William J. Walley Pottery Marks

William Joseph Walley (1852-1919) was born in East Liverpool, Ohio in 1852. His father died when he was young and he went to Staffordshire, England to learn the same trade as his father. He went to work for Minton Co. before he was ten years old and left when he was twenty-one. Walley started making art pottery in Portland, Maine around 1873 and in Worcester, Massachusetts around 1885 without much success. He tried again in 1898 in West Sterling, Massachusetts and was successful. He exhibited at the Third Annual Exhibition of the National Society of Craftsmen in 1909. He wrote, “I have very little information to give I am just a potter trying to make art pottery as it should be made one man’s ideas one man’s work. Everything made by hand. To me there is more true art in a brick made and burnt by one man than there is in the best piece of molded pottery ever made and what I feel we want is to be true to ourselves and let the true art come out.” Walley was commended by a writer from the International Studio who said, “It is a relief from the general monotony of dull greens, blues etc. when we encounter Mr. W. J. Walley’s rich reds, browns and purplish browns.”