Robert Taggart Hall was owner and sometime-president of The Hall China Company

The Hall China Company

-Founding:The Hall China Company was founded by Robert Hall in East Liverpool, Ohio, United States in August 1903 following the dissolution of the two-year old East Liverpool Potteries Company...

 in East Liverpool, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

.

Single-fire in China

The single-fire process was first created by Chinese ceramists during the earliest decades of the Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

 (1644 - 1911). The Qing Dynasty is generally divided into three distinct periods: Kangxi (emperor from 1662-1722); Yongzheng (emperor from 1722-1736); and Qianlong (emperor from 1736-1796).

The peace and prosperity of the Qing dynasty precipitated a tremendous flowering of the arts. Qing emperors strongly supported Chinese artists, artisans and craftspeople. Sometime following the Qing dynasty, the single-fire method was eventually lost.

Single-fire at Hall China

When Robert Taggart Hall took over the running of Hall China in 1904, he was determined to figure out the process. With the help of staff chemists and ceramic engineers, he experimented over a period of seven years. Finally, in 1911, Hall and his staff came up not only with a recipe for glaze which would work, but with the correct firing temperature as well.

Lead-free ware by accident

Inadvertently, Hall China developed a completely lead-free glaze. This was due not to particular health or environmental considerations, but to the fact that lead was an expensive ingredient which wouldn't survive the high firing temperatures required by the single-fire process.

External links

• The Hall China Company
• Museum Of Ceramics
• The Hall China Company: 104 Years of Exceptional Design & Production