Ott and Brewer, a pottery firm in Trenton, N.J., was established in 1871 by Joseph Ott and John Hart Brewer. It sprang from an earlier firm, Bloor, Ott and Booth, which built the Etruria Pottery Works in May, 1863. Between 1871 and 1876, the firm primarily made ironstone china and queensware. Although the pottery produced ware for utilitarian purposes, its products showed a tendency toward innovation and an interest in decoration. Ott and Brewer produced both cream-colored earthenware and white granite ware, which could be decorated. In 1887, the Ott & Brewer bill head advertised that the company made belleek, egg shell, thin opaque, and hotel opaque china white granite wares, and "c.c. goods." The pottery also made porcelain busts, many for 1876 centennial celebrations. In 1873, Ott and Brewer hired Isaac Broome to design a porcelain sculpture for the centennial. He also designed lithographs for the first lithographic printing on pottery in America.
While the firm produced parian ware, it was also experimenting with body materials. In 1876, the pottery perfected a base material it called ivory porcelain, designed to simulate Irish Belleek. Ott and Brewer sold both decorated and undecorated wares and used a different mark for each. By 1887, the Etruria works was housed in a three story brick building and employed 250 people; six decorating and six white kilns were in operation. Although Ott retired in 1887, he remained president of the firm from 1890 to 1892. In 1892, the combination of a depression and an extensive potters' strike in Trenton caused the suspension of production and forced Brewer to sell the Etruria works to the Cook Pottery Co.
From the description of Papers, 1868-ca.1890. (Winterthur Library). WorldCat record id: 84665663
