Alvin Wilcox lived his entire life in the small village of West Bloomfield, New York. His home and business were located a little west of the town on the south side of the "State Road" (present day Routes 5 and 20).
Alvin Wilcox was not the first, nor was he the only potter to have worked in the area. In 1793 William Berczy, a resident of a small community just south of Genesea, New York, mentions purchasing earthenware from a potter in the general Bloomfield area. Berczy did not mention this potter by name, but there is some tentative archaeological evidence which suggests a connection between this unknown potter and the Alvin Wilcox Pottery site.
The last twelve years of Wilcox's life have been fairly well documented. There not only exists the usual census, probate records, etc., but also well over 30 of his letters which were published in Moore's Rural New-Yorker in the 1850s (which was founded in Rochester, New York in 1850).
From these letters Alvin Wilcox emerges not as a simple, country potter, but as an intelligent farmer, businessman, and a keen observer of nature. The letters deal mainly with contemporary farming practices, but do reveal a little information about his life prior to 1850."
Interestingly, the Alvin Wilcox Pottery was one of the first businesses outside of New England, which I wrote about when I created this website in January of 2013. For instance, I wrote in December of that year - Wilcox is thought to have established his business in West Bloomfield, New York about 1825, and operated continuously until around the time of his death in 1862.
The site of the Wilcox Pottery was excavated in the 1970s by archaeologists from the Rochester Museum and Science Center, where they unearthed a wide variety of artifacts ranging from sherds, kiln furniture and wasters. According to the archaeology report, many of the artifacts recovered dated from the mid-nineteenth century period. The glazes from this pottery were often spectacular with a combination of vibrant colors; in fact, some of the bright glaze colors can resemble wares made in places like northern New England, but there were also subtle colors produced like brown.
Prior to 1850, Alvin Wilcox is believed to have made bowls, crocks, storage jars, milk pans, beakers, drain tile, jugs, flasks, porringers, roofing tile, lidded storage jars, flowerpots, flowerpot trays, candlesticks, candle molds, cake molds, and just about anything else that was a necessity for the households in upstate Western New York.
But based on advertising, it appears Wilcox's business model may have altered, as early as the late-1840s and early 1850s to the manufacture of drain pipe, candle molds and other molded wares. The earliest information that I have been able to gather about this type of production is found in an advertisement from November 1, 1849, which I think may be the earliest ad known from Wilcox. According to the advertisement, The subscriber is prepared to furnish horse-shoe Drain Tile of superior make and material. Also, Drain Pipe and Candle Moulds. The tiles are warranted not to slack for one year, which will test their durability. Price of horse-shoe Tile. $15 per thousand, or two shillings per rod. Flats $7.50 per thousand or one shilling per rod. All orders will receive prompt attention. Addres or apply to: Alvin Wilcox, West Bloomfield, New York."
This is another great example of nineteenth century Western New York red earthenware from the collection of Victor, New York antiques dealer, Gene Pratt. This wonderful bowl is attributed to the Alvin Wilcox Pottery in West Bloomfield; although, a characteristic that I immediately noticed when holding this object a few summers ago is the manner that the base was manufactured. How this base appears is not a common style found with American red earthenware production, but it does show that not all American pottery is flat and unglazed on the base; American pottery can be glazed on the base and the base can also be inverted, such as this example.
Although, I would like to add that while there may be no connection, this base does remind me of the bases found on some Colonial American red earthenware punch bowls, manufactured in places like New Jersey and Philadelphia in the 1750s and 1760s.
Red Earthenware Bowl Attributed to Alvin Wilcox's Pottery in West Bloomfield, NY
19th Century Red Earthenware Bowl
Attributed to the Alvin Wilcox Pottery in West Bloomfield, NY
Circa 1825-1862
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Photo Courtesy: Gene Pratt
View of the Unusual Base
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Photo Courtesy: Gene Pratt
While driving through northern Ohio and Western New York a few summers ago with my nephew, Jason, seeing grape fields lining both sides of the highway, I was reminded of one of the articles written by Alvin Wilcox on April 9, 1859 for the Volume X 1859 issue of Moore's Rural New-Yorker. In the last few years, I have read some of the stories Wilcox wrote in the 1850s, but this one in particular really stood out on that beautiful summer day because of what I saw.
Moore's Rural New-Yorker - April 9, 1859
Culture of the Grape - No. V.
Which is the best way to prune to insure uniform good crops of fruit, the renewal system, or by branches on old wood? I have given this subject much reflection and am decidedly of the opinion that to grow uniform full crops of fruit every year, the old wood with branches is the best way. When vine dressers understand and the sap and nutriment that the roots gather can just as well be exhausted to grow fruit instead of wood, the tendency will be to overload the vine with fruit and there will be a deficiency of good, young wood, to fill the trellis for the next year's crop. The result will be, on the renewal system, a full crop of fruit every other year, but on the old wood system there is no difficulty in getting a sufficient amount of branches with four good buds each, to fill the trellis every year with bearing wood.
It is well known that fruit trees mostly grow wood and fruit buds one year and load with fruit the next year, but not so with the grape vine. They load with fruit buds every year. Above every leaf is two buds, one the lateral bud that generally begins to push forward before the leaf is half grown, the other is the next year's fruit bud that should not be started forward by too close summer pruning. But grape vines have their bearing seasons, and it is known in this way - in an unfruitful season the fruit buds only produce from one to three, and occasionally the fourth cluster; in a bearing season they produce from two to four and occasionally the fifth cluster. Now, there is no difficulty in loading grape vines with a full crop of fruit every year when their true habits are understood. In pruning vines on the upright trellis, labor to get the bearing wood in as even a sheet as possible, on the trellis, saving those branches only on the south side of the vine. If branches average about two feet apart, let but two buds grow on a branch and but two clusters to each bud, which makes four clusters to each branch, and if the branches are two feet apart, averaging a cluster every six inches on the old wood, labor to give to each an average amount of the fruit, as each branch receives about an equal share of the sap that passes through the pores into it. Keep in mind that about the time when the blossoms begin to appear old wood can be pruned off the first summer pruning.
There is another advantage in raising fruit on branches on old wood - there will be less fruit shaken off by heavy winds. Still another advantage is, the vines will be more equally balanced by wood above ground and roots below ground, giving more storage for the sap the roots gather.
I would ask the question, Does serving large wood of vines render the pores that passed into it useless in the remaining old wood? I incline to the opinion that it does, from these facts. Cut a sugar maple that has been tapped with an auger, and there is found a dead streak about the size of the wound the auger made, ten or fifteen feet up the tree. Severe a large branch from a fruit tree, and fifteen or twenty years after that tree is hollow or decayed by the wound, showing the circulating life is destroyed in so much of its wood, by the wound. Now, if this is the case, severing large wood on vines should be avoided as much as possible. I have heard it frequently recommended, especially by Germans, that plucking off the leaves when the fruit was about grown, helped to forward its ripening. I have picked the leaves from parts of a trellis and let them remain on the rest, and could perceive no advantage by it, but in some cases an injury. The fruit being suddenly exposed to the sun's rays, it was scorched on the sunny side. I have seen repeated instances, showing conclusively that by summer pruning, so as to give the fruit a crowded supply of sap from the time it first forms, until it is fully ripe, it is a fortnight earlier in ripening, much larger in size and more delicious in flavor.
When are grapes fit to gather? Not until the fragrance passes freely from them are they ripe. I have had people tell me they could smell the fragrance of the grapes when passing in the highway, through the vines are 12 to 20 rods distance. Grapes put up for long keeping should not be kept before packing until the stems are dried. Pack immediately and put enough dry substance with them, and the moisture in the stems will pass into the fruit, and help keep it fresh.
Alvin Wilcox
West Bloomfield, Ontario Co., N.Y., 1859.
Volume X, 1859 Issue of Moore's Rural New-Yorker
Volume X, 1859 Issue of Moore's Rural New-Yorker
Two Stories Written by Alvin Wilcox Were Published in this Edition
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Photo Courtesy: Library of Congress
Part of a Story Wilcox Wrote About the Care and Farming of Grapes in Western New York
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Photo Courtesy: Library of Congress
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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