In 1867, James Robertson, a Scottish immigrant, founded the family's first company in Chelsea, Massachusetts on the corner of Marginal and Willow Streets.

In 1876, family member Hugh C. Robertson visited the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia - an early world’s fair - and viewed pottery from China with a blood-red crackled glaze that would inspire him to create his own version.

[3][4] The architect of the building, who also served on the company's board, was Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Jr.[5] The plant, which rarely if ever employed more than six people at a time, was located on Pottery Lane, off High Street, where the 2012 Avery School stands.

The Dedham rabbit design had been drawn by Miss Alice Morse and J. Lindon Smith[9] of the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston.

Other designs featured elephants, dolphins, polar bears, chicks, swans, turtles, ducks, butterflies, lilies, clover, and mushrooms.

Maude Rose Davenport a very skilled decorator at Dedham Pottery between 1904 and 1928 signed her work with a rebus, a small 5mm circle in the border of her designs.