East Knoll Pottery

History of Yellow Ware

A few English pots from the 1800s.

What is Yellow Ware?  Yellow Ware developed in England and Scotland as early as the 1600s.  It is made from buff-colored clay, containing less iron than red clay.  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.

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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