Bizarre Colorado: Famous Potter Whose Death Mask in on Display

Colorado has been home to numerous talented and iconic artists over the years. While some of the most famous names include painter Scramble Campbell, a slew of musical acts, and of course, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, one artist that hailed from the Centennial State has a little bit of a more bizarre story.

Keep scrolling to learn about potter Artus Van Briggle and the somewhat strange legacy attached to his name.

Colorado Potter Artus Van Briggle + a Strange Legacy

For a time at the turn of the 20th Century, Van Briggle Pottery was hailed as the longest continuously operating company of its kind in the United States.

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Spearheaded by its namesake Artus Van Briggle, Van Briggle Pottery operated out of Colorado Springs and made a significant impact on the Art Nouveau movement at the time.

However, Van Briggle would pass away at only 35 years of age in 1904 from tuberculosis, and his widow, high school art teacher Anne, decided that her husband needed something more than just the pottery company he had founded a few years earlier.

Just three hours after his unfortunate death, Artus Van Briggle was forever immortalized with a plaster cast likeness of his face known as a death mask.

While Artus has been long gone for many years, his legacy not only lives on in the form of the Van Briggle Pottery building in Colorado Springs, but his famous death mask is currently on display at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum as well.