BOTTLES AND EXTRAS JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2012 13 The Confusing Pottery Companies of 19th Century South Carolina By Gary P. Dexter (EDITOR’S NOTE: Gary Dexter as well as philosophies and started Early wares of the company were is a master potter and historian who importing needed materials. Near slip-cast in molds crafted by Daniel lives in Aiken County, South Carolina. failure changed to success. Greatbach, Decious Clark and Josiah He has explor ed the waster piles of America’s premier potter, Jones, all of whom were America’s the Southern Porcelain Company and Christopher Weber Fenton, of premier modelers at other great northern South Carolina Pottery Company, with Bennington, assisted the firm until it potteries. Some of the molds created this story as the result) had attained a profitable footing. As were used only at Southern Porcelain the Civil War came into the picture, Company. Others, like the corn pitcher The Southern Porcelain Manufacturing the northern owners sold the firm to and the waterfall pitcher, were also Company southern interests. Among the new made in Bennington. The handles and KAOLIN, S.C., (near present day owners was Alexander Stephens, vice exquisite knobs on the ware were unique Bath, in Aiken County) – There has been president of the Confederate States of to Southern Porcelain. Full dinner sets an immense amount of confusion among America, and George Bullock, governor and related items like compotes, gravy historians, collectors and auction houses of Georgia. boats, spittoons, vases, covered jars, regarding several similar sounding The company devoted a large tureens, trivets and soap dishes were names belonging to 19th century pottery amount of its production to insulators just a few of its products. companies, two of which were located for the Confederate Telegraph Co. The It has been falsely written that in present day Aiken and Edgefield firm also made sturdy molded wares for the molds of the Southern Porcelain counties in South Carolina. Confederate hospitals, including large Company were used at two other Horse Not only are the names similar, tile drainage pipes, refractory tiles and Creek potteries in Aiken County. There but the hallmarks stamped on the ware refractory brick. is no evidence to support this and the and the pattern of the ware are very similar to those of other potteries in the United States that were being manufactured about the same time. There are a number of pieces in the collections of museums and private collectors which have become entangled in the web of confusion and are improperly attributed. There are many pieces which have sold at auction that were attributed to the wrong maker. The following addresses the companies individually and give examples of respective marks and wares made. The Southern Porcelain Company opened in 1856. Important potters from the United States Pottery Company in Bennington, Vermont closed down their business and headed South. They believed that all necessary ingredients for the production of fine porcelain, flint ware and granite ware were on hand at the South Carolina location. The company set about manufacturing using only local materials and results were mixed. Here’s the Southern Porcelain Company mark. Soon, the company changed managers (Photos courtesy of Gary Dexter) 14 JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2012 BOTTLES AND EXTRAS Civil War-era insulators made by Southern Porcelain Company in Kaolin, S.C. supposition has been printed so much area’s only kaolin capable of making the “o” in Co. that it has almost become a fact in fine hard paste porcelain. The South Carolina Pottery peoples’ minds. There are several different marks Company It also has been mistakenly written used on the company’s various wares. Sunny Brooke, present day Aiken that Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s The eagle within a cartouche is most County – The South Carolina Pottery army burned the company on the likely the earliest mark and is almost Company operated in the 1880s on March to the Sea. Truth is, in 1864, a identical to the last mark used by the land along Big Horse Creek that was fire started in the steam engine house U.S. Pottery Company in Bennington. purchased from the Lewis Miles and quickly spread through the mold The name inside the shield was the estate. Miles had operated a pottery house, ware shop and other buildings. last mark used and is found on some for many years. His daughter, Sallie, All were destroyed. Confederate insulators. Most of the was married to John Cahill, who with The company reorganized and ware fragments found at the site bear James L. Jervey and A. Craig set up the attempts lasting into the 1880s to restart no mark on the base, or are marked company. the concern, but little was accomplished. with an X. The X was found with or It produced an assortment of The kaolin holdings and land were sold without marks, on porcelain as well as cast and molded yellow ware, china to William McNamee, of New York, insulators. pitchers, bowls and teapots as well who was engaged in the manufacture of The most in-depth study of the as large storage jars, churns and jugs. wall paper. He set up an office in nearby company was published in 1995 by Perhaps the single item most mistakenly Augusta, Georgia from where casks “Jon E. Wreb.” The Southern Porcelain attributed to the firm is the Rebecah at of kaolin were shipped to locations Company is often confused with, or the Well teapot. While that style was throughout the world. McNamee clay wrongly identified because of the made by the firm, it is unlike the dozens is still being mined today from the old Speeler Pottery Company, a 19th of other pottery companies’ models in Southern Porcelain Company lands and century Trenton, New Jersey firm. The that it has a square handle and a square is known as some of the finest in the Speeler mark is very similar to that interlocking tab which keeps the lid world. It even carries a registered trade used by Southern Porcelain. Both firms from falling off while pouring. mark after the McNamee name. It is the used a curious double hashmark below The Rebecah at the Well teapot BOTTLES AND EXTRAS JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2012 15 Mill tract. Loss of hundreds of cords of firewood to wild fires and the break of the dam caused by burrowing muskrats forced the company to close. The Speeler Pottery Company mark is most often confused to be that of the South Carolina Pottery Company, or the Southern Porcelain Company. Compare the respective marks in the photos accompanying this story. It is interesting to note that all of the upper Horse Creek and Shaw Creek potteries used Pinehouse as REBECAH AT THE WELL pitcher found at Southern Porcelain Company. a reference to their locations. It wasn’t is believed to be the most reproduced heavy utilitarian pieces often can be until the South ceramic item in the history of the United found in antiques stores or flea markets Carolina Pottery Company started that States. South Carolina Pottery Rebecah around the area. the town of Trenton became the point teapots have been found with different Much of the cast yellow ware is of reference for that portion of present numbers appearing on the bottoms as identical in appearance to wares made at day Aiken and Edgefield counties. well as the word “Fireproof.” Other several prominent New Jersey potteries A final note: To cause further companies’ teapots also were marked of the late 19th century., Those include confusion, there was a much later with the word. It refers to an 1880s the Mayer Pottery, the Arsenal Pottery company called the South Carolina patent involving notches or raised pads and the Speeler Pottery. It is possible Pottery Company in North Augusta, on the teapot’s bottom, supposedly that these companies’ molds were South Carolina. It was started by the enabling it to be placed on the wood purchased and being used at the South Baynhams in 1910. It made mostly stove’s burner lid without cracking. Carolina Pottery Company. It is also garden ware, but also kept a small The bulk of the waster pile of the possible that much of the unglazed ware inventory of utilitarian ware. The South Carolina Pottery Company site was being made and fired at the Horse company used an incuse stamp with is of bisque-fired items. There is a Creek site, then shipped north from South Carolina Pottery Company on noticeable absence of glazed shards. A the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta it.. In no way does it resemble the older few Rockingham or mottled manganese Railroad depot located at the Sunny company’s mark. The Aiken County glazed shards have been found as well Brooke site. Much of the cast ware Historical Museum has one such piece as clear feldspathic glazes. Numerous is identical to the rusticated majolica in its collections. shards from large jugs, jars and churns patterns popular in that period. appear mostly as pink, due to a trace of Similar slip-cast chamber pots have iron in the clay body, which is covered been recovered from archaeological site by a white, frosty, transparent glaze. 38ED221, the Joseph G. Baynham site, Other glazes on utilitarian ware range near Trenton, South Carolina. This was from gray to a rich cinnamon color. The a part of the original 1,080-acre Miles .