Chapter VI
Burslem--Early Potters--Earthenware Gravestones--Toft--Talor--Sans --Turnor--Shawe--Mitchell--Cartwright--Rich--Wood--Wood & Caldwell --Churchyard Works--Bell Works--Red Lion Works--Big House--Ivy House--Lakin & Poole--Waterloo Works, Boote & Co.--Washington Works--Nile Street Works--Newport Pottery--Dale Hall--Stubbs--Bates, Walker & Co.--Mayer & Co.--Dale Hall Pottery--Rogers--Edwards & Son--Dale Hall Tile Co.--Albert Street Works--Mersey Pottery--Steel --Maddock & Son--New Wharf Pottery--Over House Works--Swan Bank Pottery--Hill Top Pottery--Hill Pottery China Works--Crown Works--Scotia Works--Queen Street Works--Hill Works--Ralph Wood--Sylvester Pottery--High Street Pottery--Sneyd Pottery--Hadderidge Pottery--Navigation Works--Sytch Pottery--Kilncroft Works--Albert Pottery--Waterloo Works--Central Pottery--Longport--Davenports--Terra Cotta--Brownhills--Wood--Littler--Marsh and Heywood--Brownhills Pottery Company--Cobridge--Cobridge Works, Brownfields--Clews--Furnivals--Bates & Bennet--Abbey Pottery--Villa Pottery--Cockson & Seddon--Allcock & Co.--Elder Road Works--Warburton--Daniel, &c.
BURSLEM.
Plot, writing in 1686, says, “the greatest pottery they have in this county is carried on at Burslem, near Newcastle-under-Lyme, where for making their different sorts of pots they have as many different sorts of clay, which they dig round about the towne, all within halfe a mile’s distance, the best being found nearest the coale,” &c.[45] The town has earned for itself the name of “mother of the potteries.” In the early part of the eighteenth century, the potters in Burslem appear to have been as follows:--
Thos. Wedgwood (2). John and Samuel Cartlich. Robt. Daniel. Thos., Isaac, and Rcd. Malkin. Dr. Thos. Wedgwood. Wm., Rcd., and Jhn.(3) Simpson. Thos. Cartwright. John Wedgwood. Robt. Bucknall. Isaac Wood. Richard Wedgwood. Thos. Taylor. Wm. Harrison. John and Robt. Adams. Moses Marsh. Aaron Shaw. Thos. Mitchell. J. Warburton. J. Bagnall. Aaron Wedgwood H. (?) Marsh. Moses Shaw. Isaac Ball. Saml. Edge. Thos. Lockett. J. Tunstall. Moses Steel. Hugh Mayer. J. Stevenson. H. Beech. Ralph Daniel.
In 1750 the potters--i.e. owners of pot-works--appear to have been--
Moses Copeland. John Marsh. Ralph Allen. Moses Marsh (two). Aaron Shaw. John Daniell. Richd. Parrott. Thos. Cartlich (Olding). E. Astbury. Saml. Malkin. John Adams. Ralph Adams. Wm. Lockett. Robt. Daniell. Thos. Steel. Samuel Cartlich. Maria Locker. John Heath. Richd. Onions. Aaron Clowes. Ephraim Booth. John Taylor. Thos. Taylor. Joseph Simpson (two). Clark Malkin. Thos. Mitchell. John Mitchell. Josiah Simpson. Taylor (two). William Burn. J. Ball. Aaron Cartlich. Timothy Lockett. &c.
A century later, in 1843, according to Ward, the potters then at work were Enoch Wood and Sons; Samuel Alcock & Co., who occupied their pot-works at the Hill Top; Machin and Potts (formerly Machin and Baggaley), at the Waterloo Works; Mellor, Venables & Co., Hole House; Thomas Godwin, Burslem Wharf; John WedgWood, Hadderidge; Barker, Sutton, and Till, Liverpool Road; Peter Hopkin, Market Place; William Pointon, Green Head; Samuel Mayer & Co., Waterloo Road; Joseph Hawley, Waterloo Road; Maddock & Seddon, Newcastle Street; James Vernon & Co., High Street; James and Thomas Edwards, Kiln Croft; Cork and Condliffe, Queen Street; Nehemiah Massey, Bournes Bank; Ann Holland, Hill Top; Daniel Edge, Waterloo Road; Jones and Bell, Bell Works; and those not then occupied were the Churchyard Works (late J. and J. Jackson), the Big House Works (formerly Thos. Wedgwood), the Hamill Street Works (formerly Cartlidge and Beech), the Knowl Works (formerly Breezes), and the Navigation Works, late John Waltons.
Many of the names in the earliest of these lists will be recognised as those of successful potters even of our own day. Burslem, long the centre of the pot-making district, was the place where the Wedgwoods had their various works, and where Josiah Wedgwood was born. It has, therefore, always been, as it is now, a place of considerable importance in connection with the history of the ceramic art of our country. It is manifestly impossible, nor would it be desirable, to enumerate all the firms from that time forward. The following are some of the more noted houses, exclusive of the Wedgwoods, to whom a separate chapter will be devoted. Shaw, in 1829, mentions that besides the various manufactories held by Enoch Wood and Sons, there were about twenty-six other pot-works, the principal of which were Machin & Co., T. and B. Godwin, T. Heath, J. Cormie, J. Hall & Sons, and John Riley Marsh.
A very interesting matter relating to the history of pottery in this locality is the number of coarse earthenware gravestones which may be noticed in the churchyards at Burslem, Wolstanton, and elsewhere. They are formed of the common dark brown marl, or sagger clay, and the inscriptions are generally deeply incised, or pressed in. In some instances, however, they are laid on in white slip, and in others the incised letters are filled in with white clay. They are fired in the usual manner. The earliest, as regards date, which I noticed on my cursory examination of the two churchyards just mentioned, is at Wolstanton, and bears the inscription, “ThomAs PAin 1718.” (Fig. 345). In the same churchyard are other earthenware memorials of various dates, the latest of which is 1828, viz., “William Heath departed this life 14 February, 1828 aged 6 weeks.”
Among others of which I made notes in the same churchyard are--
“Here Lyeth the Body of John Bin[ns] who Departed this Life November the [] 4 1751 Aged 41 years.”
“Here lieth the body of Samuel Willshaw died th 20 1755 aged 11 [?]”; at the top are the remains of cherubs’ wings.
“Here Lyeth the Body of Thos. Son of William and Mary Rowley of Red Street who Died November the 17 in the year 1767 in the 7 year of His age.”
“_Here Lieth the Body of Mary Meller who departed this Life January the 6th 1750 aged 10._
_Short was my time Grate was my pane Weep not for me Great is my gaine._”
“Here lieth the Body of Esther Vernon aged 51 1745”;
“Here Lyeth the Bodey of Thomas Coleough aged 70 1737”; and so on.
The other engravings are from Burslem churchyard--the same ground in which some of the older of the Wedgwoods are buried, and adjoining which Thomas Wedgwood’s “Churchyard Works” stood when Josiah Wedgwood was an apprentice there, and still exist. They are early (1737) and good specimens of these interesting memorials. Another bears the simple inscription, “Elesbeth Malkin Aged 96: 1745.” Many others of various dates occur.
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Toft.--The name of Toft is intimately connected with pottery, both in Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The names of Thomas Toft and Ralph Toft occur on large coarse earthenware dishes of the middle of the seventeenth century (see vol. i. pages 101 to 104), some of which are dated. The material of the body of Toft’s dishes platters, and other domestic articles, is a coarse, reddish, or buff-coloured clay--a common fire-brick clay--and the patterns are laid on in yellow, white, or other coloured slip, and then thickly glazed over with a lead glaze. I have reason to believe that some of the Tofts were potters at Tickenhall (which see, page 152).
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Talor.--Apparently contemporary with the Tofts, or at all events producing precisely the same kind of dishes, &c., was William Talor, one of whose productions is in the Bateman collection. He was probably of Staffordshire, and most likely of the same family as the Taylors, potters of Burslem, in the beginning of last century.
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Sans.--Another contemporary of the Tofts was William Sans, whom Shaw states to have used manganese and pulverised galena in his processes. The name Thomas Sans also occurs on an example.
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Turnor.--Turnor is a name so long and so intimately connected with potting and Staffordshire, that it is fair to presume Ralph Turnor, whose name ^{RALPH TURNOR}_{1681} occurs on a tyg of the same general character as Toft’s dishes, belongs to that county.
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Shawe.--Ralph Shawe, of Burslem, “earth potter,” in 1733 took out a patent for improvements in earthenware (see Vol. I. p. 110). In 1736 he commenced an action for infringement of his patent right, against John Mitchell, an extensive potter of the same town, but was defeated (p. 111). He removed with his family into France, where he carried on his trade, but his family, about 1750, returned to Burslem. About 1710 Aaron Shaw was a maker of stone and dipped wares in Burslem, with a house adjoining his works; and Moses Shaw (surely two brothers, Aaron and Moses!) made stone and freckled goods at the same place, with a house in the middle of the town.
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John Mitchell.--In 1736, this potter having succeeded in producing ware very similar to that of Ralph Shawe, an action was commenced against him by Shawe for infringing his patent. This was tried at Stafford, but the defendant, being fully supported by his pottery neighbours, gained the verdict, the judge concluding with the memorable words, “Go home, potters, and make whatever kind of pots you like.” Aaron Wood was at one time employed by Mitchell, whose principal productions were white stoneware and salt-glazed ware. In 1743 an agreement was entered into between Aaron Wood, of Burslem, “earth-potter,” and John Mitchell, of the same town, “earth potter,” by which the former bound himself to the latter for seven years at 7_s._ a week, and 10_s._ 6_d._ on each 11th November.
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Cartwright.--The name CARTWRIGHT is stated by Shaw to occur on some butter-pots, along with the date 1640. This maker, Cartwright, at his death, in 1658, gave twenty pounds yearly to the poor of Burslem for ever. Burslem, which, as I have already shown, was famed for its butter-pots (in 1670 these were ordered to be made to contain not less than 14 lbs., and to be of hard quality), was to some extent known as the “butter-pot manufactory.”
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Rich.--Shaw (1829) describes a crouch-ware dish, bearing the name W. RICH, 1702.
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Wood.--Ralph Wood, of Burslem, was a potter in the first half of last century. He was probably brother of Aaron Wood, and son of Ralph Wood, miller, of Burslem. Specimens of his ware, which is of the same general character as Whieldon’s, bear the mark ^{Ra. Wood}_{Burslem} and others R. WOOD, or “Ra. Wood.” Aaron Wood, son of “Ralph Wood, of Burslem, in the county of Stafford, miller,” was apprenticed in 1731, to “Dr. Thomas Wedgwood, of Burslem, potter;” the indentures being dated the 23rd August in that year.[46]
When out of his time Wood continued with the same master, Dr. Wedgwood, for five years, at five shillings per week. Afterwards he worked principally at making moulds for the then very fashionable embossed ware, erroneously known as “Elizabethan ware” (at which he was remarkably clever), for Thomas Whieldon and others. He next engaged, as already stated, in 1743, with John Mitchell, of Burslem, a rival of Dr. Thos. Wedgwood, to work solely for him for seven years, at seven shillings a week, and half-a-guinea every 11th November. About 1750 he began business for himself in making salt-glazed white stoneware or crouch-ware. Dying about 1780, he was succeeded by his youngest son Enoch Wood, “the Father of Pottery” as he is sometimes called. Enoch Wood was a good practical potter, and a modeller of no little skill for the period. In 1781 he produced a bust of John Wesley (who used to stay at his house when in the Potteries, and sat to him for the purpose) which became very popular. He was at one time joined in partnership by Mr. James Caldwell, under the style of “Wood and Caldwell” (which see). In the early part of this century Mr. Wood formed, at considerable labour, a collection of pottery, which, after his death, was dispersed; some of his specimens are in the Museum of Practical Geology, and others in the Dresden Museum. The firm in 1792 was carried on as “Enoch Wood & Co.,” and later on, after he took his son into partnership, “Enoch Wood & Sons.” The marks, so far as I am aware, used by Enoch Wood are E. WOOD, or ENOCH WOOD, or ENOCH WOOD & CO., and later on, ENOCH WOOD & SONS impressed in the body of the ware. The firm was succeeded by Messrs. Pinder, Bourne, and Hope.
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Wood and Caldwell.--This firm (Enoch Wood and James Caldwell) produced earthenware of very superior character, both in ordinary articles and services of various kinds. Some of their tea-pots were of admirable design and excellent workmanship. Busts and small statuettes were also extensively made, as were highly ornamented candlesticks. Good examples are found in the Jermyn Street Museum. The usual marks, impressed, are
WOOD & CALDWELL or WOOD & CALDWELL. BURSLEM Staffordshire
Mr. Caldwell, who, I believe, was a “sleeping-partner,” was one of the executors under the will of Josiah Wedgwood. He married a daughter of Thomas Stamford (half brother to Mary Stamford, wife of Thomas Bentley, the partner of Wedgwood), and by her was father of the late gifted and popular authoress of “Emilia Wyndham,” &c., Mrs. Marsh-Caldwell, of Linley Wood.
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The Churchyard Works.--The Churchyard Works, at the house adjoining which Josiah Wedgwood was born, and where he was apprenticed to his brother Thomas, form the north-east boundary of the “churchyard” of the old church at Burslem. Since that time they have naturally been much altered and enlarged, but the site is the same, and some of the buildings now there are what stood and were used in his day. The house in which he was born, taken down many years ago, stood near where the present slip-house stands, but its site has since been occupied by fresh buildings. New hovels and other buildings have, of late years, been added to the establishment, which is now a very complete and commodious manufactory. These works, for several generations, belonged to the Wedgwoods, and are described in 1698 as belonging to Thomas Wedgwood, “of the Churchyard House,” to whom they appear to have passed on his father’s death, who was also a potter. His son Thomas, eldest brother of Josiah, inherited this property on his father’s death in 1739, and three years later, on his marriage with Isabel Beech, by marriage settlement dated 12th of October, 1742 (in which he is described as Thomas Wedgwood, of the Over House, Burslem, Potter), “the messuage, with the appurtenances situate and adjoining the churchyard, Burslem, and all outhouses, work houses, &c., then in the occupation of the said Thomas Wedgwood, or his under tenants,” were settled upon the children of this marriage. On the death of Thomas Wedgwood, in 1772, this and other property descended to his son Thomas, of the Over House, subject to portions to his younger children, under the settlement of 1742. The works were for some time carried on, along with the “Bell Works” and “Ivy House Works,” by Josiah Wedgwood. On his removal to Etruria, they were occupied by his second cousin, Joseph Wedgwood (brother of Aaron, and nephew of the Aaron Wedgwood who was partner with William Littler in the first manufacture of porcelain in the district), who lived at the house now the Mitre Hotel, near the works. This Joseph Wedgwood, who made jasper and other fine bodies under the direction of and for Josiah, occupied the works until the time of their sale to Mr. Green, when he removed to Basford Bank. About 1780 “the Churchyard premises were sold to Josiah Wedgwood, then of Etruria, who in 1787 conveyed them to his brother John, also of Etruria, who in 1795 sold them to Thomas Green, at which time two newly-erected houses near the potwork were included in the sale.” Mr. Green manufactured earthenware at these works, and for some time resided at the house near the works, now known as the Mitre Hotel, which had been built by one of the Wedgwood family. The property remained in Thomas Green’s hands until his bankruptcy in 1811, when it appears to have been purchased by a manufacturer named Joynson, from whom it passed, some years later on, to Mr. Mosely. While in his hands, the potwork was held by various tenants, and until about 1858 was let off in small holdings to different potters. About that period Mr. Bridgwood, of Tunstall, became the tenant of the premises as a general earthenware manufacturer, and was soon afterwards joined in partnership by Mr. Edward Clarke, whose large practical experience tended much to increase the reputation of the works. This firm, having taken a lease of the premises, remodelled many of the buildings, and erected others, and greatly improved the whole place by bringing to bear many improvements in body unknown and unthought of by their predecessors. After Mr. Bridgwood’s decease, which took place in 1864, these works, and the large establishment at Tunstall, were carried on by the surviving partner, Mr. Clarke, until after a time he ceased working them, when they passed into other hands as his tenants. The manufactory was afterwards again carried on by Mr. Clarke in partnership with Mr. Josiah Wood (a descendant of Aaron Wood), who is referred to under the head of Poole, Stanway, and Wood, under the style of Wood and Clarke. The productions of the Churchyard Works, while carried on by Mr. Clarke, were opaque porcelain of the finest and hardest quality (known as “white granite”), for the American market, and ordinary earthenware of the finest quality in the usual services; many of the services, &c., being embossed in excellently designed patterns, and others artistically painted and gilt. One of the notable features was artists’ goods (palettes, tiles, slabs, saucers, &c.), and door furniture, both black, white, and highly gilt and decorated. The impressed mark was “Bridgwood and Clarke,” and the printed mark a royal arms, with the words “Porcelain Opaque, B & C, Burslem.”
In 1874, Mr. W. E. Withinshaw entered upon the Churchyard Works, and since then has greatly improved them, and raised their productions to a high order of merit. His productions consist of dinner, tea, toilet, and other services; vases, jugs, tea-pots, kettles, and jug stands; trinket and fancy articles; candlesticks, and all the usual varieties of useful and ornamental goods, both plain, printed, painted, enamelled, and gilt. In toilet designs Mr. Withinshaw is particularly successful, many of the designs being novel in character, striking in conception, and beautiful in point of manipulative decoration. Notably among these is a service in which the head of the elephant is utilised in a very pleasing manner to form the handle of the ewer; the head itself forming the top of the handle, and the trunk the part for grasping. This is, in some of the services, produced in mass gold, with a rich and striking, but at the same time simple and elegant, effect. Other designs of this firm are of equal excellence. In vases, Mr. Withinshaw produces some admirable designs, the outlines of which are faultless, and the decoration well and judiciously managed. The quality of the ware is far above the average, and gives the productions a high standing among those of the locality. In jet ware, all the usual articles--tea-pots, kettles, jugs, spill cases, &c.--are made, and in endless variety of style; all being equally good in body, in glaze, and in decoration.
Another speciality of these works is now, as in former days, door furniture. The plates are remarkable for their evenness and flatness of surface, and for the taste displayed in the patterns which adorn them; they are made both in white and in black, and of every possible style of decoration. Umbrella, walking-stick, kettle, machine, and every other kind of handles, as well as other china articles used by cabinet brassfitters, are made.
The mark, impressed in the body of the ware, is W. E. WITHINSHAW. On the dinner ware the name of the pattern is given on printed marks, with the initials W. E. W.
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The Bell Works.--The Bell Works, of which, as they appeared in 1865, I give an engraving, Fig. 367, was, at the time when the great Josiah Wedgwood entered on its occupancy, the property of Mr. John Bourne, an army contractor, in the neighbouring town of Newcastle. From him the property, about the year 1771, passed to his grandson, Mr. John Adams, of Cobridge, and in 1847 the estate again passed by will into the hands of the late Mr. Isaac Hitchen, of Alsager. The pot-works were occupied by Josiah Wedgwood, as tenant to Mr. John Bourne, until his removal to Etruria. The next tenant was, I believe, Mr. William Bourne, an earthenware manufacturer, who held them for some years, and was tenant in 1809. Mr. Bourne afterwards entered into partnership with a potter named Cormie, and the works were carried on under the style of “Bourne and Cormie.” In 1836, the works having then remained for some time unoccupied, were divided, a portion being taken by Messrs. Beech and Jones as an earthenware manufactory, another portion taken away for the building of the present Independent Chapel, which was erected on its site in the following year; and other parts were let off to various holders for different purposes apart from the pot trade. In 1839, the partnership between Messrs. Beech and Jones was dissolved, the former gentleman alone continuing to occupy the same portion of the premises, in which he produced china and earthenware figures. In 1846 Mr. Beech, having increased his business, became tenant of the whole of the remaining premises, with the exception of that part occupied by Mr. Dean’s printing-office, &c., and in 1853 took into partnership Mr. Brock, which firm, however, only lasted a couple of years. In 1855, Mr. Brock went out of the concern, and from that date Mr. William Beech carried on the manufactory until his death, which took place in 1864. It was next carried on by Messrs. Beech and Podmore; but in 1876 a part of the premises was purchased by the Board of Health for the purpose of building a covered market on the site, and the remainder was bought by Mr. George Beardmore of Rode Heath and taken down; thus these historically interesting works have been brought to a close.
At these “Bell Works” Josiah Wedgwood turned his attention more especially to the production of the fine and delicate descriptions of earthenware which soon earned for him the proud distinction of “Queen’s Potter.”
The Bell Works were situated at the corner of Brick House Street and Queen Street, very near to the new Wedgwood Institution, but in the time of Josiah Wedgwood, Brick House Street was not formed, but was a part of the ground belonging to the manufactory, and was, indeed, waste land, covered with “shard rucks,” and other unmistakable evidence of the potter’s art. Queen Street then, too, was little better than a lane, but was dignified with the name of Queen Street, through Wedgwood being there appointed Queen’s potter, and there making his celebrated Queen’s ware.
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Red Lion Works.--These were carried on by Dr. Thomas Wedgwood, and took their name from their contiguity to the Red Lion Inn.
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Big House.--The pottery adjoining this house, at the corner of Wedgwood Street and the Market Place, passing down Swan Square, belonged to Thomas and John Wedgwood; the works have long ceased to be used, and are converted into builder’s premises.
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The Ivy House and works, so called from the fact of the house being covered with ivy, was situated where the butchers’ shambles now stand, the old buildings having been purchased by the market commissioners, and taken down for the erection of the present market in 1835. These premises belonged to Thomas and John Wedgwood, of the “Big House,” to whom Josiah became tenant, covenanting by written agreement to pay for the house and the potwork attached to it the yearly rent of ten pounds. The “Ivy House” and works were situated nearly in the centre of Burslem, at the corner of what was then known as Shoe Lane, or Shore Lane, now called Wedgwood Street, which at that time was a narrow way, only wide enough for a single cart to pass along, and as rough and uneven as well could be. The visitor to Burslem who desires to know exactly the site of this historically interesting house, should stroll up to the fine modern-built shambles, or “butchery” as it is sometimes called, and while he stands at the corner facing down Swan Square, he may rest assured that he is standing on what was the little enclosed garden in front of Wedgwood’s house; that the outer wall of the building at his back goes diagonally across the house from corner to corner, one half being under the shambles and the other where the street now is; that the site of one of the kilns is just beneath the centre of the shambles; and that another kiln was about the middle of the present street at his back; the surrounding workshops being partly where the street now is and partly where the building at present stands.
The “Ivy House” might originally have been roofed with thatch or mud, like the other buildings of the district, but it was afterwards tiled, as shown in the engraving. In front was a small garden enclosed with a low wall, and a brick pathway led from the gate to the doorway. The front faced the open space called the “Green Bank,” and adjoining was a low, half-timbered, thickly-thatched building, afterwards known as the “Turk’s Head,” and beyond this again was the maypole, on “Maypole Bank,” on the site now occupied by the Town Hall. At the opposite side of the house from the Turk’s Head was a gateway leading into the yard of the works, which made up one side of Shoe Lane, the pot-works of John and Thomas Wedgwood, with which they were connected, being on the opposite side of the lane. These works and house have the reputation of being the first roofed with tiles in the district--the usual roofing being thatch, or oftener still, mud. At the Ivy House Josiah Wedgwood carried on the manufacture of his ornamental goods, his more ordinary ware, I believe, being produced at the Churchyard. At the Ivy House works he produced many things far in advance of his day, and to the Ivy House itself he brought home his bride, and there lived happily with her for several years.
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Lakin and Poole.--Messrs. Lakin and Poole were in business in Burslem, and doing a very extensive trade, at the latter end of the last century. Their billhead in October, 1792, was simply “Burslem, Staffordshire, Bought of Lakin & Poole,” and in the front of the heading was a garter and star, surrounding a vase, on which was “Manufacturers of Staffordshire Earthenware. Table Services Enamelled or Painted with Arms, &c., &c.” On the garter “Burnished gold got up as in London.”[47] In 1793 (July) a new billhead was used--“Burslem, Staffordshire, Bought of Lakin and Poole. Blue Painted Table Services, &c., and Coloured in all its various Branches.” At the front is a standing figure of Commerce, with an anchor, against which is an oval tablet with “Table Services Enamelled with Arms, Crests, Cyphers, &c., &c.,” to which the figure is pointing. In many of the billheads I have seen the word “Painted” is altered to “Printed” with a pen, and the word “Ware” is written between (over) “coloured” and “in.” This heading was used till the early part of 1794.[48] In December, 1794, they used a written billhead. On the 14th of February, 1795, it is announced in a letter that “Mr. Thomas Shrigley[49] has joined us in our manufactory of Earthenware, and that for the future the business will be carried on under the firm of Poole, Lakin and Shrigley.” In May, 1795, the billhead (written) is “Burslem, Bought of Lakin, Poole & Shrigley,” the managing man being R. B. Swift. This firm continued until the end of 1795, but in January, 1796, another change took place, the firm now being simply “Poole and Shrigley”--Mr. Lakin either having died or withdrawn. The billheads were still written. T. Kempe was managing man in February, 1796. The last account I have is up to February, 1796.
During this period (1792 to 1796) the goods manufactured by them, as appears in these invoices, are as follows:--cream-colour, blue-printed, fawn-colour, black, stone, and other wares; “oval concave dishes of various sizes, flatt plates, soups, twifflers, muffins, tureen compots, sauce ditto, boats and stands, root dishes, cover dishes, sallads, bakers, dessert services of various patterns, ewers and basins, cups and saucers, bowls, cream-jugs, tea-pots, chocolates, flower-horns, flower-pots, jugs, sugar-boxes, double-handled coffee cups, salad dishes, sauce boats, gravy pots, candlesticks, baskets and stands, black tea-pots, mugs, figures in great variety, mortars, cheese toasters, raddish dishes, paste pots, tripe pots, Mocoa tumblers, candlestick vases, bow pots, hand vases, French pies, English pies, stone jugs with and without figures, fawn-coloured porter mugs, blue printed dishes and other articles, egg-cups, custards and covers,” &c. The products of this manufactory were of very superior character both as regards the quality of the various bodies, and the modelling, painting, and artistic decoration of the articles. The blackware, in imitation of Wedgwood’s basalts, is remarkably good, and many of the figures and services are of good character.
The mark of the firm was usually simply the words LAKIN & POOLE impressed in the body of the ware. On one or two examples the name LAKIN only occurs, and on others R. POOLE.
After the death of Mr. Lakin, presumably the potter named above, his widow, in 1824, published a book of his recipes, of which the following is a note:--
“Potting, Enamelling, and Glass Staining.--The valuable Receipts of the late Mr. Thomas Lakin, with proper and necessary directions for their preparation and use in the manufacture of Porcelain Earthenware, and Iron Stone China, together with the most recent and valuable improvements in the advanced art of Glass Staining and Painting. Leeds: Printed for Mrs. Lakin, by Edward Baines. 1824.” Such was its title.
The Preface, which is very explanatory, is as follows:--“The progressive improvements in the manufacture of Porcelain and Earthenware, during the last thirty years, have raised this art to an eminence which it never reached before in the British Empire; and, perhaps, in no department of art has scientific research and experiment been so productive of wealth and fame as in this, and it is no undue encomium on the industry of the manufacturer to state, that the consumption at home and the demands from abroad have kept pace with the improvements which have increased both. The important station which this art holds amongst our manufactures renders every attempt at improvement worthy of consideration and attention. It has been said, the man who causes one ear of corn to grow where one never grew before, deserves the thanks of his country; but what does that man merit who, by indefatigable industry, contributes materially to the advancement of the interests of his country, in the improvement of its manufactures? It was in this class that the late MR. THOMAS LAKIN held a situation much above mediocrity, for, in Staffordshire, it is well known that few men have contributed more to the improvement of an art so useful and so much admired. The following work is the result of upwards of thirty years of labour, study, and repeated experiment, and no pains have been spared in arranging the various Receipts in such a chain of connection as to render them easy of comprehension to an intelligent operator. The Subscribers may rest assured, that the whole of the following Receipts may be individually depended upon as genuine, each having been repeatedly tried in the course of the author’s long experience. Mr. Lakin had also extensive practice in the admired art of Staining and Painting Glass; several windows of exquisite workmanship were executed by him during the time he was engaged with John Davenport, Esq., for some of the first noblemen in the kingdom. The Receipts, together with the method of using them, are therefore laid down from actual experiment, and it is hoped will be found extremely valuable. In presenting the following work to the subscribers, Mrs. Lakin is anxious to express her gratitude for the liberal encouragement she has met with, and for the highly gratifying tribute they have paid to the abilities of her departed husband; but to the kindness of those gentlemen who had before purchased some of the Receipts at a price far beyond the whole charge of this work, and yet have become subscribers, she feels herself particularly indebted. Mrs. L. respectfully solicits of the subscribers not to permit persons who are not purchasers to copy any of the Receipts, as it might not only injure her as proprietor of the copyright, but also other subscribers; on her part she pledges herself not to publish the work, nor permit the work to be published, at a lower price than that at which it is now offered to the subscribers.” The work extends to 86 pages, and contains 136 processes connected with potting, enamels, and glass-staining. The receipts are evidently the compilation of a greatly experienced and very intelligent potter.
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Waterloo Potteries.--These works were carried on in the latter part of last century by Walter Daniel, who was succeeded by Messrs. Timothy and John Lockett; the manufacture at that time being principally salt-glazed ware. About 1809 the premises were purchased by Joseph Machin and Jacob Baggaley, and carried on by them for the making of china and ordinary earthenware. In 1831 Mr. Machin died and was succeeded by his son Mr. William Machin and partners. The works next passed into the hands of Mr. Richard Daniel, and next to Mr. Thomas Edwards. In 1850 they were purchased by Messrs. T. and R. Boote, who still occupy and work them.
In 1843 Messrs. Boote took out a patent for “Certain improvements in pottery and mosaic work.” These consist in producing “coloured designs on grounds of different colours, as black on white or white on black. First, the designs are made from a mould, as in figuring, and laid on the moulds for making the ware; the ground colour is then put on. Second, the design, cut in paper, parchment, &c., is laid in the moulds and the halves fastened together, the colour to form the ground is poured in, after which the paper, &c., are removed and other colour poured in to fill its place. Third, producing different coloured raised surfaces. The figures in low relief in the inside of the moulds are filled with a composition, the halves of the moulds fastened together, and the slip poured in to form a thin coating, which was then supplemented with an inner lining of a cheaper material to form a substratum, thus producing mosaic and other elaborate designs. In this process the excess of liquid is withdrawn when the necessary thickness is attained.
In 1857 Messrs Thomas Latham Boote and Richard Boote took out a patent for “Improvements in the manufacture of ornamental pottery, and articles made from clay and other like plastic materials.” “A thin piece of metal or other suitable substance, which forms the outline of the design, is fixed on the flattened clay intended to form the article then being made. The hollow parts are then filled up with the coloured clay or clays which are to form the design. The piece of metal is next removed, and the flattened clay with the design upon it is put in the mould to form the article. In some cases that part of the mould which is to correspond to the groundwork of the article to be manufactured is made to rise by springs or other means, suitable coloured clay is put into the hollow parts of the mould thus formed, and the clay to form the body is put in and the whole is pressed;” or the parts of the mould corresponding to the ornaments may be raised and the ground part filled in. We give three examples produced by one of those processes, Figs. 369 to 371. The effect in many instances was very pleasing, and gave the appearance of relief, without, however, the pattern being at all raised. Parian was also formerly largely produced and of considerable excellence, both in vases, jugs, figures, both single and in groups, and other objects. One of the most effective groups is that of “Repentance, Faith, and Resignation,” modelled by Mr. Gillard. (Fig. 375.)
Among the Parian vases formerly produced at the Waterloo Works were some the body of which was buff and the raised flowers in white; thus producing a very pleasing and softened effect.
All these decorative classes of goods have been discontinued by Messrs. Boote, who now confine themselves to the production of the ordinary white graniteware for the American markets, and encaustic and other glazed and unglazed pavement tiles. For these latter the firm are patentees of a process for inlaying encaustic tiles with clay dust--a process which is also adopted for the manufacture of dishes and other articles in earthenware in what this firm called “Royal Patent Ironstone,” and by which, by means of one press alone, as many as 100 dozen plates or small dishes, could be made in a day.
The encaustic and other tiles made by that firm consist of encaustic, geometrical, and majolica tiles of great variety in pattern and of very effective combinations of colours.
The marks used by Messrs. Boote are, on their white granite ware, the impressed initials T & R B.; and the following, printed in black, viz.-- and another bearing the crest, a greyhound, couchant, collared and slipped, between two laurel wreaths, and the words--
T & R BOOTE ROYAL PREMIUM IRONSTONE
and above the words TRADE MARK. On the tiles, the name in raised letters, T & R BOOTE appears. BURSELM
The Jurors’ Report of 1862 says: “The tiles exhibited by this firm are deserving of high commendation; the designs are well selected; the equality of surface evidences great efficiency. Messrs. T. and R. Boote claim some originality in their process, to which this perfection is not only attributable, but obtained at a much less cost.”
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Washington Works.--The business now carried on at this manufactory originated experimentally in King Street, Burslem, where the late Mr. William S. Kennedy, about the year 1838, commenced the production of palettes and other requisites for artists’ use. Shortly afterwards, removing to a pottery in Bourne’s Bank, he there added to his business the manufacture of door furniture, letters for signs, &c. With perseverance, Mr. Kennedy combated the difficulties which these novel articles presented; and while in conjunction with Mr. William Maddock, who remained with the firm for thirty-five years, he was successful in effecting great improvements in the various processes. About 1847, the manufacture was removed to its present locality, and has from time to time been enlarged. The marks W. S. KENNEDY and J. MACINTYRE have been very rarely used.
In 1852 Mr. Kennedy was joined in partnership by his brother-in-law, Mr. James Macintyre, who shortly afterwards became sole proprietor of the works. In 1863, Mr. Macintyre patented methods of producing oval, reeded, octagon, and other forms, by the lathe; and he was ever alert to devise and apply improvements in mechanism, &c. He succeeded in the production of a rich cream-coloured body, which, under the name of “Ivory China,” has held a high reputation, and will always be honourably associated with the “Washington” Works. In 1867 Mr. Macintyre produced backs for hair-brushes, hand-mirrors, &c., which were patented by Mr. J. J. Hicks, and in numerous other instances, especially for France, the “body” has been used as an ivory substitute. So far as can be ascertained, the successful application to door furniture of the earlier invention of the beautiful black, which is produced by dipping the brownish red bisque in a rich cobalt glaze, also originated at these works. This “jet,” produced in great perfection, has been applied in plain, and also with richly gilt and enamelled ornamentation, not only to door furniture, but more recently to inkstands and similar goods. Mr. Macintyre, who was a man of public spirit and great enterprise, was much beloved by his workpeople, and the annual festive gatherings in which he, his family and friends, met his employés, obtained a well-merited celebrity. He died in December, 1868, having a few years previously taken into partnership his confidential manager, Mr. Thomas Hulme, and his son-in-law, Mr. William Woodall. By these two gentlemen the business is still carried on under the old title of “James Macintyre and Co.”
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Nile Street Works.--These works were built upon the site of an early pottery; this is evidenced by numbers of early fragments of pitchers, “porringers,” and other salt-glazed domestic vessels “of red and yellow clay marbled together,” being found during alterations of the premises in late years. Messrs. J. and R. Riley removed from here to the Hill Works, and were, I believe, succeeded by Mr. James Cormie, uncle of the late Mr. Thomas Pinder (who at one time was a partner in the firm of Mellor, Venables, and Co.), and great-uncle of the present sole proprietor of the works, Mr. Shadford Pinder, who trades under the style of “Pinder, Bourne, and Co.” China was at one time made here, but the productions have latterly been confined to printed, enamelled, and gilt earthenware, in which all the usual services are made; stoneware for telegraphic purposes; fine red ware for useful and ornamental goods; jet ware in a variety of articles; and sanitary goods. These they export largely both to the colonial and foreign markets. Messrs. Pinder, Bourne, and Co.’s ornamental goods, notably their “red ware,” or terra cotta, is of fine, hard, and durable quality, and much taste is evinced in some of the designs of its decoration. The vases, spill-cases, and other articles in this body, richly enamelled and gilt in arabesque and other patterns, are remarkably good. The jet ware is also of good quality. Among their specialities in this ware, and in fine earthenware, are flower vases, and jardinières; some of the latter being skilfully painted in birds, flowers, &c. Messrs. Pinder, Bourne, and Co. have patented improvements in ovens and in steam printing presses; but this latter, having excited the hostility of the workmen at the time of the riots in 1842, was abandoned. The firm received medals at the London and Paris Exhibitions of 1851, 1855, and 1867. The marks used are a circular garter, bearing the name of the pattern and the initials “P. B. & C^{o.}” surmounted by a crown and encompassed with a wreath of laurel; and a triangular figure, with the words “Pinder, Bourne & Co., Nile St., Burslem.”
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Newport Pottery.--These works were established at the close of last century by Mr. Walter Daniel, and about 1810 passed into the hands of Mr. John Davenport. The manufacture was afterwards carried on by Messrs. Cork and Edge, and is now continued by Messrs. Edge, Malkin, & Co., a firm which, with various alterations in partnership, dates back to the beginning of the present century. Messrs. Cork and Edge, in their ordinary earthenware, introduced many years ago a process of inlaying the patterns in the ground body, but of different colours. These were intended for the cheapest markets, but were produced in good taste. Three of these designs, two tea-pots and a ewer, shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851, are engraved on Figs. 381 to 383. The productions of the firm at the present time are dinner ware; jet, enamelled, lustre, and other fancy goods; and all the ordinary wares for the home and foreign markets.
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Newport Works.--Established in 1866 by Malkin, Edge, & Co. for the manufacture of encaustic and other tiles. The tiles are made from dust (by the process of Messrs. Boulton and Worthington), by which process the various colours are fixed in the tile, immediately and without pressure, in the following manner. “On a level block of iron, surrounded by an outer casing which is movable, is placed a sheet of brass with the pattern cut out of the same, and into the different spaces are put the various coloured clays, in dust, required. A raised counterpart of the design is then gently pressed upon these dusts, and the brass sheet, or plate, is removed. The outer casing before referred to is then raised according to the thickness required, and the space is filled up with dust to form the body of the tile. A screw, worked by a wheel, is then lowered upon the outer casing and block, which forces the out-casing back again to its former position around the level block, as far as the dust will allow. The tile is then taken out of the outer casing, and is completely finished, with the exception of being fired. This screw pressure produces in a few moments a remarkably solid substance.” Messrs. Malkin, Edge, & Co. produce an extensive variety of patterns, both in encaustic, wall, and other tiles. The designs are good and effective, and the colours rich, clear, and well defined.
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Dale Hall.--The extensive works at Dale Hall (or Dale Hole, as it used to be written), founded in 1790, originally belonged to Mr Joseph Stubbs, a very successful manufacturer, who, having retired from business, died in 1836. He was succeeded by Messrs. Thomas, John, and Joshua Mayer, who afterwards traded “as Mayer Brothers and Elliot,” and from them, successively through the firms of “Liddle, Elliot, & Co.,” and “Bates, Elliot & Co.,” to the present owners and occupiers, Messrs. Bates, Walker, and Co.; Mr. Elliot having retired, and Mr. Walker, stepson to Mr. Bates, being taken into partnership. By the earlier firms, ordinary earthenware was produced, but under Messrs. Mayer, who came from Stoke to Dale Hall,[50] rapid strides were made in art manufactures, and many important improvements effected. They were exceedingly clever potters, especially Mr. Jos. Mayer, who died prematurely through excessive study and application to his art. They introduced many important improvements in the manufacture and decoration, especially in the beautiful polychromatic bisque printing which is continued by their successors and other firms. Besides ordinary earthenware, this firm produced stoneware of a highly vitreous quality; Parian of an improved body; a fine caneware, in which some remarkably good jugs (notably the “oak” pattern) were made; and other wares. In the stoneware, besides many well-modelled jugs and other articles, they made tea-urns, which they were the first to introduce, of excellent design and admirable finish. Two of these, made in 1851 (Figs. 384 and 385) I here engrave. The peculiar body of the stoneware of which they were made was capable of withstanding the variations of temperature to which vessels of this kind, usually formed of metal, are liable. These were not made to any extent by Messrs. Mayer, but are now being reproduced by Messrs. Bates, Walker, & Co. with great success; they are highly ornate in appearance, and will doubtless come much into use. Messrs. Mayer also produced some admirable designs in vases, decorated with a profusion of exquisitely modelled raised flowers. Two of these are shown on Figs. 386 and 387, and a jug in the following figure. The dinner plates, dishes, &c., of Messrs. Mayer, were characterized by an excellent “fit” in nesting, by lightness of body, and by neatness of finish in decoration. In 1851 they received a medal for their exhibits, and again in the New York Exhibition of 1853 and the Paris Exhibition of 1855 medals were awarded.
The present firm of Bates, Walker, & Co., produce perhaps a larger variety of manufactured articles than any other one house in the trade. In earthenware, dinner, tea, toilet, and other services, and every variety of article of use and of ornament, are made; and the other wares are ironstone, opaque porcelain, jet, stone, &c. In tableware, whether in dinner, breakfast, or tea-services, every variety of style, from the plain white, ordinary printed, and flown, to the most elaborately enamelled, painted, and gilt patterns made The jugs, too, are a speciality; of these there are an immense variety of excellent shapes, and of strikingly beautiful decoration. The same remark will apply to the toilet services, which are, as a rule, characterized by good form and artistic decoration; of these, the “Mistletoe” pattern is one of the most simply elegant yet produced. Among other articles in earthenware, the richly ornamented spirit barrels form a distinct feature. In stoneware, of which I have spoken, well designed and sharply executed pressed patterns, in jugs, tea-pots, and other articles, are made in great variety.
In terra cotta, Messrs. Bates, Walker, and Co. produce statuary groups, figures, and busts of remarkably good design and of artistic finish. The body is of a somewhat similar character to that of the Watcombe ware, but the process is different. The Watcombe “is fired in the enamel kiln or in an oven not subjected to greater heat, while this is fired in the biscuit oven; the one is so soft that it may be cut with a knife, while the other is quite vitreous and hard.” In this material--a clay found near the works--the firm produce a large variety of subjects, and a selection of these formed a notable feature in the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876. Among the subjects are “Peace” and “War,” and “Time unveiling Truth,” by Grispie; “The Fighting Gladiator,” “The Bath,” “The Young Apollo,” and other subjects from the antique; “Flora,” “Pomona,” “Washington,” and other pieces by Beattie; Flaxman’s “Wine” and “Water” vases; the “Crowning of Esther,” “The Lorelei Syren,” “The Seasons,” “The Elements,” &c.
Another speciality of the firm is what they have named their “Turner Jasper Ware.” This consists of a terra-cotta body, with a slip of various colours--green, blue, chocolate, buff, &c.--decorated with bas-reliefs, many of which are Flaxman’s designs, as used by Turner at his famous works of last century. Of a large number of these old Turner moulds, Messrs. Bates, Walker, and Co. are the fortunate possessors, and they are reproducing them in a variety of ways and with good effect, although their body wants the fineness, hardness, and compact character of the old Turner ware.
Among other goods produced by Dale Hall are artists’ palettes, slabs, tiles, mullers, &c.; photographic articles (trays, baths, troughs, stands, funnels, and every other requisite); chemical and druggists’ goods (mortars and pestles, leech-jars, covered jars, evaporating pans, inhalers, pill tiles, and every other article); scent bottles and vases; toilet and other boxes; sign-board letters; door furniture; ironmongers’ fittings; and fancy articles of various kinds. Garden and ornamental flower-pots, garden-seats, suspenders, fern and other stands, &c., are also made. In sanitary ware, Messrs. Bates, Walker, & Co. rank very high, and produce every known article and of faultless excellence in quality. They are patentees of an improved “wedge commode pan,” the principle of which is shown in Fig. 398; its advantage in the sick chamber or travelling carriage being very apparent. Another and very important patent taken out by the firm, is for self-locking and self-adjusting covers for jugs, tea-pots, &c. The principle, which is one of the most simple, but at the same time most successful yet adopted for preventing the falling off of the lid in the act of pouring, is shown in Figs. 400 to 403. One of the great specialities of the firm is the process by which printing in two to five colours is successfully transferred on to the ware while in biscuit state, and is, therefore, under the glaze. By this process, the invention of Messrs. Mayer Brothers, vases, dinner and other services, and other articles, are decorated in thoroughly good taste; and, through there being no touching whatever by the pencil, as the entire pattern is transferred at one operation from the coloured print, they are produced at a comparatively moderate cost. The effect is soft and delicate, and is capable of considerable development.
The marks of Messrs. Mayer were T. J & J MAYER; MAYER BROS, &c. Those of the present firm are BATES, WALKER & CO. PATENTEES, on an oval ribbon, with date, &c., of registration inside; and a nude figure kneeling and holding an ewer in front of him, on a tablet with the date 1790. This is introduced in a variety of ways, with the initials B. W. & CO., and the name of the pattern, &c. The markets supplied are both home and foreign.
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Dale Hall Pottery.--The extensive works of Messrs. James Edwards and Son are the oldest existing works in Dale Hall. They belonged to Messrs. John and George Rogers (brothers) till 1815, when the latter died, and Mr. Spencer Rogers having joined his father, the business was carried on under the style of John Rogers and Son. In 1816 Mr. John Rogers died, leaving £1,000 to the North Staffordshire Infirmary, and other charitable bequests. He had erected a handsome residence, “The Watlands,” near Wolstanton. The firm continued as John Rogers and Son until 1842, when the manufactory was purchased by the late Mr. James Edwards, formerly of the firm of James and Thomas Edwards of the Kiln-Croft Works. Messrs. Rogers produced tableware of a higher and better quality than most of their contemporaries, and were especially famed for their light blue “Broseley” or “Willow” pattern services. The mark used by them appears to have been simply the name ROGERS impressed in or printed on the ware; sometimes with the addition of the sign of Mars or Iron
Mr. James Edwards was entirely a self-made man, and was one of those bright examples of indomitable perseverance, unflinching rectitude, steadiness of purpose, and genuine benevolence, which crop up every now and then among our most successful manufacturers. Commencing simply as a thrower at Messrs. Rogers, he became a manager at Philips’s of Longport, and at John Alcock’s of Cobridge, then commenced business in partnership with John Maddock, and afterwards, in partnership with his brother Thomas Edwards, carried on business in Sylvester Square, Burslem, and next in partnership with Mr. John Maddock, in the same town. In 1842 he purchased the manufactory of Messrs. Rogers and Son, where he commenced entirely on his own account. By him the manufactory was considerably enlarged and extended; a flint-mill erected; new machinery of the most approved construction (including steam jiggers, lathes, jollies, throwing-wheels, and Needham and Kite’s patent pressing machines for preparing clay by filtration) put up, patent stoves and pug-mills erected, and the whole place so increased as to be enabled to produce fully six times the amount of ware it was capable of doing when he first entered upon it.
By these improvements much of the heavy drudgery of labour both to children and adults was saved. In these works, too, the whole of the rooms containing the machinery are heated by steam, and kept at one uniform temperature. To Mr. Edwards the white graniteware, which has now become so important a feature in the Pottery district, mainly owes its excellence; that made by him being considered to be all that could be desired by our transatlantic brethren, and to be the standard of perfection to which the aims of other houses were directed. In 1851 a medal was awarded to Mr. Edwards, and an additional certificate of merit, for beauty of form and excellence of goods exhibited. At the New York Exhibition they also received honourable mention, and in 1865 a prize medal was awarded for electrical, chemical, galvanic, and photographic apparatus in both ironstone and earthenware. Mr. Edwards, who had taken his son Mr. Richard Edwards into partnership, retired from the concern in 1861, and died, full of honours, as a magistrate and otherwise, in January, 1867,--one of his last acts of thoughtful benevolence being that of (only a few days before his death) sending to a number of his old workpeople at the manufactory cheques varying in amount from £20 to £100 each, according to each one’s length of service. The works are now carried on by Mr. Richard Edwards under the style of “James Edwards and Son.”
The productions consist of white graniteware for the American and steamship trade; ordinary earthenware for the home trade, in which all the usual services, &c., are made; Indian ironstone goods; and electrical, chemical, galvanic, and photographic appliances. These are all of the highest quality, and are much in repute. In “stone china,” which is of good firm semi-transparent quality, many excellent patterns are made. Among these are the “bishop,” “barley,” “mediæval,” “rope,” “tulip,” “scroll,” and others.
The marks used by the firm, June, 1842, are as follows. The royal arms above the name
STONE CHINA JAMES EDWARDS & SON DALE HALL
The same, with the addition, beneath, of the trade mark, a dolphin entwined round an anchor. The initials J E & S in writing letters, surrounded by a circular garter bearing the words IRONSTONE CHINA.
The name J EDWARDS & SON surrounded by an oval garter bearing DALE HALL the words IRONSTONE CHINA. And Dalehall surrounded by a similar oval garter bearing the name JAMES EDWARDS & SON. An impressed mark of EDWARDS is also used. D H
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Dale Hall Brick and Tile Company.--These works belong to the Brownhills Pottery Company (see page 288, pcst.) and produce all the usual classes of plain and ornamental goods.
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Dale Hall Tile Works.--These Tile Works are carried on by Mr. James P. Basford, whose grandfather, above half a century ago, worked the same field of clay. His productions are all the usual classes of plain and ornamental tiles, bricks, &c.
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Albert Street Works.--These works were established by Mr. John Hawthorne in 1854, who continued them until 1869, when they were taken by Messrs. Wiltshaw, Wood, & Co., and are now carried on by William Wood & Co.; they were among the earliest in this branch of trade. The goods made are door plates, lock furniture, &c., both in white, black, gilt, and painted; drawer, shutter, and other knobs in oak, white, black, &c.; bedstead vases; caster bowls; umbrella, walking-stick, sewing-machine, closet, and other handles; inkstands, bottles, and wells; highly decorated jam-pots and biscuit-jars for the table; match-pots; teapot and urn stands of various degrees of decoration, painted, gilt, and enamelled; and every description of china used by brass-founders, tin-plate workers, japanners, &c. Most of these articles are of good quality in body, and excellent glaze and finish, and the colours--white, black, ivory, oak, brown, turquoise, green, and blue--in which they are produced are clear and effective. The only mark used is W W & CO.
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Mersey Pottery.--Established in 1850 by its present owner, Mr. Anthony Shaw. Goods specially adapted for the various American markets are made: the specialities being white graniteware and cream-coloured wares for the United States; the same with the addition of printed, lustred, and painted goods for South America, and printed for the colonies. In 1855 Mr. Shaw was awarded a medal at the Paris Exhibition. The mark used is the royal arms, with ribbon bearing the words STONE CHINA, and beneath,
WARRANTED ANTHONY SHAW BURSLEM
The works were rebuilt on a very extensive scale in 1866, and are looked upon as a model manufactory, in which are brought to bear all the latest improvements in the art of pottery.
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Steel.--A manufacturer named Moses Steel had a potwork in Burslem in 1715, and made the ordinary clouded ware of the period. Another potter of the same name, probably his descendant, carried on business in the latter part of the same century; he produced a fine earthenware and an imitation jasperware. The works are still standing by Queen Street, and are known as “Bournes Bank.”
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John Maddock and Son manufacture white graniteware for the American markets to a large extent.
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New Wharf Pottery--(Hollinshed and Kirkham, late J. Daniel & Co.)--Printed ware of the kinds required for the home, Russian, Italian, and French markets, and all the usual kinds of painted and Paris white wares suitable for the African, Australian, and American trades.
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The Overhouse Works--Wedgwood Place.--The old works, now, alas! taken down, were possessed of no ordinary degree of interest, from the fact of the “Overhouse,” the residence which closely adjoins them, having been the property and residence of Thomas Wedgwood, the eldest brother of Josiah Wedgwood (to whom Josiah was bound apprentice), and having been in the possession of the Wedgwood family for some generations. The old works were situated at the back and side of the “Overhouse,” with entrance in Wedgwood Place, where that street joins Scotia Road. A doorway, over which was a tablet, now no longer in existence, connected the works with the house. This historically interesting but now lost relic is represented by Fig. 407.
The Overhouse works were occupied, early in the present century by Messrs. Goodfellow and Bathwell, who were succeeded in turn by Mr. Edward Challinor in 1819, and later by Mr. Pointon. In 1856 they passed to Messrs. Morgan, Williams, & Co., and afterwards to Morgan, Wood, & Co., from whom, in 1861, they passed into the hands of Messrs. Allman, Broughton, & Co., and next to Messrs. Robinson, Kirkham, & Co.
In 1869 the old works were entirely taken down and a new and extensive manufactory erected with all the latest improvements of machinery and appliances; the jiggers all being driven by steam power, and the drying stoves heated by exhaust steam. The rebuilding is commemorated in ornamental scroll stonework over the entrance: “Edward Challinor commenced business here A.D. 1819, and rebuilt the premises A.D. 1869.” The new manufactory was opened in 1870 by Mr. Ralph Hammersley, who removed here from the Church Bank Pottery at Tunstall, and who had previously been engaged for twenty years or more with Mr. Challinor.
The goods produced are the ordinary description of earthenware in services of various kinds and in the usual classes of useful articles, which, besides a good home trade, are shipped in large quantities to the United States, Canada, and Sweden. Stoneware jugs are also produced.
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Swan Bank Pottery.--These works have passed successively through the hands of Thomas Edwards; Messrs. Pinder, Bourne, & Co.; Messrs. Beech and Hancock (now of Tunstall); and Messrs. Hancock, Whittingham, and Hancock (now of Stoke). In 1873 they came into the hands of the present proprietors, Messrs. Tundley, Rhodes, and Procter. The goods produced are, and have been, printed, enamelled, and gilt earthenware, of the useful classes in all the usual services, &c., for the home, Russian, and South American markets.
The Hill Top Pottery, or Hill Pottery.--These works, formerly belonging to Ralph Wood were for many years carried on by Messrs. Samuel Alcock & Co., by whom they were in 1839 rebuilt and enlarged; their rearranged manufactory comprising the works of Mr. Riley (formerly John Taylors), John Robinson and Sons, and William Taylors, which were all taken down for the purpose. The productions of Messrs. Samuel Alcock & Co. were, both in china and the finer descriptions of earthenware, of the highest quality, both in body and in decoration. One of their specialities was their semi-porcelain, which was of fine and durable quality. The marks,
ALCOCK AND CO., HILL POTTERY, BURSLEM,
or S. ALCOCK & CO., either printed along with the name of the pattern or some device, or impressed in the ware. In 1860 the works and general estate were purchased by Sir James Duke and Nephews, and continued by them till 1865, when they sold the estate to Mr. Thomas Ford, who, in the ensuing year, 1866, sold it to the Earthenware and Porcelain Company, by whom (under the management of Mr. R. Daniel, once a noted china manufacturer at Stoke, Hanley, and Burslem) it was carried on under the style of the “Hill Pottery Company, Limited, late S. Alcock & Co.”
The productions of Sir James Duke and Nephews (Messrs. J. and C. Hill) were of a high order of excellence, in ordinary earthenware services, ranging from plain white and cream-coloured to the most superb styles of decoration; in china, which was of remarkably good quality; and in Etruscan wares. In the latter, some of the best forms of ancient Etruscan vases were cleverly reproduced, and the decoration, both in spirit and in style, artistically rendered. Some of the productions of this firm, who received well-merited distinctions at the Exhibition of 1862, are shown by Figs. 408 to 428.
The operations of the “Hill Pottery Company” were of short duration, for in the next year, 1867, it was put in liquidation and sold up, when the property again came into the hands of Mr. Ford. In the same year the works were divided, the china department being taken by Messrs. Alcock and Diggory, and the earthenware part by “Messrs. Burgess & Leigh (late S. Alcock & Co.),” by whom it is still carried on under the style of “Burgess, Leigh, & Co.”
Messrs. Burgess, Leigh, & Co. manufacture largely the commoner and ordinary, as well as the higher and more artistic classes of earthenware goods, both for the home and foreign markets, and their productions rank high in point of excellence of body, manipulative skill, and good taste displayed in decoration. The firm produce all the usual services, and useful as well as many highly ornamental articles. The mark used by the firm is a beehive on a stand, with bees, with a rose-bush on either side, and a ribbon bearing the name of the pattern (“Kensington,” for instance,) beneath, and under this the initials of the firm, “B. L. & CO.” Many of these patterns are registered.
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The Hill Pottery China Works, on the division of the manufactory as already stated, in 1867, were carried on by Messrs. Alcock, Diggory, & Co. In 1870, the firm was altered into that of Bodley and Diggory, but in the following year, Mr. Diggory having retired, the manufactory was continued by Mr. Edward F. Bodley. In 1874, the style was again changed to Bodley and Son, and in 1875 to that by which it is at present carried on, viz., Edwin J. D. Bodley. The productions formerly embraced china, earthenware, and Parian, but are now entirely confined to china. A speciality of Mr. Bodley’s productions is that of pans and vases for chandeliers and lamps. These are made of various forms, and more or less highly decorated; they form an important branch of manufacture. Services of all the usual kinds, more or less elaborately decorated, are also made. The markets supplied are the home and the South Australian, New Zealand, and Colonial.
The mark used by Messrs. S. Alcock and Co. at these works was a beehive; and that of Sir James Duke and Nephews the dexter hand denoting a baronet.
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Crown Works.--Established about 1867 by Messrs. Lea, Smith, and Boulton, these works were next occupied by Mr. W. E. Withinshawe (see “Churchyard Works,” page 244, vol. ii.), and then by the present proprietors, Messrs. Gaskell, Son, and Co. The productions have always been china door furniture and similar goods (and these are now made of remarkably good quality, and in many cases of artistic design, by the present firm), finger-plates, knobs, scutcheons for doors, roses, caster bowls, and other fittings; scale plates and weights; stands and bases for lamps; an infinite variety of articles for fittings of many kinds--white, coloured, black, enamelled, gilt, &c., &c.; while the imitations of marbles, malachites, and other stones are remarkably clever and good. Another speciality of these works is umbrella, parasol, and walking-stick knobs, many of which, whether in imitation ivory or in dead black, evince great taste in design and skill in execution. Messrs. Gaskell and Son have taken out patents for the manufacture of caster bowls on an improved method, and another for improvement in turning.
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Scotia Works.--This manufactory was originally the parish workhouse of Burslem, and was calculated to accommodate three hundred inmates. On the establishment of unions, under the Poor-Law Act, when the new union workhouse was erected, this building was occupied as barracks, and so continued for some years. It was then converted into a manufactory by Mr. James Vernon in 1857, and he, in 1862, was succeeded by the present firm of “Edward F. Bodley & Co.” At these works the usual descriptions of earthenware, printed, enamelled, and gilt, and “ironstone china,” for steamship and hotel use, are made. The bodies and glazes, which have been considerably improved by the manager, Mr. Edward Beardmore, of Rode Heath, are, through his attention and skill, of a very high quality. The mark is the Staffordshire knot, with the words SCOTIA WORKS.
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Queen Street Works.--Messrs. Tinsley and Bourne entered on these works in 1874. They were formerly occupied by Mr. J. Edge and others.
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The Hill Works, on the opposite side of the road to the “Hill Pottery” already described, are of old foundation, and were, I am informed, worked by Enoch Wood (see page 273); Mr. Wood here growing, it is said, considerable quantities of “Siberian crabs,” which trees he planted in successive terraces. The works were also, I believe, at one time carried on by Ralph Wood, a member of the same family. He was a master potter in Burslem in 1787, and a very interesting relic connected with him is now in the hands of Mr. Thos. F. Wood, of this present firm of Wood & Baggaley. It is an iron tobacco box, bearing, engraved on its lid, the words, “Ralph Wood, Potter, Burslem, Staffordshire, 1787.” This box was given by this Ralph Wood, whose name appears upon it, to the grandfather of its present owner. About 1768, John Robinson, who before that time was with Sadler and Green, of Liverpool, left their employ to commence here the making of enamelled ware. In the Mayer Museum is a teapot made by him, and painted by Letitia Marsh (afterwards Mrs. Brood), who worked for him. It is of “squeezed ware,” and was given to Mr. Mayer by Dr. Simeon Shaw. After Wood’s time the works were carried on by Mr. Taylor, and next by Messrs. John & Richard Riley (who removed to them from the Nile Street works), by whom they were rebuilt, in 1814, and who produced china and earthenware and Egyptian black ware. They next passed to Messrs. Alcock & Keeling; and, on the retirement of the latter, to Messrs. Samuel Alcock & Co., who, having rebuilt and enlarged the “Hill Pottery,” removed there as already detailed. About 1851, Messrs. Barker & Son took the “Hill Works” for goods for the home and foreign markets. On their failure they were, in 1860, succeeded by Messrs. Morgan, Wood, & Co., which firm was afterwards altered to Messrs. Wood & Baggaley, the present occupiers. The goods made by Messrs. Wood & Baggaley are generally confined to the home market; they produce printed and decorated goods in dinner, toilet, tea, and breakfast services, and green glazed dessert ware, which, to some extent, they export. The mark used by the firm is a bee, with wings expanded; beneath which is a ribbon, with the initials, M W & CO, or W & B.
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Sylvester Pottery, Nile Street, belonging to Charles G. Barker, produces the ordinary white granite ware for the United States, Canadian, and other foreign markets.
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High Street Pottery.--This manufactory, usually known as “Union Bank,” through its having been for some time worked by the Potters’ Trades’ Union, belonged at one time to a family named Marsh; and was also carried on by Messrs. Whittingham, Ford, & Co., from whom it passed into the hands of the present proprietors, Messrs. Buckley, Wood, & Co. The goods produced are ordinary earthenware for the common home trade, and the mark used is simply the initials B W & CO.
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Sneyd Pottery, Albert Street.--These works were formerly carried on for the production of ordinary earthenware, by Messrs. Bennett. About 1867 they came into the hands of Williams, Oakes, & Co., and in 1876 the firm was altered to Oakes, Clare, & Chadwick, who produce in Rockingham, jet, majolica, and common earthenware, the ordinary classes of articles. They also make chest of drawers feet in large numbers, of various designs.
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Hadderidge Pottery.--These works, carried on by Mr. Thomas Heath, and afterwards, successively, by Mr. John Wedgwood, Mr. Phillips, and Messrs. W. & G. Harding, came into the hands of the firm of Heath & Blackhurst in November, 1859, by whom they are still continued. The productions are a middle-class quality of earthenware, both plain and decorated, for the home trade. In this class all the usual table, toilet, tea, and other services, and a variety of other articles, are made. The mark is a garter, encircling the initials H & B.
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Navigation Road.--The works of Mr. Edward Corn, erected some time back on what was a timber yard, and now carried on by Messrs. W. & E. Corn, are exclusively devoted to the production of white graniteware for the United States and other foreign markets.
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Bleak Hill Works.--Messrs. Beech & Podmore, of the Bell Works (which see), entered upon this manufactory in 1876. The works formerly belonged to Messrs. Moore Brothers, who produced the white graniteware for the American Markets, then successively to M. Isaacs and Son, Beech and Podmore, and Podmore alone. The goods now produced, besides tea and other services, are the ordinary marketable china and Parian chimney ornaments and toys, which are produced in large quantities both for home sale and for exportation to the United States, the East Indies, the Netherlands, and Australia. In Parian and “ivory body,” besides flower-vases and other small ornaments, some tolerably large groups have been produced; the “ivory body” possesses great softness in appearance, and is capable of being made largely available for ornamental purposes.
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Sytch Pottery.--Of very old foundation, this was, many years ago worked by Messrs. Keeling. The “Sytch Pottery” passed successively into the hands of Mr. R. Hall and Messrs. J. Hall & Sons. About 1832, Messrs. Barker, Sutton, & Till took to the works; but at subsequent periods, Mr. Barker and Mr. Sutton withdrew from the partnership; and from 1850 it remained in the hands of Mr. Thomas Till, who has been joined in partnership with his sons, and the firm is now “Thomas Till & Sons.” The wares usually produced have been good middle-class earthenware; but the present proprietors have greatly improved the ware, and added other branches to their manufacture. Besides earthenware of the usual average quality--in which services and innumerable useful articles are made by them--Messrs. Till produce coloured bodies of various kinds (cane, sage, drab, and lilac); stoneware of a hard and durable kind for jugs, &c.; jet glazed ware; terra cotta; enamelled ware; and various coloured lustres. These are principally intended for the home trade. At the Paris Exhibition of 1855 the firm received a certificate of merit. The mark used is the name of the firm.
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Kiln Croft Works.--These works are of old establishment. In or about 1800 they were carried on by a Mr. Handley, and in 1825, by Messrs. James and Thomas Edwards, who were succeeded by Messrs. Willett & Marsh. They were then continued by Mr. Marsh alone, and next by Messrs. T. & R. Boote, who were succeeded by the present owner, Mr. Henry Burgess. The goods produced are the usual quality of white graniteware, in services and various articles, for the United States and Canadian markets. The mark is the Royal Arms, with the name or initials of the firm.
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The Albert Pottery was built in 1860, by Mr. William Smith, of Tunstall; on whose failure in 1862 it was taken by Messrs. Dix & Tundley, of Silverdale, for the production of foreign-trade goods. In 1864 the works were purchased by the late Mr. Charles Hobson (who had originally been apprenticed to Mr. Williamson, the predecessor of the Davenports, at Longport), and successfully carried on by him until his death, in 1875. Mr. Hobson was then succeeded by his two sons, George and John Hobson, by whom they are continued. By Mr. Hobson the works were considerably enlarged. New biscuit ovens were added, and flint and colour mills, steam slip-house, pug mills, and sagger makers’ mill, built. The productions of the firm are now confined to the home trade, and consist of the usual services and other articles, in ordinary earthenware, both white, printed, lined, enamelled, and gilt.
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Waterloo Works.--These works were established about 1846 by Mr. James Vernon; then continued under the style of James Vernon & Son; and are now carried on by the son, Mr. James Vernon, jun., for the manufacture of ordinary earthenware for the South American and Italian markets. On this same site a manufactory was at one time carried on by Mr. Jonathan Leak, a clever potter, who after some strange vicissitudes went to Sydney, where, after a time, discovering a valuable bed of clay, he established the first pottery in Australia. He married a niece of Enoch Wood.
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Central Pottery.--These old-established works, the property of Mr. Alcock, of Bradwell Lodge, and carried on by his son, Mr. Richard Alcock, were formerly worked by Messrs. Hopkin & Vernon, next by Messrs. Hulme & Booth, next by Thomas Hulme, and then by Messrs. Burgess & Leigh, who were succeeded by Mr. Richard Alcock, by whom they have been considerably enlarged, rebuilt, and remodelled. Earthenware for the home markets was formerly made, but the operations are now confined to white graniteware for the United States.
Other manufacturers in Burslem have been, Joseph Machin & Co.; Thomas Heath (probably of the same family as the Heaths formerly of the Cock-pit Hill Pottery, Derby); John Hall & Sons; J. R. Marsh; T. & B. Godwin; J. Cormie; Messrs. Phillips, Dale Hall.
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Longport.--(Davenport & Co.) The famous works of Messrs. Davenport & Son date back more than a hundred years, the centenary of their establishment having taken place in 1873. In 1773 a manufactory was erected at Longport by John Brindley (brother of the celebrated James Brindley, the engineer, both of whom were natives of Tunstead, in Derbyshire), who also built for himself a handsome residence near at hand. This house was purchased in 1843 for a parsonage for St. Paul’s, Burslem, and was again, in 1858, sold to Mr. W. Davenport. Shortly after 1773 Mr. Edward Bourne built another manufactory, and this was followed by a third, erected by Mr. Robert Williamson, who in 1775 married Anne (née Henshall), widow of James Brindley, the engineer.
In 1793 the first-named manufactories passed into the hands of Mr. John Davenport, who greatly extended their operations. In 1797 Mr. John Davenport added to his other operations “the chemical preparation of litharge and white lead for the use of potters,” which, however, was afterwards discontinued. In 1801 the business of glass-making was added and is still carried on. In 1803 Mr. Davenport, supported by his neighbours at Longport, offered to raise, clothe, and equip, free of expense to Government, except arms, a volunteer corps of 500 men, and his offer was accepted, the number being limited by Government to four companies of 80 rank and file each. Mr. Davenport became Major of this force, and raised it to a high state of discipline. In connection with this it may be well to note that one of Mr. Davenport’s workmen at that time, and a member of his volunteer corps, was William Clowes, a nephew of Aaron Wedgwood, to whom he had been apprenticed. This William Clowes was a co-founder with Hugh Bourne of the now wide-spread sect of Primitive Methodists. About 1830 Mr. Davenport retired from active business, and chiefly resided at Westwood Hall, near Leek, where he died in 1848. The business was then carried on by the second son, Mr. Henry Davenport (who died in 1835), and the youngest son, Mr. William Davenport. Mr. Henry Davenport purchased the manufactory of Mr. Robert Williamson, and also his residence; these he enlarged and improved and added to his other works. In 1832 Mr. John Davenport was elected M.P. for the borough of Stoke-upon-Trent, being one of the first two members for that newly enfranchised borough. After the death of Mr. Henry Davenport the manufactories were carried on by his youngest brother, Mr. William Davenport, under the style of “W. Davenport & Co.” This gentleman died in 1869, and the entire business is now carried on by his only son, Mr. Henry Davenport, who fully sustains the high character of the works and of their varied productions.
King George IV., while Prince of Wales, in 1806 visited Messrs. Davenport’s works in company with his brother, King William IV., at that time Duke of Clarence. On the accession of William IV. to the throne his Majesty gave the order to this firm to manufacture for him a superb service, to be used at his coronation banquet. This Royal Service was completed in a very satisfactory manner, and was the subject of high commendation from the king and his noble guests on that occasion. On this service the crown was first used by the firm.
In the earlier years of the Longport manufactory, earthenware alone was produced, but no pieces of Brindley’s make are known. Mr. Davenport at first confined his operations to the manufacture of white, cream-coloured, and blue-printed wares, and these were of good substantial quality; his blue-printed plates with open-work rim of the same general character as those of the Herculaneum Works at Liverpool, are to be seen in most collections. Later on china was commenced, and at the present time this forms an equally extensive branch of the business with the earthenware. In both these, all the usual services and miscellaneous articles are produced, from the plain to the most elaborately decorated, both for the home, the continental, and the Brazilian markets; warehouses having been many years ago established by Mr. Davenport, M.P., at Hamburg and at Lubeck.
The china produced by Messrs. Davenport at the present time is of remarkably fine and good quality, both in body, in glaze, and in make, and in all these particulars ranks among the best produced in the district. Their tea and dessert ware is of extreme excellence, and many of the patterns are unsurpassed for richness of colouring and gilding by any other house. Among these specialities, their adaptations of the fine old Indian patterns, and such designs as gave so important a character to the productions of the old Derby works in their palmiest days, are especially good. The deep blues, the rich gradations of red, and the other colours employed, are in some of the patterns laid on with a lavish richness, and being combined with the most elaborate and delicate as well as massive gilding, produce intricate patterns of great beauty and of sumptuous appearance when “set out.” Some of the cups (notably those with sunk panels, and others which are bowl-shaped and supported upon gilt feet) are of elegant form, and are as faultless in manipulation as they are in decoration. In blue and white, whether in pencilled, ordinary transfer printing, or “flown” patterns, Messrs. Davenport are highly successful; and the blues they introduce have all the delicacy and purity of the best Oriental. The same remark as to purity and cleanness of tone will apply to their ground colours--the celadon and the rose du Barry--in both of which they produce charming but simple services, as they do also in white; in the latter the “potting” of some--approaching closely to egg-shell--is remarkably delicate and clever.
Another striking speciality of design in Messrs. Davenport’s china is the clever and artistic way in which they have adapted the old Willow pattern to the modern requirements of déjeuner services and menu holders. The forms of the various pieces composing the service are of quaint and striking elegance, and, being heightened by massively gilt handles, and by strictly appropriate gilding of borders, rims, feet and raised ornaments, an effect is produced which is surpassingly “taking.” The déjeuner of which I have thus briefly spoken is one of the most successful adaptations of the Willow pattern yet achieved.
In “stone china,” Messrs. Davenport’s dinner and dessert services, as well as jugs and other articles, are of faultless quality, and the styles of decoration, especially those which are adaptations--not servile imitations--of old Indian patterns, are remarkably good and effective. In some of these the spirit of the foreign artist has been so thoroughly caught, that, to the casual observer, they might well pass for genuine foreign pieces. The services in ordinary earthenware are extremely varied in pattern, in amount of decoration, and in variety of shapes; they are of good quality.
The marks used by Messrs. Davenport have been various, but almost in every instance the anchor has been the distinguishing characteristic; it is the trade mark of the firm. The crown was first used by them, on the Royal Service for William IV., and is now generally used on porcelain services. Figs. 429 to 436 are impressed marks.
The printed marks are, a circular garter, bearing the words DAVENPORT LONGPORT STAFFORDSHIRE, surrounding an anchor and the words “Stone China” in script. Another is a shield, with the words 30 CANNING PLACE LIVERPOOL 82 FLEET STREET LONDON encircled by a garter bearing the words DAVENPORT LONGPORT STAFFORD^{RE} and surmounted by the crest, an anchor on an heraldic wreath. Another has a circular garter, bearing the words DAVENPORTS & CO. surrounding the address, 82, FLEET STREET LONDON.
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Longport Terra Cotta.--At the 1851 Exhibition Mr. W. Marsh, (modeller at Davenports’) of Longport, exhibited a very successful example of terra cotta produced by him. It was a wine-cooler of bold and good design. It is engraved on Fig. 414. In the early part of this century Messrs. Samuel Marsh & Co. were manufacturers at Brownhills.
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Brownhills.--About 1782 Mr. John Wood (son of Ralph Wood, of Brownhills, and Mary Wedgwood) built a manufactory, with house adjoining, on property originally belonging to the Burslem and Wedgwood families, which he had purchased of Thomas Lovatt. Here he carried on the potting business until his death in 1797, when he was succeeded by his son, Mr. John Wood, who continued it until 1830, when he took down the manufactory, enlarged the house, and extended the grounds.
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Littler.--William Littler, of Brownhills, whose father had carried on a business as potter there, was the first man in Staffordshire who attempted the making of china ware. “He commenced business about 1745 when he attained his majority, and a few years afterwards removed the seat of his manufacture to Longton Hall, where he prosecuted his experiments with very good success, as regarded the beauty and delicacy of his china, but with disastrous results to himself, for he soon sacrificed his patrimony in the speculation, and was obliged to abandon it. The specimens we have seen of Mr. Littler’s china exhibit great lightness and beauty, and would certainly have won their way in after times. Mr. Littler had the merit of first making use of the fluid glaze which Mr. Enoch Booth afterwards improved upon.”--(Ward.) Littler’s pot-works have long disappeared. Some specimens of Littler’s porcelain are preserved in private collections, and one or two are in the Hanley Museum; to one of these is attached the following note in Enoch Wood’s handwriting: “This was given to Enoch Wood by William Fletcher, in January, 1809.”
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Marsh and Haywood.--This firm formerly carried on business here as manufacturers of general earthenware, as did also Mr. John Wood, at Highgate.
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Brownhills Works.--These works (formerly Marsh and Haywoods) were for many years carried on by Mr. George F. Bowers, who attained a fair reputation for china goods, and gained a medal at the Exhibition of 1851. Subsequently he commenced the manufacture of earthenware, which he continued until his death, when he was succeeded by his son, Mr. Frederick F. Bowers. On his failure in 1871 the manufactory was purchased by Mr. James Eardley, of Alsager, and it is now carried on by his son and sons-in-law, Messrs. Alfred J. Eardley, Edwin Meir, William H. Bratt, Robert H. Parker, and George Hammersley, under the style of “The Brownhills Pottery Co.;” considerable alterations and extensions have been made in the buildings. The goods produced by the Company are of the usual useful classes of table, tea, toilet, and other requisites, in fine earthenware, stoneware, buff, turquoise, and cream-coloured ware; and in decorations of the fine earthenware services improvements have been effected by which the printing of enamel upon the glaze, and lining on the bisque, are effected. The last is produced at considerable less cost than enamel lines, and while making a tolerably near approach in point of colour, is more durable, because protected by the glaze. The body and glaze are of good quality, and the decorations, whether printed or painted, are of good average character. In dinner services some of their more recent patterns, are the “Premier,” “Pagoda,” and “Dragon,” which are produced both printed and enamelled; their most successful shapes are the “Bulrush,” “Laurel,” and “Boston.” In toilet ware their “Greek” shape, is remarkably good, and is made in various degrees of decoration. In stone ware, some excellent designs in tea-pots, jugs, &c., are produced, as are also jugs and other useful articles in cream ware; the adaptations of Japanese ornamentation in the former are highly successful. In jet ware, which is of good quality, tea-pots, jugs, and other articles are made, and some of those are highly decorated in enamel and gold; the firm also have a process of printing in yellow upon the glaze of their jet goods, which produces a cheap and somewhat effective class of decoration. Another speciality is a rich full deep-red terra cotta, highly glazed, and elaborately decorated in a variety of effective patterns in enamel and gold; in this, toilet services of good design and novel appearance are largely made. In ornamental goods the Company produce vases of various forms (notably among which are the “Hindoo,” “Milan,” “Pekin,” and other designs); scent jars, flower tubes, and stands, and other articles. The productions are of a good useful quality, decorated in a more than ordinarily artistic style; many of the designs (notably the “Briony” pattern toilet services, “Lorne” tea-pots, &c.) are good, and the colours faultless. The marks used, besides the name of the pattern, “Minerva,” “Link,” “Laurel,” &c., bear the initials B. P. CO., with ribbon, &c., printed on the ware.
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New Bridge Works, Longport.--This manufactory, spoken of on page 283 as one of those carried on by Messrs. W. Davenport and Son, in 1877 passed into the hands of Mr. Edward Clarke, formerly of the Church Yard Works at Burslem, and of the Phœnix Works at Tunstall (both of which see), who removed thither from the last-named place. In that year Mr. Clarke took into partnership Mr. F. J. Emery, the inventor of the process of crayon drawing and painting on the bisque surface, referred to on page 295. Mr. Clarke, whose productions both at Burslem and at Tunstall are spoken of in other parts of this volume, produces the finest, hardest, and most durable earthenware in “white granite” for the American markets, where it takes and maintains the highest rank. He also produces all the usual services in various styles of decoration, for the home trade. The mark used by the new firm is the name “EDWARD CLARKE & CO.”
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Waterloo Road Works, established in 1820 (on the site of a very old pottery “on Bournes Bank,” afterwards worked by William Harrison) by Mr. Thomas Hughes (grandfather, of the present owner), and carried on by him and his successors, Stephen Hughes & Co., till about 1856, since which time they have been continued solely by the present Mr. Thomas Hughes, by whom the whole place has been enlarged, improved, and modernised. The manufactory is now considered to be one of the best arranged in the town. The goods produced are all the usual articles in the hard durable “granite” or so-called “ironstone china” for the American markets; they are of good quality, and are produced both light and heavy to meet various requirements. Goods are also, to some extent, produced for the home trade. The mark, stamped on the ware, is
THOMAS HUGHES IRONSTONE CHINA
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Cobridge Works.--The manufactory of Messrs. W. Brownfield & Son was erected in 1808, and from that time for a few years was worked by Messrs. Bucknall & Stevenson, and afterwards by Mr. A. Stevenson alone. In 1819 the works were closed, and afterwards passed into the hands of Mr. James Clews, who continued them until 1829, when they were again closed. His mark was a crown and his name, thus--
In 1836 the premises were opened by Messrs. Robinson, Wood, & Brownfield, and after Mr. Robinson’s death, in the same year, were continued by Wood & Brownfield. In 1850 Mr. Wood retired, and the business was continued solely by Mr. Brownfield (who died in 1873) until 1871, when he was joined in partnership by his eldest son, Mr. William Etches Brownfield, and from that time to the present the firm has been carried on under the style of “W. Brownfield & Son.” The goods produced during the earlier period of the works were the ordinary white, blue printed, and sponged varieties of earthenware. From 1850, when the works became the sole property of Mr. Brownfield, rapid strides were made in the improvement of the wares, and under the present firm they have become equal to any others produced. In earthenware, which, both in body and glaze, is of more than average quality, Messrs. Brownfield & Son produce white, printed, enamelled, and gilt wares, from the simplest to the more elaborate and costly patterns, in table, toilet, and dessert services, and all the usual articles for household use. Many of the printed patterns are well designed, and in the better classes of goods the enamelling and gilding are very effective. Some of the most successful are imitations of the grand old patterns adopted by Mason on his ironstone china. The stoneware jugs produced are a speciality of this firm, and take a foremost rank; in quality of body they are remarkably good; while in form, in modelling, and in decoration they are of equal excellence. The group Fig. 439 represents some examples from the Exhibition of 1862, where the firm, as well as at Paris in 1867, received a medal. Tea services, tea-kettles, tea-pots, flower-pots, vases, jardinière, trinket services, and other goods, are also produced in earthenware in every style of decoration. Notably among these is a remarkably well-designed and elegant strawberry tray, formed of shells and strawberry leaves, with a seated Cupid in the centre at the back; it is particularly artistic, both in composition, in execution, and in colouring.
In 1871 the manufacture of china was added to that of earthenware (new buildings being specially erected for the purpose), and the productions in this department have made rapid strides towards perfection. In china, dinner, tea, breakfast, dessert, and other services, jugs, and a variety of useful articles, as well as vases and other fancy goods, are produced. Messrs. B. & S. have, in this branch, produced some novel and very effective designs in dessert services, centre-pieces, fern and flower-stands, &c., and some of their vases are of the highest style of excellence. Notably among these is a pair of magnificent vases, exquisitely painted, with Etty-like subjects of “Morning and Mid-day.” These are among the highest achievements of modern Art. Among the minor pieces is an oviform vase representing the hatching of the egg. The body of the vase is true to nature in colour--that of a sea-bird’s egg; the handles are formed of the heads, and the bird’s legs and feet form the stand.
The mark of the firm upon the printed goods was formerly W & B, W B, or W B & S, in addition to the name of the pattern. The present mark on both earthenware and porcelain is--
The impressed marks are the Staffordshire knot (Fig. 442), enclosing the initials W B; and the name BROWNFIELD.
The firm does a large home trade, as well as an export one to Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Russia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, United States and other parts of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and other countries. The manufactory is very extensive; upwards of five hundred persons being employed.
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T. Furnival & Sons.--This firm (who occupy two old manufactories, viz., those formerly belonging to Adams and to Blackwell) has been established about thirty years, and ranks high as manufacturers of white granite and vitrified ironstone, and decorated toilet wares, for the United States and Canadian markets, to which they ship large quantities of goods, as they do also printed goods to the continental markets. For the home trade Messrs. Furnival & Sons produce, in their beautiful “patent ironstone,” dinner and other services of various qualities in point of decoration. Among their more recent “specialities” are dinner services, &c, of rich Italian design (made for Pellatt & Wood), plain white, with a china-like surface and glaze; the ornamentation, which is indented, is produced from an embossed mould, the lines being as fine and delicate as if cut in by the graver, so as to have the appearance of chasing; and the lines being filled with glaze the surface is still even. Other noted patterns are the “Dresden Flute” and “Lemon Knob” services. In crested services for the home markets a large and satisfactory trade is done. Another noticeable feature is the happy combination in services of transfer printing, hand painting, enamelling and gilding; some of the services, those decorated with grasses and insects especially, are of high artistic order, and show how advantageously the two processes can be combined. Our engraving shows a group of articles produced at that manufactory, which are remarkable for their elegant forms and for the simple beauty of their decorations. Another engraving exhibits a remarkably elegant flower-pot and stand, with relief figures and other decorations. But these are not a tithe of the beautiful articles produced by Messrs. Furnival. Among the more successful of their productions are the “Swan” and “Nautilus” toilet services, which are of great beauty. The body of the former ewer is oviform, with bulrush decorations in relief; the neck, mouth, and handle make a well-formed swan. These are produced in white, heightened with gold, and enamelled in colours. The “Nautilus” pattern has the mouth of the ewer formed of a nautilus shell and the handle of coral, while the decorations are sea-weeds, true to nature, both in modelling and in colour. The mark of the firm is simply FURNIVAL impressed in the ware.
In connection with these works Mr. F. J. Emery, the then cashier to the firm, introduced, a few years ago, a method of crayon drawing and painting on the bisqué surface of earthenware and china. This beautiful process, which is especially applicable to tiles for fire-places, &c., but is also admirably adapted for the decoration of ordinary articles, has become much in repute, and exquisite drawings have been made in it by some of the first artists of the time, as well as by lady and other amateurs. The bisqué articles, and prepared crayons and colours, were supplied by Mr. Emery, who afterwards became a partner with Mr. E. Clarke at Longport.
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Bates & Bennet (formerly John & Robert Godwin), are manufacturers of general earthenware of ordinary quality, the principal productions being what is called “Imperial measure ware” for the home markets.
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Abbey Pottery.--(H. Meakin, late Edward Pearson.)--These works were, it is said, established in 1703. White granite ware, for the American markets only, has of late years been produced.
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Villa Pottery.--This manufactory for general earthenware was carried on at the beginning of the present century, by Mr. Warburton. From about 1835 it was carried on by Messrs. Jones & Walley till 1850, from which time, until 1865, Mr. Edward Walley continued it. In the latter year it passed into the hands of Messrs. Wood, Son, & Co., its present proprietors, who confine themselves to the production of plain white granite ware for the American and other foreign markets. The mark is the Royal Arms and name of the firm.
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Cobridge Works.--Established in 1836 by Messrs. Wingfield Harding & Charles Cockson, under the firm of Harding & Cockson, who produced ordinary china goods. In 1856, on the death of Mr. Harding, the business was continued, until 1861, by his sons, W. M. and J. B. Harding, in partnership with Mr. Cockson; and from 1862 to 1865 by Mr. Charles Cockson alone, during the whole of which time china was produced. In 1866 Elijah and David Chetwynd became partners, the firm being then Cockson & Chetwynd. In 1873 Mr. Cockson died, and the business was continued by his widow under the same style till 1876, when the former retired, and it again changed to Cockson & Seddon. In 1866 the making of china was discontinued and the manufacture of white granite ware, for the American trade, substituted. The mark is the Royal Arms and the name “IMPERIAL IRONSTONE CHINA, COCKSON & CHETWYND,” or “COCKSON & SEDDON.”
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Cobridge Works.--Messrs. Henry Alcock & Co., at these extensive works, which were formerly carried on by John Alcock, manufacture white granite ware exclusively for the American markets.
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Elder Road Works.--This pottery has been worked by Messrs. Meakin & Co. since 1865, and is capable of turning out about 2,500 crates of ware annually. The productions are entirely confined to the white granite ware for the United States.
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Warburton.--Pot works were established here by John Warburton very early in the last century; after his death they were continued by his widow, Ann Warburton. They are stated to have made white stoneware for Holland and the Continent, and to have ultimately brought over some workmen from Delft. Jacob Warburton, the son, succeeded to the business, and died in 1826, at the ripe age of eighty-four. His son, Peter Warburton, was one of the partners of the New Hall China Works (which see); to him is said by Shaw to belong the credit of printing in gold, and to his mother that of first using soda. In 1810, Peter Warburton took out a patent for “a new method of decorating china, porcelain, earthenware, and glass, with native, pure or adulterated, gold, silver, platina, or other metals, fluxed or lowered with lead or any other substance, which invention or new method leaves the metals after being burned in their metallic state.”
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Daniel.--Ralph Daniel, a potter at Cobridge, employed in the early part of last century some workmen from Delft, and, to keep their process secret, started works at Bagnall for them. About 1743 he introduced the use of plaster of Paris moulds, such as he found were being used in France.
The potters at Cobridge in 1843 were Wood and Brownfield, John and George Alcock, Francis Dillon, Elijah Jones, Stephen Hughes and Co., Benjamin Endon Godwin, John Mayer Godwin and James Godwin, John and Robert Godwin, George and Ralph Leigh, and Coxon, Harding, and Co. Potteries also, early in last century, existed at Holden Lane, at Milton, and at Sneyd Green.
Other potters at one time or other at Cobridge are N. Dillon, R. Stevenson, Mansfield & Hackney, and Rathbone, Hill & Co.
Other manufacturers are W. E. Cartledge, Bournes Bank; W. Holdcroft; Hope and Carter; Thos. Hughes; Maddock & Co., formerly Maddock and Gater; C. Meakin; Oulsnam and Son; Pope and Co.; and Wade and Colclough.
In 1770 (Feb. 4th), the following Staffordshire potters signed an agreement as to prices:--John Platt, John Lowe, John Taylor, John Cobb, Robt. Bucknall, John Daniel, Thos. Daniel, junr., Richd. Adams, (Dr.) Saml. Chatterley, Thos. Lowe, John Allen, Wm. Parrott, Jacob Warburton, Warburton and Stone, Jos. Smith, Joshua Heath, John Bourn, Jos. Stephens, Wm. Smith, Jos. Simpson, John Weatherby, J. and Rd. Mare, Nicholas Poole, John Yates, Chas. Hassells, Ann Warburton and Son (T. Warburton), Wm. Meir. Other potters were Chas. and Ephraim Chatterley, W. Mellor, and Whithead.
Chapter VII
Hanley and Shelton--Miles--Phillips--Astbury--Baddeley--Edwards --Voyez--Palmer--Neale--Wilson--New Hall Works--Hollins--Keeling --Turner--Warburton--Clowes--Bagnall--New Hall Company--Richard Champion--Glass--Twyford--Mare--Twemlow--Old Hall Works--Meigh--Broad Street Works--Mason--Ashworth--Cauldon Place--Ridgways--Browne-Westhead & Co.--Trent Pottery--Keeling--Booth & Co.--Stafford Street Works--Church Works--Waterloo Works--Kensington Works--Burton Place Works--Clarence Street Works--Nelson Place--Phœnix and Bell Works----Bedford Works--Mayer Street--Cannon Street Works--Brewery Street--Percy Street Works--Taylor, Tunnicliffe & Co.--Biller & Co.--Albion Works--Eastwood Vale--Eastwood Works--Dental Manufacturing Company--Trent Pottery--James Dudson--Victoria Works--Charles Street Works--High Street--Eagle Works--Brook Street Works--Cannon Street--William Stubbs--Norfolk Street Works--Broad Street--Albert Works--Ranelagh Works--Swan Works--Mayer Street Works--Brook Street Works--Dresden Works--Bath Street Works--Waterloo Works--New Street Pottery--Castle Field Pottery--Henry Venables.
Miles.--In 1685 Thomas Miles, of Shelton, was a maker of white stoneware, of much the same kind as that imported from Germany and Holland. He is stated to have used the Shelton clay, such as had been used by pipe-makers, worked with other clays from Baddeley Edge.
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Phillips.--Occasionally pieces are met with bearing the name of this potter, who was of Shelton.
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Astbury.--Having already, in the first volume, spoken of the manner in which one of the family of Astbury discovered the use of calcined flint, and how the secret of the brothers Elers was surreptitiously obtained, it is not necessary to recapitulate it here. The Astburys were a very old and important family, as connected with the potteries, and one of them, Samuel Astbury, was uncle to Josiah Wedgwood (having married his father’s sister, Elizabeth Wedgwood), and in 1744 was one of the witnesses to the deed of his apprenticeship. The discoverer of the use of flint, it appears more than probable, was John Astbury, whose gravestone is in Stoke churchyard. The inscription on the stone is, “Here lieth the body of John Astbury, the Elder, of Shelton, Potter, who departed this life March 3rd, 1743, aged 55 years.” The use of flint was discovered about 1720, when he was about thirty-two years old, and the brothers Elers had previously left the district, about 1710. John Astbury had a son Joshua, of the Foley, who died 1780, as recorded on the same stone. Other sons were Thomas and Samuel. “John Astbury, the elder,” as recorded on his tombstone, lost a daughter Margaret, aged six, in 1728, and he had afterwards a second daughter of the same name, who married Robert Garner, potter, and was the mother of Robert Garner (father of Robert Garner, Esq., of Stoke), an eminent potter of Lane End (which see). Twyford, who shares the credit of having wormed out the secrets of the Elers, was a fellow workman, and afterwards a partner of Astbury, and was, either himself or by his descendants, connected with the family.
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Baddeley.--Another of the old potteries of this place was carried on in 1750 by R. & J. Baddeley, who, at a somewhat later date, were famous for their blue ware. An interesting reference to these works will be found at page 137, vol. i., in connection with a workman named Doe. In 1794 Ralph Baddeley was in business in Shelton, and in 1796 the firm was “John & Edward Baddeley, Shelton,” as appears by their billheads of that date. The premises were afterwards used by Hicks, Meigh, & Co. (see Broad Street Works). Of another potter of this name, William Baddeley, a notice will be found on a later page.
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Edwards.--Warner Edwards had, last century, works in Albion Street, where he not only manufactured various kinds of ware, but made enamel colours for other houses. He died in 1753, and the premises were afterwards occupied by Messrs. J. & W. Ridgway. Mr. Thomas Daniel, an eminent potter, was his apprentice. During his last illness Warner Edwards handed his book of recipes to this Thomas Daniel, who was father of Spode’s clever enameller, Henry Daniel, who afterwards, in conjunction with his son Richard, was a successful manufacturer at Stoke and Hanley. It is worthy of remark that Edwards was a maker of enamel colours full twenty years before Wedgwood took out his patent for them in 1769.
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Voyez.--This clever workman, a modeller, was employed by Wedgwood about 1768, and “off and on” afterwards, but was a dishonourable and erratic character. He produced many clever imitations of Wedgwood and Bentley’s wares, and is said to have even stamped them with their name, which he forged, and sold the goods as their work. Occasionally his name, J. VOYEZ, is found impressed in the body of the ware.
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Palmer.--John Palmer, of Bagnall, about 1680, was a salt-glaze potter, and was the one to whom the discovery of the use of salt was first told (see vol. i., page 94). His son or grandson, Henry Palmer, was also a potter at Hanley (at the Church Works, in High Street, which he probably built), and was a successful imitator of Wedgwood’s productions. His Egyptian black, or basalt ware, and his jasper ware, are of great excellence and beauty and very closely resemble those of Wedgwood. He was noted for his piracy of these goods, and surreptitiously obtained Wedgwood’s new designs as they came out. His piracy was, however, after a time, carried too far, and an injunction was served upon him to restrain his making Etruscan painted vases in contravention of Wedgwood’s patent. This ended in a compromise: Palmer purchasing a share in the patent right. Intaglios and seals were also, about 1772–3, closely copied by Palmer, much to the annoyance and loss of Wedgwood and Bentley. In 1778 Mr. Palmer failed. Neale, who is said to have been a partner with Palmer so far as his London business was concerned, having arranged matters, the business at Hanley was carried on under the style of “Neale & Palmer” and “Neale & Co.” The mark of Mr. Palmer was in the same style as that of Wedgwood and Bentley--a circle with the name in raised letters (Fig. 455). Some examples bear the name, stamped, “H. Palmer, Hanley, Staffordshire.” Palmer and Neale are said to have married two sisters, the daughters of Thomas Heath, of Lane Delph; and Mr. Pratt, of Fenton, a third daughter.
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Neale.--Neale, the successor of Palmer, continued the business at Hanley, and produced many remarkably good and artistic articles in basalt, in jasper, and in other wares, and became, if possible, even a more close and clever imitator of Wedgwood’s wares than his predecessor had been. In 1780 he appears to have had two partners, and to have carried on the business under the style of “Neale, Maidment, and Bailey,” and, later, as “Neale & Bailey” and “Neale and Wilson.” Usually, however, the firm was simply “Neale & Co.” Neale’s productions are much esteemed for the excellence of the body, the cleverness of design, and the sharpness of their execution. His cream-coloured earthenware, too, is of very good and fine quality. He was succeeded, I believe, by his partner Wilson. The marks used by Neale, so far as I have met with them, are “Neale & Co.,” sometimes in large and at others in small sized letters, impressed in the ware; NEALE & CO. in italic capital letters, also impressed; NEALE & CO. in Roman capital letters, also impressed; and “Neale & Wilson.” Another mark was, like Palmer’s, adopted, in form, from Wedgwood & Bentley. It is a circle, bearing the name in raised letters.
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Wilson.--Robert Wilson, the successor to the firm of Neale & Wilson, continued the manufactory, but devoted himself mainly to cream-coloured earthenware, more or less decorated. His name is occasionally met with simply as WILSON impressed in the body of the ware, and occasionally in connection with a crown and the distinctive mark C (Fig. 457). Robert Wilson was for a long time sole manager to Neales; and he, and the still more celebrated potter, Elijah Mayer, whose works and residence were just opposite the Church Works, married two sisters of the name of Mayer, but of different families. After the retirement or death of Wilson his brother David carried on the works (1802). It was afterwards D. Wilson & Sons; then Assignees of Wilson; then Phillips & Bagster. The Phillips of this firm was Jacob, brother to Jonathan Phillips, of Oxford Street, London, and uncle to the present Messrs. Phillips of Oxford Street. The firm was then Bagster alone for a while, after which the manufactory and house adjoining, where Bagster had resided, came into the market and were purchased by Joseph Mayer, son and successor of Elijah Mayer, whose works and residence, as I said before, were immediately opposite the road. The Church Works were then (1831) rented by William Ridgway & Co., Mr. Ridgway being Joseph Mayer’s cousin; and I should here mention that Job Ridgway, the father of William and John Ridgway, had married the sister of Elijah Mayer, Joseph’s father. Joseph Mayer had in his employ a clever modeller named Leonard James Abington, who was also a fair chemist, and so much in favour with his employer that the latter placed him in partnership with William Ridgway, and he was the ‘Co.’ It was shortly after this (about 1833) that Joseph Mayer ceased potting, and let his works to William Ridgway & Co. in addition to the Church Works. He, however, retained some warehouses and stabling offices adjoining his residence, and had these crammed with some of the best of his stock, Egyptian black, cane, chocolate, brown, and Queen’s ware, some of the latter elaborately perforated and painted--an indescribable jumble of most beautiful pottery,--and there it remained locked up until his death in 1860. To return to the Church Works: the next addition to the firm, as soon as he was old enough to enter it, was William Ridgway’s son, Edward John, the title of the firm being changed to William Ridgway, Son & Co. In course of time William Ridgway retiring, the two manufactories were carried on by his son, Edward John Ridgway, and L. J. Abington, and it was styled Ridgway & Abington. It was ultimately Edward John Ridgway alone, and is now Powell & Bishop, Mr. E. J. Ridgway having built large works in Bedford Road called the Bedford Works.
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The New Hall Works are historically interesting as being the first in which porcelain was successfully made in Staffordshire, and to them, therefore, must be ascribed the introduction of that art into “the Potteries,” since become so famous and so extensive. In my account of the Bristol china works[51] I have shown how Richard Champion’s patent (who had purchased the patent right of William Cookworthy, of Plymouth,) was sold to a company of Staffordshire potters. This transfer of rights took place in or about the year 1777. The company consisted of six persons, viz., Samuel Hollins, of Shelton, Anthony Keeling, of Tunstall, John Turner, of Lane End, Jacob Warburton, of Hot Lane, William Clowes, of Port Hill, and Charles Bagnall, of Shelton. Of these six persons the following are brief notices:--
Samuel Hollins, a maker of the fine red-ware tea-pots, &c., from the clay at Bradwell, previously worked by the brothers Elers, was of Shelton, and was the son of Mr. Hollins, of the Upper Green, Hanley. He was an excellent practical potter, and made many improvements in his art. He was afterwards one of the partners of the New Hall China Works, and his successors in the manufactory were his sons, Messrs. T. & J. Hollins.
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Anthony Keeling, of Tunstall, was son-in-law of the celebrated potter, Enoch Booth, having married his daughter Ann. Keeling succeeded Enoch Booth in his business, which he carried on successfully for many years. He erected a large house near the works, but in 1810, retired on a small independence to Liverpool, where he died a few years afterwards. He was the principal support of a small sect calling themselves “Sandemanians,” who had their place of worship in his works.
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John Turner, first of Stoke, and then of Lane End, father of Messrs. John and William Turner, was one of the most clever and successful potters Staffordshire ever produced, but one about whom little has been written. Many of his productions in black and in jasper, &c., are quite equal to those of Wedgwood, and, indeed, are often mistaken for the work of that great man. Mr. Turner’s cream ware, too, as well as his stone ware, of which his jugs are best known to collectors, rank high in excellence both of design and manipulation. In 1762 Mr. Turner commenced manufacturing at Lane End, and made many improvements in the art, and by the discovery of a vein of fine clay at Green Dock was enabled successfully to compete not only with other potters, but with Wedgwood himself. Mr. Turner is stated to have been deputed, with Wedgwood, by the Staffordshire potters, to oppose the extension of the patent to Champion.
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Jacob Warburton, of Hot, or Holt Lane, a man highly respected by every class, and who lived until the year 1826, was born in 1740, and passed his long and useful life as a potter, in which art he rose to considerable eminence in his early years in connection with his father and brothers, and later on his own account, and, in partnership with others, in the New Hall Works. He was the “last member of the old school of potters, the early friend and contemporary of the ‘father of the Potteries,’ Josiah Wedgwood, with whom he was for many years in the habit of confidential intercourse and friendship. Numerous are the benefits which the public derived from the united exertions of the talents and abilities of these two venerated characters, on every point connected with the local interest and prosperity of the Staffordshire Potteries.” Besides being one of the most clever and energetic potters, “he was a good scholar, and a man of pure taste; he had read extensively, and his memory was tenacious in a very extraordinary degree. He was equally distinguished for his moral and convivial habits of mind, for the soundness of his intellect and the goodness of his heart. He spoke fluently the French, Dutch, and German languages, and was learning the Italian up to the very period of his death.” He retained his activity of body and mind to the last, and, though eighty-six years of age, set out the day preceding his death to walk to Cobridge. He died while a friend was reading to him. Mr. Warburton, who was a Roman Catholic, was twice married. For some years before his decease he had retired from business, and died at his residence, Ford Green, in the parish of Norton.
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William Clowes, of Port Hill, was, it is said, only a sleeping partner in the concern.
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Charles Bagnall, of Shelton, who had previously been with Joshua Heath, was a potter of considerable experience, in the middle of last century. He was probably a son of the potter of the same name, who was a maker of butter-pots in Burslem in 1710–15. He became one of the partners in the New Hall Works a century ago. The family has been connected with Staffordshire for many generations.
The company, being thus formed, purchased the patent right from Richard Champion, who removed into Staffordshire to superintend the establishing of the new works in that county. The first operations of the company were conducted at the works of one of the partners, Anthony Keeling, at Tunstall, the pottery formerly belonging, as just stated, to his father-in-law, Enoch Booth. Tunstall at this period was a mere small street, or rather roadway, with only a few houses--probably not more than a score--scattered about it and the lanes leading to Chatterley and Red Street. To this spot, the forerunner of the present large and important town, Cookworthy’s patent was brought, and here, with the experienced potters who had become its purchasers, and under the management of Champion, who had produced such exquisite specimens of art at Bristol, and who had been induced, as a part of the arrangement, to superintend the manufacture, the first pieces of china made in Staffordshire, with the exception of the trial pieces of Littler, were produced. To accommodate the new branch of manufacture at Keeling’s pot-works some alterations of course became necessary, and thus it was some little time before the partners had the satisfaction of seeing anything produced under the patent-right which they had purchased. Among the partners, too, some disagreements arose, which ended in John Turner and Anthony Keeling withdrawing from the concern, and about 1780 Keeling is said to have removed to London. This withdrawal and disagreement caused the remaining partners to remove their work from Keeling’s premises, and they took a house in Shelton, known as “Shelton Hall,” afterwards the “New Hall,” in contradistinction to the “Old Hall,” celebrated as being the birthplace of Elijah Fenton, the poet. At this time Shelton Hall, which had been purchased in 1773 of Alice Dalton, widow, (who had inherited it from her brother, Edward Burslem Sundell,) by Humphrey Palmer, was occupied by his son, Thomas Palmer, as a pot-works. In 1777, Humphrey Palmer, intending a second marriage with Hannah Ashwin, of Stratford-on-Avon, gave a rent-charge of £30 on the Hall and pot-works, and a life interest in the rest of the estate, as a dower to that lady, reserving the right for his son, Thomas Palmer, the potter, to get clay and marl from any part of the estate for his own use. In 1789, Humphrey Palmer and his wife being both dead, the estate passed to their infant and only child, Mary Palmer, of whose successor’s executors, after some uninteresting changes, it was, as will be seen, ultimately purchased by the china manufacturers. At this time the works had been considerably increased, and they grew gradually larger, till, in 1802, they are described as three messuages, three pot-works, one garden, fifty acres of land, thirty acres of meadow, and forty acres of pasture, &c. About the time of the withdrawal of Keeling and Turner from the partnership, and the removal of the works from Tunstall to Shelton, Richard Champion left.
Fairly settled at New Hall, the company took for their manager Mr. John Daniel, who afterwards became a partner in the concern. The firm, as at first formed at Shelton, consisted of Messrs. Hollins, Warburton, Clowes, and Bagnall, but was afterwards carried on by Hollins, Warburton, Clowes, and Daniel. A considerable quantity of china was produced under the patent, but the most extensive and profitable branch of the New Hall business was the making and vending of the glaze called “composition,” made of materials to whose use the company had the exclusive right. This “composition,” made from the ingredients given in the specification printed in my account of the Bristol works, was supplied by the New Hall firm to the potters of the neighbourhood, and even sent to other localities, to a large extent and at a highly remunerative price. The ware made at this period was precisely similar in body and glaze to that of Bristol, to which, from the fact of some of the same artists being employed, it bears also a marked resemblance in ornamentation. In 1796 the patent, which had been enjoyed successively by Cookworthy, Champion, and the Staffordshire company, for a period of twenty-eight years, expired; but the company continued to make the hard paste china, and to supply “composition” (many potters finding it more convenient still to purchase instead of making that essential) to other manufacturers. In 1810, the firm--then consisting of four partners, viz., Samuel Hollins, of Shelton, Peter Warburton (son of Jacob Warburton), of Cobridge, John Daniel, of Hanley, and William Clowes, of Port Hill--became the purchasers of the New Hall estate for the sum of £6,800. In 1813 Peter Warburton died, leaving his share in the works to his father (Jacob Warburton) and John Daniel, as trustees under his will. In 1821, John Daniel died, and two years afterwards Samuel Clowes died also. John Daniel, I presume, was a son of Ralph Daniel, to whom the potters were indebted for discovering the system of making moulds in plaster of Paris instead of in brass, as previously done. Mr. Daniel is said to have visited the potteries and porcelain manufactories in France, and brought back with him a mould of cast plaster of Paris, which he showed and introduced to the English makers. The potters, however, knew so little of the process by which the mould was produced, that they got blocks of the gypsum of Derbyshire and cut their moulds in them, until it was explained that the gypsum must be first burnt and ground, and then cast. This circumstance is so graphically described in the “Burslem Dialogue,” given by Ward, that I transcribe the few following lines for my readers’ amusement:
“Telwright.--That wur a queer trick, wur it no’, o’ Rafy Dennil’s?
“Leigh.--Dun yo’ meeon th’ cause o’ his gooin’ to France, or es ha he geet int’ th’ work hâisn theer, an seed’n aw ha they did’n wi ther ware?
“Telwright.--Oi meeon him foindin’ aat i’ whot wey they mayd’n ther mewds (moulds).
“Leigh.--That wur a fawse trick, for sartin, an o’ gret yewse to th’ treyde. Bu’ wot a blunder th’ mesters here mayd’n, when he sent ’em word abaat it!
“Telwright.--Haa dust meeon, Rafy? Oi am no’ properly insens’t on’t.
“Leigh.--Whoy, yo’ seyn as haa they geet’n th’ plaster-ston’ fro’ Darbyshur aw reet; bu’ then, i’stid o’ fust groindin’ it an’ bakin’ into dust loike fleawr, an usin’ th’ dust wi wayter for t’ cast on th’ moddills, as they cawn ’em, th’ mesters had th’ raw ston’ cut i shapes, an’ tryd’n for t’ mak things oof ’em; bu’ they cudna. Then at last he sent ’em full word haa to dew it.”
Hard paste porcelain continued to be made at New Hall until about the year 1810 or 1812, when the bone paste, which had been gradually making its way in the district, finally superseded it, and the company continued their works on the newer system. In 1825 the entire stock of the concern, which had for a short time been carried on for the firm by a person named Tittensor, was sold off, and the manufacture of china of any description entirely ceased at New Hall.
The works, after having been closed for a short time, were next opened as an earthenware manufactory by Mr. William Ratcliffe, who for a few years continued to make the commoner description of white and printed earthenware for ordinary home consumption. They next passed, in 1842, into the hands of Messrs. W. Hackwood & Son, who removed from their works near Joiner Square (now called the “Eastwood Pottery”) for that purpose; and seven years later, Mr. Hackwood senior having died, they were continued by the son, Thomas Hackwood. The goods were the ordinary descriptions of earthenware, principally for Continental markets, and bore the name of HACKWOOD impressed. In 1856, they passed into the hands of Messrs. Cockson & Harding, who continued to manufacture the same descriptions of goods, using for a mark C & H, LATE HACKWOOD, impressed on the bottom.
In 1862, Mr. Cockson having retired from the concern, the works were carried on by the remaining partners, Messrs. W. and J. Harding (Brothers), who did an extensive trade with Holland and Italy. Besides the cream-coloured and printed wares for foreign trade, druggists’ fittings formed a staple branch. Black, Egyptian, Rockingham, and tinted wares too were made. In 1872 Messrs. Harding gave up the business, when Mr. John Aynsley, china manufacturer, of Longton, purchased the back portion of the works and let it to its present occupiers, Messrs. Thomas Booth & Sons. The entire front of the New Hall Works was purchased by Mr. Henry Hall, metal mounter of jugs, tea-pots, &c., so that the manufactory became divided into two distinct properties. The portion occupied by Messrs. Booth having been burnt down has been rebuilt.
The productions of Messrs. Booth & Sons are the usual classes of ordinary earthenware in printed, painted, enamelled and gilt services; stone ware of good quality, in which a large variety of jugs and tea-pots are made; and jasper ware, in various ornamental articles. Among their shapes of toilet ware are the “Eldon,” “Globe,” “Alexandra,” and “Cottage;” and among their specialities in other goods are a self-closing hot-water jug, and a molasses jug, which are considered very successful.
Specimens of the hard paste of the New Hall Works are rare. They are almost entirely without mark; but sometimes there is an incised letter N as here shown. Fig. 460 exhibits a beautifully painted teapot. On one side is a group of children playing at blind man’s buff. They are dressed in the characteristic costume of the latter part of last century, but what renders the group peculiarly interesting is that in the background is a view of a pot-works, with kiln, which may probably have been a representation of the works when this interesting piece was made. On the opposite side of this teapot is an equally well painted group of a boy riding on a dog, and on the lid are also two little figure vignettes. This piece was made for, and belonged to, one of the partners, Charles Bagnall, from whose family it passed more than half a century ago, by marriage, to a Mr. Sutton, from whose own octogenarian hands it passed into my own. It was painted by Duvivier, a French artist of celebrity, who, as well as Bone, was employed at these works. Fig. 459 is a cup and a saucer of excellent form and twisted fluting. Fig. 462 is a jug, carefully painted with birds, and bearing in front the initials S. D. This jug was made at New Hall for Sampson Daniel, a cousin of John Daniel, one of the partners, and is still in possession of his grandson, Mr. Daniel, of Hanley. The coffee cup and saucer (Fig. 464) is a good and characteristic specimen; and Fig. 463 is one piece of a dessert service, belonging to Mr. Gray, which was made for Mr. Daniel, one of the partners. The porcelain made at New Hall principally consisted of tea, dinner, and dessert services, of various designs; but figures and busts, as well as vases, were also, to some extent produced there.
The later productions of the New Hall China Works, the soft paste, are also scarce, especially the marked pieces. The body is of good colour, and clear, and the decorations, especially the flowered examples, are remarkable for the brightness of their colours. The only mark used--and this was not, it appears, adopted until after 1820--is the one here shown.
Batt printing was practised at New Hall, and some remarkably good examples have come under my notice. In 1810, Peter Warburton, on behalf of the company of which he was a partner, is said to have taken out a patent “for printing landscapes and other designs from copper plates, in gold and platinum, upon porcelain and pottery.” The company was also among the first to adopt the improvements in printing on ware made by William Brookes in the beginning of the present century.
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Glass.--Joseph Glass was a potter in Hanley, in the middle of the seventeenth century, and his works are stated to have been still carried on by him or his son, Joseph Glass, in the beginning of the eighteenth. “Joseph Glass ... clowdy, and a sort of dishes, painted with different coloured slips, and sold at 3_s._ and 3_s._ 6_d._ per dozen.” A tyg bearing his name, IOSEPH GLASS S V H G X, painted round the body is in the Staniforth collection. Later on the works were carried on by John Glass, and from him passed to Samuel Keeling & Co., then to Meakin Brothers, and lastly to Taylor Brothers. The works were situated in Market Street, and have of late years been pulled down. This Samuel Keeling was great nephew to the patentee, James Keeling, mentioned on another page, who was an important manufacturer towards the close of the last century. Mr. Samuel Keeling, one of the patriarchs of the potteries, resided in partial retirement at Rocester. His firm, Messrs. Keeling & Adams, hold three mills at Hanley for grinding potters’ materials. One of them, the Eastwood Mill, consists of two old erections combined; one portion was a pottery worked by William Baddeley; another, the place erected by William Baddeley’s brother James for a silk mill. They also work the Botteslow Mill and the Albion Mill.
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Twyford.--Twyford, the potter, already named, “commenced business near Shelton Old Hall, the seat of Elijah Fenton’s family; and the only known specimen of his manufacture,” says Shaw, “is a jug made for T. Fenton, Esq.,” then in the possession of his descendant. Mr. Twyford and his children and grandchildren continued as potters, and are now represented by Mr. Thomas Twyford, of the Bath Street Works.
In 1829 the manufactories named by Shaw were E. Mayer & Son; Job Meigh & Son (Old Hall); Dimmock & Co.; Toft & May; J. Keeling; W. Hackwood; T. Taylor; J. Glass; J. & W. Ridgway; Hicks, Meigh, & Johnson; H. Daniel & Sons; J. Yates; and Hollins, Warburton, Daniel, & Co. (New Hall).
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Mare or Maer, or Mayer.--In the early part of the last century Hugh Mare and John Mare were potters at Hanley, and produced black and mottled wares. Later on were “Elijah Mayer” or “E. Mayer,” then “Elijah Mayer & Son,” and next “Joseph Mayer.”
Other potters in the early part of last century were William Simpson, Richard Marsh, Moses Sandford, and John Ellis. Several of these and later potters will be named in the course of the notices of existing manufactories. The potteries in Hanley and Shelton enumerated by Ward in 1843 are the Old Hall, the New Hall, Cauldon Place, William Ridgway and partners (six manufactories), Thomas Dimmock & Co. (three manufactories--formerly James Whitehead, J. and W. Handley, Edmund John Birch, and Christopher Whitehead); Samuel Keeling & Co., formerly John Glass; William Hackwood; Samuel and John Burton, formerly James Keeling; Samuel Mayer, formerly Sarah Brown’s; Thomas Furnival, junior, & Co., formerly Reuben Johnson’s; George Lomas, formerly Barlow and Hammersley’s; Joseph Clementson, formerly Elijah Jones’s (who was a potter about 1760); Yates & May, formerly John and William Yates, successors to their father; William Dudson, formerly William Rivers & Co.; William White, formerly Poulson’s; Henry Mills, then newly erected, and other smaller factories. Edward Phillips was also a manufacturer, and used his name in full, “Edward Phillips, Shelton, Staffordshire,” on his goods. Other names are J. Sneyd, Toft & May, and T. Taylor.
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John Twemlow was in business in 1797. An invoice in my possession is curious as showing some of the goods he made. These are “E Black Teapots, capt., fest^{d.} and fig^{d.}” (Egyptian black tea-pots, capped, festooned, and figured); “ditto upright, fest^{d.} and fig^{d.}”; “Oval E Black Teapots;” ditto “prest leaf,” “scollop top, fest^{d.} and fig^{d.} and banded”; “ditto, prest leaf and fest^{d.} and fig^{d.} and banded a’tip;” “ditto creams” to match; “ditto fluted;” “ditto coffee pots;” octagon tea-pots, with scollop top, and creams to match; oval plain tea-pots (all, so far, are in Egyptian black); “blue and enamelled handled cups and saucers, London size, sprig and border and vine pattern;” “bowls to match.”
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Old Hall Works.--The “Old Hall Works” are among the most interesting historically of any in the district, being built on the site of, or quite closely adjoining to, the “Old Hall” or Manor House of the Colclough family, who formerly held the lordship of Hanley, from about the time of Edward III. until about a century and a half ago, when it passed into the family of Bagnall. The “Old Hall” or “Manor House” has long since disappeared. The present works were built about the year 1770, by Mr. Job Meigh, on what, I believe, was for a time previously a salt-glazed white stoneware pottery, carried on by a Mr. Whitehead. From 1770 until 1861 the works were uninterruptedly carried on by Mr. Job Meigh, his son, and his grandson (Mr. Charles Meigh), successively. In 1861 Mr. Charles Meigh transferred the business to a limited liability company, called “The Old Hall Earthenware Company,” by whom it is still carried on. The productions of the works include every variety of earthenware, from the most highly decorated to the ordinary blue printed and plain white wares, stone ware, jet ware, and parian. In earthenware all the usual dinner, tea, breakfast, dessert, toilet, and other services, and all other articles are made. In these the body is of the finest quality, hard and of remarkable durability, and the glaze is hard, clear, and faultless. Many of the patterns of dinner services are of great beauty and elegance. Especially among these are the “Nonpareil,” the “Verona,” and the “Koh-i-noor” shapes, which last is one of the most simply elegant yet produced. The form of the covered dishes is chaste and remarkably effective. They stand upon well-modelled feet, and the handles are formed of folds of ribbon held together by jewelled rings. This pattern is produced in various styles of decoration, one of the most pleasing of which is the convolvulus, exquisitely coloured after nature; the gilding is rich and substantial. Among the patterns produced by the staff of artists here employed are many others of surpassing beauty; the excellence of the painting, the gilding, the jewelling, and the enamelling, being very apparent in all, and the combination of printing and hand painting carried to great perfection. The transfer printing at the Old Hall Works is more carefully done, and the colours are clearer and brighter, than at most manufactories. Dessert services are made in every style of decoration; the richer and more costly varieties being equal to any produced by other firms, both in quality of body, in shape, in pattern, and in artistic treatment. Toilet services form a very extensive branch of the productions, and in these the firm is very successful. Among the more popular shapes are the “Buckle,” “Richmond,” “Perth,” “Exeter,” and “Mediæval,” and these are produced in every possible style of decoration whether in printing, painting, enamelling, and gilding. In stone ware, jugs of good and faultless form, and many other articles are produced. In black ware, water-bottles, elegant little table tea-kettles, spill cases, vases, and other articles are made, and are effectively decorated with dead and burnished gilding, enamelling, &c.
In Parian, vases, groups, busts, figures, and other ornamental articles are produced; the body is of good quality, and the modelling and finish of faultless excellence.
The marks of these works are the following:
In 1851 medals were awarded to Mr. C. Meigh, of these works, who has also received medals from the Society of Arts.
Figs. 465 to 468 are stoneware jugs, one of which bears a young bacchanal imbibing the juice of the grape, and Fig. 470 a candlestick adapted from a celebrated wine cup, the work of Cellini. Figs. 471, 472, 473 exhibit three admirable pieces, a clock case, a vase, and a drinking cup or tankard, all in statuary porcelain and of the finest possible style of art. The works are very extensive, including mills for grinding all descriptions of materials used in the manufacture of pottery, and are capable of supplying a large demand. The markets principally supplied are the home, French, German, Indian, American, Australian, and colonial.
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Broad Street Works.--These works are interesting as being the place where the celebrated “Mason’s Patent Ironstone China,” as well as the “Ironstone China” of the old firm of Hicks, Meigh, and Johnson, in addition to most varieties of useful earthenware, are made. Mr. Charles James Mason, the inventor of this famous “Mason’s Ironstone China,” was a potter of great taste and skill at Lane Delph (now Middle Fenton), and in 1813 took out a patent for his process. The manufacture was at that time carried on under the styles of “G. M. and C. J. Mason” and “C. J. Mason & Co.” The partners were Charles James Mason and his brother George Miles Mason (father of Mason the artist) who in 1832 unsuccessfully contested the then new district borough of Stoke-upon-Trent, his successful competitors being Josiah Wedgwood and John Davenport, both, like himself, manufacturers in the district. After a time Mr. G. Mason retired from the concern, and it was then continued by the patentee alone. The concern, however, for want of capital and from other causes, gradually dwindled down, until at length, in 1851, Mr. Francis Morley purchased the patent, the moulds, copper-plates (on which an immense amount of money had been expended), and entire business, from Mr. Mason, and removed the whole to his manufactory. Mr. Morley, who married a daughter of Mr. W. Ridgway, and was a partner in the firm of Morley, Wear & Co., succeeded to the old-established concern of Hicks, Meigh, & Johnson, which he carried on for a time under the style of “Ridgway & Co.” Afterwards Mr. Morley continued the business as F. Morley & Co. This manufactory was one of the oldest in the Potteries. It was in existence in the early part of the last century (probably established about 1720), and afterwards belonged to John Baddeley (in 1750 R. and J. Baddeley), an eminent potter, who died in 1772. Here, it is said, printing in oil was first practised. Messrs. Hicks, Meigh, & Johnson were among the most successful of the manufacturers in the district, and produced, among other wares, a remarkably good quality of ironstone china. Besides this, they were large manufacturers of earthenware of the ordinary and finer kinds, and of china. They and Mason were the only makers of ironstone china; and when Mr. Morley, who purchased their business, became also the owner of Mason’s process and of his moulds, plates, &c., he became the only manufacturer of ironstone ware. Having united the two manufactories, he removed Mason’s concern to his own works, where he entered with spirit into the manufacture, and soon established a lucrative business in “Mason’s wares.” In 1856 a first-class medal for this ware was awarded at the French Exhibition.
Mr. Morley retired from trade in 1859, having sold the entire business, moulds, copper-plates, &c., to the present owners, Messrs. Geo. L. Ashworth and Taylor Ashworth (brothers), who continue, to the fullest extent, the manufacture of the “Patent Ironstone China,” which they and their predecessor named the “Real Ironstone China” (of which patented articles they are the only makers) on their marks, and produce all Mason’s best patterns in services, vases, &c., made from his original models. They also manufacture Meigh’s ironstone, from his old moulds, &c. This manufacture has been very largely developed by Mr. Taylor Ashworth (who studied the processes under Mr. Morley, and is the resident acting partner), to whom the art is indebted for many improvements. This gentleman, who married the grand-daughter of Mr. Meigh, obtained by that alliance a vast deal of valuable information about the working of the stoneware; and it is a somewhat singular and pleasant circumstance to record, that after a lapse of half a century, or more, the manufacture may, through that marriage, be said again to be brought into the old family. Messrs. Ashworth, besides these great features of their trade, make table, toilet, dessert, and other services, and ornamental goods of the best quality, in every description of general earthenware. These they produce in immense quantities, both for home and foreign markets, about one-third of the whole being exported. The ordinary classes are principally exported to Russia, India, &c., and the more rich and costly to Havanna, Spain, and other countries. Sanitary wares are also produced, as well as insulators for our own and for foreign governments. The “Ironstone China,” from its extreme hardness and durability (for it is not easy to break even a plate) is specially adapted, in its simpler styles of decoration, for services used by large steamship companies, hotels, clubs, colleges, and other places where hard usage has to be undergone; while in its more elaborate and rich styles--and it is capable of the very highest degree of finish--it is eminently fitted for families of the higher ranks. No climate affects this ware. The usual style of decoration for dinner services is imitation of Oriental patterns--Japanese and Indian flowers, &c.--and the colours and gilding are rich in the extreme. In vases and jugs the handles are usually dragons and other grotesque animals. The Indian vases are of perfect form, of exquisite design, rich in their colours, and massive in gilding. They are priceless Art-treasures, and examples of Ashworth’s make deserve to be in every “home of taste.”
The marks used by Mason were principally the following:
Figs. 479 to 481 are printed, usually in blue, on the bottoms of the pieces, and Figs. 482 and 483, impressed in the body of the ware.
After the patent passed out of Mason’s hands into those of Morley and Co., the mark was changed on more than one occasion. The principal one was
REAL IRONSTONE CHINA
impressed in the ware, and the royal arms, with supporters, crest, motto, &c., above the words IRONSTONE CHINA, printed on the bottom of the goods. The marks used by Messrs. Ashworth are, a circular garter, bearing the words “Real Ironstone China,” and enclosing the royal arms and the name “G. L. Ashworth & Bro^s, Hanley;” Mason’s mark (Fig. 488) with the addition of the word
ASHWORTH REAL IRONSTONE CHINA.
ASHWORTHS; a crown, with the words ASHWORTH BRO^S. above, and a ribbon bearing the words REAL IRONSTONE CHINA beneath it; and the royal arms, with supporters, crest, motto, &c., and the words, IRONSTONE CHINA.
Mason at one time produced what he called Bandana or Sandana ware. In this jugs and other articles were made, and were of a peculiarly striking and rich character in printing. The designs were complicated Indian foliage and grotesque animals, printed in red and black on a buff or other ground. The name I presume to have been taken from the famous Bandana handkerchief patterns. The mark, on a jug in my own possession, is a circular garter bearing the words, “Mason’s Bandana Ware, 1851,” and enclosing the words “Patentee of the Patent Ironstone China,” the whole surmounted by a crown. I have an impression of a similar mark, which for some purpose has evidently been altered to Sandana, and the date to 1801. As Mason’s patent was only granted in 1813 the alteration of this mark is very palpable.
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Cauldon Place.--These works were founded about 1794, and the present manufactory built in 1802, by Mr. Job Ridgway, father of John and William Ridgway, the eminent potters; and were carried on by him and his sons until his death in 1814, under the style of “Ridgway & Sons.” The business was then continued by his two sons for some years, when a dissolution of partnership took place, the elder, John Ridgway, continuing the Cauldon Place Works, and the younger, William Ridgway, removing to a new manufactory which he had erected. Mr. John Ridgway continued, with various changes of partners, under the firm of “John Ridgway & Co.,” until 1855, when the Cauldon Place business passed into the hands of the present firm of “T. C. Brown-Westhead, Moore, & Co.”; Mr. Ridgway continuing his connection with it until 1858, when he finally retired. Mr. W. Moore had for many years previously been a valuable assistant of Mr. Ridgway. He died in 1866, and his brother, Mr. James Moore, succeeded to the management of the potting department, and was admitted into partnership in 1875; in that management he is assisted by his nephew, Mr. Frederick T. Moore, son of Mr. W. Moore. By the present firm the premises have been considerably enlarged, and another manufactory, “The Royal Victoria Works,” has been added, and this business, which formerly was confined to the home and American markets, extended to all foreign ports. Mr. Ridgway, who was “Potter to the Queen,” was awarded in 1851 a Prize Medal for the excellent quality of his ware, the jurors in their report stating that the firm was one of the most important in the Staffordshire Potteries. In 1862 the present proprietors also received a similar distinction. The productions of this manufactory are, and have uniformly been, the useful varieties of china and earthenware, of elegant forms, where applicable, and of various styles of decoration. Table, tea, breakfast, and toilet services in fine earthenware, printed or otherwise decorated, and in china, in endless variety of forms and patterns, are produced in immense quantities. The firm has also introduced improvements in druggists’ and perfumery goods, anti-corrosive tops, &c. Parian is also, to a small extent, produced. A great feature of the manufactory is sanitary ware, which is of the highest quality and reputation, and is made up in a variety of ways for cabinet fittings, plug-basins, lavatories, drinking-fountains, &c. In some of the largest articles, such as the “Toilettes Victoria,” which were used by the Imperial family and elsewhere in Paris, they have accomplished results which have never before been attained or attempted as to magnitude and finish of goods.
In 1843, Mr. William Ridgway, younger son of Job Ridgway, held, with his partners--composing three or four distinct firms of which he was head--six different manufactories in Hanley and Shelton. These were, 1st, a china manufactory in Hanley, formerly worked by George, and afterwards by Thomas, Taylor; 2nd, the earthenware works late belonging to Elijah Mayer & Son; 3rd, the pot-works formerly worked by Robert Wilson and next by Philips & Bagster, where ordinary earthenware and high-class chemical goods were made; 4th, the pot-works previously belonging to Toft & May; 5th, the “Bell Bank” works, in Shelton, formerly George Ridgway’s; and 6th, the old manufactory formerly belonging to John Baddeley (where printing with oil is said to have been first introduced) and next to Hicks, Meigh, & Johnson.
The goods produced at Cauldon Place embrace almost every description of ceramics. In earthenware all the usual table and toilet services, and useful and ornamental articles of every class are made. The quality is peculiarly good, hard, compact, and durable, and the patterns chaste and effective. They are produced in white and in every variety of printed, flown, enamelled, painted, and gilt patterns. In china, which in body and glaze is of the highest quality and of peculiar durability, an immense variety of services and articles are produced, and all are equally good in point of artistic decoration; the ground colours, whether rose du Barry or otherwise, of a remarkable purity and evenness, and the gilding, both dead and burnished, of unusual solidity. The same remarks apply with equal force to the dessert ware, some of the patterns of which are of surpassing loveliness and give evidence of the highest and most successful cultivation of decorative art. One special design has an outer rim, so to speak--for the plate itself is perfect without it--formed of loops of ribbon standing out clear from the beaded edge of the plate. This simple but graceful arrangement imparts a lightness and elegance to the service which are quite refreshing. Another has the rim formed of rays of pellets with a pleasing and novel effect; the tripod stands of the comports being, like the plates, exquisitely modelled and richly painted and gilt. Other patterns, notably one with a rich maroon ground and white bead edge, are, besides being exquisitely painted and gilt, enriched with jewelling. Vases of pure and severe taste in form, and displaying great skill and judgment in decoration, are also produced, as are likewise jugs of faultless excellence. Among other elegant articles Messrs. Brown-Westhead, Moore & Co., have a sandwich-box of white china; it is of wicker or basket work, with a fern leaf laid across the lid, on which rests the butterfly which forms the handle. At each corner hangs a piece of stem bent into a ring and tied into form with a ribbon. This ribbon and the butterfly being tinted in azure with enamel, and all the rest of pure white, give a purity and simplicity to this design that are very gratifying to the eye. Equal with this is an elegant basket, also in white china, which forms an attractive addition to table decoration. In services a novel idea has been introduced by this firm. The handle is formed of a double cord, doubled and passed through a loop, and either tied around the rim or formed into four knots as feet. The design is simple, but one of the prettiest and most striking yet introduced. A rose du Barry cup and saucer, with the cord and knots in white heightened with gold, and on embossed gold lines, is peculiarly elegant. Another admirable contrivance, which has been patented by Toft, and is produced at the works, is a self-acting lid or cover for hot-water jugs, &c. By this contrivance, the lid is hung on a pivot or axle, which fits into a notch on each side the mouth of the vessel, so that, being lightly hung, it opens whenever the jug is sloped for pouring, and closes again when held or set down in an upright position. It is, without exception, the best and most effective plan yet brought out, and one that cannot be superseded.
In 1876–7 Messrs. Browne-Westhead, Moore & Co. manufactured for the Prince of Wales a splendid and costly china dessert service, decorated with finely painted hunting subjects, no two pieces being alike. They also made for the Imperial family of Russia, richly decorated dinner, tea, dessert, and breakfast services, all of which orders were obtained in competition with the Sèvres, Dresden, and other Continental manufactories; and also services for the Emperor of Morocco, including punch bowls of extraordinary largeness. In addition to this it is interesting to record that they also made for H.R.H. the Duchess of Edinburgh a series of toilette services from designs drawn by herself.
In 1825 Messrs. John and William Ridgway took out a patent for “an improved cock, tap, or valve, for draining off liquors:” in 1840, John Ridgway took out another for “certain improvements in the moulds used in the manufacture of earthenware, porcelain, and other similar substances, whereby such moulds are rendered more durable” by having a face of “pitcher;” in the same year, in conjunction with George Wall, for “certain improvements in the manufacture of china and earthenware, and in the apparatus or machinery applicable thereto;” in the same year again, the same two, for “certain improvements in the mode of preparing bats of earthenware and porcelain clay, and of forming or shaping them into articles of earthenware and porcelain, and in the machinery or apparatus applicable thereto;” in 1847, John Ridgway, for “certain improvements in the manufacture of paste boxes, and other similar articles in china or earthenware, or other plastic materials”; and in 1852 for “certain improvements in the method or process of ornamenting or decorating articles of glass, china, earthenware, and other ceramic manufactures.” These are, applying “the art of electrotype or electro-metallurgy” for the above purpose, applied as “described, or by any other suitable process; provided always that the surface of the non-conducting body is so prepared that the metal deposited thereon shall become alloyed or combined therewith.” The invention, however, is said to consist “in the application of certain novel and peculiar media,” “whereby such surface may be caused to combine with gold, silver, copper,” &c. Before coating with the metals, the vessels are covered thinly with some varnish, dried, and immersed, first in a solution “of phosphorus reduced by bisulphuret of carbon,” then in nitrate of silver, and set aside to dry. Instead of this, “phosphoric vapour” or “a solution of phosphorus in sulphuric ether” may be employed; but the method preferred is brushing them over with “an impalpable powder of carburet of iron and sulphate of copper” in certain proportions; afterwards the vessels are “corroded by means of the fumes of hydrofluoric acid.”
It may be added, that in the application of photography to the decoration of porcelain this firm has achieved a perfect success so far as the art is concerned, and has produced some splendid specimens, which show how completely and how thoroughly they are artists as well as manipulators. This feature, although not one, unfortunately, at present made to much extent commercially available, is one which cannot but attract attention, along with the sanitary and other classes of goods, to this establishment.
The marks used by the Cauldon Place Works, so far as I am aware, are the following:
A shield, quarterly, 1 and 4 gules, 2 or, 3 azure, over all on a bend argent B-W. M. & Co.; the shield surmounted by a crown, and surrounded by a garter with the name of the pattern.
Medals have been awarded at the Exhibitions of London, 1851, 1862, Paris 1855, Lyons 1872, and Vienna 1873; at the latter, two medals, one for excellence of earthenware and china and the other for sanitary goods, were awarded. The firm were large contributors to the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876; some of their exhibits are shown in Figs. 484 to 499.
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Trent Pottery.--These works, in Joiner Square, were built by Messrs. Stanway, Horne, and Adams, the present proprietors, in 1859, and they have been carried on without change since that time. The works were established for the production of ornamental goods in parian, and useful goods of an improved design in stoneware and ordinary earthenware, and these have continued to extend themselves year by year. The great speciality is their cheap ornamental parian, in which jugs of various kinds, vases, figures, groups, busts, and a large number of other articles are made; of these they are large makers, not less than 460,000 pieces of these alone being made and disposed of during one year. Notably, among the designs for jugs and cream ewers, are the Indian corn, pine-apple, shell, and dolphin patterns; the first of these is of peculiar elegance. Vases and other chimney ornaments are produced of excellent design and of various sizes. Of late years, classical statuettes, groups, busts, &c., in Parian, have been made, and are a prominent feature of the works; they are well and cleverly modelled, and the quality of the body is remarkably good. A group of “Commerce,” seated, is one of the most effective. The great and laudable aim of the “Trent Works” has been the production of good average designs in Parian at a cheap rate, so as to place them within the reach of all; in this they have eminently succeeded. Stone ware, lustre ware, and terra cotta, are also produced, and of late the manufacture of pearl china has been added. The markets supplied are the home, United States, the Continent, etc. No mark is used.
“The members of this firm, namely, Mr. John Stanway, Mrs. Thomas Horne (Mr. Stanway’s sister), and Mr. Thomas Adams,” writes my good friend Mr. Goss, “are all natives of Etruria, where their grandfathers were the valued servants of the great Josiah Wedgwood. Mr. Stanway’s father was the William Stanway mentioned by Mr. Jewitt in his ‘Life of Josiah Wedgwood,’ as one of the ‘Etruria Jubilee Group of Francis Wedgwood, Esq., and nine workmen, whose average term of servitude is fifty-four and a half years, November, 1859;’ and Mr. Jewitt further remarks: ‘It is interesting to note that in the person of one of these men, William Stanway, an absolute link with the great Josiah is kept up. This man began to work at Etruria the very year of Josiah Wedgwood’s death (1795), and has remained there ever since--a period of sixty-nine years.’ Two others of the nine workmen of the Jubilee Group--William Adams and John Adams--were uncles to Mr. Thomas Adams of the above firm. Mr. John Stanway has distinct recollections of his grandfather, John Stanway the elder, who for many years served the first Josiah, and died in the service of the second. His occupation at the works was that of “slipmaker” or claymaker, a position of great trust at that time, when not only the newly-invented proportions but the very materials used in the composition of the clays were important secrets. It is curious to reflect that the ingredients of all the famous jasper and other wares which the great Wedgwood produced, and which are now numbered among the treasures of kings and emperors, were blended and made into clay by this John Stanway the elder. Being proved a faithful servant, he was greatly valued and favoured by his employer, spending a portion of his time in personally waiting upon Wedgwood at Etruria Hall, whence he used to carry valuable parcels and letters to the Three Tuns Inn at Newcastle-under-Lyme, which was in those days the stage coach house. After the death of Wedgwood, John Stanway retained the same share of the confidence and favour of the second Josiah, both at the manufactory and at the Hall. At that time the country where Etruria now stands, and for miles around, was an uncultivated waste, and Mr. Stanway remembers to have accompanied his grandfather many times when he trudged along the road from Etruria Hall to Newcastle, with his parcels on his back, and his dog Driver and his cat Molley following him all the way, a distance of about two miles. In these journeys it appeared to be distinctly understood between the two animals that Driver was Molley’s protector, and the confidence of the latter was always justified in the moment of danger. In those days old Stoke Church (since removed) was the only church for miles around, and the Wedgwoods had their freehold pew there, which they regularly used until the second Josiah bought the Maer estate, near Whitmore, and removed to it from Etruria Hall. ‘Then,’ relates Mr. John Stanway the younger, ‘Mr. Wedgwood desired my grandfather--who was a good Christian and a regular attendant at church--to make use of that pew ever after. And the good old man never missed attendance there on the Sabbath while he had strength to walk. And because the distance was too great to allow him to go home to dinner and return in time for afternoon service, he used to take his dinner with him in the morning, and stay and eat it in the church or schoolroom, or, when the weather was fine enough, in the churchyard. And Mr. Wedgwood was not ashamed to be represented in that family pew by my grandfather, altho’ the old man used to sound his way up the aisle in wooden clogs, which it was the custom of all workpeople to wear in those days in those parts. But although Mr. Wedgwood was content to be represented by his faithful servant in wooden clogs, there was an old lady, who sat in the pew behind Wedgwood’s, who seems to have objected; and so one week she managed to have taken down the partition between her pew and Wedgwood’s, and made the whole into one square pew for herself. Then my grandfather meekly took his place on the free benches, until, some time after this, Mr. Wedgwood happened to say to him one day at the works, ‘Well, how come you on at church, Jack?’ And my grandfather replied, ‘Well mester, th’ owd lady i’ the pew behind has made it all into a square un’, an’ turned me out. But I’m right enow on the free bench.’ ‘Ha!’ said Mr. Wedgwood. ‘I’ll see to that, Jack.’ And he did see to it, and undid the old lady’s improvements, restoring his pew as before. Ever after that my grandfather enjoyed his sitting without further interference, and continued every Sunday to sound his way up the aisle in his wooden clogs, with his dinner in his pocket, until at last, at a good age, he was taken ill. Mr. Wedgwood went to see him immediately, and sent his own physician to attend him; but after a few day’s illness he died.’”
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Keeling.--James Keeling, in 1796, patented improvements in decorative and glazing processes, and, in conjunction with Valentine Close, some improvements in ovens, kilns, and processes of firing. His ware was of remarkably good quality, and some of the services were decorated with series of scenes and views.
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Booth & Co.--These potters were makers of a red ware--a kind of terra cotta--in which they produced various articles more or less ornamented with medallions, wreaths, or other decorations, in relief; sometimes of the same colour as the body, and at others in black. The mark was the name, address, and date, within a border--
PUBLISHED BY GR. BOOTH & CO., HANLEY, STAFFORDSHIRE, MAY 29, 1859.
An example occurs in the Liverpool Museum.
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Stafford Street Works.--This manufactory was originally occupied by Messrs. Reuben Johnson & Co., who produced the ordinary classes of earthenware and stoneware. From them it passed to Messrs. Thomas Furnival, jun. & Co., and “Furnival & Clark,” by whom it was continued until 1851, when it was taken by the present firm, which at that time was Livesley, Powell, & Co. In 1865 Mr. Livesley went out of the concern, when the firm changed its name to “Powell & Bishop,” by which it continues to the present time. Messrs. Powell & Bishop own two other manufactories, the “Church Works” for white granite, and the “Waterloo Works” for china (both of which see), but the Stafford Street Works are their principal ones, or head-quarters. At these works earthenware alone is produced, but this is of the finest quality and in every style of decoration, both for the home, French, Australian (principally Adelaide and Sydney), and other markets. The body is extremely hard, compact, and durable, and whether in pure white or of a creamy tint is clear in colour, and the glaze of faultless quality. The decoration of the dinner services, which is a speciality of these works, ranges from the plain white and printed goods up to the most elaborately and gorgeously enamelled, painted, gilt, and jewelled varieties, and in each of these stages the decorations, whether simple or complicated, are characterized by the purest taste and the most artistic feeling. Messrs. Powell & Bishop are the sole workers of, and possess the exclusive right to and in, a patented process of printing in gold and colours, originally purchased by their firm from some Austrians, by whom it was invented. This important process has been vastly improved by the present firm and brought to bear in a variety of ways upon their manufactures. By this invention a background of dead gold is produced of surpassing beauty and loveliness, and of such solidity and evenness as is perfectly impossible to be obtained by hand-gilding even by the most skilled artist. In this, Messrs. Powell & Bishop have produced services of a novel and faultlessly beautiful character, the designs of which are taken from, and are of equal gracefulness, richness, and beauty with, mediæval MS. illuminations. In toilet services a number of effective and well-conceived designs are produced in every style in transfer printing, lustred, enamelled, painted, and gilt varieties, and the shapes of the ewers are, in some instances, of unusually good designs. Jugs are another speciality of this firm, and they are produced in almost endless variety; many of the arabesque patterns are of great richness and beauty, and are characterized by graceful finish in the enamelling. The same remark will apply to the table flower-pots, which are all that can be desired in form, pattern, and arrangement of colours. Tea and dessert services in great variety are also made in the finest earthenware, and of considerable variety in design. A speciality in tea ware is a charming little teapot, modelled from the one used by the poet Addison. It is of the form at that time so fashionable, and made in so many styles by Lakin and Poole, Adams, and others of the famous old potters. The reproducing of this shape was a wise thought of Messrs. Powell & Bishop, and the way in which it is issued--excellently enamelled and richly gilt--is in every way satisfactory. Messrs. Powell & Bishop have recently reproduced in all its softness and delicacy of tint, and evenness of surface, the famous old ivory or cream-coloured ware of Josiah Wedgwood, and known as “Queen’s Ware.” In this, dinner, tea, dessert, and toilet services of the newest shapes and designs are made, and are among the most marked successes of the time. In this ivory ware, ornamental goods--vases, beakers, &c.--of a more or less highly decorated character are also successfully produced. The firm received medals from the London International Exhibition in 1862; from the Amsterdam Exhibition of 1869; and from the Paris Maritime Exhibition of 1875; “le Diplôme d’excellence” and a certificate at the 1871 Exhibition. They were also large exhibitors at the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876.
The marks used by the firm have been simply the words impressed in the ware; and the initials P & B, in addition to the name of the pattern, printed on the surface. The trade mark lately adopted by the firm is the Caduceus, surmounted by the letters P. & B.; this is now impressed on the body or printed on the surface of all their best goods.
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The Church Works, in High Street (for the history of which see page 301, “Wilson”) are old established, and passed from Mr. Ridgway, to their present owners, Messrs. Powell & Bishop. The previous proprietors produced the usual classes of earthenware. The present firm confine their operations at these works to “white granite” ware for the United States and Canadian markets, which they produce of excellent quality and in every variety of style, both plain, embossed, and otherwise decorated. (See “Stafford Street.”)
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Waterloo Works.--These works were recently erected close to their large mill on the canal side near Nelson Place for the manufacture of china, by Messrs. Powell & Bishop, in place of one formerly occupied by them but removed for town improvements. At this manufactory china of the finest quality is made in the white; the whole of the decoration being accomplished at their principal works in Stafford Street (which see). In china the firm produces all the usual services and miscellaneous articles, in every variety of decoration. In dessert services Messrs. Powell & Bishop rank deservedly high, not only for the faultless quality of the body and glaze and for the beauty of their designs, but for the perfect artistic feeling and the exquisite finish which characterize their best productions; in these, and in tea services--to which, the above remarks with equal force apply--they have, in some instances, introduced with excellent effect a species of decoration which may be said to give the appearance to the various articles of being inlaid with ormolu. The effect, in connection with admirable grounds and delicately beautiful paintings, is rich and pleasing. Messrs. Powell & Bishop also introduce with great success their patent process of printing in gold and colours (see page 329) upon dessert and tea services; the effect upon the fine china body is very pleasing--the colours softened and subdued, and the gilding remarkable for its fulness, brilliance, and precision. In tea and breakfast and déjeuner services they have introduced many of the most chaste and elegant patterns produced by any house, and they take rank among the very highest and best in quality, and exhibit the highest phases of manipulative and artistic skill. The same remarks will apply to the table jugs--some of which have for a ground the rich deep Derby or Sèvres blue--the candlesticks, and the rest of the articles produced by this celebrated firm.
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Kensington Works, established by Messrs. Wilkinson & Rickuss, who were succeeded by Wilkinson and Sons, and next by Messrs. Bailey & Bevington. Mr. Bailey having retired, the works are now carried on by Mr. John Bevington, who produces ordinary earthenware, ornamental china, Parian, and stone ware; the great speciality being imitation Dresden, for home, United States, and Australian markets. A monster vase, the work of Rickuss & Wilkinson, exhibited 1862, is preserved in the Museum of Practical Geology.
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Burton Place Works.--Formerly carried on by Mr. S. Bevington; this manufactory is now continued by his sons, Messrs. James & Thomas Bevington, who have held them since 1862. The operations are entirely confined to china, in which all the usual useful and ornamental classes of goods are made for the home markets. Formerly, Parian statuettes and majolica goods were made, but these are discontinued.
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Clarence Street Works.--Mr. Ambrose Bevington produces china and earthenware.
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Nelson Place, commenced in 1850 by its present proprietor, Mr. John Bamford. These works produce ordinary stone ware and Parian.
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Phœnix and Bell Works, Broad Street.--These manufactories are both worked by Messrs. Clementson Brothers, who make largely the white granite and common painted ware for America and Canada. For the latter market they also produce some good decorated ware. The back part of the Phœnix Works was originally part of John and Edward Baddeley’s, Broad Street Works (now Ashworth Brothers), which it adjoins. In 1832 the present business was started by Reed & Clementson, but Joseph Clementson shortly after became sole proprietor, and in 1845 enlarged the works to their present proportions, with the exception of a large mill adjoining, which his sons, the present proprietors, have completed. In 1856 Mr. Joseph Clementson purchased the Bell Works on the other side of the road, opposite the Phœnix, formerly William Ridgway’s. In 1867 he retired from business, leaving it to his four sons, the present members of the firm. He died in 1871.
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Bedford Works, Bedford Road.--These extensive works were built by Edward John Ridgway, son of William Ridgway, in November, 1866, and to them he removed from the Church Works, High Street, where he had, until then, carried on business in partnership with Mr. Abington. In 1870, Mr. E. J. Ridgway took his sons into partnership, and the concern was carried on as E. J. Ridgway & Son. In 1872, Mr. E. J. Ridgway retired from the business, leaving it to his two sons, Messrs. John, and Edward Ackroyd Ridgway, who were joined in partnership by Mr. Joseph Sparks, and continue the business under the title of Ridgway, Sparks, & Ridgway. Their productions include all classes of fine useful earthenware, jet, stone, terra cotta, and jasper, of very superior bodies and decoration, for the home, American, and Continental markets. One of the great specialities of the firm is their jet ware, highly decorated in raised enamel “after the Limoges ware.” In these a remarkable richness, beauty, and delicacy are obtained, and the designs, as well as the treatment of the foliage and figures, are artistic and well considered for effect. The jet ware thus decorated and highly gilt is of the very finest quality and of the highest degree of excellence in design and manipulative treatment; in this the Bedford Works are pre-eminent. Another speciality is relief decoration on various stoneware bodies, and these are faultless in their taste and excellent in their workmanship. The jasper (in which both tone of colour of the body and the beauty of detail in the groups and foliage and borders of the relief decoration in white, remind one forcibly of the later productions of the Wedgwood’s) tea-pots and other articles are produced and rank high as achievements of Ceramic Art. Mosaic or inlaid decoration is also successfully carried out by the firm, and their ordinary stoneware jugs and other articles are remarkable for purity of design, the high relief of their ornament, the hardness and compactness of their body, and the beauty of their workmanship. The mark used by the firm on their white goods is the Staffordshire knot, enclosing the letters R. S. R.
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Mayer Street Works.--Mr. Samuel Lear has erected a small china works on part of the site of the old manufactory, which includes as warerooms and offices the residence of the Mayers. Mr. Lear produces common domestic china, and, in addition, decorates in the ordinary way all kinds of earthenware made by other manufacturers; a speciality being spirit-kegs.
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Mayer Street.--Mrs. Massey carries on a small earthenware works on part of the site of the same old works just mentioned, including the stables and coach and cart-houses of the Mayers. Her productions are of the commoner classes.
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Cannon Street.--These works, dating back to the beginning of the present century, were for many years carried on by Mr. Thos. Ford, who here commenced business. Mr. Ford has since built a larger manufactory in the same street. The manufactory is now carried on by Mr. Edward Steele, who produces earthenware of the more ordinary qualities, stoneware of good useful character, majolica, and Parian. In stoneware all the usual useful classes of goods are made, and many of the designs and workmanship are of good character. In majolica both useful and ornamental goods are made, and consist of jugs, tea-pots, brackets, flower vases, dessert services with figure centre-pieces, comports, etc.; the designs in many instances are artistic, and the quality, both of the body and colouring, of more than average excellence. Parian statuary is one of the specialities of the firm and is very extensively made; some hundreds of different single figures, groups, busts, and animals, besides numbers of ornamental articles, being issued. The quality is superior to many for the American markets, and the modelling of the figures is artistic and clear. Many of them are of large size, and are produced with remarkable skill. Mr. Steele uses no mark.
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Brewery Street.--Robert Cook makes ordinary Parian goods in large quantities, principally for shipment to America.
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Percy Street.--William Machin makes ordinary earthenware and common coloured figures.
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Taylor, Tunnicliffe & Co., who used to manufacture in Broad Street very excellent door furniture and other fittings for Birmingham houses, have recently built more commodious works at Eastwood Vale.
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Biller & Co. make good door furniture and other fittings for metal workers at Eastwood Vale.
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Albion Works, Stafford Street.--John Dimmock & Co. are very large producers of earthenware of superior quality and finish. The firm is very old established. The firm of Thomas Dimmock & Co., at the time when Ward’s History was published, held three manufactories, viz., one “in Hanley, adjoining the New Market house, formerly James Whitehead’s, afterwards J. & W. Handley’s; another on the upper end of Shelton, formerly of Edmund John Birch, afterwards of Christopher Whitehead; and an enamelling and gilding establishment adjoining the King’s Head at Shelton.”
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Eastwood Vale.--W. H. Goss (see “London Road, Stoke-upon-Trent”).
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Eastwood Works.--Formerly carried on by Mr. Thomas Twyford, and afterwards by E. Hampton & Son, these works passed, in 1864, into the hands of the present proprietor, Mr. George Howson. The productions are entirely confined to sanitary ware, made of the ordinary Staffordshire fire-clay, washed inside with a white slip; sometimes blue printed.
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Dental Manufacturing Company, Limited, Broad Street.--This manufactory was established by Mr. J. S. Crapper, in 1856, and by him carried on and gradually developed until June, 1873, when it was purchased from him by this Company, Mr. Crapper remaining the managing director. The Company have other manufactories and depôts at 25, Broad Street, Golden Square, London, and in Grosvenor Street, Oxford Road, Manchester. It is one of the largest porcelain tooth producing manufactories yet established.
The dento-ceramic art is, naturally, of recent origin, but it has already almost reached perfection; the artificial teeth so closely resembling the natural, that the false are undistinguishable from the real. In durability nature is by this manufacture excelled; since the porcelain tooth lasts much longer than bone or ivory. Surprising, however, as we find the exact imitation of nature, it is, perhaps, still more surprising to learn that it is only obtained by a variety of at least 100 different shades and tints of colour, and of about 1,000 different shapes and sizes of teeth. Being a new branch of Ceramic Art I have no hesitation in giving fuller details than usual. They are furnished by my friend Mr. Goss.
“The material of which the teeth are composed, although differing in the proportions of its ceramic ingredients from any other porcelain body, is yet strictly porcelain. It is a vitreous, translucent body, consisting of silica, alumina, and potass, with the alumina in smaller and the potass in larger proportions than in any other porcelain body. Feldspar is the chief constituent, to which some silica, in the form of quartz, is added, and, in some instances, a small proportion of china clay. The colouring materials are the oxides of titanium, uranium, cobalt, manganese, platinum, and gold. From these bases the company obtains, as before said, about one hundred tints and shades, ranging from the delicate blue-white--the poetic “pearl”--to the dark tobacco stain. We have seen an American account of the matter, however, in which a palette of thirty-nine times 64,000 varieties or gradations of colour is claimed from the same bases for dental selection, and the different shapes and sizes of teeth are estimated at 10,000 instead of the 1,000 which the Company claims in its modesty.
“The materials being finely ground together, the teeth are either cast or pressed in metal moulds, the inner surface of the moulds being oiled, as is usual when metal moulds are used in potting, to prevent the adhesion of the clay or slip. It will surprise most potters to learn of ceramic articles being made, or cast, from ‘slip’ in metal moulds; but this is successfully done at the company’s works, the moulds being warmed to facilitate evaporation and the ‘setting’ of the material, which is sooner effected in this body than in any other porcelain, on account of the small proportion of alumina in its composition. In those teeth which are furnished with platinum pins the latter are fitted into small holes in the mould before the casting, and the end of the pin, which is inserted into the tooth, being headed, the firing secures it inextractably in its place. The machine which cuts up and ‘heads’ the platinum wire is a marvellous little creature. A correspondent of an American paper writing of it says, ‘Here is a spitefully busy little machine, too busy with one particular process to tell us what it is doing, and yet we discover that it is eating platinum wire and spitting out tiny pins at the rate of six hundred a minute. Each comes out with a solid head like that of a brass pin, with rough indentations in the other end, so as to be firmly held in the plastic body of the tooth until fierce heat makes the union indissoluble. The strength, infusibility, and incorruptibility of platinum make it the close companion of mechanical dentistry.’ The teeth being removed from the moulds and sufficiently dried, are seamed and otherwise finished off by young ladies with very delicate handling. They are then placed on fire-clay trays and baked in a furnace until they are properly vitrified and have attained the necessary polish from surfacial fusion.
“The White House, where the Company’s manufacturing operations are carried on, and on which stands the residence of the managing director, has some old potting associations and history. It was many years ago the residence of Mr. Richard Hicks, of the firm of Hicks, Meigh, and Johnson, from whose executor (Mr. Charles Meigh) Mr. Crapper purchased the property, and still retains it, letting to the Company the Porcelain Tooth Works. Hanging on the wall of the Company’s office is a printed quotation from Josiah Wedgwood:--‘All works of taste must bear a price in proportion to the skill, taste, time, expense, and risk attending their invention and manufacture. Those things called dear are, when justly estimated, the cheapest; they are attended with much less profit to the artist than those which everybody calls cheap. Beautiful forms and compositions are not made by chance, nor can they ever, in any material, be made at small expense. A competition for cheapness, and not for excellence of workmanship, is the most frequent and certain cause of the rapid decay and entire destruction of arts and manufactures.’ This quotation, beautifully and ornamentally lithographed, has emanated from Philadelphia, and nearly every dentist in the United States has a copy of it displayed in his operating room. Not only do our American cousins generally highly appreciate the productions and the career of the great Josiah, but the dental community especially, although they do not claim to be potters, proudly claim to be his followers in ceramic art and science.”
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Trent Pottery, Eastwood.--This manufactory, situated by the side of the North Staffordshire Canal, at Eastwood, was established in 1867 by Messrs. Livesley & Davis, and on the retirement of Mr. Livesley the style was changed to J. H. & J. Davis (brothers). In 1875 Mr. J. Davis retired, and since then the concern has been carried on by its present proprietor, Mr. J. H. Davis, alone. Until latterly the productions were confined to white granite ware for the United States, but Mr. Davis now manufactures to a large extent dinner, toilet, and tea services, and other articles, both for the home and foreign markets. He is also an extensive maker of sanitary wares, lavatories, plug-basins, hoppers, etc.
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James Dudson, Hope Street Works, established in 1800. In 1835 Mr. James Dudson entered upon the works, and they are still carried on by him. At one time he manufactured ornamental china figures, vases, and services. His finest productions are white and coloured (drab, blue, sage, &c.) stoneware jugs, tea and coffee pots, sugar-boxes, &c.; metal-mounted goods; flower-pots, candlesticks, &c. Among the registered designs for jugs, which have been modelled by the best artists, are the “Fern,” “Argyle,” “Barley,” “Vine-border,” “Pine-apple,” and “Wheatsheaf” patterns, which are produced in a variety of colours. In tea-pots the “Damascus,” “Fern,” and “Argyle” patterns are among the most popular. In mosaic ware Mr. Dudson makes a variety of articles in white, drab, blue, and other bodies inlaid with a variety of colours. In these are tea and coffee pots, sugar bowls, jugs, &c., of different shapes, the “Tanhart” and “Cambridge” being among the most successful. These goods are produced in large quantities. Mr. Dudson, who received “honourable mention” in the Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862, supplies both home and foreign markets.
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Victoria Works, St. James Street.--The productions of Messrs. Adams & Bromley, until 1873 carried on as John Adams & Co., are majolica and jasper wares of high class, both in quality and in design, and have given them an honourable name among the manufacturers of the district. Parian portrait busts (among which were those of the Poet Laureate, Lord Derby, and Mr. Gladstone) were formerly produced, and are remarkable for their truthfulness and artistic treatment. In jasper, besides vases and candlesticks, tea and other services, tea and coffee-pots, table-kettles, fruit bowls, jugs, and a variety of other decorative and useful articles, cameos and medallions, after Wedgwood, for inlaying and other ornamental purposes, are made to a large extent and of satisfactory quality. The jasper is in quality and in general character of ornamentation, as well as in colour, a very close imitation of the more modern Wedgwood ware, and the shapes of many of the articles evince good taste in design. In majolica, bread-trays, cheese-trays, candlesticks, flower-pots, vases, garden-seats, jardinières, figures, and a very large variety of useful and ornamental goods are produced. The quality of the majolica is far above the average, and many of the designs are artistic; the workmanship in all cases is skilful and good. Some of these productions, exhibited in 1871, are shown on Figs. 513 to 516. Since that period Messrs. Adams & Bromley have made rapid strides in the art, and have introduced many good patterns. Notably among these are a large flower-vase, some four feet in height, with a well-modelled Cupid supporting the bowl; a masterly flower-vase on mask feet, and surrounded by a wreath of oak-leaves; another large vase in which the handles are formed of Cupids; water-lily, and other well-conceived dessert pieces, &c. Green glazed dessert ware is also extensively made. The mark is the names ADAMS & CO., or ADAMS & BROMLEY, or A. & B.
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Charles Street Works.--This manufactory, now carried on by Messrs. J. W. Pankhurst & Co., is one of the oldest in Hanley. About a hundred years ago it was owned and worked by William Mellor, to whose family the property still belongs. Mr. Mellor made the Egyptian black ware for the Dutch markets, as did his successors Messrs. Toft & Keeling, who also produced other varieties of earthenware. It was next carried on by Messrs. Toft & May, and then by Robert May alone, for the manufacture of the same goods for the Dutch markets. Mr. May was succeeded by Mr. William Ridgway, who changed the manufacture to that of goods for the American markets. Upon his failure the works were taken by the present firm of J. W. Pankhurst & Co. The goods produced by this firm are confined to white granite for the American markets. In this material, dinner, tea, and toilet services, and all the usual useful articles are largely produced, and are of high quality both in body and glaze. The mark used by the firm is the royal arms and name, printed in black, on the ware.
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High Street.--The works carried on by Messrs. Gelson Brothers until a dissolution of partnership in 1876, and now continued by Messrs. Thomas Gelson & Co., form a part of those founded in the latter part of last century by Elijah Mayer, who about 1820 took his son into partnership under the style of “Elijah Mayer & Son.” It was afterwards “Joseph Mayer” and “Joseph Mayer & Co.” In 1867, the premises were purchased by Messrs. Gelson Brothers. Elijah Mayer was a potter of considerable eminence, and produced an extensive variety of goods. His Egyptian black, or basalt, ware, was, in quality of body, nearly equal to that of Wedgwood, and the ornamentation sharp and well defined; in this he produced tea-pots, cream ewers, bowls, and other articles. In cream-coloured ware, services and all the usual useful articles were made, and were of unusually good style and quality; for these and his “brown-line” patterns he was noted. His cane-coloured, or drab, unglazed goods were another of his famous productions; specimens of these are not often obtainable. In the Museum of Practical Geology is a vase of this description, with festoons of raised flowers. Elijah Mayer produced a service commemorative of Nelson’s Trafalgar and Nile victories, which became very popular. His mark was “E. Mayer” impressed in the ware, and afterwards “E. Mayer & Son.” Of the later firm some examples with the name Joseph Mayer & Co. are preserved in the Hanley,
Liverpool Museum. The following note upon these works has been supplied to me by Mr. Goss:--
“A walled lane ran through the premises owing to a right of way across the property which had been acquired, to the annoyance of the Mayers, by a Mr. Smith, whose property lay beyond the manufactory, going from High Street. The division to the right hand included the residence of the Mayers, warehouses, offices, and stabling, &c. About 1833 Mr. Joseph Mayer suddenly ceased potting, filled his warehouses, offices, stabling, and part of his house with his most valuable stock, and locked it up until his death. He let the other part of his works, that now Messrs. Gelson’s, to his cousin, William Ridgway, as beforesaid. After Mr. Joseph Mayer’s death in 1860 the residence was converted into a works for mounting jugs and tea-pots, carried on by Thomas Booth. It is now part of the china manufactory, of Mr. Samuel Lear. Besides Mr. Lear’s china works there is a small earthenware works on the old site carried on by Mrs. Massey; this includes the Mayers’ stabling and coach-houses. There are also numerous cottage residences erected in the other spaces.”
Messrs. Gelson & Co. formerly produced the usual white granite ware for the American market. This has been now abandoned, and they confine themselves to the production of the highest classes of useful goods for the home trade. In this they make dinner, tea, breakfast, toilet, and other services in every variety of printed, enamelled, and gilt patterns. One of their specialities is the successful imitation of the old Dresden style, which is produced with marked success in a dinner service. This has all the character, in general appearance, of the antique, and is a very satisfactory reproduction of a good old pattern. Another happy decorative idea is the introduction of Anglo-Saxon and early Irish interlaced ornaments in bands encircling mouth ewers and other articles.
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Eagle Works.--This business, commenced at Longton in 1845, was removed to Hanley in 1848 by Mr. James Meakin. In 1852 he retired, and was succeeded by two of his sons, James and George Meakin. In 1859, the business having considerably increased, the Eagle Works were erected, and in 1868 were very considerably enlarged. Messrs. J. & G. Meakin have also branch works at Cobridge and Burslem, and are large producers of ordinary earthenware. All the usual classes of useful, plain, and embossed white earthenware are produced and shipped to the United States and most foreign ports; the speciality of the works being white granite ware of ordinary quality, in imitation of French china. The mark is J. & G. MEAKIN, stamped in the ware, and printed in black.
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Brook Street Works.--These works were established by Ralph Salt, and he and his survivors, Richard Booth and Messrs. Williams & Willet, manufactured painted china toys. In 1860 the works passed into the hands of Mr. William Taylor, who commenced making white granite and common coloured and painted ware. These latter have been discontinued, and the productions are now confined exclusively to white granite ware for the United States and Canadian markets, of both qualities--the bluish tinted for the provinces, and the purer white for the city trade.
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Cannon Street.--Charles Ford (formerly Thomas and Charles Ford) manufactures the better class of china in tea, breakfast, dessert, and table services for the home markets.
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William Stubbs, Eastwood Pottery, manufactures china and earthenware services of the commoner kinds, lustres, stone ware jugs, black tea-pots, &c., and the smaller and commoner classes of china toys and ornaments.
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Norfolk Street Works, Cauldon Place.--These works were established by their present proprietors, Messrs. R. G. Scrivener and Thomas Bourne (trading under the style of “R. G. Scrivener & Co.”), in 1870, and are situate about midway between Stoke and Hanley. Their productions are china tea, breakfast, dessert services, and fancy articles, and earthenware toilet and other services of a more than average degree of artistic decoration. They export considerably to the colonies and also supply the home markets.
The mark is simply the initials impressed, but even this is only used on some classes of goods; the registered designs have a printed mark, with the name of the pattern and initials of the firm.
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Broad Street.--The small works occupied by Mr. Ash, as a Parian and majolica manufactory, are of old establishment.
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Albert Works, Victoria Place.--These works were erected in 1875 by Mr. J. Buckley, who in December of that year removed to them from the Vine Street Works, which he had occupied from 1861. Mr. Buckley commenced business in Hanley as a sanitary ware potter in 1836. His productions are all the usual varieties of sanitary goods (pans, traps, tables, &c.), ship and other fittings, toilet ware, handles for various purposes, plumbers’ fittings, spirit casks, &c.
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Ranelagh Works.--Established in 1846 by Mr. Stephenson, these works were next occupied by Mr. James Oldham, next by Oldham & Co., then by Mr. T. R. Hinde, and next Hollinshed & Staner. The productions are the commoner classes of earthenware and stone ware, in which all the usual services and general articles are made. No mark is used.
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Swan Works, Elm Street, established in 1835 by Samuel Bevington as Parian works, and afterwards carried on by his son, John Bevington, passed in 1866 into the hands of Messrs. W. L. Evans & Co., and in 1871 to Neale, Harrison & Co., who gave up the manufacturing and confined themselves to decoration only; they were succeeded by Mr. T. R. Simpson.
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Mayer Street Works, established in 1864, by Mr. E. Hodgkinson, for the manufacture of mosaic stone ware, Parian, and pearl-white granite wares. In 1871 Mr. Hodgkinson was succeeded by Mr. W. E. Cartledge.
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Brook Street Works.--Messrs. Worthington & Son produce earthenware and stoneware, both for home and foreign markets.
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Dresden Works, Tinkersclough.--In 1843 Edward Raby produced at these works china ornaments with raised or “Dresden” flowers, hence the name. From 1852 until 1864 they were carried on by Messrs. John Worthington and William Harrop; from that time till 1873, by Thomas Worthington and William Harrop; and from that time to the present by William Harrop alone. The productions are the cheaper classes of Parian goods, and fancy jugs in stone ware and ordinary earthenware, of good middle-class quality, all of which are supplied both to the home and American markets. No mark is used.
The works are situated at what is called “Tinkersclough,”--a place whose name is said to be “derived from the fact of its being frequented in the olden times as a place of rendezvous by Gipsies and travelling tinkers.”
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Bath Street Works.--These works were established in 1849 by the late Mr. Thomas Twyford (father of the present proprietor), who was a lineal descendant of the famous old seventeenth century potter, Twyford, who with Astbury wormed out the secret of the Elers, as detailed in vol. i. page 101. The operations of the firm are confined to sanitary and plumbers’ ware, and wine and spirit show barrels. In the former of these departments, Messrs. Twyford, as well as being among the oldest, are the largest producers in the locality, and their wares rank high for form, workmanship, and quality. The principal goods produced are plug-basins, drinking-fountains of excellent design, closet and bath fittings, cabinet stands, &c. These are made in every variety of shape, and of the most approved construction. The barrels, as usual, are more or less painted and gilt. The mark of the firm is the Staffordshire knot enclosing the letters T T (Thomas Twyford), with H (Hanley) beneath. Besides the home trade, Messrs. Twyford export very largely to America, Australia, Russia, France, Germany, Spain, and other countries. The same firm has a manufactory at Buckland for the manufacture of cane and white sanitary ware.
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Waterloo Works, Nelson Place.--These are old-established works, and have, with others, been occupied by Mr. W. Stubbs, Thomas Booth and Son, Holmes and Plant, and their present proprietors, Messrs. Pugh and Glover. The ordinary classes of earthenware in toilet and other services, painted, enamelled, and grounded; stoneware jugs, tea-pots, &c.; and other wares, are largely made, and of all the usual classes of decoration, both for home and foreign markets.
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New Street Pottery.--These works were established in 1873 by the present proprietors, Messrs. Edward Banks and Thomas Thorley. Their productions are majolica, terra cotta, jet, and stone wares, and these they produce for both home and foreign markets. In terra cotta, water-bottles of porous body, unglazed, of elegant forms and of a more or less highly decorated character, with stoppers and stands; alcorazzas; water goblets; Malaga jars; tobacco jars, &c, are made in great variety. These porous goods are of three distinct kinds, a clear full red, a buff, and a purplish white. They are printed, painted, enamelled, and gilt in encircling borders, wreaths, &c.; in groups of flowers and ferns; or in Japanese figure subjects, and are of excellent shape and workmanship.
In majolica, cheese stands, bread trays, dessert services, jugs, egg-holders, jardinières, flower-pots, tea-pots, ladies’ work-baskets, water-bottles, and an infinite variety of ornamental articles are made. Many of these are of a high degree of merit in design, and their production is faultlessly good. Notably among the dessert services in majolica is one with a rich chocolate-coloured ground, which throws out, with a strikingly beautiful and rich effect, a naturally arranged group of ivy, ferns, and anemones, which are slightly embossed, and are coloured true to nature; this is surrounded by an embossed “key” border and white enamel edge, and the handles are in keeping with the ornamentation. Another striking design in majolica is a jug. The ground of this is chocolate, and upon it are panels of rope in buff, enclosing thistle-leaves in green. The whole design, including the twisted rope handle, is novel and pleasing. Besides these, green glaze dessert services, and a large variety of other articles, both useful and ornamental, are made. The firm use no mark.
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Castle Field Pottery.--These works were formerly carried on by Mr. Ball for the manufacture of ornamental bricks. Mr. Ball “distinguished himself as the first to bring out hollow and glazed bricks, and these he made for Prince Albert’s Model Cottages. They were from his works at Poole, in Dorsetshire, and matured here at Etruria.” In 1860 Messrs. Davenport & Banks established themselves at these works, and commenced the manufacture of fancy goods of various kinds, which they successfully carried on until 1873, when Mr. Banks retired, and was succeeded by Mr. Beck,--the firm now being “Davenport, Beck & Co.” The principal productions of the Castle Field Works are fancy antique goods, in which numberless articles are made; majolica in all its varieties; porous goods; terra-cotta water-bottles, &c.; jet ware; and the ordinary classes in which dinner, tea, dessert, toilet, trinket, and other services are made, both for home and foreign markets. The mark used is a castle, and the letters “D. B. & CO. ETRURIA” within an oval garter, bearing the words TRADE MARK.
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Henry Venables, Etruria Road, established 1860, manufactured Etruscan-red porous goods, black basalt ware, jet glazed ware, and blue and other coloured jaspers. In these he produced a large variety of vases, as well as other ornamental and useful goods.