Thomas C. Smith And Company

Place: Greenpoint

Born: 1862

Death: 1922

Biography:

The Union Porcelain Works was the first and foremost American manufacturer of porcelain wares from c. 1862 to c. 1922, with its factory located in Greenpoint, now a part of Brooklyn, New York. The company's history traces back to c. 1844 when William Boch & Brothers began to make soft-paste porcelain in a single kiln. In 1862, Thomas Carll Smith took over the factory and reworked the factory tools to manufacture hard-paste porcelain. The factory was known as Thomas C. Smith and Company from 1864 to 1869, but the factory itself continued to be called the Union Porcelain Works. The company's products were limited to sturdy white china plates and dishes for the hotel trade, electrical insulators, hardware trimming, and decorated tiles. In 1874, sculptor Karl L. H. Müller was hired as the company's chief designer, and he created a wide range of designs for porcelain pieces. The company employed more than 200 persons in a factory nearly the size of a city block by 1917. The company appears to have ceased operations in 1922.