In the late 1800s, two Maddocks, father Thomas and son John, founded several ceramic companies in the city of Trenton, New Jersey. Thomas Maddock, one of Trenton's most important early potters, is regarded as the first successful producer of sanitary ware in the United States.  The Trenton City Museum will have on display works from all the Trenton Maddock potteries for four months, from February 21 - June 15.  The Trenton Museum Society will provide a reception, free and open to the public on Friday, February 21 from 6 - 8 pm.

Thomas Maddock, born in 1818 into a Burslem, Staffordshire, England family of potters, arrived in New York in 1847. Having served his apprenticeship as a decorator in England, Thomas and his partner William Leigh set up a china decorating company in New York City, the first of its kind in the United States.

By 1873, Thomas had made his way to Trenton and formed a profitable partnership with Millington and Astbury manufacturing earthenware.  They produced "toilet sets" - wash basins, pitchers, chamber pots and slop jars, mugs and toothbrush holders - dinnerware, and other household pottery items.   

Thomas Maddock's primary interest, however, was in finding a way to produce and sell sanitary ware, ie: toilets, in the United States.  For most of the nineteenth century indoor plumbing and toilets were a luxury only the wealthy could afford.  In 1873, there were no manufacturers of sanitary ware in the United States, all toilets coming from England.  Thomas Maddock was determined to find a way to produce toilets made of earthenware at a price people could afford.  It was not an easy venture.  Through trial and error, he had to discover the exact proportion of ingredients to produce both the earthenware and the glaze.  He had to figure out the best way to stack and fire the kilns.  And once he had surmounted those obstacles, he had to convince jobbers to sell his wares.

Maddock was successful, however, and for the next twenty years the sales of sanitary ware grew at a rapid rate. Thomas Maddock and his sons, John, Charles S., Archibald M., and Harry S. took over the pottery firm, renamed it Thomas Maddock and Sons, and turned their attention to producing not only toilets (called water closets at the time) but other plumbing fixtures as well.  

In addition to sanitary ware, Thomas Maddock had interests in other china products.  In 1888, he bought the Lamberton Works, renaming it Maddock's Lamberton Works and there produced high quality domestic and commercial china dinnerware sold to restaurants, railroad companies and hotels all over America. In addition to producing his own lines at the Lamberton works, Maddock decorated the  "London" shape dinnerware produced by the factory of his cousin John in Staffordshire, England and sold the finished product in this country. The Trenton China Company became Maddock Pottery Company in 1893, producing "all that is artistic and progressive in the art of potting." 

Thomas' oldest son, John, formed his own company with his sons in 1894 - John Maddock & Sons -- producing sanitary ware and other china products.

Thomas Maddock died in 1899 and his sons renamed the company Thomas Maddock's Sons Co in 1902. At the time of his death, Trenton's sanitary ware industry accounted for 86 percent of the nation's output.

The Maddock family's potteries continued to thrive until the 1920s when, at first labor unrest and a devastating strike and then the rise of the plumbing conglomerates meant that they could no longer compete in the changing marketplace and were forced to sell to American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Corporation (now American Standard) in September of 1929. 

Today, Trenton's ceramics industry is best remembered for its beautifully decorated, high quality artware like the American Belleek produced by Willets, Ott & Brewer and CAC/Lenox.  But it was the sanitary ware industry that drove Trenton's prosperity for fifty years, and for that we must thank the extraordinary vision, innovation, and persistence of Thomas Maddock and his family.

The Maddock Pottery Companies of Trenton exhibit will be on display on the second floor of the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie in Cadwalader Park from February 21 - June 15, 2014.  The opening reception is on February 21 from 6-8 pm and is free and open to the public.