A Sales & Marketing Cooperative
The “Panic of 1893” severely affected the three stoneware companies in Red Wing. To save cost by eliminating duplication of effort, they jointly formed a separate corporation to handle the sales and marketing of their ware. Each company was obliged to produce every item on the ware list, and incoming orders would be divided among the member firms by their respective sales the previous year. Minnesota Stoneware Co. earned 42 percent, RWSCo. 34, leaving North Star with 24 percent. Shares of the orders could only be changed by approval of two-thirds of the votes by the Union Stoneware Co. Directors.
After North Star folded, the company by-laws was amended to give 55 percent of the orders received to MSWCO. and 45 percent to RWSCo.
The ware produced occasionally continued to include the manufacturer’s impressed on the side or molded-in identification on their bottoms, but after rubber stamp-applied identification ovals were adopted, generally coincident with the beginning of the use of white-glaze, the stamped ovals read “Union Stoneware Co, Red Wing, Minn.” Only a few items bore molded-in Union Stoneware Co identification.
