The Fall 2016 Historical Footnotes Bulletin of the Stonington Historical Society had a great article by Russell G. Handsman called the States’ Family Stoneware Sites in Stonington CT that began with a great paragraph about the history of pottery in Norwich, CT and a quote by our very own Christopher Leffingwell, “The crockery business, he wrote, “should be thought an object [for continued growth] as the consumption of that article is immense,” while the freight costs of imported, European wares “amounts to an amazing sum.” The issue also included beautiful photographs of the Stonington Historical Society Old Lighthouse Museum collection.
Pottery was not manufactured in New England until after the middle of the eighteenth century. Just when the first Norwich pottery began is not known, but on April 9, 1774, Colonel Leffingwell sold his to Thomas Williams. Known Norwich clay pieces are of a deep red color, with black blotches made by admitting smoke into the kiln, and have a special lead glaze.
The second pottery was located on Clinton Avenue. Built before December 24, 1798 by Andrew Tracy, sold to Captain Joseph Hosmer, then William Cleveland from 1805, to May 2, 1814, when sold to Peleg Armstrong and Erastus Wentworth, of Norwich. The Huntington and Backus Company became the Norwich Manufacturing Company, which in 1829 purchased part of the land of Armstrong and Wentworth. In June, 1834, Armstrong sold out his share in the business to Wentworth, so that pottery marked Armstrong & Wentworth, or A & W, dates from 1814 to 1834. The business was carried on by Joseph Winship, who later went to work in the newly opened pottery of Sidney Risley, at the Landing. In the 1857 Norwich Directory is the advertisement of “Sidney Risley, No. 4 Cove St., Manufacturer of Stone Ware in Every Variety. Alvin T. Davis was one of the old drivers for Risley, and his pottery wagon was led with a beautiful pair of Newfoundland dogs hitched on ahead of the horses.
Risley at first leased the property, but in 1856 purchased it and continued the business until his death on April 26, 1875, at age sixty-one. His son, George L. Risley, continued the works until his tragic death on the Christmas eve 1881. He went to the pottery to light the fires under an upright boiler, which blew up through the roof of the building, and landed in the cove about 120 feet away. It is said that the force of the explosion was so great that the 1500-pound boiler passed completely over a fifty-foot elm tree at the rear of the pottery. Mr. Risley was badly injured and he died that evening. An account of the accident appeared in the “Scientific American” in January, 1882.
B. C. Chace opened the pottery about a year later, under the name of the Norwich Pottery Works; in 1885 he was succeeded by George B. Chamberlain, for about two years. The business was then continued by Otto N. Suderburg till 1895, when it was discontinued.
It is hard to realize that all preserves, mostly “pound for pound,” were kept in earthen or stone jars of various shapes and sizes. Homemade beer, cider, wine and other liquid refreshments were kept in stone bottles or jugs. The ink bottles, large and small, were of this stoneware; mugs, pitchers, milk-pans, butter pots, pudding pans, platters and plates, are mentioned in old advertisements. The soft soap, without which no household was kept properly clean, was stored in one of these jars. Some crockery was imported from England, and after the China trade was opened, dishes became more plentiful but it was many years before the use of such ware became general.
So it is easily seen that a pottery was a necessary industry; wagonloads of the red soft pottery and the stone and earthen ware were sent out over the roads in all directions. The early potters rarely stamped their work with any distinctive mark, in this section at least; but those who have seen the red, smoke-blotched or red with yellow trimmings, would recognize the work again. The Leffingwell House Museum has a small collection of the early pottery. Armstrong & Wentworth used the mark, “A & W,” or later, “Armstrong & Wentworth, Norwich.” One of the jugs made by this firm has the owner’s name written in the clay, because he did not want to have his jug mixed up with that of anyone else. Risley’s mark was usually “S. Risley.” The Leffingwell House Museum has a small collection of the early pottery.
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