RJR Pottery (1950-1956) Mary Jones (J)

Founded by three friends, the RJR Pottery not only featured Niagara-on-the-Lake buildings and landscapes, but it was also made locally at 17 Prideaux Street. Dr. Bruce Rigg, Mary Jones and Bill Richardson were the founding members. Each had their own occupations and saw this project as more of a hobby. With conflicting schedules, they would often complete the various steps of a project separately and leave notes for the next person to continue the process.
Each tile was the one and only of its kind, which was very appealing. Most pieces were made of red Niagara clay; however, some were created with blank white commercial tiles made by H&R Johnson Ltd. England. They were decorated by RJR and then fired. The result was a crisper image which was different than those made from Niagara clay.
When Bill moved away, the RJR logo was no longer used. However, Dr. Rigg and his wife, Betty, did continue creating tiles until 1964 using the logo B+B for Bruce and Betty.

Mary was a very talented artist who was responsible for decorating many of the tiles. She had a sketchbook filled with drawings of local buildings or scenes from which she would choose to decorate the clay. She first scratched the outlines of the scene onto the clay with an ice-pick and she would then use soft colours to fill in the outlines. A clear glaze was applied over the painted scene before firing. This technique seemed to melt the colours into each other, producing soft and slightly blurred effect. The artists preferred this unique look over a clean, commercial style.