The Shawnee Pottery owes its name and distinctive mark to an arrowhead found on the grounds of the then-unnamed plant in Zanesville, Ohio in 1937. The area is rich in natural clay, and the Shawnee were known to have lived and produced pottery in the Zanesville-Roseville area long before it was settled.

The site of the pottery, formerly the home of the American Encaustic Company, was once the largest tileworks in the world. It shut down during the Depression, but not before leaving its mark in decorative tiles used on building exteriors as part of the common architecture of the era. For much of the 1880's to the early 1930's, tiles produced at this plant found their way to building exteriors around the world. The tileworks also produced interior tiles that ranged from plain to highly decorative.

Much of Shawnee pottery is completely glazed inside and out except for a raised rim or "foot" on the bottom that follows the contour of the entire base. Larger pieces are often completely unglazed on the bottom, revealing the plaster-like white clay body, usually bisected by mold lines. Pieces can be found in both matte (dull) and shiny glazes.

Among the most wanted are cookie jars and the miniature figures (with cold paint intact). The cookie jars (such as the pigs known as "Smiley" and "Mrs. Smiley") now command top prices. The best known Shawnee kitchenware may be the Corn King and Corn Queen lines, which began as Proctor & Gamble premium giveaways.

Cookie jars have their origin in British biscuit jars which they have used since the latter part of the 18th century. Cookie jars as we know them today were only popularized in the U.S. around the time of the Great Depression in 1929. Early American cookie jars were really glass jars which were made with metal lids which screwed onto the container. Subsequently in the 1930s, stoneware became predominant as the material of choice for American cookie jars. Early cookie jars typically have basic cylindrical shapes and were often painted with floral or leaf decorations.

Much of Shawnee's work was intended for department stores and 5&10's, including Woolworth's, McCrory, S.S. Kresge and Sears, and as such, mass production abilities were primary to the pottery and designs. Many of the pieces were intended to retail between ten and thirty cents. The pottery made decorative pieces as well as dinnerware and kitchenware. Like many of its contemporaries, the pottery could not compete against foreign imports after World War II, and ceased operation in 1961.

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