The tale of Peter Pots Stoneware Inc. in South Kingstown feels like it should be encased in a snow globe or tucked into a hobbit movie. After all, it involves a half-dozen people hand-shaping clay into dishes in an old mill aside a creek in the quiet village of West Kingston.
But when you consider the company’s polished website, online sales, social media presence, clever promotions, national reach, and multigenerational patrons, the story gets updated quickly.
The story of the 70-year-old company, which does business as Peter Pots Pottery, is Rhode Island made, through and through.
The company’s co-founders, Oliver Greene and his future wife, Elizabeth Boyd, met in the late 1940s as students at Rhode Island School of Design. In the late ’40s, they began making pottery with friends and selling it at Providence sidewalk sales.
At that time, the hot décor style was mid-century modern, noted for its simple, sleek lines. Soon, the couple, who are both now deceased, landed a contract with Gorham Manufacturing Co. to make ceramic pots with silver tops.
That moment, said their son, Jeffrey Greene, now the company owner, was probably when Peter Pots pivoted to a serious business. The name Peter Pots came about because it was a fun name.
In 1954, Oliver and Elizabeth Greene moved Peter Pots to a former Glen Rock Mill – an abandoned woolen and grist mill – in the South Kingstown village of West Kingston, where six employees now make by hand about 12,000 pieces a year, with gross sales of under $500,000, Greene said.
The graceful oval-shaped dishes with a serene blue or brown glaze are found in hundreds of Rhode Island cupboards and in the kitchens of native Rhode Islanders scattered across the country.
In a retail showroom at the mill, shoppers can find 150 different Peter Pots products, from dishes to candlesticks, along with table linens, candles and home décor items.
How has Peter Pots managed to stay popular across seven decades? Greene said one reason might be in the inherent appeal of mid-century modern.
The Geppetto-tingled imagery of potters working alongside a mill stream is only part of the Peter Pots story. Greene said he has been working behind the scenes for at least a dozen years on creating and enhancing the company’s website, developing email marketing campaigns, and building a Peter Pots presence across social media. Also, a wedding registry is active on the website.
Peter Pots also partners with other historic local businesses, Greene said. For example, it sells gift sets of a large mixing bowl packaged with Rhode Island-made maple syrup and a bag of corn meal from Kenyon Corn Meal Co.
“We have third- and fourth-generation customers across the country continually adding to their collections, as well as new customers who are discovering us for the first time,” Greene said.
OWNER: Jeffrey Greene
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Retail dinnerware
LOCATION: 494 Glen Rock Road, South Kingstown
EMPLOYEES: Six
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1948
ANNUAL SALES: WND
