More than 100 years ago a handful of talented decorators and a smattering of potteries created one of the country's most enduring and collected crafts - American art pottery. This was the first truly indigenous American style of pottery, whose heyday spanned the late 1880s through the late 1920s, and continued into the 1950s.

It was a movement born in Ohio, then as now America's heartland, where it quickly grew from a regional business to a national phenomenon, with potteries stretching from New Hampshire to California.

For this book, the most thorough to date on the subject, Barbara A. Perry, former curator of ceramics at Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, has selected 100 of the finest examples of American art pottery from Everson's renowned holdings. Through these superb works - all specially photographed for this book - she traces the development of the movement, providing descriptions of the most prominent potters and designers as well as detailed commentaries on the actual wares.

Complementing the discussion of art pottery are American art tiles of the period, reflecting the country's growing prosperity and reliance on ceramics for building exteriors and interiors.