America's First China Company

Pre-Revolutionary Status Symbol: Bonin & Morris Porcelain

Nov 15, 2008

In 1770, when Philadelphia was the second richest city in the British Empire, status meant American-made silver and cabinetry. But fine china still had to be imported.

With no local ceramic works, colonists turned to England, to the famous makers Bow, Worcester and Wedgwood, for their dinnerware and porcelain decorations. For this, they were heavily taxed under the Townshennd Acts of 1767. Seeing a market for American-made porcelains, Gousse Bonin & George Anthony Morris established the "American China Manufactory", on the site of what is now the Navy Yard.

Bonin & Morris' blue and white china with the underglaze "P" on the bottom was an instant success. Benjamin Franklin's wife, Deborah, even shipped some to her husband in London. Over the centuries, the china disappeared. Today there are only 19 known pieces of Bonin & Morris wares.

The American porcelain was made of Delaware white clay. Its ash content came from animal shank and knucklebones. Its molds were handmade and fired by master makers brought over from England. And, according to an essay by Graham Hood, of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, its designs were adapted from popular English patterns,

In 1771, the "American China Manufactory" produced its first run of "compleat sets for the dining and tea table together, or dining singly." These included pickle stands, open weave fruit baskets, sauceboats in two sizes, pint bowls and plates. The second production run included plain cups, handled cups, quilted cups, sugar dishes in two sizes, teapots in two sizes and creamers. Both emissions sold out.

Squeezed by high costs and the eventual repeal of the Townsend Acts, the company lasted only two years, until 1772. Nearly a hundred years later, Dr. James Mease, whose father had invested in the start-up, endowed the Franklin Institute with a gift of Bonin & Morris ware. In the letter describing it, he said, "The dinner set of his (Bonin's) China was all that my father got for his £500..." (The full letter is in the archives of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.)

In 1943, the Philadelphia Museum's Fiske Kimball orchestrated an exchange with the Franklin Institute for a basket. Mease's letter and a label on the bottom confirmed the item's provenance. It became the Rosetta Stone for Bonnin and Morris wares. Because the body was not translucent and the glaze thick, many scholars relegated it to the category of earthenware.

Had Bonin & Morris created porcelain or its lesser first cousin, earthenware? With few examples to examine, the debate raged for another 100 years. Serendipity intervened in 1951 when Arthur Clement, curator at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (now Brooklyn Museum) was shown a diminutive rummage-sale sauceboat with the telling "P" on the bottom. He vetted the piece as Bonin & Morris. Noting that light passed through the sides, he then declared that Bonin & Morris had indeed succeeded in producing soft-paste porcelain.

As word spread and collectors became more aware, there followed a series of "finds." The majority of Bonin and Morris items made their way into the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Among these are two multi-tiered pickle stands, whimsical creations made from molds of real seashells and tubeworms - the ultimate test of a master craftsman's skill.

The biggest plot turn in the story of the American China Manufactory came when a cache of shards and records, orders and receipts, was found in an excavation near I-95. It explained much of what is known today about America's only colonial porcelain company.

In 1774, Morris' father bought the plant and sold the factory. The new owners dismantled it and sold the equipment bit by bit, all but obliterating the company's history. Bonin and Morris went their separate ways. Bonin moved to England and became a racehorse owner. Morris died in North Carolina.

Recognizing the importance of Bonin and Morris' contributions to pre-Revolutionary decorative arts, The Chipstone Foundation honored them in 2007 by devoting their annual publication, "Ceramics in America," to the work. www.chipstone.org

They even went so far as to have an expert ceramicist recreate and construct a pickle dish, just as it would have been made at the "American China Manufactory."

The copyright of the article America's First China Company in Collecting Ceramics/Glass is owned by Regina Kolbe. Permission to republish America's First China Company in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.