[Newspaper]
Publication: Vermont State Banner
Bennington, VT, United States
vol. 16, no. 784, p. 2, col. 3-5
The United States Pottery Company, or American Enterprises.
We had occasion the other day to drop in to the United States Pottery Company’s works in this place, and as we passed into the office, were agreeably surprised by being presented with a beautiful Pitcher—embellished elegantly with various devices in gold leaf and colors, with an eagle, in whose talons were the words in clear letters of gold, “BANNER OFFICE.”—We tender the Company our sincere thanks for this splendid present; and pledge them that nothing stronger than our mountain spring water, as it gurgles up, rich and pure, from its sparkling fountain, shall be drank from it the coming thirsty season.
This establishment has recently been incorporated under the title of the "United States Pottery Company," with a capital of [dollar: $200,000]. They have greatly enlarged their business and brought out several new varieties of ware, which reflect, as the Troy Times very justly remarks, "the highest credit upon American genius and enterprise, and are unsurpassed in their kind by anything in the market, either domestic or imported". Several of the varieties which this Company manufacture bear the stamp of originality, and appear from no other establishment, either in this or any other country. The works cover several acres of ground, give employment to two or three hundred hands. The business is increasing, and as the ware becomes more known and oftener tested, their sales must greatly be augmented from what they now are. We are exceeding glad at being able to state that the Company is prospering.
Having said thus much by way of introduction, as well as to thank our friends for the Pitcher, we propose to enter somewhat into a detailed history of potting in the old as well as this country, and more particularly at this time of its manufacture in the establishment of which we have been speaking—and in doing so, satisfactorily to ourselves, we shall here to use the names of a few individuals a little too freely, perhaps. But we shall expect to be pardoned by them on this occasion.
At what percentage of the world the manufacture of pottery ware was commenced, is not known; it is certain, homier, that in very remote ages the potter’s art had attained to a considerable degree of usefulness—since the earliest authentic records allude to the "potter's wheel" as to an implement of then high antiquity. Nor is it necessary to the purpose we have in view, to dwell upon the high antiquity of the art in China, nor the high proficiency which had been acquired in its pursuit several centuries before the produce of their manufactories found its way to Europe. Enough is it for that Empire, that she has her five hundred potteries which give employment to a million of her artizans. It has been asserted, and is believed by many, even new, that the ancient Britons were in the practice of making Pottery Ware before the invasion of that country by the Romans; but we learn, on the authority of Vitruvius, who wrote ill the Augustan age, that the Romans, who introduced a knowledge of the useful arts practised by themselves, wherever their conquests, were extended, established potteries in England.—Whether this be true or not, we shall derive but little advantage in entering upon an investigation, with a view to determine the precise antiquity of the potter's art: therefore we will proceed to the relation of a few facts, some of which cluster nearer home, and bear the stamp of authority.
England, some 200 hundred years since; was manufacturing nothing bearing the least resemblance to the art, but earthern ware, and that of the rudest and coarsest description, and in quantities only sufficient for n few potters, who carried it in baskets on their heads to market, and found that only in a circle of whole counties. requiring not unfrequently a week's time to dispose a of a basket full, and so continued for nearly fifty years, without having made the least improvement, or taking one step out of the mud. At or about this time tame Hollanders came to England and. commenced the manufacture of Stone Ware, of an excellent quality, and it is said that for durability and convenience, it has never been excelled in any country on the globe. From that time not much progress was made, until England found her JOSIAH WEDGEWOOD, who devoting his mind to patient investigations, and, sparing neither pains nor expense in accomplishing his aims, he gathered around him talented artists from different countries, and dew ripen the stores of science for aid in pursing the objects of his ambition; and with the “material aid" of the government, he was enabled to push the art of potting up the steep of science until the world gazed in astonishment at the height be attained! The result of his labors are, that today England has her two hundred potteries, which furnish employment, and (as the phase peculiar to Englishmen goes) bread and cheese for the number of nearly five hundred thousand souls, and her ware is bought and sold, and used by every nation, tribe and tongue under heaven.
America has manufactured stone and earthen wares from the time of her birth; lint to a limited extent; and of in inferior a quality that no claim of kindred to the potter's art could he established.
Some twenty year ago Mr. FENTON engaged in the manufacture of Stone Ware in our village, and under his hand that business received the first touch of improvement in this country. He got up new and improved styles of Ware, designed and built new kilns, of a different and improved construction, which have been approved of and adopted by all the stone ware manufactories in America and Canada. He also adopted an entire new system of firing his kilns which all who manufacture good ware continue strictly to observe; and, that Pottery, now owned by the Messrs. NORTON, continues to enjoy the high reputation established for it by Mr. FENTON, while connected with that business. (That establishment, the original founder thereof, the present enterprising proprietors, and the excellent Ware made there, we shall make the subject of a future article.)
About ten years since, Mr. FENTON resolved to act upon an idea, which he had long entertained, of effecting an improvement in the quality and reputation of American Pottery Ware—a project that seemed vague to all who knew the arduous labor and peculiar ability required for its practical consummation.
At that time there could not be found an individual in this country—nor was there one known—who could fabricate the kind of wares with which Mr. Fenton resolved to furnish the American market. Artisans were employed in Europe and brought hither to supply places that could not be filled by those taught upon this continent. The art of potting had ever been veiled in impenetrable so far as the preparing of materials, compounding bodies and glazes, is concerned; and every step taken towards establishment in the art here, has been aided only be experimental knowledge in the use of our native rock formations, clays, &c., all of which, though analogous to, differ widely from, differ widely from, those used in Europe, in the manufacture of crockery.
With a fortune amply sufficient for all the purposes of a life of comfortable retirement, the fruit of his own industry, Mr. FENTON, with. An ambition higher than a hope for pecuniary profit, embarked in the gigantic undertaking of establishing an entirely new branch of American Industry, by experimenting in the manufacture of Flint Enamel Ware, the perfection of which is now a matter of universal acknowledgment: The one article of Enameled Spittoons (of which all then in use were a plain, dark Rockingham and imported,) have met with a demand which has increased the supply from them works of from 30 dozen per week, then manufactured. to 200 dozen now turned out weekly, and has entirely superceeded the importation of the article. This increased demand of course required increased facilities for production, and the comparatively small manufactory then used, has grown to the dimensions stated in the introduction to this article.
The usual vicissitudes following invention and new inventions, have been of almost daily occurrence in the progress and development of this great enterprise, but friends have ever been found who could foresee the ultimate success sure to follow the undertaking.
The present managing proprietors, associated with Mr. FENTON — Doct Jason H. Archer, of Wrentham, Mass, O. A. Gager, Esq, of Boston, and S. H. Johnson, of New York city—are all sterling men, and well calculated to give character and standing, and guarantee success to an establishment of this kind; and have, we believe, established the United States Pottery on a basin as firm and enduring as the everlasting hills that environ it.
On the occasion which called us to the pottery, before spoken of, we were, by the politeness of DECIUS W. CLARK, Esq., shown through the Company's extensive works now in operation, and examined the progress of the ware in process of manufacture, from the rough native rock to the finest transparent article, for use or ornament.
Mr. CLARK has been associated with Mr FENTON from the commencement of the enterprise, and to him in an eminent degree are the Company indebted for the high standard of perfection attained in their ware. To him belonged the task of combining materials to produce the various kinds of ware now manufactured—to prepare and combine materials with which to produce glazes adapted to the many different bodies now in use at these works. With no sure guide, save his own judgment and no light but a native genius, Mr. C. has for ten years, labored to solve the profound mysteries of the trans-atlantic art of potting; and by innumerable experiments and steady efforts, he has produced, one after another, each of She numerous bodies and glazes now used in the U. S Pottery; by a combination of which, they are enabled to supply the American market with an article unsurpassed in its class, by any of the European imported goods.
The White Ware manufactured at their works and denominated "Pearl White Granite," is, for solidity, purity, beauty, and excellence, all its name indicates; and is finished with a glaze slightly opaque, and of the finest texture. It has a deep, lustrous appearance—smooth to the touch—and presents to the eye the softness of velvet. White all the imported “white ware" has a very deep blue tint—given to it for no other purpose but to hide the impurities in a poor body—produce an optical delusion, and "cheat the Yankees." Daring presumption! But this, like the Enamel Ware, is inestimable in value—for its excellent workmanship --its solidity, and the advantage which it possesses over all other white ware of standing uninjured the sudden and great vicissitudes of heat and cold; added to which is its fine glaze, impenetrable to acids; its beauty and convenience of form and the cheapness of its price, recommend it to all.
So, too, with the "Stone China Ware" manufactured by the Company; it differs in the greatest conceivable degree in its appearance, the properties and composition of the body, from the imported ware of the same pretended class, the body of the latter in porus, dry and dead; while that of the former is of a vitreous nature; made so by the peculiar properties of the body, solidifies in the process of burning, and is highly translucent, which renders it for any use entirely superior to the imported article. And this ware is also covered with a deep rich glaze, the purity and brilliancy of which, we will not dim with an attempt to describe.
They are also manufacturing successfully colored PARIAN MARBLE WARE. a rare, delicate and costly article, highly prized by connoisseurs, but to insure for it the just need of praise to which its intrinsic value entitle, it, it needs, and only needs, in be seen. The ground of this ware is a fine azure blue tint, with various devices of finish agroupments and figures standing out in relief upon the beautifully tinted surface, bold, white and pure as alabaster—fit emblem of the purity of this ware. It has no superiors in this or any other country.
We cannot enumerate in detail the multitude of different wares manufactured here, all of which is of exquisite delicacy and beauty—nor can we forego the mention of one more article of great value, and never before manufactured in this country. We refer to the Druggist or Wedgewood Mortar, some specimens of which was shown us at the Factory. The body of these mortars are of a semi-vitrified compound, in which one portion remains infusible at the greatest heat to which they are exposed; while the other portion vitrifies at that heat; and enveloping the infusible part, produces a fine; smooth, compact body that will effectually resist the action of all acids, and defy for endless ages the destroying hand of Time. We are glad to learn that these mortars are pronounced by the large importers of New York and Boston, fully equal to those manufactured in England, (France makes none) and have left their orders for large quantities of them, and we venture the prediction that in five years no more mortars will be used in America than is manufactured in America. This speaks volumes for our friends, FENTON and CLARK, who have accomplished in ten years what it took England ages to perform.
The modeller employed by this Company is said to be the best in the country, and his work fully demonstrates the truth of the assertion, as well as the wisdom of the proprietors in the selection of such a man. He has the requisite taste, and displays a high degree of skill and ingenuity in forming patterns, and adapting to them appropriate ornaments. He has a proper acquaintance with the best productions of the classic climes of Greece and Rome, with a complete knowledge of the art of design, and a fancy glorying with originality, but tempered and restrained by correctness of taste and judgment. In the guilding department we saw toilet sets, and a variety of other ware, decorated in gold and colors, touched by a master hand to the utmost verge of artistic beauty. It is enough to say of the artist employed in this department that he has worked for the great Severs Porcelain Works in France the last twelve years before coming to Bennington, and must be a valuable acquisition to this establishment. Ile needs no other recommend.
Another important and praiseworthy feature in this establishment over all kindred works in this country is the order and perfect system in every department, a place for every man, and every man in his place. The materials, flint, feldspar, clays and nil the minerals, are started from the cellar, where they are prepared by a line of massive machinery and carried up to the rooms on the first floor where it is thrown, turned. moulded and cast into every conceivable form. Adjoining these rooms are the three large double kilns, the only ones of this peculiar construction in the world, originated by Mr FENTON with a view to economy in the use of fuel, where the ware is burned; and from these it is taken to the warerooms, which are on the second floor of this immense building, nor finds a resting place until distributed in every town and city from Maine to California.
This is truly a triumph of American skill, enterprise and industry that must strike every beholder with amazement—the more so when we come to a knowledge of the truth, that it is, or has been, a generally conceded fact that good white ware cannot be made in this country with American materials. Our clays have been sent by the U. S. Pottery Company to the Staffordshire Potteries in England. And there tried and condemned—and American materials have been tried in this country by the best English palters, and by them doomed to the same fate—an unqualified condemnation.
This great result is important in more ways than one to Mr. FENTON, who is the pioneer, originator, founder and father of a successful pottery business in this country. It is important in a pecuniary point of view, and gratifying to his innumerable friends, who have witnessed with feelings of alternate hope and fear for many years his untiring efforts, amid vicissitudes that would have borne any other man down in irretrievable ruin to arrive at and grasp the one great desire of his heart, in see him thus triumphantly emerge from the darkness of uncertainty that has to long enveloped him into the more genial and vivifying light of soccer.
But to us, as a nation, the success of this great enterprise is of incalculable importance; for, as is well known, we pay to England and France some millions of dollars a year for crockery, that is abundantly proved can be manufactured in America—showing clearly, it seems to us, that if this new and .important branch of out manufactures, so important to our national prosperity, were but fostered and protected for a time by our Government, we should be enabled to disembowel our mountains of the materials, with which to manufacture our own ware, thereby giving employment to thousands now unemployed, and make us a more truly independent nation.
America has her FENTON, and owes him what England owes her WEDGEWOOD—a monument of everlasting gratitude.
