City Pottery

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HOW TO USE THE DATABASE

The Database is organized by location, but you can find a pottery initially by searching for its name, which is at the top of the of the page with dates of operation below. Alternate names and the names of other potteries on the same site are noted at the top of the right-hand column, just above the pottery’s location.

The types of wares made appear below the pottery name in the left-hand column, followed by the references that informed these classifications.

Sample images of maker’s marks may be enlarged by clicking on the image.

Notes include a variety of information compiled from many standard sources and are presented as miscellaneous tidbits.

In the Gallery and Map Gallery in the right-hand column you will see historic images and insurance maps of the pottery’s facilities if available as well as historic advertisements and images of the wares made.

You can download more detailed information in all of these categories by choosing a PDF of the pottery’s full listing, which also includes the documentary sources. The PDF is text only and does not contain any images.  Data from the 1860, 1870 and 1880 industrial censuses area also included in the PDF if they exist for a given pottery. This data gives you a picture of the size of the pottery operation and the age and gender makeup of its work force.

You can help expand the database by contributing pictures and information. Contact POTS by the email address at the bottom of the page.

In operation    1886-1929

Wares

SanitaryTableware

Plumbing and sanitary earthenware, druggists’ sundries, and specialities of every description pertaining to the plumbing trade (Quarter Century’s Progress 1887:278)

Sanitary earthenware (Industrial Directories 1901, 1906)

Vitreous chinaware (Industrial Directory 1909)

Chinaware (Industrial Directory 1912)

Sanitary earthenware (Industrial Directory 1918, 1927)

Notes

“The first of the present year they found their factory inadequate to produce goods to fill their orders and they purchased the City Pottery, which had lain idle for five years. Their plant now covers a section of three blocks and is connected by an underground railroad, and is supplied with all the latest improved facilities as regards machinery, apparatus, and modern labor-saving appliances. Two hundred skilled and experienced operators are employed, and the machinery is driven by a fifty-horse power steam engine. The firm is now manufacturing extensively plumbing and sanitary earthenware, druggists’ sundries, and specialities of every description pertaining to the plumbing trade.”

— Quarter-Century’s Progress of New Jersey’s Leading Manufacturing Centres. Dover. 1887. International Publishing Company, New York.

Selected References

“Pottery Notes.” Trenton Evening Times, Friday, July 3, 1885.

Quarter-Century’s Progress of New Jersey’s Leading Manufacturing Centres. Dover. 1887. International Publishing Company, New York.

Thomas Maddock’s Sons Co. 1910.  Pottery: A History of the Pottery Industry and Its Evolution as Applies to Sanitation.  Thomas Maddock’s Sons Company, Trenton, New Jersey.

Thomas Maddock’s Sons Co. 1916.   Manufacturers of Sanitary Earthenware.  Thomas Maddock’s Sons Company, Trenton, New Jersey.

Harney, W.J. 1929. “Trenton’s First Potteries.” Sunday Times Advertiser, July 7, 14, 21 and 28, 1929.

Podmore, Harry J. 1951. “City Pottery.” Sunday Times Advertiser, August 5, 1951.

Stern, Marc Jeffrey. 1994.  The Pottery Industry of Trenton: A Skilled Trade in Transition, 1850-1929.  Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Goldberg, David J. 1998.  Preliminary Notes on the Pioneer Potters and Potteries of Trenton, N.J.: The First Thirty Years – 1852 – 1882 (And Beyond).  Privately published, Trenton, New Jersey.

Conroy, Barbara J. 1999.  Restaurant China: Volume 2.  Collector Books, Paducah, Kentucky.

Other firms at this site:

Other Names

Thomas Maddock & Sons Company; Thomas Maddock's Sons Company

Block and Lot:
36B/26-30, 33

Historic Street Address:
Perry St. between East Canal St. and Carroll St.; Canal St. corner of Perry St.; Delaware and Raritan Canal above Rose; Perry near Carroll; Carroll near Perry; Ewing corner of Ogden; Carroll and Ewing; Perry, Carroll and Ewing; Perry corner of Canal

Municipality:
City of Trenton

Image Gallery

1924 View from Thomas Maddock Quality Plumbing Fixtures Catalog K
City Pottery, 1900 Industrial Trenton
Print of 1909 Maddock Potteries from above
1909 engraving of City Pottery (lower right) and Carroll Street Pottery (center)
Thomas Maddock
Thomas Maddock
Thomas Maddock Engraving
Thomas Maddock Engraving
1929 Thomas Maddock's Sons Pottery
City Pottery, 1900 Industrial Trenton (Wolf p. 76 center)
Thomas Maddock's Sons, china ewer, souvenir of Elks, 1913, NJSM 71.160
Thomas Maddock's Sons, china ewer, souvenir of Elks

Map Gallery

1905 Lathrop (Thomas Maddocks Sons Co.)
City Pottery, 1890 Scarlett & Scarlett Map
City Pottery, 1927 Sanborn Map
City Pottery, 1890 Sanborn Map
Map References

Sanborn‑Perris Map Company.  1890.   Insurance Maps of the City of Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey. Sanborn‑Perris Map Company, New York, New York.  (Plate 13: shown as “Thomas Maddock & Sons”)

Scarlett & Scarlett.  1890.   Scarlett & Scarlett’s Fire Insurance Map of Mercer County.  Scarlett & Scarlett, Newark, New Jersey.  (Plate 49: shown as “Thos. Maddock & Son Pottery”)

Lathrop, J. M. 1905.   Atlas of the City of Trenton and Borough of Princeton. A.H. Mueller & Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  (Plate 8: shown as “Thomas Maddock’s Sons”)

Sanborn Map Company.  1927.  Insurance Maps of the City of Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey. Sanborn Map Company, New York, New York.  (Vol. 1, plate 49: shown as “City Pottery Thomas Maddock’s Sons Co. The Moses Plant”)

Franklin Survey Co.  1930.  Real Estate Plat‑Book of the City of Trenton and Borough of Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey. Franklin Survey Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  (Plate 29: shown as “Thomas Maddock’s Sons”)