Traditional Ceramics Find a Welcome Home in the Brandywine Valley

Photos by Jim Graham

From functional stoneware to fine china, local collectors love ceramics, which boast a rich history in the region.

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Shortly after we were married, my wife and I moved to Arizona, she as a university student and me as a college journalism instructor. Even on my meager salary, one of the first things we purchased was Southwestern pottery—one piece at a time. Our collection included signed (if not rare) bowls from artisans at Acoma and other pueblos atop the New Mexico mesas.

On our first trip to Europe, we could hardly wait to reach London to visit the Reject China Shop in Covent Garden and order a set of custom-made tableware. It took weeks to arrive, but not a plate or saucer broken. By that time, we’d moved to Delaware and had better-paying jobs.

Not long after, with new friends who bled Tar Heel blue, we visited the traditional Jugtown Pottery works in the center of North Carolina, well known at the time for its earthenware pieces. A large, buff-colored, Colonial-style jug we purchased was once used to hold summer flowers. With downsizing, it has been temporary exiled to basement storage.

There’s something about the warmth of objects made from clay. “I’ve seen people with collections of 700 to 800 pieces of regional stoneware, mainly from Pennsylvania and Maryland,” says James Koterski, author of Early Potters and Potteries of Delaware: Historical and Commercial Perspectives, 1760-1890, a 2005 volume that profiles the makers of vessels that were once used mainly for food storage. “I still have 75 to 80 pieces—about half of what I once had.”

Not all local pottery collectors are interested in local stoneware. “Lots of people collect locally, mostly from the 19th century and mostly made in England and China,” says Leslie Grigsby, senior curator of ceramics and glass at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, where she oversees a collection of about 18,000 pieces. “We regularly have conservation clinics for these collectors.”

The state of Delaware and neighboring Chester County have rich traditions of mining the seams of blue, red and white clay exposed along the coastline and at the edges of woodland streams. Two major mill streams in Delaware—Red Clay and White Clay creeks—leave no doubt about how they got their names. There’s a large vein of the stuff stretching from outside New York to the Shenandoah Valley, including white clay used in porcelain. In earlier days, Delaware clay was transported to other counties to be made into porcelain and other ceramic forms.

Stoneware was the main commercial ware produced here. As Koterski points out, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of traditional stoneware jugs, jars and pieces of tableware still in existence. It’s easily found in local antique stores, at flea markets and in estate auctions where collectors and dealers often arrive early to look for rare, undiscovered pieces. “Crocker Farm in Maryland is the largest auction house dealing in stoneware,” Koterski says. “It has auctions three times a year.”

Stoneware is made by firing the clay at relatively high temperatures. Pieces from the 19th and early 20th centuries tend to have muted colors like blue and tan, with blue designs or lettering. Some are signed by—or bear the special mark of—the commercial potter. But most often not. “Those were generally made using cobalt oxide,” Koterski says.

In his book, Koterski identifies potters who operated in the state from 1760 to 1890—especially William Hare of French Street in Wilmington. “He was the only known local potter to mark his ware,” Koterski notes.

Colonial Americans typically didn’t source their ceramics locally. “We have more of George Washington’s china at Winterthur than they do today at Mount Vernon,” says Grigsby. “The bulk of the pieces are types used in Colonial America until after the Revolutionary War. We weren’t making many ceramics in this country until after the war. Most of what was being used was made in England or was Chinese export ceramics traded by the British.”

Part of the Winterthur collection is china commemorating the Society of the Cincinnati, a fraternal and charitable association of Continental Army officers that included Washington. “We also have lots of President Monroe’s china, and also that of Grant and Polk,” Grigsby says.