An Introduction to the St. Johns Stone Chinaware Company (1873-1900)

CNEHA Annual Meeting, October 8-11, 2026
Eva MacDonald

In honour of George L. Miller and Olive Jones and their Legacies in Historical Archaeology, a study of St. John’s Stone Chinaware Company. The St. Jean-Iberville district of the province of Québec was once known as the “Staffordshire of Canada” for its concentration of industrial potters and the manufacture of white-bodied table and toilet wares during the nineteenth century. The ironstone produced in the district competed favourably with imported wares and was found in the dining rooms of Canadian hotels and on the tables of Canadian families. In this paper, I will provide a brief history of one ironstone manufacturer, the St. Johns Stone Chinaware Company, and trace the distribution of its wares across archaeological sites in Ontario and Québec, to begin an exploration of how wide its distribution was beyond the Richelieu valley.