Bulletin Article - March 2005

HADDONFIELD POTTERY
FROM REDWARE TO STONEWARE AND BACK by Robert R. Kugler

Except during its infancy, the Borough of Haddonfield has hosted few manufacturing firms, as distinct from its many service providers. During the 1700's, several blacksmiths plied their trade in town, making all sorts of farm implements and other tools. A number of tanners, some along Tanner Street, made saddles, buckets and clothes. However, it is fair to think that because these same types of businesses were located throughout the region, the locals produced items only for use in the immediate vicinity. Given the primitive transportation system that then existed, coupled with what we know today as limited "consumer demand," that is understandable.

With the arrival of the Industrial Revolution in the 1800's, Philadelphia became one of the manufacturing capitals of the world. Road and railway improvements permitted a much wider dispersing of product. Still, Haddonfield served more as a source of distribution of goods to its neighboring regions than as a base for any kind of manufacturing. Into the 20th century, the same non-manufacturing tradition prevailed. Part of that was a function of the Borough's zoning laws, but most had to do, of course, with the proximity of Haddonfield to Camden and Philadelphia, both manufacturing centers. These cities had the kind of large population of workers needed for the labor intensive manufacturing that then prevailed, and both of the cities had superior transportation systems.

There were certain distinct exceptions to Haddonfield's non-manufacturing rule: for example, the John E. Hand Company (makers of fine nautical instruments) and the Penny (Pie) Plate Company, both of which were housed in a large frame building which once stood where the office building located at 30 Washington Avenue now stands. But the manufacturing industry with the longest tenure in this town was clearly the pottery business.

Many potters carried on their trade throughout South Jersey and across Camden County, in particular, in the early 1800's. They met the needs of citizens throughout the region for utilitarian and sometimes decorative serving dishes, plates, mugs and containers of all kinds. The earliest manufacturers of pottery in the area produced "earthenware," which was made simply of clay, fired in a kiln. Then came "redware," which, as the name implies, was created from red clay and then glazed before being fired.

The final basic type of pottery produced here was "stoneware." This type of pottery was superior to its predecessors because its surfaces were sealed with a salt glaze that was produced by the potter's throwing a shovel full of salt into the fully heated kiln toward the end of the firing process. The heat vaporized the salt, causing it to seal all of the exposed surfaces of the pottery, making a very hard, almost glass-like surface that could be kept clean relatively easily.

The very first potter in Haddonfield arrived in 1805 in the person of John Thompson. Thompson established his pottery facility on the newly constructed roadway which was then called the "New Road to Long-a-Coming." Today, Long-a-Coming is known as Berlin and the "Old Road to Long-a-Coming" is known as Ellis Street. Apparently there were attempts to rename the new roadway, and because of the presence of the pottery, with its significant activity, the roadway was reborn later in the 19th century as Potter Street.

An advertisement which appeared in The Saturday Evening Post of January 9, 1830 tells us much about the pottery operation as it then existed, and included the following information:

Basic resources, such as clay, arrived from Philadelphia by barge. At that time, the Cooper Creek was navigable to Cooper's Landing, which was located near the bottom of what is now Grove Street, "within a mile of the town." Wood to fire the kiln could "always be bought at the door." Large woods were located throughout the area, particularly at the extension of what is known today as Warwick Road.

Structures on the property are also described. In addition to a residence, there was a two-story "pot house" in the basement, with a "large stone kiln." A clay mill existed under a shed. This area sheltered the grinding operation. A horse or mule, which was led in a circle, turned the grinder. The grinder mixed the clay to the right consistency for being "thrown" on a wheel located in the "pot house." The wet pottery was then moved to another area of the shed where glazing occurred and the pots were left to air dry. When dried to the point of "leather hard," pottery was then placed in the kiln. The kiln was made of stone because of the high temperatures needed to produce durable pottery.

Land comprising the pottery site covered approximately an acre and one-quarter (the advertisement was generous in its description). It is not difficult to imagine what impact the pottery operation had upon Haddonfield in the 1800's. Basic pottery needs of local residents were met, of course. Most of the time, the pottery was but a two or, at most, a three person operation. Because the kiln would burn for days at a time, the smell of firewood burning would have pervaded that part of town even on the hottest days of summer. One more horse in town to turn the grinder would not have been noticeable, and even though the product of the pottery was distributed to many parts of South Jersey, the Road to Long-a- Coming was already busy with wagons bearing all kinds of products made elsewhere.

Unfortunately, few of the pieces of earthenware and redware which were produced at the Potter Street location bore any identifying marks. We "know" that many of the pieces which have been exhibited at the Historical Society over the years were produced in Haddonfield only because of the attribution which accompanies them. As a result, we are not able to distinguish which of the pieces were made by the earliest potters, John Thompson or Thomas Redman. When Richard Snowden purchased the pottery on February 11, 1830, he upgraded the facility substantially. First, he constructed the residence which exists even today on the site. Next, he built a new, more substantial kiln, which allowed him to produce stoneware for the first time. Until then, only earthenware had been produced on Potter Street.

Stoneware, as opposed to earthenware, is a much more durable and, as stated above, more sanitary product. As a result, from the mid 1800's to the end of that century, as areas of America became more developed, stoneware largely replaced the use of redware and other earthenware products as utilitarian items. Stoneware crocks and jugs were widely used as storage containers for all kinds of vegetables and other foodstuffs, including cakes. A favorite use was to take a covered crock and put away eggs in "water glass," a preservative liquid, which would allow for the availability of eggs whenever needed instead of having to go to the local store or farm to get them. Unfortunately, a side effect of the use of this preservative was the rings of white lines around the inside of many crocks found today. These rings are difficult to remove.

The ownership of the pottery turned over a number of times between 1805 and the time when the last of the potters who were to make product at that site, Karl or Charles Wingender and his brother, William, acquired the property.

They constructed another kiln on the property for stoneware. In 1904, the Wingenders moved both their families and the pottery from Potter Street to Lake Street. The manufacturing building on Potter Street was simultaneously razed.

Charles Wingender was born in Hoehr, Germany (near Coblentz, along the Rhine) on October 11, 1856. There, he and his brother, William, learned the pottery trade that had flourished in that area for a couple of centuries. The type of pottery made there, called "Westerwald," was well known throughout Europe and widely exported, particularly to England. Many examples of early Westerwald pottery remain in the form of souvenir mugs, recognizing the reigns of the first three English kings named "George."

The influence of their German pottery heritage upon the pottery produced by the Wingenders in Haddonfield was pronounced. The "tulip" decoration which they used on their standard ware was a direct translation of very typical decorations found on Westerwald pottery. The Wingenders used distinctive stripes outlining the "ear" handles on their crocks. Designs were painted on each piece using a brush and cobalt glaze which produced the blue design when fired.

However, calls for typical stoneware containers were already on the decline when the Wingenders arrived in this country. Because they took up the pottery trade at the end of the cycle of stoneware's popularity, they were forced to find other ways to supplement the traditional potter's trade of furnishing mugs, plates, crocks and jugs for every day use. With Charles as the business person and bookkeeper and William as the potter, with their respective wives, Frances and Elizabeth, as the decorators, the Wingenders produced a wide variety of decorative and other stoneware from their location on Lake Street.

The Wingenders may have been related to the well-known Wingender family who had manufactured pottery along the Rhine. The Wingender-Knoedgen firm was a manufacturer of elaborate clay pipes near Liege, France. The possible connection to the European pipe maker is made that much more intriguing by the example of a pipe dated 1888 in the exhibit, which is said to have been William Wingender's personal pipe.

Their line of tankards is very typical of tankards which had been produced in Westerwald for some time prior to the time that the Wingenders took up production. Their designs clearly hearken back to the designs used, for example, on the "George Rex" souvenir mugs. These tankards, together with similarly decorated items, including bean pots, were sold in the basement area of John Wanamaker's store in the very early 1900's. They were apparently not always labeled as having been produced in Haddonfield, however, and may have been sold as being German in origin, which of course they were, but having been "outsourced" to a more local production site. Additional decorative items included planters and jardinières.

The decorative work on these items required considerable talent. Not only were typical inscribed rings, filled with cobalt blue, used, but also "sprigging." Sprigging is the application of molded, typically intricate, clay decorations to a larger object prior to firing. The gnomes and lion's heads found on some of their work are examples of sprigging. A number of different tools were used in the production of these rather elaborate items. Those tools included a coggle wheel which produced both a "string of eggs" design and a beading design.

The Wingenders realized that they would have to use their ingenuity if they were to be able to continue to make a living producing pottery in Haddonfield. As a consequence, they used their talents to make different utilitarian products, replacing the crocks which had been their staple until the demand continued to wane. They made canister sets to rival the popular blue and white stoneware canister sets being made elsewhere. The distinctive font which they used for the labels on these canisters can be seen on one of the most sought after collectibles made by the Wingenders, the water cooler. This same font appears on commemorative items, such as presentation pitchers.

The Wingender family also turned to making terracotta sewer tiles, stove pipe liners, garden stumps (very similar to those now available with small pockets for inserting small plants) and flowerpots. Because of their industriousness, the

Wingenders' pottery had grown to be the largest producer of stoneware in South Jersey. Unfortunately for the Wingenders, their production of flowerpots was cut off by federal legislation in or about 1916. The legislation required that flowerpots be made according to only very strict standards and as a result precluded the relatively freeform kind of production which the Wingenders use.

Nevertheless, by adapting their skills to the market-place the Wingenders' manufacturing business in Haddonfield survived well into the 20th century, long after most of the other stoneware producers had shut their doors. Indeed, some current Haddonfield residents can recall being able to go to the old pottery on Lake Street during the '30's and receiving a handful of clay to make a small animal, toy, dish or whatever out of clay - the forerunner of "All Fired Up!"

In the early 1950's the Wingender Pottery was in its final years, producing simple unglazed redware, including chimney pots, flue liners and pigeons' nests, shallow dishes in which domesticated pigeons would build their nests. By the mid-1950's, when the Wingender Pottery finally closed, the commercial pottery business in Haddonfield had gone full cycle - from unglazed redware in the early 1800's to glazed and decorated redware to highly ornamented, cobalt decorated stoneware, and finally back to simple unglazed stoneware.