Mill Street Pottery

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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.

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    1863-1872

Wares

RockinghamTablewareYellowware

Yellow and Rockingham ware (Trenton State Gazette, Monday, August 27, 1866)

Yellow and Rockingham ware, decorative and bronzed vases (Goldberg 1998:36)

Notes

“Isaac Davis came to this country in 1862 from Staffordshire, England. He was employed by W. Young & Sons until 1863, at which time he and George Lawton formed a co-partnership and purchased of George James the old tan-yard on Mill street, and converted it into a pottery. It was known by the name of the Mill Street Pottery. They started with a capital of $150 each. They worked it for some time, when Mr. Davis left and joined the Glasgow Pottery Company, and remained there until he purchased Mr. Goodwin’s interest in the Trenton Pottery Works.”

— Mains, Bishop W. and Thomas F. Fitzgerald. 1877.  Mains and Fitzgerald’s Trenton, Chambersburg and Millham Directory: Containing the Names of the Citizens, Statistical Business Report, Historical Sketches, a List of the Public and Private Institutions, Together with National, State, County, and City Government.  Bishop W. Mains & Thomas F. Fitzgerald, Trenton, New Jersey.

 

Selected References

“The Manufactories of Trenton. Article II. The Pottery Trade.” Trenton State Gazette, Monday, August 27, 1866.

Mains, Bishop W. and Thomas F. Fitzgerald. 1877.  Mains and Fitzgerald’s Trenton, Chambersburg and Millham Directory: Containing the Names of the Citizens, Statistical Business Report, Historical Sketches, a List of the Public and Private Institutions, Together with National, State, County, and City Government.  Bishop W. Mains & Thomas F. Fitzgerald, Trenton, New Jersey.

Leibowitz, Joan. 1985.  Yellow Ware: The Transitional Ceramic.  Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., West Chester, Pennsylvania.

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.

Other Names

I.W. Cory; Lawton & Cory; Mill Street Pottery

Block and Lot:
1G/259

Historic Street Address:
Rear of 15 and 17 Mill Street; Mill Street and Warren Street

Municipality:
City of Trenton

Image Gallery

1867 Lawton & Cory (Mill Street Pottery) Advertisement
1868 I.W. Cory (Mill Street Pottery) Advertisement
1865 Lawton & Sons (Mill Street Pottery) Advertisement
I.W. Cory yellowware food mold, 1867-71 (Trenton Museum Society)
Crocus pot in the shape of a hedgehog, 1867-70. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Peter H. B. Frelinghuysen, 1991

Map Gallery

Mill Street Pottery, 1870 Beers
Map References

Beers, F. W. 1870  Map of the City of Trenton, New Jersey. F.W. Beers & Company, New York, New York.   (Shown as “Mill Street Pottery Capt. I.W. Cory”)