J. B. Owens Matte Green Arts & Crafts Wall Pocket Vase Match Safe

 
Matte green pottery match safe or wall pocket in the form of a Roman style head with curly hair. The corrugated  lower lip would be used as a striker. Measures 5" tall, 3 1/4" wide and 1 1/2" deep. Marked with a conjoined JB for J B Owens Pottery and the impressed numbers 1 and 98. It is covered in a curdled waxy matte green glaze. There is a small manufacturing flaw to the edge of a curdled area on the lower lip.

The Owens Pottery was founded by J. B. Owens in Roseville Ohio, in 1885. In 1891 it moved to Zanesville, where Owens built a new factory on a site with its own rail spur. It began producing art pottery in 1896. The pottery won awards and was often compared to the work of rivals like Rookwood, Weller and Roseville potteries, all of which were also based in Ohio.. Potters who were associated with Owens Pottery over the years include Albert Radford, W. A. Long (who founded Lohunda), Frank Ferrell, Karl Langenbeck, John J. Herold, Herb Hugo, and John Lessel. In 1905, Owens Pottery began making tiles, and ceased production of pottery around 1907. The company eventually became the Empire Tile Company in the 1920's.