How to Identify American Pottery by Clay Color

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By cajunc
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Red Wing Redwing Pottery Vintage American Pottery

Vintage, collectible and antique American pottery can be identified by areas of production and one of the keys to this identification is in the color of clay used. For example, Ohio was an area of much of the pottery production for the first half of the Twentieth Century. If you see a piece of old pottery you don't recognize, look on the bottom and see the CLAY COLOR. If it is YELLOW clay, it is likely from Ohio, because that was the color of the clay native to that area.

Ohio potteries include Zanesville, McCoy, Brush, Robinson-Ransbottom, Roseville and Weller. Of course there were lots more, and some are not well known.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

A visit to the nearest collectibles mall or antiques store to see some American pottery
Good eyeglasses and maybe a magnifying glass
The ability to distinguish between subtle clay colors
The desire to learn about vintage, antique and collectible American pottery

Step 1

Red Wing Pottery with Glazed bottom Look at Stilt Marks

FIND a piece of unidentified pottery that you think might be American Pottery, and look on the bottom to see an UNGLAZED area, where the clay color is visible. Sometimes the pottery base is covered with a glaze, too. Look for the firing pins or stilt marks to see the clay color.
Step 2

Frankoma Pottery from Oklahoma Red Clay MARKED

FEEL the weight of the pottery. American pottery is heavier than Japan or other imports. Be sure you are trying to identify an AMERICAN pot. Determine whether this clay color is WHITE, YELLOW, BEIGE, RED, PINK or maybe SPECKLED. Here's a red clay pottery you won't need help with.
Step 3

American Bisque Pottery Wedge Base Used also by Royal Copley

LOOK at the color of the clay. Once you have the CLAY COLOR identified, look at the characteristics of the bottom of the pottery and apply the characteristics to the tips and information in this article and others we have written to determine the LOCATION of the maker of your pottery. Once you have determined the location, you can narrow your search to the specific COMPANY that made your item. See the unusual base on this piece? This was typical of American Bisque, and I call these wedges.
Step 4

Learn more about this subject from Resources below where we have a free white paper in PDF format.

RED Clay was used by Frankoma, Peters and Reed, Blue Mountain Canada, Harris G. Strong, and sometimes even Weller.

WHITE Clay was used in Arkansas and Texas primarily, although Stangl (New Jersey) sometimes used white clay, too. Arkansas pottery with white clay includes Niloak and Camark, and Texas has Alamo and Gilmer potteries.

YELLOW clay with a pink tinge was used by Shawnee and Hull Pottery as well as American Bisque and Royal Copley.

BEIGE clay includes Kansas Dryden, Rosemeade from North Dakota, Monmouth Pottery, Western Stoneware, and Heath Pottery.

You can save lots of time in identification of American pottery if you learn the basic clay colors. This will cut your book research or internet searches considerably. There are other ways to narrow the search, too, and these include the glaze, the shape, and the way the bottom is made. You cannot learn it all in one article, but we have been writing about this subject for some time, and are pleased to share with you what we have learned.

Comments

eac913 said

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on 10/5/2009 This is a great article on how to identify American pottery by clay color. So much detail. So informative. 5*

ruf1950 said

on 9/29/2009 Very interesting info on American Pottery and clay color. 5*****

oxymora said

on 8/22/2009 Very interesting. I love looking at antique stores, but know very little about how to tell things apart. I'll have to start looking at the bottom of pieces now.