Augustus Frederick Potter

Augustus Frederick Potter was an instrument maker in Toronto for only a short time, between 1857 and 1865. He arrived in the city to join his brother, Charles Potter, who had recently broken up a partnership with the instrument makers William and Charles Hearn. For a short time, the Potters worked together, but by 1861, that partnership had also broken up and, while they were working next door to one another, were advertising separately.

A.F. Potter was certainly an importer, but also manufactured a substantial range of instruments, primarily surveying and optical instruments, including this microscope. Beginning in 1858, he entered the Provincial Exhibition (held that year in Toronto) with his instruments and gained first place ahead of the only other entrant, William Hearn. Judges and visitors alike were impressed with both entrants, with the catalogue writing, “this is one of the most attractive collections in the Exhibition, and from the remarks made by the visitors, they were hardly prepared to see such a splendid assortment of instruments enrolled as Canadian productions.” (Descriptive Catalogue of the Provincial Exhibition at Toronto, September 1858, pg 25)

This description highlights the uniqueness of the work of the Potters and Hearns during these two decades. There had been instrument makers in the city previously, including the maker to whom William Hearn had been apprenticed to, T.B. Timson, and a jeweller and optician who turned his had to instruments, J.G. Joseph, but the Potters and Hearns represented new ambition and skill come to the city—possibly driven by their competition. They also represented part of Toronto’s scientific growth—A.F. Potter exhibited his globes at the Mechanics’ Institute Exhibition on March 28^th, 1865 and both Potter brothers became early members of the Toronto Astronomical Society, leading scientific activity in the city.

However, there apparently wasn’t space for all four makers in Toronto. William Hearn entered financial difficulties in 1858 and was forced to leave his premises; his brother or son Charles Hearn took over the company and, in 1859, moved to Montreal, dying in 1865 but leaving behind a well-established company that would soon become Hearn & Harrison. Sometime in 1865, A.F. Potter returned to England. Charles Potter, the lone Toronto survivor of the heady 1850s, ran a successful company until his death in 1899, also beginning a major school supply company, the School and Map Supply Company.