Edwin Bennett (March 6, 1818 – June 13, 1908), born in Newhall,
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
, was an
English American
English Americans (historically known as Anglo-Americans) are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England.
In the 2020 American Community Survey, 25.21 million self-identified as being of English origin.
The term is distin ...
pioneer of the pottery industry and art in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,Baltimore, Vol. III and founder of the Edwin Bennett Pottery Company of
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. Producing a variety of wares from the everyday to the fine and artistic, his company, originally founded in the 1840s as the Edwin Bennett Queensware Manufactory,Beem and Beem 2012 continued in operation until forced to close during the Great Depression in 1936. Examples of Edwin Bennett pottery may be found in museums across the United States, including the
Maryland Historical Society
The Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC), formerly the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS), . founded on March 1, 1844, is the oldest cultural institution in the U.S. state of Maryland. The organization "collects, preserves, and inte ...
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
Edwin and his brothers, the children of Martha Webster and Daniel Bennett, a local Derbyshire coal company bookkeeper and
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
preacher, apprenticed at the
Staffordshire Potteries
The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of ...
approximately from where the family lived in the Central Midlands. Arriving to the United States in 1841 Edwin, described in the sources as someone of robust constitution, first worked with his brothers
James
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguati ...
, William and Daniel in
East Liverpool, Ohio
East Liverpool is a city in southeastern Columbiana County, Ohio, United States. The population was 9,958 at the 2020 census. It lies along the Ohio River within the Upper Ohio Valley and borders Pennsylvania to the east and West Virginia to t ...
, where James had recently founded the pottery industry. Soon the brothers relocated to
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
to produce their wares, after which Edwin moved to Baltimore independently in 1846 and founded his own pottery with his own designs, the business growing to multiple kilns in little time. He became a citizen of the United States in 1848, in which year he was also joined by his brother William and the new partnership named E & W Bennett. They soon added new lines in coloured
stoneware
Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay. Whether vi ...
s and
majolica
In different periods of time and in different countries, the term ''majolica'' has been used for two distinct types of pottery.
Firstly, from the mid-15th century onwards, was ''maiolica'', a type of pottery reaching Italy from Spain, Majorca a ...
, and Edwin together with his brother William have ever since been considered the first creators and originators of American majolica.
Although
William Ellis Tucker
William Ellis Tucker (died 1832) was an American craftsman who became the first person to successfully produce hard paste porcelain for the home market made entirely in the United States of purely domestic materials.
There had been several previ ...
was the first to produce American
porcelain
Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...
for the American market, there have been claims that among the Bennetts' accomplishments was the first "industrial" production of
porcelain
Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...
in America in 1853, a line of jugs of
biscuit porcelain
Biscuit porcelain, bisque porcelain or bisque is unglazed, white porcelain treated as a final product, with a matte appearance and texture to the touch. It has been widely used in European pottery, mainly for sculptural and decorative objects th ...
or Parian. While it is uncertain if this is accurate or if somehow so if any of these survive, or any of those from when porcelain was produced again (or for the first time) in the 70s, examples from Bennett porcelain lines from the 1880s do, both parian and also featuring gilt, glazing and colored decoration. The acquisition of the Chesapeake Pottery increased the artistic offerings for a year of that decade before all porcelain production at both factories was ceased in 1888 due to unprofitability, even though very fine quality of different types had been reached, including the equivalent of Belleek at the Bennett factory.
Perhaps as notably, the Bennetts produced exceptional Rockingham-style ware, including the famous " Rebekah at the Well" teapot, modeled by Charles Coxon in Baltimore following Edwin's inspiration. It became the best and longest selling Rockingham-style ware pattern in history. Based on the special glazing of yellow ware, at the production of which the Bennetts also excelled, their own Rockingham-style ware, even if eventually considered old and unfashionable due to the market being flooded by lower quality producers of similar styles, was a mainstay of the family from their very first years in business in the United States. In fact, the Bennett brothers produced a ware considered as good or even better than the classic Rockingham actually from England, which it was never technically classified as, especially due to important glazing differences, but they used the style name for marketing.
Following James' retirement William left to run the Pittsburg operation in 1856 and the Baltimore factory was renamed to the Edwin Bennett Pottery. The first pitched battle of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
, where in the next year or two he entered into a partnership with his friend the glassmaker William Gillinder, a notable maker of
millefiori
Millefiori () is a glasswork technique which produces distinctive decorative patterns on glassware. The term millefiori is a combination of the Italian words "mille" (thousand) and "fiori" (flowers). Apsley Pellatt in his book ''Curiosities of ...
paperweights, with Bennett contributing some new
pressed glass
Pressed glass (or pattern glass) is a form of
In 1867, the year he sold his interests to Gillinder and his sons, it was the largest glass factory within the city limits.
Having returned to Baltimore although with his factory continuing in production throughout the war and after, in 1869 Edwin introduced a general line of various earthenwares which were produced until 1890.
Malachite
Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fracture ...
glaze ware was produced in the 1860s and 70s as an alternative to the era's yellows, browns and whites (which Bennett also continued to produce).Brooks Among the later original styles he and his company are known for are the praised Albion slip-painted ware as well as the highly glazed "majolica family" Brubensul, both introduced in the mid-90s and with some rarer specimens bought by foreign governments for their national museums. It was also by the 1890s that the company was now the largest single producer of pottery in the United States, with five hundred employed artisans, fourteen large kilns, five dressing kilns, and consuming eight thousand tons of clay and coal per year.
Roofing tiles
Roof tiles are designed mainly to keep out rain, and are traditionally made from locally available materials such as terracotta or slate. Modern materials such as concrete, metal and plastic are also used and some clay tiles have a waterproof ...
were an important part of the business during this time in addition to the pottery, and of the pottery itself most of the volume was devoted to general but high quality domestic use, and to hotels and railroads. At the beginning of the 20th century Bennett himself was described by fellow potter William Percival Jervis as "more closely identified with the pottery industry of America than any other living man".
Many years after Edwin died in 1908, the Bennett Pottery Co. in its late era was also responsible for the design of the popular infuser-style " McCormick teapot".Beem and Beem 2009
Family and friends
The Bennett brothers were long friendly with
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
and his family, who had lived in Ohio. Edwin once entertained Carnegie's mother Margaret, on her way to visit her son in Virginia during the Civil War, in his home on East Baltimore Street.
Edwin first married Mary Jane Huston, with whom he had eight daughters, and one son Edwin Huston Bennett who later ran the business. His second wife, Sarah Elizabeth Day, with whom he had one son, was a 1st cousin of writer Mary L. Day. Jane and Edwin's daughter Martha married William Gillinder's son James. The Gillinder's glass business also flourished for decades and they sent the Bennetts fine paperweights as presents.
The Magazine ANTIQUES
''The Magazine Antiques'' is a bimonthly arts publication that focuses on architecture, interior design, and fine and decorative arts. Regular monthly columns include news on current exhibitions and art-world events, notes on collecting, and book ...
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...