Ransbottom Brothers Pottery Company.  Roseville, Ohio.  1900 to1920. 

 

Alfred Ransbottom operated a small pottery in Roseville, Ohio, before the 1900’s.  In 1902 his four sons started the Ransbottom Brothers Pottery with F. M. Ransbottom as the active manager.  The brothers purchased a small plant, the Oval Ware and Brick Company, and by 1906 the building covered 3.5 acres, employing 100 men.  See Johnson, Whitmore and Company (in Lehner, cited below) for more history.  (Information:  Roseville, a 20-page booklet printed in 1906, probably by the town council.  No author given.  Mark shown (in Lehner, below) was filed for copyright on November 7, 1919 by Ransbottom Brothers claiming use on stoneware and pottery since 1910.)

 

 

Source:  Lehner, Lois:  Lehner’s Encyclopedia Of U.S. Marks on Pottery, Porcelain, and Clay.  Collectors Books, A Division of Schroeder Publishing Co., Inc.,1988, p. 363.

 

NOTE:  Lehner’s synopsis for Johnson, Whitmore and Company (page 230 of her book) indicates that Johnson, Whitmore and Company (Akron, 1856 – 1862) became Whitmore, Robinson and Company from 1862 – 1900.  In 1900, the Robinson-Merrill Company was formed from a combination of Whitmore, Robinson and Company with the E. H. Merrill Company.  In 1902 that company became called the Robinson Clay Products Company.

 

Merrill traces its history back to approximately 1833 – 1835 when the potter E. H. Merrill started operations in Mogodore (later incorporated into Akron), Ohio.  Merrill later moved to Springfield Township, which also became part of Akron.  There, from 1847 – 1861 Edwin Merrill and Calvin Merrill operated the business, followed by Edwin  H. Merrill and Henry E. Merrill who operated until 1886 as Akron Pottery Company.  From approximately 1888 to 1900 the plant operated as E. H. Merrill and Company – at which time the company joined Whitmore, Robinson and Company, forming Robinson-Merrill, changing its name in 1902 as noted above, to the Robinson Clay Products Company.

 

In 1920, Robinson Clay Products joined forces with the Ransbottom Brothers Pottery to form Robinson-Ransbottom of Roseville, Ohio.  The company still operates under that name and can be found on the WWW at:

 

http://www.ransbottompottery.com