The Willets Manufacturing Company

In a follow up to our last post on new discoveries in American majolica, I thought we'd take a closer look at the Excelsior Pottery of the Willets Manufacturing Company.

The business that ultimately became the Willets Manufacturing Company began as the Excelsior Pottery of the William Young & Sons company. William Young was an English potter trained at Ridgeway who emigrated to the Trenton area in pursuit of fortune. In 1857 he established the Excelsior Pottery. He maintained it in operation under his name until 1879. That year it was sold to the three Willets brothers: Edmund, Joseph and Daniel, who established the Willets Pottery.

Excelcior Pottery

Willets was a large pottery employing 260 workers: 175 men, 35 women and 50 children. Willets Excelsior Pottery is best known for its production of American Belleek. Initiated in the U.S. in 1882 by the nearby Ott & Brewer Pottery, American Belleek was intended to bring the elegance of Belleek porcelain to the U.S. In 1886 the Willets brothers, hired William Bromley Sr. from Ott & Brewer to initiate their own line of Belleek wares which went into production in 1887. In addition to imitating the shell formed designs of Irish Belleek, he used the porcelain base for elaborate hand painted decoration. As described in a contemporary New York publication:

Their pottery and granite and opaque por­celain wares are most favorably known and justly celebrated through­out the trade of the entire country, comparing favorably with the finest imported goods. Their thin opaque porcelain goods are given the preference by the most prominent and critical dealers, while their special lines for hotel use in quality, finish, and adaptability cannot be excelled. In decorated wares their designs are both unique and original, combining grace and symmetry with a blending of shades rarely equalled and never surpassed. Their underglaze printed wares are produced in the latest and best style of the potter's art, so that in their entirety their entire line is not surpassed by any in the country, while their list of prices are uniformly low, quality and finish consid­ered... - The Metropolis Of To-day, 1888.

This art pottery remained in production at Willets until the company was sold in 1912. Willets' successor, The New Jersey Pottery company, continued its manufacture for another two years before ceasing production entirely at the beginning of WW1 in 1914.

Willets American Belleek pitchers

Willets American Belleek cup & saucer

Willets American Belleek cream soup

Willets porcelain orchid vase

Willets Aesthetic transferware platter

Willets Tropics pattern

Willets Belles vase painted by James Callowhill

Willets hand decorated American Belleek

Willets hand decorated American Belleek

Willets hand decorated American Belleek

American Belleek was not the only pottery created at Willets. They had a large pottery presence in Trenton, well known for their high quality art pottery, sanitary wares, dinner and dessert ware and white ironstone.

Willets ironstone basin and pitcher

Willets partial toilet set

Ad from Crockery and Glass Journal, February 1882

Willets advertisement from Crockery and Glass Journal 1883

What was not known until recently was the company's contribution to the dialogue on American majolica. Although their other work was marked, their majolica was not.

This is why their fan themed work was until recently attributed to Eureka. Let's take a look at the list of majolica wares from an ad in Dr. Laura Microulis' lecture that appeared in Crockery and Glass Journal as Well as another from the following year.

Most significant for our purposes is the presence of the "Fan Ice Cream Sets" described as consisting of a "large Double Fan dish and 12 small Fan Ice Cream dishes." These would certainly be the fan dishes until recently attributed to Eureka. The original design of all the majolica Fan pieces are attributed to Shorter & Boulton of Staffordshire with the American output copied from the English designs.

Majolica ice cream set designed by Shorter & Boulton

Majolica fan butter pat

In addition, the ad describes a "Fan Tea Set" consisting of a teapot, cream pitcher and sugar bowl. These could possibly refer to the fan tea set also previously attributed to Eureka.

Majolica Aesthetic tea set

These pieces have matching pieces in the same design. The jugs are mentioned in the ad as having been manufactured in four sizes and came in three different color grounds: grey, white and yellow. It should be mentioned that this jug design was registered by Shorter & Boulton so it may, or may not have been the design copied by Willets

Considering the high level of craftsmanship exhibited by the Belleek wares these majolica wares are considerably less well made. The designs however are innovative and a good representation of the then current fashion for the Aesthetic taste.

So, what about the other pieces mentioned in the ad? Until more substantial evidence surfaces that allows us to attribute the pieces we can only venture to guess what designs were manufactured by the company.

The company produced majolica for a short period of time, roughly 1881 to 1882 so most of the Fan wares attributed to Willets and Eureka were most likely made by Shorter & Boulton.