Wannopee Pottery

The New Milford Pottery Company was organized in June 1887, and three months later the firm purchased three acres of land in New Milford.¹ By September of that year one kiln was in operation and another under construction. Financial difficulties forced a reorganization of the pottery in mid-1892. The new owners, W.D. Black, L.F. Curtis, Merritt Beach and the latter's son C.M. Beach, changed the name to Wannopee Pottery.

An extensive variety of ceramic products was made. Duchess ware, which is characterized by mottled glazes, was one of the most popular. A porcelain-bodied ware of the same type was also produced. Clock cases were a particular specialty, and for a period they accounted for a significant portion of the firm's income. Large cases were produced for the Gilbert Clock Company and small ones for the New Haven Clock Company. A blue-glazed ware was produced and often decorated with gold. Pieces of this line, which was seldom marked, included umbrella stands, jardinieres, pitches and spittoon.

A line of semi-porcelain pitchers in three different sizes was first offered in 1895. It was decorated with relief medallion heads of McKinley,² Beethoven and Mozart. Another variety had a full bust of Napoleon. The modeling of the cameos was the work of Victor Gallimore of Trenton, New Jersey. Items of the line itself were considered a "cheap affair" by Barber.³

In 1901 the firm began production of lettuce-leaf ware. Based originally on their Italian majolica counterpart, later molds were made actually using cabbage leaves with the outline of the stem and large veins evident. This line, with a pale green or a pink glaze, was extended to some twenty-five sizes and shapes, and it sold extremely well.⁴

About the same time as the introduction of the lettuce-leaf ware, the pottery's finest artware made its debut. Scarabronze, as it was named, was designed by A.H. Nobel, pottery manager, and is characterized by a soft, satiny, metallic glaze suggestive of ancient copper. The colors of the kid-like surface range from dark bronze through reddish-copper to a tint bordering on sage green. The shapes, which are adaptations from old Egyptian forms, are simple in outline and most often without relief ornamentation. Egyptian characters and figures were painted on the surface of some of this ware using slip in which different metallic colors had been mixed. A local red clay body was employed, in contrast to clay imported from England and elsewhere which was used in most of the other work.⁵

Production at the pottery ceased in 1903, and the firm was liquidated the following year. The lettuce-leaf molds were sold to Charles Reynolds, who worked for the company as a decorator and designer. He moved to Trenton, New Jersey,  and in association with the George H. Bowman Company of Cleveland, Ohio, manufactured the lettuce-leaf ware for a short time.

The most extensive and comprehensive collection of Wannopee work is maintained by the New Milford Historical Society.

Considerable confusion exists as to the designation of the pottery as the "Park Lane Pottery." Barber seems to have been the source of this apparent error,⁶ and no evidence can be found that this name was ever actually used. Watkins, using Barber as a source, further compounds the error by citing a mark for Park Lane.⁷ The mark, shown by Barber, which created the difficulty is the cipher for Lang & Osgood. Lang & Osgood were evidently the successors to Lang and Schafer, who were the New York agents for Wannopee and whose initials sometimes appear on the ware. The Lang & Osgood cipher is often found in conjunction with that of the scarab on the Scarabronze.

Regular pottery marks are also to be found. Early work, of the cream-colored variety, was marked with the pottery's initials, N.M.P.C. Co., within a square. In addition, a semi-opaque china was produced which bore the eagle mark as well as the firm's initials. Duchess ware was marked with Wannopee's most common mark, the impressed sunburst-W. Pieces of a porcelain body have the same mark with the word "Porcelain" impressed above it and the firms' initials, W.P. Co., below it. Lettuce-leaf ware produced by Wannopee is marked with the standard impressed sunburst-W. and the later ware produced from the Wannopee molds bears the imprint "Trade/Lettuce Leaf/Mark." The Scarabronze line was always marked with a scarab which was most often either impressed (and sometimes completely obscured by the glaze) or applied in relief. Occasionally paper labels were used which depicted the scarab in gold. Both impressed and in-mold "Wannopee" marks have also been noted. As with the blue-glazed line with the gold decoration, many miscellaneous items were sold unmarked.

1. The sources, unless otherwise noted, for the material presented are from the files of the New Milford Historical Society.
2. A pitcher with the McKinley Medallion is in the collection of the New Milford Historical Society.
3. E.A. Barber. Marks of American Potters, pp.98-99.
4. China. Glass and Pottery Review, VII (February 5, 1901), p.37; Glass and Pottery World. XIII (September 1905), p.29. An example of the Wannopee lettuce-leaf ware is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (#'03-375) and marked with the sunburst-W. It was acquired from A.H. Noble in 1903.
5. E.A. Barber, The Pottery and Porcelain Of the United States. pp.504-05.
6. Barber. ibid.; Marks. bc. cit.
7. LW. Watkins, Early New England.Potters~and Their Wares. pp.232-33.
Information taken from "Art Potter of the United States" - Paul Evans