By the 1880s all of Brooklyn’s pottery industry was contained in Greenpoint, except for the International Tile Company and its successors in Gowanus. The major potteries and potters during this period were Thomas Smith and the Union Porcelain Works, Charles Cartlidge & Company, James Jensen and the Empire China Works, Charles Graham & Company, William Boch and Brothers, and Edward Lycett and the Faience Manufacturing Company. [Soft-paste porcelain is a type of a ceramic material, sometimes referred to simply as "soft paste". The term is used to describe soft porcelains such as bone china, Seger porcelain, vitreous porcelain, new Sèvres porcelain, Parian porcelain and soft feldspathic porcelain, and is also used more narrowly to describe clay bodies mixed with glass frit... . It was called "soft" because of its inability to hold rigid under high temperatures compared to hard-paste porcelain. Soft-paste is fired at lower temperatures than hard-paste porcelain... . The lower firing temperature gives artists and manufacturers some benefits, including a wider palette of colours for decoration and reduced fuel consumption.

The body of soft-paste is more granular than hard-paste porcelain, less glass being formed in the firing process." [This refers to the method of dust-pressing tiles, patented in England by Richard Prosser in 1840. This method facilitated the mass-production of printed and relief tiles. Arts and Crafts and other handmade tiles are usually produced by the "wet clay" method. 136 Milton Street, once the residence of Thomas Smith. A few years ago Susan Tunick, the founder of Friends of Terra Cotta Terra Cotta Skyline "Keramos Hall was built in 1887 by Thomas C. Smith, who owned Union Porcelain Works on Eckford St. ...One of the pieces shown by Union Porcelain at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876 was the Keramos Vase, which commemorated Longfellow’s poem of the same name and was embellished with raised designs depicting the history of ceramics. Soon after exhibiting the Keramos Vase, Smith constructed Keramos Hall as a commercial building with space for civic organizations (Greenpoint Hebrew Civic Club, the Progress Club, the Young Mens Republican Club, Greenpoint Taxpayers and Citizens’ Association, etc.) and professional trades such as attorneys and engineers.

Keramos Hall fell on hard times and at some point it was reclad in vinyl... . Nevertheless it was still included in the Greenpoint Historic District [...and]  Kamen Tall Architects were hired for the recent restoration... ." ”In panels on the base the potters of all ages are seen at work… . cabinet door hinges made in italyAbove these, on the body, are reliefs illustrative of the pottery of Peru, Italy, France, Spain, England, and other countries. glass repair shops springfield ilAs we turn it round, the advance of ceramic art is seen as in a diorama, and amidst the various scenes appears in relief the bust of the poet whose song inspired the work. garage door motors perth

The form of the vase is singular, simple, and severe, but well suited to the artist's treatment of his subject. Its rigidity is considerably softened by the quaint, projecting feet and the figures they support, and by the decoration surrounding the flaring top.” exterior door bottom threshold(Jenny J. Young, The Ceramic Art, Harper and Brothers, 1878, pp. 475, 477)solid wood interior doors in miami Union Porcelain Works hearth tiles.garage entry door self closing The Pottery and Porcelain of the United Statesprice of double door lg refrigerator in india The Pottery, Glass & Brass Salesman

"...a bisque porcelain pitcher..., which in 1876 was a presentation piece to E. J. Brockett. Finely moulded heads of Milton, Ossian, Shakespeare [sic], Dante, Homer,  and Virgil are seen with trophies and allegorical figures above and below." Ferdinand Pettrich's sculpture of "Black Hawk". (Collection of the Museum of St. John Lateran in the Vatican) Greenpoint Historic District Designation Report, Plate decorated by John Mackie Falconer, c. 1876. (Brooklyn Museum of Art Accession Number 66.27.2, gift of Queensborough Public Library)Marked on back of plate: "39bis/at Newtown Creek/Long Island/Augt 1851/by J.M. Falconer/Brooklyn L.I./Augt 9th 1876/(Limoges China)". Scene of a rustic cottage and chickens. (Brooklyn Museum of Art Accession Number 66.27.1, gift of Queensborough Public Library) A c. 1879 vase designed by Karl Müller for the Union Porcelain Works. (Photo courtesy of Michael Padwee. Vase in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art) A vase in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, designed by Karl Müller for the Union Porcelain Works.

This looks somewhat similar to the “Keramos Vase”. (Photo courtesy of Michael Padwee) The Empire China Works Glazing insulators in a porcelain factory, c. 1920. (The Clay-Worker, Vol. 73, No. 2, Feb. 1920, p. 148) Charles Graham Chemical Pottery Works, The inside back cover of an 1898 Charles Graham Chemical Pottery Works catalog of laundry tubs, sinks, etc. (Scan courtesy of the Brooklyn Public Library Brooklyn Collection) I would like to thank Jay Lewis for information about the Union Porcelain works and Keramos Building tiles, and Susan Tunick of the Friends of Terra Cotta for her photos of the Union Porcelain Works tiles. Also, thanks to Ann, who runs the soup kitchen at The Greenpoint Church, for the tour of Thomas Smith's ex-residence and for allowing me to take photos.  In addition, the exhibit mounted by the Brooklyn Museum of Art under curator Barry Harwood, "Edward Lycett and Brooklyn's Faience Manufacturing Company" was an indispensible resource.