Delaware Pottery

View this page as a PDF     

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    1884-1892

Wares

BelleekOtherSanitary

Sanitary ware and druggists supplies (Robinson and Feeny 1980:62)

Notes

“In about 1886, Thomas Connelly, formerly of the Irish factory [Belleek], began to experiment with the manufacture of Belleek at the Delaware Pottery in Trenton, which had been founded about three years earlier by Samuel D. Oliphant, another Irish worker, and three of his sons. Although Connelly succeeded in producing what was considered some ‘exquisitely thin trial pieces of the finest grade,’ he never made his porcelain in any commercial quantity and he soon discontinued production.”

— Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. 1989.  American Porcelain, 1770-1920.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York.

Selected References

Trenton Board of Trade. 1900.  Industrial Trenton and Vicinity.  George A. Wolf Publishers, Wilmington, Delaware.

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

Van Hoesen, Walter Hamilton. 1973.  Crafts and Craftsmen of New Jersey.  Associated University Presses, Inc., Cranbury, New Jersey.

Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. 1989.  American Porcelain, 1770-1920.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York.

Other firms at this site:

Other Names

Oliphant & Company; Oliphant's Pottery; Delaware Pottery

Block and Lot:
28-3B/173, 333, 347, 359; 3B

Historic Street Address:
Prospect Street corner of Stuyvesant Avenue; Prospect near Pennsylvania Railroad

Municipality:
City of Trenton

Map Gallery

Delaware Pottery, 1886 Sanborn
Delaware Pottery,1890 Scarlett & Scarlett
Delaware Pottery, 1890 Sanborn Map
Map References

Sanborn, D. A. 1874.   Insurance Diagrams of Trenton. Corrected to 1886.  D.A. Sanborn, New York, New York.   (Shown as “Oliphant’s Pottery”)

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 17: shown as “Oliphant & Co.’s Pottery”)

Scarlett & Scarlett.  1890.   Scarlett & Scarlett’s Fire Insurance Map of Mercer County.  Scarlett & Scarlett, Newark, New Jersey.  (Plate 76: shown as “Delaware Pottery Oliphant & Co.”)