Edwin and his brothers, the children of Martha Webster and Daniel Bennett, a local Derbyshire coal company bookkeeper and
Methodist preacher, apprenticed at the
Staffordshire Potteries approximately from where the family lived in the
East Midlands. Arriving to the United States in 1841 Edwin, described in the sources as someone of robust constitution, first worked with his brothers
James, William and Daniel in
East Liverpool, Ohio, where James had recently founded the pottery industry. Soon the brothers relocated to
Pittsburgh to produce their wares, after which Edwin moved to Baltimore independently in 1846 and founded his own pottery with his own designs, the business growing to multiple kilns in little time. Although
William Ellis Tucker was the first to produce American
porcelain for the American market, there have been claims that among the Bennetts' accomplishments was the first "industrial" production of
porcelain in America in 1853, a line of jugs of
biscuit porcelain or
Parian. While it is uncertain if this is accurate or if somehow so if any of these survive, or any of those from when porcelain was produced again (or for the first time) in the 70s, examples from Bennett porcelain lines from the 1880s do, both parian and also featuring gilt, glazing and colored decoration. The acquisition of the Chesapeake Pottery increased the artistic offerings for a year of that decade before all porcelain production at both factories was ceased in 1888 due to unprofitability, even though very fine quality of different types had been reached, including the equivalent of
Belleek at the Bennett factory. Perhaps as notably, the Bennetts produced exceptional
Rockingham-style ware, including the famous "
Rebekah at the Well" teapot, modeled by Charles Coxon in Baltimore following Edwin's inspiration. Based on the special glazing of
yellow ware, at the production of which the Bennetts also excelled, their own Rockingham-style ware, even if eventually considered old and unfashionable due to the market being flooded by lower quality producers of similar styles, was a mainstay of the family from their very first years in business in the United States. In fact, the Bennett brothers produced a ware considered as good or even better than the classic Rockingham actually from England, which it was never technically classified as, especially due to important glazing differences, but they used the style name for marketing. Following James's retirement William left to run the
Pittsburgh operation in 1856 and the Baltimore factory was renamed The Edwin Bennett Pottery. with Bennett contributing some new
pressed glass tableware designs. In 1867, the year he sold his interests to Gillinder and his sons, it was the largest glass factory within the city limits. Having returned to Baltimore although with his factory continuing in production throughout the war and after, in 1869 Edwin introduced a general line of various earthenwares which were produced until 1890. was produced in the 1860s and 70s as an alternative to the era's yellows, browns and whites (which Bennett also continued to produce). Among the later original styles he and his company are known for are the praised Albion
slip-painted ware as well as the highly glazed "majolica family" Brubensul, both introduced in the mid-90s and with some rarer specimens bought by foreign governments for their national museums. It was also by the 1890s that the company was now the largest single producer of pottery in the United States, At the beginning of the 20th century Bennett himself was described by fellow potter William Percival Jervis as "more closely identified with the pottery industry of America than any other living man". Many years after Edwin died in 1908, the Bennett Pottery Co. in its late era was also responsible for the design of the popular infuser-style "
McCormick teapot". ==Family and friends==