The Parian Myth

“It’s Very unusual to see this white clay like this.  The only areas that you see it in the U.S. are here in Vermont, some in New Jersey and like in the south in Georgia, South Carolina, they have some pretty thick deposits of kaolin.”
-Jeff Slade
See Interview Clip

    The Fenton-inspired Parian ware is surrounded by much controversy.  For many years antique collectors and historians alike believed that all of the parian ware was made in Bennington from local sources.  Recently, this belief was challenged.  Many of the pieces of parian were unmarked, leading many people to believe that they weren’t actually made by the Bennington Pottery.  Pottery similar to the parian was being made overseas in England which led people to believe that the unmarked pieces were manufactured there and exported here.

    In a research project that we conducted, we attempted to research and prove that the unmarked parian in question was really made in Bennington from local sources in Bennington County.

    The first piece of evidence that led us to believe that the parian was made here was from a financial standpoint.  Bennington Pottery was financially unstable due to increased production costs, increased prices of cordwood for their kilns, and increased breakage of goods during transport.  Importing clay and pottery from England or another source would have been even more costly to them.   “Obviously they located here for a reason…”   It would make much more sense to take their clay used for the parian from highly available local sources to cut down on cost.

    Fenton's dream when coming from England was to be dependent on local clay sources as opposed to importing English clay.  He wanted to create his own unique pottery.  It would be very unlikely for him to want to import clay from England to use for his pottery.

    Another piece of evidence that we felt helps prove that the parian was made from local sources is the fact that there are a couple large deposits of a very desirable clay, kaolin, located in the area.  It has already been documented in a letter from Fenton in the “First Annual Report of the Geology of Vermont” that the Bennington Pottery used these local kaolin deposits to make their firing bricks used in their kilns.  If this resource was already readily available, it would make most sense to make the most of the deposit and use it for the parian as well.

    A chemical analysis of some of the questioned parian pieces was done and showed large traces of titanium.  This shows that these pieces most likely came from the Bennington deposits since these deposits also have traces of titanium.  The titanium is unique to the Bennington deposit and therefore would not be found in other kaolin deposits around the world in England or in the Southern United States.

   If you closely examine both marked and unmarked pieces of parian it is evident that there are little black specks and impurities in the pottery.  This is due to impurities in the clay that are found in the Bennington kaolin deposits.  John Harrison, an essential modeler of the pottery noted these impurities.  He had many problems purifying the kaolin and trying to remove the black specks.  These impurities are not found in the kaolin in England or other deposits around the world.