Hull pottery began production in 1905 in Crooksville, Ohio, under the leadership of Addis Emmet (A.E.) Hull. The Hull Pottery Company's early lines consisted of common utilitarian stoneware, semi-porcelain dinnerware and decorative tile. The company quickly established a firm market and enjoyed an excellent reputation for producing quality ceramics. [1]
A.E. Hull began his career working in Crooksville with his older brother J.J. Hull at The Star Stoneware, before starting his new company. J.J. started helped start a new company, The Acme, which produced fine china. Later The Hull Pottery took over the Acme buildings. J.J. had four sons who remained active in the local family pottery businesses, John, Floyd, Russell and Ralph W Hull.
The company's success continued and, over the next several years, the business expanded. In the 1920s, the A.E. Hull Pottery Company maintained its general offices and factories in Crooksville and had an office and a showroom located in New York, offices in Chicago and Detroit and a large warehouse in New Jersey. [1] It was also during the 1920s that Hull began expanding the variety of his company's product line to art pottery. The company also began using a broader variety of colors and glazing techniques with its products. The various Hull relatives often represented the companies of other relatives in addition to their own.
A.E. Hull died in 1930. Addis E. Hull, Jr. succeeded his father in the management of the business. Hull, Jr. left the company in 1937 to become the General Manager of the Shawnee Pottery company. Gerald F. Watts became the new manager of Hull Pottery. [2] Also in 1937, the company contracted with Shulton Inc. (mostly known for the Old Spice product line) to manufacture pottery cosmetic containers. [2] By the late 1930s through 1950s, Hull was making some of its best work. By far the most popular line to come from the factory was "Red Riding Hood", produced in 1943. [3] Hull developed art pottery lines primarily along floral themes: Orchid, Magnolia, Calla Lily, Rose and Tulip to name a few. The trendy pastel matte lines of Hull Pottery were also in high demand. Hull's product line expanded to include piggy banks, liquor bottles, and lamps. [1] The company's Floristware line was one of Hull Pottery's most successful lines. From the 1940s through the 1960s, a plant or flower bouquet delivered from a florist was often contained in a Hull pot or figural planter. [3]
On June 19, 1950, the plant was destroyed in a flood and resulting fire. Primarily because of Hull's excellent reputation with its customers and buyers, the company was able to quickly rebuild and re-opened on January 1, 1952, as "The Hull Pottery Company." J.B. Hull became General Manager. [2] John Hull, A.E.'s nephew who had continued to operate the Star Stoneware and was President of the Crooksville Bank, became a member of the Board of Directors. John's daughter Ann remained a closely associated investor through the 1970s, guided by her attorney husband Robert Jones (Ohio lawyer). Through the 1950s and 1960s the company continued to expand and diversify its product lines to keep up with the times. New artistic lines such as Continental, Ebb Tide, Parchment and Pine, Tokay, and Tropicana were introduced. [1] In the late 1960s through the mid-1980s, the company changed its production from artistic lines to predominately "House 'n' Garden" serving ware and Imperial florist ware. [2] J.B. Hull died in 1978. [1] Hull was succeeded as president by Henry Sulens and later Larry Taylor. In the mid-1980s the company was hit with multiple union strikes and foreign competition. In March, 1986 the company ceased operations and closed the plant. [2]
Numerous collectors clubs exist which specialize in collecting Hull Pottery. One such organization, "The Hull Pottery Association" is headquartered in Crooksville, Ohio. This association's goal is to "preserve, educate, and promote Hull Pottery, its collectors, and its heritage." [4] Numerous collectors’ books exist as well. Examples of Hull Pottery can be found for sale on numerous web sites.
Denby Pottery Company Ltd is a British manufacturer of pottery, named after the village of Denby in Derbyshire where it is based. It primarily sells hand-crafted stoneware tableware, kitchenware and serveware products including dinner sets, mugs and serving dishes, as well as a variety of glassware products and cast-iron cookware.
Salt-glaze or salt glaze pottery is pottery, usually stoneware, with a glaze of glossy, translucent and slightly orange-peel-like texture which was formed by throwing common salt into the kiln during the higher temperature part of the firing process. Sodium from the salt reacts with silica in the clay body to form a glassy coating of sodium silicate. The glaze may be colourless or may be coloured various shades of brown, blue, or purple.
North Dakota in the United States has been the scene of modern era pottery production using North Dakota clays since the early 1900s. In 1892 a study was published by Earle Babcock, a chemistry instructor at the University of North Dakota (UND) that reported on the superior qualities of some of the North Dakota clays for pottery production. The UND School of Mines began operations in 1898 with Earle Babcock as director. With the assistance of several eastern potteries, pottery made from North Dakota clay was first displayed at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
Langley Mill Pottery was located in Langley Mill, Derbyshire on the Derbyshire – Nottinghamshire border. From its establishment in 1865 to its final closure in 1982, the pottery went through five distinct periods of ownership, producing a wide range of stoneware ranging from salt glazed ink bottles, utilitarian items and tableware to high quality and original art pottery.
Van Briggle Art Pottery was at the time of its demise the oldest continuously operating art pottery in the United States, having been established in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1901 by Artus and Anne Van Briggle. Artus had a significant impact on the Art Nouveau movement in the United States, and his pottery is foundational to American Art Pottery. The Art Nouveau style favored by its founders continues to influence the pottery's designs.
The Hall China Company was an American ceramics manufacturer located in East Liverpool, Ohio, United States, known for pioneering the single-fire glazing process. At the time of its closure, Hall China was one of two potteries under the HLC Inc. brand, the other being Homer Laughlin China. In 2020, it was announced that the Hall China facility would be shuttered by February 2021 to reduce overhead in the now Fiesta Tableware Company, as the Hall China brand itself had been sold to Steelite International earlier in the year. Hall China is still produced as a food service brand by Steelite, but no longer operates as an independent brand in retail.
Blue Ridge is a brand and range of American tableware (dishware) manufactured by Southern Potteries Incorporated from the 1930s until 1957. Well known in their day for their underglaze decoration and colorful patterns, Blue Ridge pieces are now popular items with collectors of antique dishware. The underglaze technique made the decorations more durable, and while basic patterns were reused consistently, the fact that each piece was hand-painted means that no two pieces are exactly alike.
The Fiesta Tableware Company is a ceramics manufacturer located in Newell, West Virginia, United States. Established in 1871, it is widely known for its Art Deco glazed dinnerware line, Fiesta.
McCoy is a brand of pottery that was produced in the United States in the early 20th century. It is probably the most collected pottery in the nation. Starting in 1848 by J.W.McCoy Stoneware company, they established the Nelson McCoy Sanitary Stoneware Company in 1910. They continued on almost into 1991, but had to close down due to declining profits.
The Roseville Pottery Company was an American art pottery manufacturer in the 19th and 20th centuries. Along with Rookwood Pottery and Weller Pottery, it was one of the three major art potteries located in Ohio around the turn of the 20th century. Though the company originally made simple household pieces, the Arts and Crafts–inspired designs proved popular, and Roseville pieces are now sought after by collectors.
Red Wing pottery refers to American stoneware, pottery, or dinnerware items made by a company initially set up in Red Wing, Minnesota, in 1861 by German immigrant John Paul, which changed its names several times until finally settling on Red Wing Potteries, Inc. in 1936. The pottery factory that started in 1861 continues to the present day under the names of Red Wing Pottery and Red Wing Stoneware. There was a respite in production when Red Wing Pottery Sales, Inc. had a strike in 1967 causing them to temporarily cease trading. The company still makes both zinc/Bristol glazed products as well as salt-glazed, hand-thrown, kiln fired items.
J.A. Bauer Pottery is an American pottery that was founded in Paducah, Kentucky in 1895 and operated for most of its life in Los Angeles, California. It closed in 1962.
Franciscan Ceramics are ceramic tableware and tile products produced by Gladding, McBean & Co. in Los Angeles, California, from 1934 to 1962, International Pipe and Ceramics (Interpace) from 1962 to 1979, and Wedgwood from 1979 to 1983. Wedgwood closed the Los Angeles plant, and moved the production of dinnerware to England in 1983. Waterford Glass Group plc purchased Wedgwood in 1986, becoming Waterford Wedgwood. KPS Capital Partners acquired all of the holdings of Waterford Wedgwood in 2009. The Franciscan brand became part of a group of companies known as WWRD, an acronym for "Wedgwood Waterford Royal Doulton." WWRD continues to produce the Franciscan patterns Desert Rose and Apple.
Pacific Clay Products, founded 1892, was created by the merger of several Southern California potteries. The company began producing utilitarian pottery in the 1920s, and introduced solid color earthenware dinnerware in 1932. The primary site for the production of ceramic tableware, kitchenware, and art ware was based in the company's Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles plant at 306 West Avenue 26. Pacific Clay ceased production of ceramic dinnerware and art ware in 1942. After 1942, Pacific Clay produced sewer tile and brick. The company ceased production of sewer tile in 1997. The company continues to produce brick products in Lake Elsinore, California. The company has been owned by David H. Murdock since 1973.
California pottery includes industrial, commercial, and decorative pottery produced in the Northern California and Southern California regions of the U.S. state of California. Production includes brick, sewer pipe, architectural terra cotta, tile, garden ware, tableware, kitchenware, art ware, figurines, giftware, and ceramics for industrial use. Ceramics include terra cotta, earthenware, porcelain, and stoneware products.
The Shawnee Pottery Company was a manufacturing company best known for producing Corn King pottery and the Pennsylvania Dutch lines of pottery. Both of these lines are considered to be highly collectible.
Restaurant ware, or most commonly hotelware is vitrified, ceramic tableware which exhibits high mechanical strength and is produced for use in hotels and restaurants. Tableware used in railway dining cars, passenger ships and airlines are also included in this category.
Yellowware, or yellow ware, is a type of earthenware named after its yellow appearance given to it by the clay used for its production. Originating in the United Kingdom in the late 18th century, it was also produced in the eastern United States from the late 1920s.
The Medalta Potteries was a Canadian ceramics manufacturing company in Medicine Hat, Alberta, that operated from 1916 to 1954. It was the first manufacturer in Western Canada to ship its products east of Ontario.
Buffalo China, Inc., formerly known as Buffalo Pottery, was a company founded in 1901 in Buffalo, New York as a manufacturer of semi-vitreous, and later vitreous, china. Prior to its acquisition by Oneida Ltd. in 1983, the company was one of the largest manufacturers of commercial chinaware in the United States.