James Carr and the New York City Pottery

James Carr 1820-1904

The name James Carr is well known to American majolica collectors but relatively little is actually known about the pottery he founded.

James Carr was born in Cheadle, Staffordshire, England on July 20, 1820 to John Hanley Carr and Maria Scarret, the eldest of six children. He started working as a potter at the age of ten doing manual labor at the Clews Cobridge Works. At the age of fourteen he began an apprenticeship at Ridgeways in Cauldon Place. Carr graduated from his apprenticeship in 1837 upon the death of his father to begin full time work at Ridgeways. He then moved to the Middlebrough Earthenware Co. and from there to Thomas Fell & Co. In 1839 he married Leah Rushton. 

In 1844 he left England with second wife Mary Elizabeth Smith and traveled on the HMS Liverpool to New York, arriving on the eighteenth of November. He first found a position in Jersey City at the American Pottery where he remained for eight years. Then in 1852 he moved to South Amboy where he rented the Swan Hill Pottery from Charles Fish. There he worked with Joseph Wooton, decorator Danial Greatbatch and modeler Thomas Locker. Swan Hill prospered as a manufacturer of  Rockingham ware, white ware and yellow ware.

HMS Liverpool

American Pottery in the Paulus Hook section of Jersey City

Rockingham type foot warmer attributed to Carr, 

Swan Hill Pottery, Amboy, NJ

Earthenware pitcher, James Carr & Co., 

Swan Hill Pottery

Swan Hill pottery covered pitcher

Early mark of the Swan Hill Pottery

In November 1854 the Swan Hill Pottery suffered a devastating fire. In 1855 financial distress led him to leave New Jersey to partner with a succession of businessmen before finally joining Ohio native Alexander Morrison III to open Morrison & Carr on West 13th Street in New York.  There they manufactured opaque china and white granite ware– mostly utilitarian ware. Carr attended to the production side of the manufacturing while Morrison attended to the business side. They called the property the New York City Pottery.

James Carr c. 1871

Alexander Morrison III (1814-1881)

It was here that Carr began the experiments with glazes that led to his development of a line of majolica. In 1871 Carr dissolved the partnership with Morrison but remained at the same location retaining the name New York City Pottery and expanding the business. By 1875 he was employer to 75 workers. An article in Crockery and Glass Journal described the pottery grounds:

"The premises in Thirteenth Street embrace seven city lots of twenty-five by one hundred feet each, the entire area, with the exception of yard room sufficient for the storage of coal, being covered with brick buildings ranging from two to three stories in height. The kilns are four in number, two of them being used for the first burning, or the conversion of the clay into biscuit; the others for the final or glazing process.

The interior of each kiln is twenty-two feet high and seventeen feet in diameter, while the outer walls rise to the height of sixty feet. Each kiln has eleven fires, and the annual con­sumption of coal is not less than $12,000 worth."— Crockery & Glass Journal

Ad for Carr's New York Pottery

Ad for Carr's New York City Pottery

A rare marked example of Carr majolica

Reverse of the plate shown below showing the distinct 

hand written Carr mark

Carr City Pottery majolica plate

With the exception of a few pieces we don't know precisely how many lines of majolica he made. Atlee Barber in his book The Ceramic Art claimed that he prepared majolica jars, pedestals, seats, boxes, and cups. Charles Rebert in his book American Majolica 1850-1900 claimed that he made a line of shell and seaweed majolica. The pattern he referred to—the Atlantic pattern—was later identified as the work of Shorter & Boulton with no relationship to Carr. It is possible he may have copied it as he did many English designs.

Atlantic pattern cake plate by Shorter & Boulton erroneously

 attributed to Carr

In 1876 Carr exhibited majolica and parian ware at the 1876 Centennial celebration in Philadelphia and won a gold medal for his parian busts. In the sole surviving image of his display, shown below, we can see quite a few Parian busts; decorated ironstone; several majolica pedestals with a scene of Washington crossing the Delaware; a majolica jardiniere in the shape of a wooden barrel; majolica sardine boxes in the style of George Jones; a majolica dog sitting up and several majolica platters, though their design is indiscernible.

The United States Centenial Commission described the Carr exhibit thus:

“Exhibits of white and decorated ‘granite’ table-and toilet-wares; vitreous stone tea-wares; and white-bodied ware decorated as majolica, not artistic. 

Parian busts and statuettes modeled after designs by Mr. Edge, the material fair. 

Some tentative specimens of ‘pâte sur pâte’ on stoneware body, also of ‘email ombrant’”

Carr's exhibit at the 1876 Centennial celebration in Philadelphia

Gold medal from the the 1876 Philadelphia Exhibition

Carr Parian bust "Evening" modeled by W.H. Edge, visible

 in the 1876 Carr display stereograph 

Carr Générant Grant Parian bust modeled by W. H. Edge

Carr parian Meeting of Jacob and Rachel, modeling 

attributed to J. D. Parry

Carr parian sculpture of statesman Charles Sumner 

modeled by J.D. Parry

John Mackie Falconer plaque by New York City Pottery 

dated January 17, 1878

Washington Crossing The Delaware pedestal, one of four, 

created for the 1876 Exhibition

An example of Carr's decorated Ironstone

Jar for William S. Kimball & Co. Vanity Fair tobacco

Carr majolica vase modeled by Henry Lancaster

Carr Pottery majolica vase modeled by Henry Lancaster

Carr vase from the top

An example of Carr's Rubelle Ware named for the French faience factory.  

Rip van Winkle majolica tazza  c. 1876, modeled by 

W. H. Edge, after an image by George W. Waters.

Rip Van Winkle by George W. Waters

James Carr majolica pedestal, a copy of a 

Royal Worcester design

Carr brown glazed umbrella stand, a copy 

of Fielding's Fan pattern

He also exhibited at the 1878 Paris Exhibition where he received an award for quality in workmanship for his display.

Carr cobalt vase

Enamel decorated earthenware dog platter c.1880

In a partnership with Edward Clarke, Carr purchased the failing Assunpink Pottery in Trenton in 1879, formerly owned by Henry Speeler, and renamed it the Lincoln Pottery. The pottery was dedicated to utilitarian cream ware and granite for everyday use. He also made majolica. An item in Trenton’s Pottery Notes wrote:

“Mr. Edward Clarke, recently one of the most prominent potters in the Staffordshire district, England, landed in New York on Sunday last, and is now in this city. Mr. Clarke has established his partnership with Mr. James Carr, formerly of New York, and these two gentlemen will together push forward the work of manufacturing crockery in the old Speeler Pottery, which has been changed in name to that of the Lincoln Pottery”—Pottery Notes, April 11, 1879.

It was not a long lived venture however as the Lincoln Pottery was sold again just a few months later to Burgess & Campbell who renamed it the International Pottery. Carr returned to his work at the New York City Pottery.

Carr majolica pitcher from the Lincoln Pottery,

 a copy of a George Jones design

Carr kept an active social life. He had polygamous relationships with two women and kept two separate families–one in Wolstanton, Staffordshire England and one in the greater New York area in the U.S., traveling back and forth by ship over the course of several years. He had eight children with his first wife Leah in England, and eleven with his second wife Mary in New York. After Carr's wife Mary died at the age of 59 in 1886 he married third wife Emily Kerr in 1889. She died seven years later. He then married fourth wife Elizabeth Carr.

James Carr and part of his family

Carr's second wife, Mary Elizabeth Smith Carr

James Carr

James Carr

The New York City Pottery ceased producing majolica around 1881. In 1889 Carr closed the NYC Pottery and retired. He tore down the kilns and buildings and erected rental properties on the site. His investments in these properties on West 13th Street kept him a wealthy man. 

In 1901 he published his memoirs in Crockery & Glass Journal detailing his experiences in the pottery trade, Reminiscences of an Old Potter: A series of Letters by James Carr. He died at the age of 83 on January 31, 1904. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx with his second wife Mary, alongside other wealthy citizens of victorian New York. His first wife Leah outlived him, dying in 1907 in Wolstanton, England. 

In 1916 his son Thomas founded the Carr China Company in Grafton, West Virginia.

Carr's grave in the Bronx, N.Y.

James Carr’s obituary

Parian bust of James Carr modeled by W.H. Edge

One of the marks of the New York City Pottery

A mark used by James Carr

The former location of the New York City Pottery,

now the Standard High Line Hotel

*The post has been updated since it was first published.