EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: The Stoneware Produced in Ontario in the Nineteenth-Century

Sunday, June 28, 2015

The Stoneware Produced in Ontario in the Nineteenth-Century

The nineteenth-century, Canadian stoneware industry, possessed a few familiar names known to the Vermont stoneware industry in the 1800's - when researching - and, reading about this subject, I found the names, Farrar and Ballard associated with the production that happened in Canada (Quebec); however, these names are also familiar to some of the businesses that were employed in Vermont. A similar scenario happened with the stoneware potters in Ontario in the 1800s given their location to the stoneware potters employed in Western New York.

I have previously written that the Western New York red earthenware industry could be intertwined with the Ontario industry today seeing that there were so many similarities between the two areas in form and glaze. I think the same could be said for the stoneware industries that were employed in Western New York and Ontario during the same period.

According to a report written by George R. Hamell for Northeast Historical Archaeology, 'Earthenwares and Salt-Glazed Stonewares of the Rochester-Genessee-Valley Region,' "Stoneware clays are not naturally occurring in central and western New York, and it was not until the opening of the Erie Canal to Rochester in 1822-1823 and to Buffalo in 1825 that its manufacture in western New York could begin. The Erie Canal made it economically feasible to transport the necessary clays from the New Jersey area to Lyons (Wayne County, NY), Rochester (Monroe County, NY), and in 1835 to Mount Morris (Livingston County, NY) with the opening of the Genesse Valley Canal to that community." Similar to a number of the red earthenware potteries in Ontario, "Germans, either as owners, owner-operators, or as employees dominated a number of the earthenware and salt-glazed stoneware potteries of Rochester from about 1840 through the end of the century."

It was a similar scenario in terms of proper clay that happened in Ontario, with its stoneware industry in the nineteenth century - according to Donald Webster's book, 'Early Canadian Pottery,' "Stoneware production was late in coming to Canada. The causes for the delayed establishment of potteries was twofold. First, there was then no known source of suitable stoneware clay available anywhere in Canada. Throughout the Northeast, American stoneware since the 1770's had been made from clay mined at Amboy, New Jersey, and shipped from there to various potteries by sloop or barge. The same material was used by all Canadian stoneware potteries, the clay brought from New Jersey via the Hudson River, the Erie Canal, the Great Lakes, and Lake Champlain, and in Canada, the Richelieu, St. Lawrence, and Grand Rivers. All stoneware potteries were thus necessarily located, above all, for direct navigable water access. This was also of great benefit in shipping out finished pottery to distant parts.

Secondly, there was a lack of knowledge with potters in Ontario in terms of proper stoneware production. The potter entrepreneurs who setup the original stoneware potteries (in Ontario) were Americans importing their talents and capital, and all had long experience in the industry. A number of the stoneware potters who migrated to Ontario came from western New York. Given this beginning, the salt-glazed containers and later molded wares produced by the Canadian stoneware industry were logically derived from American shapes."

Pictured below, are a few remarkable examples of the kind of stoneware accomplished in Ontario in the 1800's - they are both currently owned by the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Ontario. Both examples, depict bird decorations, which were a popular motif employed by a number of potters, who worked in upstate New York in the nineteenth-century. The first crock shows a pair of incised birds; however, it is also impressive to note that this crocks is seven-gallons in size.

Now, taking all of this into consideration - and, also considering the confusion that is found today with red earthenware made in Ontario and western New York seeing that most of it is unmarked despite the similarities - I wonder, if there is some unmarked stoneware that is attributed to upstate New York today that is actually, instead, an Ontario-made product.

Wonderful Examples of Ontario-Made Stoneware