Reversals of Fortune in the Tea Industry Part 41

UPTON TEA QUARTERLY Vol 25 No. 4 Holliston, Massachusetts Fall, 2016

Reversals of Fortune in the Tea Industry Part XLI: A Reversal of Fortune for the Chatsford Teapot

Ron Gacesa (at left) has been employed by Hall China for thirty-seven years.

For the past twenty years, Ron has worked in the Mold and Block Shop.

His current position is Block and Caser.

Ron was working on a block for the Chatsford Teapot during our recent visit.

W orking with the Homer Laughlin China Company and their sister company, Hall China, to produce a new version of the ChatsfordTM Te a po t has been one of the most interesting projects we have undertaken in our 27 year history. Both companies have a long history in the Ohio River Valley. Upon joining forces under common ownership in 2010, Hall China’s CEO, Joe Wells III, stated, “The decision for common ownership brings together the most respected names in American china production. Hall’s durable ‘oven to table’ products will fit perfectly with Homer Laughlin’s mission to provide a quality product at a fair price and to continue to manufacture in the United States.” Please turn to page 48.

Reversals of Fortune in the always been the premium versions, with porcelain, bone china, and fully vitrified ceram- Te a In du s tr y, Par t XL I ics. Those versions are now completely sold It was at the London shop of H.R. Higgins out, and no replacement was being consid- (Coffee-man) Ltd. that the owner of fledgling ered. Upton Tea Imports first saw the Chatsford® The infuser baskets for the Chatsford Tea- infuser teapot. The year was 1989, and spe- pot have always been produced in the U.K. cialty tea had just been added to the Higgins There has literally been no variance in the product line the previous year. Audrey and size, shape, or structure of these baskets Tony Higgins, daughter and son of founder throughout their production history. The Harold R. Higgins (who had died in 1968) ceramic lids and bases, however, have been were tending the sales floor. What began as a produced in at least seven countries with discussion of the world of specialty teas soon varying degrees of success. Today, the only turned to a discussion of the merits of the ceramic base and lid for the Chatsford Teapot Chatsford Teapot. in active production is being manufactured in Thanks to Tony Higgins and his enthusi- Thailand. asm for the Chatsford Teapot, Upton Tea It was roughly two years ago that we Imports was the first company to market this received our last container of earthenware unique teapot in the United States, and in the Chatsford Teapots from Thailand. Quality course of 26 years, we have sold tens of thou- issues surfaced early and forced us to reject sands of them. the entire shipment. Crazing of the glaze was Early production of the Chatsford Teapot chronic, and once the glaze crazed, the teapot was limited to two sizes. The small size, often began to leak! The clay was so porous intended for the catering trade, yielded 12 that glaze defects eventually led to a leaky tea- ounces of tea. The larger size, which steeped pot. We had no choice but to discontinue the 36 ounces, was for household use. Some of line. Some customers actually reported heat- our customers ordered both, but feedback stress fractures while simply pouring boiling suggested that there should be an intermedi- water into their teapot. Much to our dismay, ate size. One customer claimed that, when- the Thai manufacturer refused to admit that ever he wanted to make tea, he felt like there was a problem. Goldilocks. He had one teapot that was too In desperation, we sent a few teapots to small, and another that was too large. the Ceramic Engineering department of It was not long before the “just right” 24- Alfred University in New York in hopes that ounce size was created, and eventually a they would identify the cause of the teapot jumbo 60-ounce size was produced. But just failures. Autoclave tests determined that there as the size range was being expanded to satisfy were a number of potential issues, including all preferences, problems with ceramic quality quality of the clay, incompatibility of glaze began to surface, primarily in the earthenware and clay body, and improper firing. All tea- versions of the Chatsford Teapot. pots sent to Alfred University failed. One stated objective of The London Tea- Although the Thai manufacturer was pot Company, creator of the Chatsford Infuser unwilling to take responsibility for the defec- System, was to offer a superior infuser teapot tive teapots, The London Teapot Company at the same price as an ordinary earthenware stood behind the product and provided a teapot. Ideally, this seems like a desirable refund for the teapots as well as our shipping objective, but in practice, this may be unat- costs. But there we were with only a small tainable. The Chatsford Teapots that have had inventory of teapots from an earlier produc- the most positive consumer acceptance have tion run.

It was time for a change. Rather than Wells, with financial backing from Louis I. accept a replacement of the same product, we Aaron of Pittsburgh. Wells had started as requested that The London Teapot Company bookkeeper in 1889 and rapidly rose to the grant us a license to have the ceramics for a position of general manager. new line of Chatsford Teapots produced in the In 1896, the company name was officially United States. The first challenge was to find changed to The Homer Laughlin China Com- that manufacturer. pany. Under new ownership, the company Quality and durability would be our first experienced phenomenal growth. Two new objective. A target price was not considered. plants were built to keep up with demand. It would cost whatever the manufacturer Needing more space for expansion than was required for the quality we wanted. available in East Liverpool, the company Finding the right company for our new acquired land across the Ohio River. As fur- teapot proved simpler than first expected. ther expansion continued, the town of New- Karen, our Customer Service manager, sug- ell, West Virginia was developed to provide gested we contact the manufacturer of services for employees. FIESTA® dinnerware. We soon learned that Homer Laughlin’s fourth plant was built in FIESTA® was manufactured by the Homer 1906. At the time it was the largest plant in Laughlin China Company, of Newell, West the world, and their production capacity was Virginia, which is affiliated with (and under raised to 300,000 china pieces per day! the same ownership as) the Hall China Com- Woolworths was by far the largest cus- pany of East Liverpool, Ohio. Our new Chats- tomer for Homer Laughlin in the early ford Teapot became a collaborative effort decades of the 20th century. Reflecting on the between these two venerable American level of business done between Homer Laugh- ceramics institutions. lin and Woolworths in 1916, W. E. Wells Homer Laughlin and Hall are prime noted, “I think that I may safely say that this examples of U.S. corporations that have sur- is the first time in history that the purchases vived in a labor-intensive industry within a of any one concern from any pottery firm global economy, where imbalance of wages, have reached the million (dollar) mark in one environmental regulations, and other factors year.” It is worth noting that the average price create an uneven playing field. Yes, they have of a single piece of pottery, sold to Woolworths survived, but not without challenges. At at that time, was six cents. That translates to times, their very existence seemed bleak. Key nearly 17 million pieces, produced for a single to their success was a persistent focus on qual- customer. ity and innovation that have made both com- The Hall China Company was founded by panies paragons in the U.S. ceramics industry. Robert Hall in East Liverpool, Ohio in Homer Laughlin was founded as The Ohio August 1903. Upon his death, just one year Valley Pottery by Homer and Shakespeare later, the company was taken over by one of Laughlin in 1873. Their original plant in East his eight sons, Robert Taggart Hall. Teapots Liverpool, Ohio opened for production on were among Hall’s most successful products. September 1, 1874. By the end of that year, Along with Homer Laughlin, Hall China did a they had approximately 100 employees. brisk business in toilet sets, which included Three years later, Homer bought his brother’s water ewer, wash basin, soap dish, shaving share in the business and renamed the com- mug, and the indispensable chamber pot. pany Homer Laughlin. Toilet ware was in heavy demand during Two decades later, Homer decided to sell the nineteenth century. At that time, nearly the company and move to California. The every household had at least one set for the company was purchased by William Edwin master bedroom. The better hotels had a set

 (800)234-8327  www.uptontea.com © 2016 Upton Tea Imports, LLC. All rights reserved. Page 50 Upton Tea Quarterly Fall, 2016 in every room. Indoor plumbing, even in lux- industrial designer Eva Zeisel. Born in Budapest in 1906, Zeisel brought to her work at Hall ury hotels, did not exist until 1829. China a disciplined mind and a freewheeling Boston’s Tremont House, designed by Isa- design sense. Before coming to America, Zeisel iah Rogers at the age of 27, was the first guest had lived in Hungary, Austria, and Russia. In the 1930s, at Russia’s Duolevo china factory — house in America that featured indoor at that time the world’s largest — Zeisel had plumbing. The second, also designed by Isa- established a design laboratory. Her work at iah Rogers, was Astor House in New York. Duolevo soon led to her being named to the lofty position of Artistic Leader, or Art Director, Tremont House is considered to be Amer- of the U.S.S.R.’s entire china and glass industry. ica’s first luxury hotel, and it set the standard She subsequently returned to Europe, but soon fled as the Nazis began their dramatic ascent to for excellence in the hospitality industry. power. Once indoor plumbing was introduced to the hospitality industry, it became a priority for The most successful of the Hall lines wealthy home owners, but average Americans designed by Zeisel was named Tomorrow’s would have to wait a century to experience Classic. In its first year, over 71,000 starter that luxury. In 1920 fewer than 1% of Ameri- sets of sixteen pieces were sold at $11.95 per can households had indoor plumbing. set. But the fact that innovative designs are By the middle of the twentieth century easily copied continued to plague the U.S. demand for toilet ware came to a halt. Simul- ceramics industry. taneously, teapot sales declined as American Both Hall and Homer Laughlin China tastes shifted from tea to coffee. Hall and redirected their focus from household dinner- Homer Laughlin were facing hard times. ware to durable products for the foodservice The most difficult years for Hall and industry. In the formative years of Hall Homer Laughlin began in the 1950s and con- China, R. T. Hall, along with a group of tal- tinued well into the 1960s. During that time, ented ceramics engineers, perfected the sin- inexpensive household ceramics from post- gle-firing method of producing durable, war Japan were flooding the U.S. market. In brightly colored ceramics. With their process, A Centennial History of The Hall China Com- special clay-based glazes were applied to the pany, Catherine S. Vodrey states: unfired bisque and heated to a temperature of 2700 degrees. In this single firing, the glaze By the late 1940s and early 1950s, Japanese pot- teries were doing everything possible to stay sol- and bisque bond as a single, non-porous vent after the privations of the second World structure that will not craze. War. Using a population of citizens who were pleased to get any sort of paying work, the Japa- Homer Laughlin and Hall were united nese ceramics industry was able to keep operat- under common ownership in 2010. They ing and wage costs low. By the mid-1950s, retained their individual identities, but now Japanese porcelain was being sold in the United States for less than American earthenware. share resources as a single entity. As for the American consumers began buying Japanese quality and durability of their products, a porcelain dinnerware in greater and greater simple test of an early sample of our new quantities. Chatsford Teapot says it all. We placed a sam- Hall China responded with advancements ple teapot in a 40-degrees refrigerator. After in automation and technical innovation, an hour we set the chilled teapot in a sink and which was all they could do to keep labor poured boiling water into the teapot to test its costs as low as possible. But automation and resistance to heat stress fractures. Amazingly, technical innovation were not enough. Fortu- the teapot did not crack or craze. Warning: nately, management at Hall China was quick DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. to respond to a shift in American taste. As Our series on Reversals of Fortune in the stated by Vodrey: Te a In d u s t r y will continue in the next issue of What [Hall China] had on its side as far as dinnerware design was concerned was Hungarian the Upton Tea Quarterly.