DUPRS_0046 - Greenwood China Dish Fragment

DUPRS_0046 - Greenwood China Dish Fragment

A sherd of white ware pottery with GREENWOOD CHINA stamped as an identifier.

A sherd of white ware pottery with a small portion of the foot visible on the underside. There is also a small imperfection on the underside of the artifact on the outside lip. In the middle of the underside GREENWOOD CHINA is stamped and underneath that is Trenton, N.J. And above all the writing is a small squiggle. All marks on the piece appear in a light green color.

Greenwood pottery Co

Selective Surface collection, east Stanley Park, Historic Chatham Township (modern Summit, New Jersey)

Drew University, Department of Anthropology, Drew University Passaic River Survey

Circa 1862.

Aisha Arain

White Ware Pottery

Greenwood pottery Co. was established in 1862 by William Tams, an experienced potter from Staffordshire, England, who went into business with several Trenton investors. It was one of the largest producers of household and hotel china and remained in existence for more than 70 years. For a short period of time in the 1880s, it produced high quality art porcelain known as Ne Plus Ultra. This artifact, however, is not porcelain and therefore not the high quality ware referred to in the 18800s. This was most likely a plate based on the size and shape of the artifact which according to http://pages.tias.com/7401/PictPage/1920693965.html is 1-1/2” L; 5-7/8” when whole.
This piece appears to be fairly widely produced and distributed due to its being found in Wyoming while being manufactured in New Jersey. It seems as if the ceramic may have been cheap and the picture above was listed for sale online for sale at $3.75. It is unclear whether the company still exists or went out of business therefore all that is known is that the piece originated post 1862. This artifact found on the east side of the survey area seems to further indicate a possible home or hotel based on the fact that the same type of pottery was found at a historic hotel in Wyoming. It is interesting to note that a selective collection at a hotel historic site in Yellowstone National Park at the Yellowstone Lake Hotel found 22 pieces of chinaware identified as being Greenwood China and Co. from Trenton N.J. The army was at one point stationed in the park and supposedly added a mark to their pottery denoting that it was ‘quartermasters corp.’; although this was only until 1916.