Numerous pieces of beautifully glazed historical pottery pack several glass cabinets at Manitou Springs Heritage Center.

Among the treasures are a siren-of- the-sea bowl, an elephant with its trunk pointing up for good luck, an American Indian head vase, a daffodil vase, lamps and butterfly shades, a boot and hat set, and matching pug bookends.

An astute art collector would immediately recognize the beloved works as Van Briggle Pottery, thanks to their richly colored, matte glaze with alluring names like Ming blue, moonglow and roundhouse blue, and the shapes of the works.

The pottery was created at the hands of Artus and Anne Van Briggle, who arrived in Colorado Springs at the end of the 19th century and proceeded to produce the works of art that are still highly prized and widely collected today.

The new exhibit, “Van Briggle: The Manitou Connection,” features more than 100 pieces, most of them original and hand-thrown. They’re on display now at the free museum.

“The oldest piece on display is 1906 and we probably have over 10 that would date from 1906 through the ‘20s,” said Shirley Wade, a Manitou Springs Heritage Center board member and its archive coordinator. “We have some unusual pieces not seen very often. There’s a 75th anniversary piece — there are only 500 of those. And a piece from their 100th anniversary.”

Adjacent to the Van Briggle pieces is another exhibit, “The Garden of the Gods Pottery,” featuring works by Eric Hellman, a Minnesota potter who briefly worked at Van Briggle Pottery before opening The Garden of the Gods Pottery in Manitou. He was known for his Nemadji Pottery, a style he created by dipping his pots in a solution of oil-based colors floating on water.

“The (Van Briggle) pieces make you want to touch them — the way they look and the way the glaze is and the shapes,” said Michelle Anthony, vice chair of the Heritage Museum’s board. “And it’s attainable. The prices are going up, especially since Van Briggle closed, but it’s still not as pricey as a lot of well-known antiques or antique pottery. It’s getting less attainable, but you can still pick up a piece when someone doesn’t realize what they have or care about it.”

Artus arrived in the Pikes Peak region in 1899 with two desires: to heal his tuberculosis and to recreate the lost matte glaze he’d seen on ancient masterworks from the Chinese Ming Dynasty. Before his big move west he apprenticed at the internationally known Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati. Recognizing his talent, his employer sent him to study in Paris, where he met his soon-to-be bride, who was also an artist. Anne eventually followed Artus to the Springs in 1900 and they were wed in 1902, all while making pottery out of their home on North Nevada Avenue and stamping the bottom of each piece with a double A.

Sadly, Artus didn’t have long for the world. He succumbed to his disease in 1904 at 35, but not before finally concocting the perfect recipe for the glaze he hungered after in 1901. It was the glaze heard round the world, winning him multiple awards, including the Paris Salon in 1903 for his “Despondency” vase. His matte blue, based on an ancient Chinese process, was created with deposits of kaolin and feldspar he found in the Black Canyon near Garden of the Gods.

“It was such a loss,” Anthony said about his death. “I can’t imagine what he could have done if he’d lived a full normal lifespan.”

Anne continued to make pottery, using her husband’s forms and inventing her own designs. In 1908, with the help of city founder Brig. Gen. William J. Palmer, she opened Van Briggle Memorial Pottery in Monument Valley Park, near Colorado College, which now owns the historic landmark.

After her death in 1929 the pottery company changed hands and locations, selling its original building to CC in 1968 and moving its full operations into the Midland Terminal Railroad Roundhouse, which Van Briggle purchased in 1953 when it was thought I-25 would be widened and wipe out the downtown location.

That roundhouse location was responsible for roundhouse blue, one of Van Briggle’s famous glazes.

“They had a room in the roundhouse that was closed off, and when they were cleaning they discovered all this dust, but it was from mixing different glazes. It was the pigments,” Anthony said. “They swept it into a container, said let’s mix it into a glaze and see what color we get. That was roundhouse blue. They didn’t have an unlimited amount of that and couldn’t recreate it.”

Van Briggle’s last owner was husband and wife Kenneth and Bertha Stevenson, the latter of whom was born and raised in Manitou, providing the exhibit’s connection to the mountain town. After selling the roundhouse property in 2008, the pottery company’s last location was a small storefront on Tejon Street that has since closed. The couple’s children now own Van Briggle, but no pottery is being made.

Though the pieces in the exhibit are mostly originals, the pottery company reproduced pieces by making molds of the original carvings.

“Artus felt like art should be available to the common man and shouldn’t be something so precious that nobody can pay for it,” Anthony said. “This is how he made his works affordable. They kept that ethic throughout the operation.”

Artus Van Briggle developed a famous style of glazed pottery while living on North Nevada Avenue in Colorado Springs. (Courtesy Special Collections,

Tutt Library, Colorado College)