New York stoneware

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 1996 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

The process of making stoneware dates to the fourth century, when the Chinese discovered that firing clays at unusually high temperatures (nearly thirteen hundred degrees centigrade) produced extremely hard and durable vessels. From China, stoneware spread to Europe, England, and finally the American colonies, where the demand was considerable, since stoneware was ideal for the storage of foodstuffs such as milk, butter, eggs, beer and ale, salted meat, and pickles. Jugs, crocks, jars, bottles, and churns were the most commonly produced forms. Excellent deposits of stoneware clay in New Jersey (near what is today South Amboy), lower Manhattan (near today's City Hall), and on Long Island made New York City a large stoneware-producing center.

During firing, salt thrown into the kiln vaporized and combined with the silica in the clay to produce a smooth and lustrous finish. Chocolate brown Albany slip, named for the city where the clay was mined, was used to coat the inside of these vessels. For the decoration the painter applied a metallic oxide clay slip that turned a rich blue when fired. This was the color of preference, although sometimes manganese (which turns purplish brown) was used.

Many vessels that survive today are stamped with the name of the maker. Although this practice started in the late eighteenth century, it did not become standard until the nineteenth century, when competition became fierce and marking became a way of promoting one's pottery. Retailers who needed quantities of stoneware often commissioned a pottery to incise the retailers name and address on pieces they ordered.

Since potteries were potential fire hazards, they were most often located on the outskirts of cities. In Manhattan a district known as Pottbaker's Corner (or Pottbaker's Hill) on the East River was the site of much pottery production. A map of 1730 shows the district, along with a building labeled "Potters." This is probably the pottery of William Crolius (w. c. 1728-1775), who emigrated from Germany in 1718 and established a dynasty of potters that operated until about 1850. As the nineteenth century progressed the pottery district moved to Little West 12th Street (from the 1840s to 1879) and West 18th Street (between the 1830s and 1870s) and later to West 27th Street (from 1848 to 1889).

Successful stoneware potters had to export their wares beyond local markets. To decrease transportation costs, many potteries were founded along the Hudson River, which was also convenient for water-borne deliveries of Albany slip. As New York City expanded and became more densely populated, potters moved to the outer boroughs, New Jersey, and further north in the Hudson River valley. There were important pottery centers in Poughkeepsie, Athens, and Albany (which was gradually eclipsed by West Troy just across the Hudson River). The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 enabled products to be shipped from Albany to Buffalo and day from New Jersey to riverside potteries in central New York.

Potteries became large operations with an increased volume of output. Haxstun, Ottman and Company of Ford Edward, New York (sixty miles north of Albany), for example, had twenty employees who operated three kilns. From the 1860s to the 1870s, it used six hundred tons of New Jersey clay and burned fifteen hundred cords of firewood each year.

There is no catalogue for this exhibition.