Cordey China Company

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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.

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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    1942-1980+

Wares

Art ceramicTableware

Decorated porcelain coffee sets and covered dishes, porcelain sculptures, lamps (Lehner 1980)

Notes

“Cordey China was founded in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1942 by Boleslaw Cybis, a Polish painter who had come to the World’s Fair in New York to paint murals for the Polish pavilion.” 

— Lehner, Lois. 1980. Complete Book of American Kitchen and Dinner Wares.  Wallace-Homestead Book Company, Des Moines, Iowa.

Selected References

Davis, Chester. 1973. “Cordey China.” Spinning Wheel, January/February, 1973, p. 10.

Lehner, Lois. 1980.  Complete Book of American Kitchen and Dinner Wares.  Wallace-Homestead Book Company, Des Moines, Iowa.

Robinson, Dorothy and Bill Feeny. 1980.  The Official Price Guide to American Pottery & Porcelain.  House of Collectobles, Orlando, Florida.

Other firms at this site:

Other Names

Cordey China Company; Schiller Cordey Inc.

Block and Lot:
210B/2, 6, 13

Historic Street Address:
Enterprise Avenue near Pennsylvania Railroad

Municipality:
City of Trenton

Image Gallery

Pair of Electric Lamp Bases, porcelain, made by Cordey China Company, ca. 1950, 10 in H. Boleslaw Cybis was designer for and part owner of Cordey China before establishing his own company. Although Cordey was founded in Philadelphia, their workshop/studio was in Trenton. Collection of the New Jersey State Museum, CH2014.3.1-2

Map Gallery

Cordey China Company, 1955 Sanborn Map
Map References

Sanborn Map Company.  1955.  Insurance Maps of the City of Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey, Volume 1.  Revised from 1927 map.  Sanborn Map Company, New York, New York. (Vol. 3, plate 449: shown as “Cordey China Co.”)