Syracuse China
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| China and Pottery Manufacturing | |
| Industry | Pottery |
| Genre | Restaurant dinnerware |
| Fate | Bought out by Libbey Inc. of Toledo, Ohio - all production moved from North America |
| Founded | 1871 |
| Defunct | 2009 |
| Headquarters | Syracuse, New York, United States |
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Area served
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United States |
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Key people
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Lyman W. Clark, Richard H. Pass, James Pass, Bert E. Salisbury |
| Products | Vitreous China tableware, earthenware & bone china |
| Subsidiaries | Country Ware Corp. (1975) |
Syracuse China Corporation, located in Syracuse, New York, was a manufacturer of fine china. Founded in 1871 as Onondaga Pottery Company (O.P. Co.) in the town of Geddes, New York, the company initially produced earthenware. In the late 19th century, O.P.Co., began producing fine china, for which it found a strong market particularly in hotels, restaurants, and railroad dining cars. The manufacturing facility in Syracuse closed in 2009, after 138 years in operation and production was removed from North America.
The company was founded in 1841 as Farrar Pottery and was bought out in 1868 and the name was changed to Empire Crockery Manufacturing Company. By 1871, it was changed again to Onondaga Pottery Company (O.P.Co.) and eventually to Syracuse China Corporation in June 1966, however the china produced by the company was back stamped with the Syracuse China logo since 1895.
In 1841, William H. Farrar, who had recently arrived from Vermont in 1839, started a small pottery business in the town of Geddes, New York, on the western edge of Syracuse for making salt-glazed stoneware, an American ceramic product around since colonial times. He was a member of an extended family of stoneware potters active in northern New England and Canada.
Farrar's product-line grew to include a red ware styled after Rockingham, reproducing English ware such as cast dogs and spittoons. Farrar Pottery also produced "wheel-thrown," salt-glazed, heavy, utilitarian urns, whiskey jugs, pie plates, butter crocks and mixing bowls in stoneware. In 1857, Farrar moved his pottery closer to the newly constructed Erie Canal on Furnace Street (later renamed to West Fayette Street). Farrer operated a substantial business. In his first year, he used 225 tons of clay from New Jersey and he sold the company wares for $9,360.
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Wikipedia