History of The Monmouth Pottery Company

In 1894 The Monmouth Pottery Company introduced a simple utilitarian collection of salt glazed, and albany slip glazed, stoneware vessels. Many items in The Monmouth Pottery Company's early collection of bowls, butter churns, crock jars, and jugs were actually decorated by hand with primitive cobalt markings.

A classic, and hard to find, cobalt identification marking used by The Monmouth Pottery Company in the early days was the "two men in a crock mark" which simply featured two men standing in a crock. The Monmouth Pottery Company's earliest items can be easily identified by the their distinct markings because the company soon switched from hand drawn cobalt markings to stencils and stamps. And, salt and albany slip glazes were quickly replaced with bristol glaze as The Monmouth Pottery Company grew.

By 1902 The Monmouth Pottery Company was primarily marking their wares with a stamped maple leaf design emblazoned with "Monmouth Pottery Co. Monmouth Ill". Stoneware animal figurines such as cows and pigs were soon added to the product line, and in a short amount of time The Monmouth Pottery Company was also producing miniatures and promotional items. Many of the smaller items, such as the stoneware animal figurines, were not marked with the stamped Monmouth Pottery maple leaf design for identification.

Collectors can easily mistake one of the Monmouth Pottery Company's unmarked stoneware miniatures, promotional items, or animal figurines for similar pieces from companies, such as Red Wing Union Stoneware, that competed with Monmouth Pottery at the time.

History of The Western Stoneware Company

In 1905, The Monmouth Pottery Company was sold, and in 1906 it was merged with six other stoneware companies to create The Western Stoneware Company of Monmouth Illinois. The six companies that merged with The Monmouth Pottery Company to create The Western Stoneware Company were The Weir Pottery Company, Macomb Stoneware Company, Macomb Pottery Company, D. Culbertson Stoneware Company, Clinton Stoneware Company, and Fort Dodge Stoneware.

Each of the seven stoneware companies that merged to form The Western Stoneware Company had one or two stoneware or pottery specialties and each was designated with a specific Plant Number. The Monmouth Pottery Company was designated as Plant Number One, and continued to produce the utilitarian stoneware bowls, churns, and crock jars it had become well known for.

The Weir Pottery Company, established in 1899, was designated as Plant Number Two after the merger that created The Western Stoneware Company. The Weir Pottery Company was famous for creating promotional pieces for the Heinz Company, for their fine stoneware fruit jars, and for manufacturing the original Old Sleepy Eye pitchers and steins for the Old Sleepy Eye Milling Company of Minnesota.

Macomb Stoneware, established in 1899, was designated as Plant Number Three but a fire destroyed the facilities in 1913. And, Macomb Pottery, incorporated in 1880, was Plant Number Four. Macomb Pottery produced the Cardinal brand of redware along with other specialty lines of stoneware and pottery until the facilities were sold in 1956.

The D. Culbertson Stoneware Company of White Hall Illinois was known as Plant Number Five and remained in operation until 1916. Clinton Stoneware of Clinton Missouri, established in 1898, was designated as Plant Number Six and produced stoneware until 1910. And, Fort Dodge Stoneware of Fort Dodge Iowa, established in 1892, was designated as Plant Number Seven until a fire destroyed the facilities one year after the merger.

After the merger, The Western Stoneware Company retained the stamped maple leaf logo of The Monmouth Pottery Company and simply changed the company name. Early vessels can be identified by the stamped maple leaf emblazoned with The Western Stoneware Company name and one of the seven plant numbers.

With seven stoneware and pottery companies operating under The Western Stoneware Company name, a wide range of stoneware and pottery products developed. From basic utilitarian stoneware vessels such as bowls, crocks, and butter churns to designer quality pottery lamps, flower planters, water coolers, and art inspired pottery pieces, The Western Stoneware Company became well known for offering a diverse collection of products.

Among the most popular of The Western Stoneware Company's lines were the the blue and white stoneware collections, the highly collectible spongeware collection, the Marcrest dinnerware line, and the Monmouth Pottery art and garden wares.

The Western Stoneware Company logo, derived from Monmouth Pottery's original stamped maple leaf design, was used fairly consistently but slight variations occurred throughout the years. Some pieces remained unmarked, and many of the promotional items created for merchants were marked with the customer's name and logo instead of The Western Stoneware Company logo.

Collecting Western Stoneware Company Wares

The Western Stoneware Company is still in operation today and stoneware is produced at the last remaining factory, Plant Number Two. The Western Stoneware Company has been purchased several times over the years, most recently in 2006. As a company that has been in operation for over 100 years, The Western Stoneware Company is known for highly collectible pieces and many collectors enjoy learning to identify the history of specific stoneware items by studying their Plant Number, unique markings, and company logo stampings.

Some collectors specialize in pre-merger pieces, such as the earliest Monmouth Pottery wares which feature salt or albany slip glazed pieces with hand drawn cobalt markings. Other collectors prefer specific lines from the post-merger Western Stoneware Company, or challenge themselves to identify and collect Western Stoneware's small unmarked stoneware figurines or promotional items.

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Western Stoneware Company History

The Watt Pottery Co. made many different types of stoneware utilitarian items for use in the home and on the farm. During the 1920's to the 1930's they produced stoneware crocks, jugs, milk pans, preserve jars, mixing bowls, and butter churns among others.

Some of the first marks that are found on Watt Stoneware crocks, jugs and butterchurns include a cobalt heart with the gallonage size stamped within the heart, and they also used a cobalt blue acorn stamp with the gallonage stamped within the acorn.

In the mid 1930's America's needs were changing, the Watt Pottery Company stepped up and adapted to the change coming out with their new line of kitchen ware . They were an instant success with their oven ware that could withstand very high cooking temperatures. It was at this time that Watt Pottery for the most part stopped producing heavy stoneware items such as crocks, and butter churns. There were now making creamers, pitchers, lidded casseroles, spaghetti bowls, cookie jars, bean pots, pie plates, dinnerware sets, mixing bowls, and several other items for around the kitchen through the 1940's. In the 1950's they started the decorated line of Watt Pottery along with the EVE-N-BAKE, GOLD-N-BAKE and the popular Kitch-N-Queen line.

The following is a rough time line of some, but certainly not all of the different hand-painted patterns and when they were first produced.
Starflower -1951
Apple -1952
Cherry -1952
Silhouette -1953
Rooster -1955
Dutch Tulip -1956
American Red Bud (Tear Drop) -1957
Morning Glory -1958
Autumn Foliage -1959
Double Apple -1959
Tulip -1961

During these years many merchants purchased Watt Pottery items as sales promotions having their company name on them. They made yellow ware advertising bowls, creamers, advertising pitchers, spaghetti bowls, etc. many with the hand-painted Apple and Starflower designs. This was a very popular form of advertising up into the 1950' and 1960's and was a very competitive market between the Watt Pottery Co., the Red Wing Stoneware Co. , and the Western Stoneware Co. among other midwest potteries.

The Watt Pottery Co. also made many lines of pottery for other companies such as "Heirloom", "Ravarin & Freschi", "Esmond", "PeeDeeCo" and several others.

Over the years Watt had made hundreds of different items and managed to be a thriving business from the 1920's up until  1965 when fire destroyed the plant.

Today Watt Pottery is highly collectible and rare or one of a kind pieces can fetch thousands of dollars yet common pieces can be bought for as  little as twenty bucks, making it affordable for almost anyone to collect.

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Watt Pottery History

The NorthStar Stoneware Co. started in 1892, and between these three companies made some of the finest salt glazed water coolers, butter churns, and crocks ever made. From beautiful hand drawn cobalt decorations of birds sitting on a branch, to the eye appealing look of the leaf, daisy, and the butterfly design, all are excellent examples of early American primitive stoneware and are highly prized by collectors.
They also made a variety of other items such as jugs, mixing bowls, bean pots, spittoons, preserve jars, wax sealers, snuff jars, pipkins, and much more, about any type of utilitarian ware needed for the home, farm or industry.

The Union Stoneware Company started in 1894 and was a combination of the three stoneware companies for economic reasons, but each kept their own identity. The North Star Co. was phased out in 1896 after a 4 year run.

In 1906 Red Wing Stoneware and Minnesota Stoneware Co. combined, forming one new company who would live on for the next 30 years and it was named the Red Wing Union Stoneware Company. The salt glaze pieces were pretty much phased out by the turn of the century and replaced by the bristol glaze producing the designs of the Birchleaf, Elephant Ear, and the "Red Wing".

The Red Wing Union Stoneware Co. produced many different types of utilitarian stoneware during these years including jugs, umbrella stands, crocks, butterchurns, water coolers, bowls, pitchers, pantry jars and the hard to find, one of a kind "Lunch Hour Pieces".They also made advertising pieces for numerous companies from several states (mostly the midwest) and put them on many different wares such as Cherryband pitchers, mini jugs, Spongeware bowls, Chicken Feeders, and Nappie bowls, just to name a few.

As America went more urban than rural the time for change came again and in 1936 Red Wing Union Stoneware Co. was changed to Red Wing Potteries. They strived to stay competitive with other potteries such as the Watt Pottery Co. and the Western Stoneware Co. among others.

They started making a variety of new items such as several lines of art pottery, lamps, vases, and wide variety of dinnerware patterns, some include Bob White, Round Up, Tampico, and many many more. By the late 1960's the demand for stoneware and pottery items had declined and combined with a long Union strike, in 1967 the Red Wing Pottery Company was forced to close it's doors.

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Red Wing Stoneware History