Buffalo China

File:John_Durrant_Larkin.jpg|200x200px]]Buffalo Pottery was founded in 1901 by John D. Larkin (1845-1926) to supply the Larkin Company with premiums for its customers. The company's first general manager, Lewis H. Bown, recruited a number of skilled craftsmen and artisans from throughout the United States, including William J. Rea, Anna Kappler, and Ralph Stuart.

Buffalo Pottery was located on 8.5 acres at Seneca Street and Hayes Place in Buffalo, New York. At the time of its completion in 1903, the 80,000 square foot plant was the largest fireproof pottery in the world; and it was also the only pottery in the world completely operated by electricity.{{cite book |title=China : {{sic|It's}} Origin and Manufacture |date=c. 1915 |publisher=Buffalo Pottery |location=Buffalo, NY}}

File:Buffalo Pottery.jpg In addition to the china produced for distribution as premiums to Larkin customers, Buffalo Pottery produced many lines of semi-vitreous china, including Deldare Ware, Roosevelt Bears, and Abino Ware, as well as the first Blue Willow dinnerware manufactured in the United States.{{cite news |title=Old Potter's Wheel and Automation Work Side by Side |work=Buffalo Evening News Magazine |date=April 3, 1965}} These wares were distributed via wholesale and retail channels. By 1911, the company had 250 employees and was selling its products in 27 countries.

In 1915, the company began manufacturing vitrified china and a few years later the plant was enlarged to 300,000 square feet. During World War I, it primarily manufactured china for the US armed forces.

Under the leadership of John D. Larkin Jr. (1877–1945) in the late 1920s, Buffalo Pottery changed its focus to manufacturing custom institutional, restaurant, railroad, steamship, and hotel ware. The company would produce ware for such entities as the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (George Washington and Chessie Cat services), the Greenbrier, the Ahwahnee Hotel at Yosemite, the Roycroft Inn, the 1939 New York World's Fair, and the US Navy. In 1931, Buffalo Pottery began production using its patented Lamelle process which reinforced the china to reduce breakage.{{cite book |last1=Nye |first1=Joel |last2=Rickard |first2=Lester |title=A Brief History of Buffalo China |date=2001 |publisher=Buffalo China |location=Buffalo, NY}} From 1934 to 1937, Buffalo Pottery's art director was the noted modernist artist Ilonka Karasz.{{cite web |last1=Zabar |first1=Lori |title=Roaring into the Future:New York 1925-35 |url=https://www.mwpai.org/assets/museum/MA-2017-2018/MA-Roaring-into-the-Future-New-York-1925-35/Roaring-FINAL-Installation-rev.pdf |website=Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute |access-date=26 April 2019 |archive-date=April 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190426171104/https://www.mwpai.org/assets/museum/MA-2017-2018/MA-Roaring-into-the-Future-New-York-1925-35/Roaring-FINAL-Installation-rev.pdf |url-status=dead }}

File:Buffalo Pottery George Washington Plate 1932.jpg

During World War II, the company again manufactured primarily for the US military. However, the company was declared a non-essential factory and was not permitted to replace employees who left to serve in the military. Having lost some of its best skilled labor and with competitors not subject to similar regulation, the company turned to automation, with new equipment funded by the sale of several buildings. In 1946, Robert E. Gould (1900–1979), known in the ceramics industry as the "master potter," was named president. By this time, economic efficiency had forced the company to drop customization in favor of mass production of a limited catalog of designs.

In 1956, the company changed its name from Buffalo Pottery to Buffalo China, Inc.

Harold M. Esty Jr. (1914–1986),{{cite news |title=Harold M. Esty, 72, Is Dead; Backer of Broadway Shows |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/18/obituaries/harold-m-esty-72-is-dead-backer-of-broadway-shows.html |work=The New York Times |date=September 18, 1986}} John D. Larkin's grandson, served as the company's president from 1964 until 1970, overseeing the production of a wider range of designs and the installation of state-of-the-art direct screening, offset printing, and glaze equipment.{{cite book |last1=Conroy |first1=Barbara J. |title=Restaurant China : Identification & Value Guide for Restaurant, Airline, Ship & Railroad Dinnerware |date=1999 |publisher=Collector Books |isbn=157432148X}} By 1965, the company was producing a quarter of a million pieces of vitrified china per week in more than 50 patterns. Esty remained on the board of directors until the company's sale in 1983.

In 1970, John C. Heebner (1922–2013) became Buffalo China's fifth and last president. He oversaw a modernization project, completed in 1979, which increased the plant's capacity by 50 percent.

In 1983, Oneida Limited purchased Buffalo China with Heebner serving on Oneida's board until 1994. Oneida increased Buffalo China's manufacturing space and added a manufacturing plant in Mexico. In 2004, due to an economic downturn, Oneida sold the factory in Buffalo to Niagara Ceramics Corporation and closed the factory in Mexico, thus ending Buffalo China's 100-year history of china manufacturing.{{cite web |title=Oneida Completes Sale of Buffalo China Factory; Plant to Operate as Niagara Ceramics Corporation |url=https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2004/03/13/307652/54139/en/Oneida-Completes-Sale-of-Buffalo-China-Factory-Plant-to-Operate-as-Niagara-Ceramics-Corporation.html |website=globenewswire.com}} As of 2019, Oneida still retains the Buffalo China trade name and logos, and sells a few lines of Buffalo brand dinnerware.{{cite web |title=Brand Buffalo |url=http://foodservice.oneida.com/brand-buffalo |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191118091013/http://foodservice.oneida.com/brand-buffalo |archive-date=18 Nov 2019 |website=foodservice.oneida.com}}{{cite web |title=The Oneida Story |url=https://www.oneida.com/aboutoneida/the-oneida-story |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190512050314/https://www.oneida.com/aboutoneida/the-oneida-story |archive-date=12 May 2019 |access-date=21 April 2019 |website=www.oneida.com}}

Buffalo Pottery and pre-1983 Buffalo China chinaware is considered highly collectible by antique, porcelain, hotel/restaurant ware, and railroad collectors. Rarer hand-decorated pieces of lines such as Deldare Ware and Abino Ware have sold for thousands of dollars each.{{cite web |title=Barnebys.com |url=https://www.barnebys.com/realizedprices/%22buffalo_pottery%22.html?minprice=0&maxprice=432000000&datefrom=&dateto=&o=50&tc=0&r1%5B0%5D=0&a%5B0%5D=0&q=%26quot%3Bbuffalo+pottery%26quot%3B |website=Realized prices |publisher=Barnebys Group AB |access-date=21 April 2019}}

File:Buffalo Pottery Emerald Deldare Ware Plate.jpg|Buffalo Pottery Emerald Deldare Ware Plate

File:Buffalo China Rouge Lamelle Plate.jpg|Buffalo China Rouge Lamelle Plate

File:Buffalo Pottery Argyle Teapot.jpg|Buffalo Pottery Argyle Teapot

• Larkin Company
• John D. Larkin
• Restaurant Ware
• Oneida Limited

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.worldcat.org/profiles/BECHS/lists/771985?view=&count=100&se=ts&sd=asc&qt=sort_ts_asc%20target= Larkin Company/Buffalo Pottery]: A bibliography by The Buffalo History Museum
• [https://www.kovels.com/price-guide/pottery-porcelain-price-guide/buffalo-pottery.html Kovels Buffalo Pottery Price Guide]
• [https://www.replacements.com/china/buf.htm Replacements.com List of Buffalo Pottery Patterns]

Category:Manufacturing companies established in 1901

Category:Ceramics manufacturers of the United States

Category:Manufacturing companies based in Buffalo, New York

Category:1901 establishments in New York (state)

Category:1983 mergers and acquisitions

Category:American companies established in 1901

Category:Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2004

Category:2004 disestablishments in New York (state)