East Knoll Pottery

History of Yellow Ware

A few English pots from the 1800s.

What is Yellow Ware?  The earliest Yellow Ware began in England as early at the 1500s, using crude local yellow clays. By the 1700s, English potters were refining their wares and began to decorate the utilitarian pots with bands and feather patterns. The earliest immigrants to the new world were sure to bring some early yellow ware with them and could purchase imports by local New England merchants. Yellow Ware is made with buff-colored clay, containing less iron than red clay. All buff clays are considered stoneware because they can be fired at a  higher temperature. Firing pots higher makes a pot a tighter, less porous bond. All Yellow Ware is considered earthenware because it is fired a little lower then stoneware temperatures and therefore slightly porous.  Buff clay vitrifies at a higher temperature and therefore yields harder pots than those made from red clays.  Although yellow clay deposits were never abundant in Connecticut, the demand for the durable pottery prompted potters to ship yellow clays from New Jersey up along New England's coast and rivers in the early 1800s. There can be a drastic color difference in Yellow Ware pottery, old and new. This is because clay is an natural, organic material. Each individual clay deposit can have a variety of iron in the same pit. This years clay from a particular clay mine can be different in iron and other impurities from last years clay that was mined from the same pit.  The firing process, burning materials, atmosphere in the kiln, glaze ingredients and temperature can also influence the color. Age has a factor too. Like all things, age and use can darken the color of organic materials. Therefore, it is difficult to control the outcome. This makes the ware even more enduring. Knowing the reasons why the variety of color is important when collecting and buying yellow ware.

In the 1800s, the Goodwin brothers started a Yellow Ware Pottery in Hartford, CT.  Asa Hill and L.V. Wheeler, Norwich Pottery Works, Chase Chamberlain, Sutenburg, Sidney Risely, Noad and George Day and the Smith Pottery all started potteries in Norwich and Norwalk and made stoneware and yellow ware, some as late as 1895.  Many other potteries in New England started using these same clays to make Stoneware and Salt Glazed pottery.  Bennington Pottery in Vermont still makes the same famous pottery today using these buff clays. By the 1850s the demand for Yellow Ware was so high that large potteries in Ohio turned out thousands of pieces every year until the 1930s.  Around that time, tastes changed to china with fine lines and decals, and the era of Yellow Ware came to an end. There are still a few large potteries in operation using buff clays. Roseville in Ohio and TG Green in England are still making factory-produced Yellow Ware pottery using molds.

Tools of the Trade.... Contour guides... used to guide the potter to make each pot uniform.  Slip trailers.... used to apply the colored bands on the pots.  Bottles of tobacco teas... trim tools... ribs.... spout cutters... cogging wheel... and clay and metal stamps.

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