Red Wing Pottery had its origins in the rich clay found in Red Wing, Minnesota in the early 1860's. The company would make its official debut in 1877 as the Red Wing Stoneware Company. Over the next 90 years, the company would have six incarnations with the last being named Red Wing Potteries. Those various companies can be viewed in the table at the bottom of the page.

During the remainder of the 19th Century, Red Wing manufactured salt glaze and later stoneware pottery. Known as utilitarian stoneware, items included crocks, jugs, butter churns, bowls, jars, water coolers, and other items used in the home and on the farm.

In chronicling the history of Red Wing Pottery, one of the things the museum has been particularly interested in obtaining is sales catalogues both original and reproductions that show the diverse array of products the company offered. Early on when the company’s primary product was sewer pipe, it produced a sewer tile brochure that is 52 pages long. It not only told of their products, but included education on sanitation. The booklet covers the history of sewer systems from ancient times, the hazards of mosquitoes, and other aspects of why the new sewer tile systems were so important, providing education and marketing at the same time.

The catalog example here is from early 20th Century and are another great example of the marketing and advertising that Red Wing did. Their use of graphics and color add to the interest of the item and that of the consumer. The picture at right provides a glimpse of some the products the company made for the home such as pails and hot water bottles (top row), a lily pitcher and basin (center) for washing, and in the last two rows an assortment of chamber pots.

As time went on, new technology including the advent of electricity, refrigeration, glass and tin brought the decline of utilitarian stoneware. Like other pottery manufacturers, Red Wing looked to diversify its wares starting with the first Art Pottery line in the late 1920s. While Red Wing kept stoneware in production, by the end of World War II widespread refrigeration had rendered it obsolete. In 1947 the company ceased production of stoneware altogether.

During this same period, Red Wing had also moved into manufacturing art pottery and dinnerware. Beginning in 1935, Red Wing made over 100 dinnerware patterns, many of which were hand-painted. These stylish and beautiful dishes saw their heyday in the 1930s and 1940s. The pottery industry would evolve again in the 1950s with low-tariff ceramic imports from Japan and an increase in plastic production. By the time Red Wing Potteries closed after a bitter strike in 1967, in the only commercial pottery in the U.S. still painting its ceramic dinnerware by hand.

Red Wing Potteries

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