| W. H. Farrar
began his career as a potter when he moved from his native Vermont and
opened his first ceramics business to make salt glazed stoneware in Geddes,
New York in 1841, an area now part of Syracuse, New York. In 1858, Farrar
sold the Geddes operation and moved to Syracuse where he established a
new factory and began making utilitarian redware such as pots, storage
jars, mixing bowls, and other cookware known collectively as Rockingham
line, similar in appearance to Pfaltzgraph more familiar to collectors.
Rockingham was made using a locally available yellow clay, but in the 1860s
Farrar was able to acquire a pure white clay suitable for making finer
porcelain and china. The Erie Canal and the emerging national system of
railroads were making the transport of raw materials like clay from their
optimal sources to the centers of manufacturing cost effective. In 1868,
W. H. Farrar and 3 partners established a new company in Syracuse named
the Empire Pottery Company, managed by a talented English potter Lyman
Clark.
Further consolidation of the local Syracuse
area potteries occured in 1871 when a group of 16 Syracuse NY business
leaders formed a new partnership and established the Onondaga Pottery Company
(O. P. Co.) in Geddes. Onondaga was the name of the county in which Syracuse
is located, named after the Native American Iroquois tribe of the area.
Onondaga Pottery subsequently purchased Empire, changing its name and extending
its lines to include restaurant and retail consumer chinaware and various
ceramic wares such as planters, storage containers, serving vessels, bed
pans, and table accessories. Chance played a role in the evolution of Syracuse
China when in 1884 designer Elmer Walter opened the Boston China Decorating
Works across the street from the pottery, and Walter and his artisans began
decorating the work produced by Onondaga Pottery. A fire in 1886 destroyed
Elmer Walter's decorating operation, so he and his employees were hired
by Onondaga to create an in house decorating and design department. Around
this same time, Onondaga produced its first vitreous white china now under
the leadership of master potter James Pass, and the first china line produced
by the company was launched in 1891 under the name Imperial Geddo. The
line won a medal at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893,
and their wares gained greater exposure with the public through this award
and press coverage.
Onondaga first used
the Syracuse China mark in 1895 to mark the pure white vitreous
china for which they were one of the first and finest American
manufacturers. Other technical innovations such as chip resistance
appealed to hotels, restaurants, railroads, and other institutional
buyers who needed durability plus aesthetics. Onondaga sales
representatives gave away samples to the hotel and restaurant
trades, and the in house decorating department made inexpensive
lithography of hotel and restaurant labels feasible and furthering
the company's market penetration of the institutional markets.
Affordable, durable Syracuse China became popular in American
restaurants, schools, and eventually in American homes with
the introduction of thinner, more stylish consumer china but
still retaining the Syracuse qualities such as durability that
had already made it a success. Technical innovations continued,
and colors were introduced in the 1920s and 1930s including
the Old Ivory and Adobe lines, and the Art Deco Econo-Rim line
proved particularly popular with the railroads which in those
days still offered fine dining on fine china. During the years
of World War II, the company retooled for war production and
made ceramic casings for munitions like anti-tank mines. In
1966, Onondaga Pottery formally changed its name to Syracuse
China. Facing much competition from low cost Asian manufacturers
for the retail consumer market, the company began focusing exclusively
on restaurant commercial grade china and the food service industry
about 1970. Syracuse China merged with Canadian Pacific Investments
in 1978 which went on to acquire other companies including the
Mayer China Company and the Shenango Pottery Company both of
Pennsylvania. Syracuase did not operate these Pennsylvania plants
long after their acquisition, merging their production with
existing facilities in Syracuse to achieve operating efficiencies
and tight management and cost controls. The company continued
to change hands, acquired in 1989 by the Susquehanna-Pfaltzgraff
Company of York, PA and subsequently by Libbey Inc. of Toledo,
Ohio in 1995 which continues to operate and produce Syracuse
China today.
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