Pottery and Porcelain

Pottery

Stoneware and earthenware constituted the bulk of the production of American potteries during the nineteenth century.  Because of their durability and strength, these types of pottery were highly suited to the purpose of storing food and liquids.

Bowl

Attributed to Hervey Brooks (1779–1873)

1803–67

Goshen, Connecticut

Red earthenware with slip decoration

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Potteries in various parts of the United States produced redware, a type of earthenware made from local red-colored clays. Redware was suitable for utilitarian objects such as bowls, plates, jugs, pitchers, mugs, pie plates, and food molds. Decoration consists of streaks or stripes of a dark manganese glaze or designs drawn in colored slip (liquid clay).   Redware remained popular until the middle of the nineteenth century, when it was superseded by other types of earthenware.

Bedpan

United States

1800-1850

Red earthenware with manganese decoration

Collection of Historic New England, Boston, MA

Jar

Edward William Farrar
(American, 1807?-1845)

c.1825-1830

Middlebury, Vermont

Red earthenware with manganese decoration

Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Plate

Joseph McCully Pottery (active 1771–1857)

1800–1850

Trenton, New Jersey

Red earthenware with slip decoration

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Bowl and Cover
United States
1800-1850
Red earthenware with manganese decoration
Collection of Historic New England, Boston, MA

Crock

Charles Hermann and Company (active 1856-1886)

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Salt-glazed stoneware with cobalt decoration

Collection of the Kenosha Public Museum, Kenosha, Wisconsin

Made from a fine, dense clay, stoneware was fired at very high temperatures and glazed by throwing salt into the kiln.  The salt melted and formed a uniform coating over the stoneware body. Stoneware was used in the manufacture of articles for the storage of food and liquids, including crocks, jugs, jars, bottles, and water coolers. Tableware and other useful articles were also made in stoneware. The forms are typically simple and functional, and if decorated, are painted in cobalt blue with flowers, leaves, birds, and animals. Stoneware was produced throughout the United States, from New England and the Mid-Atlantic states to the South and the Midwest.

Pitcher

c.1872

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Salt-glazed stoneware with cobalt decoration

Collection of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

Water Cooler

Julius and Edward Norton (active 1850–1859)

1850-1859

Bennington, Vermont

Salt-glazed stoneware with cobalt decoration

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Bank

1852

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Salt-glazed stoneware with cobalt decoration

Collection of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

Jug 1836 Edgefield District, South Carolina Salt-glazed stoneware Collection of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA

"Canova" Plate
American Pottery Manufacturing Company (active 1833-c1854)
1835-1845
Jersey City, New Jersey
White earthenware with underglaze-blue transfer-printed decoration

Collection of New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ

In the second quarter of the nineteenth century, American potteries began producing white earthenware.  A type of refined pottery with a white body comparable to porcelain, whiteware was perfected  in the Staffordshire region of England in the early nineteenth century.  Various labels were used to identify it, including ironstone, stone china, and granite china.  

Whiteware was shaped by pressing the clay in a mold.  American potteries used a number of techniques to decorate whiteware, including relief molding, sponging and transfer printing.  Relief molding, which involved pressing the clay against a pattern in a mold, produced raised decoration. Sponged patterns were achieved by dipping a sponge into a colored glaze and then applying the sponge to the surface of the ceramic object. Transfer printing describes a process in which a ceramic pigment is applied to a copperplate engraved with a design.  The plate is used to print the design onto a sheet of paper, which is then pressed onto the surface of the ceramic object in order to transfer the pattern.  The transfer designs--printed in a single color such as blue, red, black, green, or purple--typically consist of landscapes, historical scenes, architectural landmarks, and portraits of important political or military figures.  Scrolling leaves, sprays of flowers, and other naturalistic motifs were popular for borders.  Potteries in the United States produced transfer-printed white earthenware in response to the popularity in America of transfer-printed dinner services, tea services, toilet articles, and decorative objects manufactured by the Staffordshire factories in England.

Dish

American Pottery Manufacturing Company

(active 1833-c.1854)

1833–1850

Jersey City, New Jersey

White earthenware with sponged decoration

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Pitcher

United States Pottery Company

(active 1852-1858)

1849-1858

Bennington, Vermont

White earthenware with enamel and gilt decoration

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum

of Art, New York, NY

Teapot

Ott and Brewer (active 1871-1893)

1871-1892

Trenton, New Jersey

White earthenware with gilding

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Pitcher

Ott and Brewer (active 1871-1893)

1894

Trenton, New Jersey

White earthenware with gilding and transfer-printed decoration

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Candlestick

United States Pottery Company (active 1852-1858)

1849-1858

Bennington, Vermont

Earthenware with flint-enamel glaze

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

By the 1840s, a number of American potteries were producing yellowware, so named because of its light yellow color.  Like whiteware, yellow earthenware was shaped by pressing the clay in a mold. Decoration in relief was produced during the  molding process. Yellowware was frequently glazed with either Rockingham or flint enamel. Rockingham is a mottled brown glaze with a translucent quality that exposes the ceramic body underneath wherever it runs thin.  Similar to Rockingham, flint enamel is a runny brown glaze streaked with the additional colors of blue, green and yellow.  Yellowware was used to produce both utilitarian articles, including pitchers, jugs, water coolers, cuspidors, doorstops, window stops, and mixing bowls, and decorative objects such as mantel figures and vases.

Basin

Lyman, Fenton and Company (active 1849-1852)

1849-1858

Bennington, Vermont

Earthenware with flint-enamel glaze

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Teapot

E. and W. Bennett Pottery (active 1847-1857)
c.1860-1870
Baltimore, Maryland
Yellow earthenware with Rockingham glaze

Collection of the Newark Museum, Newark, NJ

Pitcher

E. & W. Bennett Pottery (active 1847-1857)

c.1850-1856

Baltimore, Maryland

Yellow earthenware with Rockingham glaze

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Figure of a Lion

Lyman, Fenton and Company (active 1849-1852)

1849-1852

Bennington, Vermont

Earthenware with flint-enamel glaze

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Pitcher and Stand

New England Pottery Company (active 1876-1914)

1889-1895

Boston, Massachusetts

Earthenware with enamel and gilt decoration

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

During the 1870s, the English Aesthetic Movement began to exert an influence on the American ceramics industry, inspiring the introduction of lines of sophisticated, artist-decorated pottery described as "art pottery." 

In the late nineteenth century, manufactures of pottery  in the United States borrowed shapes and decorative patterns from Near and Far Eastern art in order to satisfy the demand for tableware and decorative accessories in exotic styles.  The forms found in Japanese, Chinese, Indian, and Middle Eastern ceramics and metalwork were adapted to a variety of pottery wares, which were painted with geometric patterns or stylized floral designs borrowed from Persian and Indian cultures or with naturalistic motifs derived from Japanese art. Japanese objects were a popular source of decorative motifs, which include cranes, butterflies, dragonflies, carp, bamboo, cattails, fans, and chrysanthemums. Occasionally the decoration on American art pottery imitates the hammer marks found on the surface of Japanese metalwork. 

Vase

Decorated by Maria Longworth Nichols (American, 1849-1932)

Manufactured by Rookwood Pottery Company (active 1880-1967)

1880-1883

Cincinnati, Ohio

Earthenware with slip decoration and gilding

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Vase

John Bennett's American Pottery (active 1876-1882)

1878

New York City, New York

Earthenware with enamel decoration

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Teapot
Chelsea Keramic Art Works (active 1872-1889)

1879-1883

Chelsea, Massachusetts

Glazed earthenware

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Vase

Designed by Edward Lycett (American, 1833-1910)

Manufactured by Faience Manufacturing Company 

(active 1881-1892)

1886-1890

Brooklyn, New York

Earthenware with enamel and gilt decoration

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Covered Sugar Bowl
Chelsea Keramic Art Works (active 1872-1889)

1879-1883

Chelsea, Massachusetts

Glazed earthenware

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Saucer

Griffen, Smith and Hill Company (active 1879-1892)

1882-1892

Phoenixville, Pennsylvania

Glazed earthenware

Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

The 1880s witnessed the appearance in America of a type of earthenware known as majolica, which was introduced in the 1850s by the English firm of Minton and Company.  Majolica is distinguished by thick, aspic-like glazes, usually in dark colors.  American majolica frequently features decoration of Japanesque motifs including cattails, water lillies, bamboo shoots and leaves, shells, and seaweed. Symbols of the Aesthetic Movement such as the sunflower and lily were also popular.

Cheese Dish and Cover

Griffen, Smith and Hill Company (active 1879-1892)

1880-1885

Phoenixville, Pennsylvania

Glazed earthenware

Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

Sugar Bowl and Cover

Griffen, Smith and Hill Company (active 1879-1892)

1879-1892

Phoenixville, Pennsylvania

Glazed earthenware

Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

Vase

Grueby Faience Company (active 1894-c.1911)

1899-1910

Boston, Massachusetts

Earthenware

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

The art pottery produced during the last quarter of the nineteenth century laid the groundwork for Arts & Crafts ceramics, which emphasized handwork, simplicity of form and the integrity of materials. A number of art potteries active in the early twentieth century produced wares characterized by simple forms, low-relief molded decoration of stylized leaves, and solid-colored, matte glazes. Others favored painted decoration of geometricized or stylized natural forms in a subdued palette. Also typical were Oriental-inspired forms painted with motifs reflecting Native American themes. Art potteries in various parts of the United States produced wares featuring decoration inspired by regional flora.

Vase

Joseph Fortune Meyer (American, 1848-1931)

c.1910

Earthenware

Collection of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA

Vase

Rookwood Pottery Company (active 1880-1967)

1901

Cincinnati, Ohio

Earthenware with slip decoration

Collection of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA

Vase
Designed by William J. Dodd (American, 1862-1930)

Manufactured by Teco Pottery (active 1890-1927)

1908

Terra Cotta, Illinois

Earthenware

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Mug
Decorated by Leona Nicholson (American, 1875-1966)

Manufactured by Newcomb Pottery (active 1894-1940)

1908

New Orleans, LA

Painted and glazed earthenware

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Vase Designed by Dard Hunter (American, 1883-1966) Roycroft Workshops (active 1895-1938) c.1906 Buffalo, New York Earthenware Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Porcelain

Paperweight

Charles Cartlidge and Company (active 1848-1856)

1848-1856

New York City, New York

Porcelain

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, wealthy Americans relied on imports from England, China, and later France for elegant porcelain tableware and decorative objects. Attempts to establish a native porcelain industry during these years were sporadic and limited to a few short-lived ventures that came to an abrupt end due to fierce competition with imported porcelain.

Pitcher

William Bloor's East Liverpool Porcelain Works (active 1848-1856)

1861

East Liverpool, Ohio

Porcelain with gilding 

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

In the second quarter of the nineteenth century, porcelain manufacture in the United States began to take root when a number of new factories were founded in Philadelphia and New York City. Other porcelain companies appeared in Trenton, New Jersey, East Liverpool, Ohio, and the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn in the 1840s and 1850s. The manufacture of porcelain was initially limited to small items such as buttons, door knobs, and room number and name plaques, but the range of articles soon expanded to encompass a variety of tableware, including pitchers, teapots, coffee pots, cups and saucers, plates, paperweights, vases, and figurines.

Cake Plate
Kurlbaum and Schwartz (active c.1852-c.1859)
c.1853
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration and gilding
Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

Pitcher

Attributed to Charles Cartlidge and Company (active 1848-1856)

c.1850

New York City, New York

Porcelain with enamel and gilt decoration

Collection of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

Cup and Saucer

Attributed to Charles Cartlidge and Company (active 1848-1856)

1848-1856

New York City, New York

Porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration and gilding

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Porcelain  is a hard, translucent ceramic distinguished by a pure white body. Objects made of porcelain were formed by pouring slip, or liquid porcelain, into a plaster mold.  This process, known as slip casting, could also produce decoration in relief.  Other techniques for decorating porcelain include painting with colored enamels; transferring a printed design onto the surface of the porcelain; gilding relief-molded decoration and other details; and applying flowers, leaves and other naturalistic motifs modeled from "cold" porcelain paste. 

During the 1850s, when the Rococo Revival style was at its height of popularity, American porcelain factories produced porcelain tableware painted in polychrome enamels with flowers and leaves and relief-molded with scrollwork, shells, flowers, leaves, grape clusters, animals, and figures, which were frequently highlighted with gilding. 

Pitcher

Probably William Boch and Brothers (active before 1844-c.1861)

1844-1857

New York City, New York

Porcelain

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Pitcher
United States Pottery Company (active 1852-1858)

c.1852-1858

Bennington, Vermont

Parian porcelain

Collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX

In 1844, the Copeland factory in England introduced a new type of porcelain called Parian. Parian is porcelain made with a high proportion of feldspar, one of the essential ingredients of traditional porcelain. The high feldspathic content gives the porcelain body a marble-like texture.  For this reason, Parian was considered ideal for busts and statuettes, but was also used to produce pitchers, vases and clock cases.  Imported Parian wares achieved immediate popularity in the United States. 

American firms began making the new porcelain body in the mid- 1840s.  The production of parian porcelain in the United States encompassed vases, pitchers, table articles, trinket boxes, statuettes, and busts of political, historical and literary figures.  Tableware and vases were typically decorated with relief-molded and applied Rococo Revival motifs including flowers, leaves, twigs, vines, and grape clusters. To provide contrast to the relief  decoration, a ground color such as blue, green or pink was painted onto the surface. Production of Parian in the United States continued into the 1870s.

Poet’s Pitcher

Designed by Karl L. H. Müller (American, 1820-1887)

Manufactured by Union Porcelain Works (active 1863-c.1922)

1875-1886

New York City, New York

Parian porcelain

Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Ewer

1850-1870

Possibly Bennington, Vermont

Parian porcelain

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Pitcher

United States Pottery Company (active 1852-1858)

1852-1858

Bennington, Vermont

Parian porcelain

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Bust

Possibly James Carr's New York City Pottery (active 1853-1888)

c.1880

New York City, New York

Parian porcelain

Collection of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

Sugar Bowl

Fenton's Works (active 1847-1848)

1847-1848

Bennington, Vermont

Parian porcelain

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Liberty Cup and Saucer

Union Porcelain Works (active 1863-c.1922)

1876

New York City, New York

Porcelain with enamel and gilt decoration

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

By the time the United States celebrated its centennial in 1876, the products of American porcelain manufactories had achieved a level of sophistication comparable to that of imported European porcelain wares. American porcelain continued to be painted and relief-molded with naturalistic motifs or with ornament derived from one of the many revival styles popular at the time. Decoration commemorating important American achievements, inventions and historical events enjoyed popularity at the time of the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876.

Pitcher

Union Porcelain Works (active 1863-c.1922)

1870-1890

New York City, New York

Porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration and gilding

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, NY

Oyster Plate

Union Porcelain Works (active 1863-c.1922)

c.1880

New York City, New York

Porcelain with enamel and gilt decoration

Collection of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

Part Tea and Coffee Service

Union Porcelain Works (active 1863-c.1922)

c.1876

New York City, New York

Porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration and gilding
Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Covered Vegetable Dish

Union Porcelain Works (active 1863-c.1922)

1885

New York City, New York

Porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration and gilding

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Century Vase Designed by Karl L. H. Müller (American, 1820-1887) Manufactured by Union Porcelain Works (active 1863-c.1922) 1877 New York City, New York Porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration and gilding Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Vase

Union Porcelain Works (active 1863-c.1922)

c.1884

New York City, New York

Porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration and gilding

Collection of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

Through the influence of the Aesthetic Movement, American porcelain wares made in the 1870s and 1880s adopted the exotic forms and decoration associated with Near and Far Eastern cultures. Geometric and floral patterns borrowed from Persian and Indian art as well as Japanese motifs such as bamboo shoots and leaves, prunus blossoms, chrysanthemums, cattails, cranes, butterflies, spiders, and other insects were painted onto forms derived from the Orient or the Middle East.

Vase

Greenwood Pottery Company (active 1861-1933)

1884-1893

Trenton, New Jersey

Porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration and gilding

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Vase

Greenwood Pottery Company (active 1861-1933)

c.1883-1886

Trenton, New Jersey

Porcelain with enamel and gilt decoration

Collection of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

Pitcher

Ott and Brewer (active 1871-1893)

1880-1890

Trenton, New Jersey

Belleek porcelain with enamel and gilt decoration

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

In the 1850s, a porcelain manufactory in Belleek, Ireland, perfected an eggshell-thin porcelain with an iridescent glaze that achieved immediate popularity when imported into the United States during the 1860s and 1870s. Entrepreneurial porcelain manufacturers in America responded to the growing demand for Belleek porcelain initially by producing a close facsimile. Through continued experimentation, a true Belleek porcelain was attained in the early 1880s. Reflecting the influence of the Aesthetic Movement, American Belleek frequently features decoration of Japanese motifs such as bamboo shoots and leaves, prunus blossoms, chrysanthemums, cattails, cranes, butterflies, spiders, and other insects, painted onto exotic forms that are Eastern in inspiration. 

Teapot

Ott and Brewer (active 1871-1893)

1876-1883

Trenton, New Jersey

Belleek porcelain with enamel and gilt decoration

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 
New York, NY

Vase

Ott and Brewer
(active 1871-1893)

c.1885

Trenton, New Jersey

Belleek porcelain with enamel and gilt decoration

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Cream Pitcher

American Art China Company (active 1891-1894)

1891-1894

Trenton, New Jersey

Belleek porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration and gilding

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

At the turn of the twentieth century, revivalist Rococo and progressive Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts themes were popular in American porcelain. Rococo-inspired porcelain was typified by naturalistic forms and painted, applied and relief-molded decoration of shells, flowers, leaves, twigs, and scrollwork. Porcelain influenced by the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau styles featured decoration of either simple geometric shapes or stylized flowers and leaves combined with organically flowing curves. 

Vase

Ott and Brewer (active 1871-1893)

c.1890

Trenton, New Jersey

Belleek porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration
and gilding

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Pitcher

Willets Manufacturing Company
(active 1891-1894)

1891-1894

Trenton, New Jersey

Belleek porcelain 

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York, NY

Basket

American Art China Company (active 1891-1894)

1891-1894

Trenton, New Jersey

Belleek porcelain 

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Coffee Pot

Lenox, Incorporated (active 1889-present)

c.1906

Trenton, New Jersey

Porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York, NY

Vase

Lenox, Incorporated (active 1889-present)

c.1906

Trenton, New Jersey

Porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration and gilding

Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Potteries and Porcelain Factories

For approximately five years, the partnership of Christopher Webber Fenton and Julius Norton in Bennington, Vermont, made primarily utilitarian salt-glazed stoneware.  In 1847, Fenton withdrew from the firm and established his own company for the purpose of manufacturing high-grade ceramics.  Fenton’s pottery produced a variety of earthenware including whiteware and Rockingham and flint-enamel glazed yellowware. The company also made Parian porcelain, which was first produced in the United States in the mid-1840s by the firm of Fenton and Norton.  Fenton entered into a partnership with Alanson Porter Lyman in 1849 and the firm was briefly named Lyman, Fenton and Company.  By 1852, the company had been renamed the United States Pottery Company.  Despite the popularity of its spectacular display at the New York Crystal Place Exhibition of 1853 and the large number of orders for pottery and porcelain, the firm was forced to close in 1858.

After arriving in the United States from England in 1841 and working briefly with his brother who had started the first pottery in East Liverpool, Ohio, Edwin Bennett established in 1846 his own pottery in Baltimore, Maryland.  By the 1850s, when he was joined by his brother William, Bennett was manufacturing Rockingham-glazed molded yellowware, which was the specialty of his firm.  From 1849 to 1857, the E. & W. Bennett Pottery employed Staffordshire potter Charles Coxon to make the molds for shaping and decorating the yellowware. From the 1870s until the end of the nineteenth century, the firm manufactured whiteware.

One of the most significant American manufacturers of art pottery in the late nineteenth century was the Rookwood Pottery, founded 1880 in Cincinnati, Ohio, by Maria Longworth Nichols. Maria had been inspired by the "china painting" clubs formed by affluent women in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.  The mission of her pottery was to produce ceramics of high artistic achievement. Rookwood’s products reflected the influence of Oriental ceramics, featuring specially developed glazes and elegantly painted decoration of naturalistic motifs.  The early works of the firm consist of Oriental forms with exquisitely painted Japanese-inspired decoration in polychromatic glazes with a matte or glossy surface. By the early twentieth century, the Rookwood Pottery was producing wares with simple molded decoration and matte glazes associated with the pottery of the Arts & Crafts Movement.  It continued to manufacture Oriental-type forms with painted decoration, but with emphasis on distinctly American motifs such as corn husks and Native American Indians.

New York’s porcelain manufactories were based in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, which was a separate city until its incorporation into New York at the end of the nineteenth century. These included Charles Cartlidge and Company, William Boch and Brothers, and the Union Porcelain Works.

Charles Cartlidge was an English potter who settled in the United States in 1832, when he set up in New York City as agent for the Staffordshire potteries of William Ridgway. After Ridwgay went out of business, Cartlidge and his previous partner Herbert Q. Ferguson purchased land in Greenpoint in 1848 and established a manufactory for the production of porcelain. Initially the company produced only buttons, but gradually expanded its selection of porcelain wares to include bell pulls, door and room signs, number plates, drawer pulls, and doorknobs. By the 1850s, the firm was manufacturing tableware and a large quantity of pitchers for hotels, taverns and inns.  In 1854, due to economic difficulties, Cartlidge dissolved the firm and reorganized it as the American Porcelain Manufacturing Company, which remained in business until 1856.  The company produced both glazed porcelain and Parian.

Another important porcelain manufactory in Greenpoint was William Boch and Brothers, founded in 1844.  The bulk of its production was similar to that of Cartlidge and Company, including doorknobs, drawer pulls, number plates, door signs, and pitchers for the hotel and tavern trades.  The firm was renamed the Union Porcelain Company in 1861 when Thomas Carll Smith, who had joined the business as a partner, became sole owner.  The Union Porcelain Company evolved into the Union Porcelain Works, one of the most successful porcelain manufactories in the United States in the late nineteenth century.  After hiring the Austrian sculptor Karl Muller as head of modeling, the company greatly expanded its offerings and improved the quality of its wares, producing elegant tableware and decorative accessories in glazed porcelain, biscuit porcelain and Parian. The firm organized a lavish display for the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876.

After briefly manufacturing porcelain in East Liverpool, Ohio, William Bloor entered into partnership with Joseph Ott and Thomas Booth in 1863 and established in Trenton, New Jersey, the Etruria Pottery, the name recalling the renowned ceramics firm founded in 1769 in Etruria, England, by Josiah Wedgwood.  Booth sold his interest in 1864, and by the following year, John Hart Brewer, nephew of Joseph Ott, was the third partner in the company.  From the outset, the firm produced both yellowware and whiteware. By the late 1860s, production of Parian porcelain was underway.  In 1871, Bloor left the company, which continued to be operated by the remaining partners, Ott and Brewer.  In preparation for the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, the firm hired in 1874 the sculptor Isaac Broom to oversee design and modeling.  The growing demand in America for Irish Belleek porcelain prompted the company to produce a facsimile.  In 1876, the Ott and Brewer firm introduced a close imitation in the form of an ivory-colored porcelain.  Shortly after 1882, the year in which Ott and Brewer restructured the company following a factory fire, the firm achieved a true Belleek porcelain body, known as “American Belleek.”  Ott and Brewer produced decorative Belleek porcelain wares until the company was forced to close in 1892 due to an economic depression and a strike among its workers.