Roseville pottery was produced at a single facility in Zanesville. Seeing a need to compete with the Rookwood Standard Glaze ware and lines produced by other Ohio pottery companies . Ross Purdy was hired in 1900 to create a new line of artware which was named Rozane. Rozane pottery was hand decorated with many being artist signed. Most pieces except the largest were moulded and then decorated. By 1914, the publics tastes had changed and the Rozane line was discontinued. Frederick Rhead was brought on board as art director in 1904. Rhead only spent four years at Roseville but during this time his genius was behind the creation and production of several 'timeless' designs such as Della Robbia. Many of these lines are highly sought after by todays collectors who consider them true works of art. Much of the best Roseville was produced during the 'middle period' (1920's-1930's). Frank Ferrell was responsible for introduction of such patterns as Sunflower, Futura, Wisteria, Dahalrose, Ferella and more. Ferrell was also responsible for the design of Pinecone, the most successful line produced by the company. A few new shapes were added each year with the total being 75. All shapes were produced in brown, blue and green. After WWII the times were changing and the Roseville Pottery Company went into production of the well known floral lines such as Zephyr Lily, Snowberry, Freesia etc. the past glory was gone and finally after attempts to produce a line of modernistic dinnerware the company was finally forced to close. This is a very brief history with much omitted. I leave the details to the researchers and professional writers. For those who want to delve deeper there are many fine books and web sites on the subject.