26 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



tile of artistic merit are produced from local clays on Staten Island, 

 Long Island, Glens Falls and Corning and the recent products of 

 these factories are well represented in the industrial collections 

 of the Museum. The State affords an abundance of high grade 

 materials for artistic stucco products and examples of these showing 

 the present state of the industry are also in the collections. Of 

 glass sand of high grade the supply is less generous and the pro- 

 ducts from these native materials are for the most part of the 

 cruder sort, notwithstanding the fact that a considerable amount 

 is utilized every year specially from the region of Oneida lake. 



Ceramics. The history of this industry in New York State 

 presents an interesting field which has never been exploited. There 

 are records of undertakings here which run back to the very be- 

 ginnings of this industry in America, the early products being 

 almost without exception salt and slip glazed stone and red ware 

 without much pretense to artistic effect in form or decoration, but 

 chiefly made from local clays. 



The earliest of these potteries so far as known was that estab- 

 lished in New York city by John Remmey, a German, about 1735. 

 According to Dr E. A. Barber of the Pennsylvania Museum and 

 School of Industrial Art, this factory was situated at "Potters Hill" 

 near the old City Hall. At a subsequent period the pottery firm 

 was known as Remmey & Crolius, then as the Crolius Pottery, the 

 proprietor being Clarkson Crolius. A very few pieces from this 

 pottery are now known to exist and the manufacture ceased about 

 1820. 



In 1809, Paul Cushman was manufacturing stoneware from local 

 clays at Albany, producing chiefly jars and crocks of various shapes, 

 and we figure here as an example of these products a jar bearing 

 the incised inscription in cobalt blue: paul cushman stone- 

 ware FACTORY 1809 ONE-HALF. MILE WEST OF THE ALBANY GOAL. 



The Albany "goal" at this date was at the north corner of State 

 .and Eagle streets and seems to have been regarded by this potter 

 as a more noteworthy landmark than the State Capitol. 



Of much interest were the operations of Nathan Clark, a potter 

 at the village of Athens, Greene county, early in the last century. 

 Nathan Clark, 'born at Cornwall, N. Y., in 1787, learned the busi- 

 ness of potting at some factory not positively known but possibly 

 at the Crolius pottery in New York city, and in 1807 established 

 himself in business at Athens, soon after the founding of that vil- 

 lage. His business was successful and long continued, his suc- 

 cessors having carried on his work up to about 1 5 years ago. 



