Lotus Ware - Knowles, Taylor & Knowles

Knowles, Taylor & Knowles

Isaac Knowles was an East Liverpool potter whose pottery produced Rockingham pottery, yellow Queen's ware and ceramic canning jars. East Liverpool was a major pottery centre in the US; by the late 19th century factories in the city produced nearly half of all American domestic and hotel ware.

By 1880, KT&K was the largest pottery in East Liverpool. The KT&K management was also forward-thinking in establishing an in-house design-and-decoration shop instead of using outside designers.{dubious}

KT&K had, by 1888, constructed another plant with eight kilns as well as purchasing another pottery. The company also constructed a separate plant exclusively for the production of bone china. Invented in England in the US bone china had previously only been made in Trenton, New Jersey. Before KT&K's efforts another East Liverpool potter John Burgess and his son-in-law, Willis Cunning, had briefly attempted to produce bone china but their operation had been shuttered by East Liverpool City Council, which declared that the odor of calcination of bones to be a health hazard.

The porcelain plant was KT&K's entry into serious competition with European manufacturers. After just a year and a half of operation KT&K's porcelain plant burned down tn November 1889. The plant was soon rebuilt Lotus Ware appeared on the market again from 1892.