About Redware

The Big Picture

From Past to Present: a Brief History of Redware

“The poor potter is Dead, and the Business of making potts and panns is of little advantage to his family, and as little Damage to the Trade of our Mother Country.”
- William Gooch, Royal Governor of Virginia in his 1745 status report to the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations regarding Yorktown potter William Rogers.

As Governor Gooch wrote these words, colonial potters like William Rogers had been working in increasingly direct contradiction to English trade laws. Under these laws, the colonies were meant to simply provide raw materials, including clay, to manufacturers in England. Finished products made in England were then sold back to the colonists--with the East India Company getting its cut for transporting both raw materials and finished goods.

By the late 1700's, however, American potters set out to prove they could not only equal imported wares in quality, but exceed them. Many potters greatly expanded their repertoire beyond the “potts and panns” of their forebearers, whose forms had remained virtually unchanged for centuries. One impetus for this new burst of activity was the colonists’ growing hankering for mugs, teapots, creamers, and tableware of every sort. Interest in these new wares blossomed through the rise in popularity of such beverages as tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and beer (and of course, the realities of blockade and embargo). Many forms were adapted from Chinese prototypes, often having initially filtered, years or centuries earlier, into Europe through Muslim lands. Other pottery forms were inspired by glass and silver objects made for the upper classes. What’s more, increased mobility and intermarriage between pottery families led to a surprisingly cooperative environment in which local potters shared technical know-how and artistic guidance. A tremendous influx of immigrants, including potters with their own highly developed craft skills, added further depth to local production.

Even with this productivity, it wasn’t long before the new country was awash in cheap English, German, Dutch, and Chinese imports. As the American Industrial Revolution hit high gear in the mid 19th century, community level redware production was profoundly affected. Many potters moved west or went to work in the mills. As the country grew, the age-old agrarian focus of most communities changed. Increasingly, surviving potters produced what city dwellers wanted most--flower pots. A few hold-outs, particularly in Pennsylvania and the South, managed by producing special orders and catering to a new phenomenon: the tourist trade.

By the late 20th century an interest in and appreciation of locally made pottery, reflecting the journey of America’s development from agrarian Colony to industrial Nation, began to re-surface. Today, Stephen Earp Redware is dedicated to interpreting the best and the most interesting expressions of traditional redware pottery to a modern audience. If treated with care, the pottery of Stephen Earp Redware will last for generations.

I hope you will find in these wares a living reminder of the world from which we evolved, as we try to sort out the perplexing question of where we are heading.