In 19th-century Quebec, the shores of the Richelieu River were the cradle of pottery making, producing everyday stoneware for the local market. Higher quality ceramics were imported from Great Britain. Prior to 1879, no one had ever tried to make white ceramic in Canada, with the exception of George Whitefield Farrar. In 1873, he founded the St. Johns Stone Chinaware Company, the only Canadian company to produce china as fine as European imports.