Tunstall--Early Potters--Enoch Booth--Child--Winter--Unicorn
and Pinnox Works--Greenfield Works--Newfield Works--George
Street Pottery--Phœnix Works--Sandyford--Lion
Works--Victoria Works--Swan Bank Works--Church Bank
Works--Well Street Works--Old Works--Black Bank--High Street
Works--Woodland Pottery--Greengate Pottery--Sandyford
Works--Tunstall Works--Highgate Pottery--Clay Hill
Pottery--Royal Albert Works--Soho Works--Marshall &
Co.--Walton--Stevenson--Birch--Eastwood--Shorthose &
Co.--Heath & Son--Newcastle-under-Lyme--Tobacco-pipes--Charles
Riggs--Garden Edgings--Thomas Wood--Terra-cotta
Works--Armitage--Lichfield--Penkhull, &c. &c.
The Tunstall potters enumerated by Shaw in 1829 are: John Mear, T.
Goodfellow, Ralph Hall, S. & J. Rathbone, J. Boden, Bourne, Nixon &
Co., Breeze & Co., and Burrows & Co. Ward in 1842 enumerates seventeen
manufactories at Tunstall; these were as under. China and earthenware,
three, viz.: Hancock & Wright, Bill & Proctor, and Rathbone & Brummitt.
Earthenware only, twelve, viz.: Wood & Challinor, Thos. Goodfellow,
John Meir & Son, Joseph Heath & Co., Hall & Holland, Wm. Adams, Jun.,
& Co. (Greenfield), Podmore, Walker & Co. (two manufactories), James
Beech (two), Thos. Bowley, and Mayer & Mawdesley. China toys and black
ware, two, viz.: Michael Tunnicliffe and John Harrison. Mr. Abraham
Lowndes was also a manufacturer here. Messrs. James Beech & Abraham
Lowndes had a manufactory here in 1829.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the common coarse brown
ware of the period was made at Golden Hill, near Tunstall, and later
on the ordinary “brown chequered and Porto Bello wares were made.” In
the beginning of this century there was a small establishment for the
manufacture of cream colour and porcelain, but it is now (says Shaw in
1829) discontinued, and the building is converted into dwelling-houses.
At Green Lane, Golden Hill, coarse black and brown ware was formerly
made.
* * * * *
_Enoch Booth._--This potter established a manufactory at Cliff
Bank, Tunstall, and about 1750 commenced making cream-coloured ware
of a superior kind, “which was coated with a glaze of lead ore and
ground flint.” He married Ann, one of the daughters of Thomas Child,
of Tunstall, on a part of whose property he settled and commenced his
works. By this marriage he had, with other issue, a daughter Ann, who
married Anthony Keeling, by whom he was succeeded in business. The
works were afterwards carried on by Mr. T. Goodfellow. Keeling about
1793 built a large residence adjoining his works, and in 1810 retired
from business; he died at Liverpool in 1866 (see Phœnix Works).
* * * * *
_Child._--About 1763 Mr. Smith Child established a pottery here, which
was afterwards carried on by Mr. Clive. It was subsequently occupied by
Messrs. Joseph Heath & Co., Mr. Anthony Shaw, and the Messrs. Adams.
Some examples are known which bear the impressed name CHILD (see
Newfield Works).
* * * * *
_Winter._--“Early in the present century,” says Shaw, “Captain Winter
having boasted that the articles of his manufacture at Tunstall were
the only true porcelain made in Staffordshire, experienced no little
chagrin on ascertaining that his ware would fuse at a heat much below
that usually required,” &c.
* * * * *
_Unicorn Pottery_ and _Pinnox Works_.--These large and important
manufactories, situated in Amicable Street and Great Woodland Street,
for the production of general earthenware, early in the present century
were occupied by Mr. E. Challinor, who was succeeded in 1825 by Messrs.
G. Podmore Walker & Co., who also occupied the Swan Bank Pottery. That
firm was succeeded by the present proprietors, “Messrs. E. Wedgwood &
Co.,” the head of the firm being Enoch Wedgwood, Esq., of Port Hill,
J.P. for the county of Stafford, whose elder son, Edmund M. Wedgwood,
is also a partner. The works are of large extent, and give employment
to six or seven hundred persons; they occupy an area of about an acre
of ground, and are among the most substantially built and best arranged
in the pottery district. The goods produced are the higher classes of
earthenware. In these, dinner, tea, breakfast, dessert, toilet and
other services, and all the usual miscellaneous articles, are made to
a very considerable extent, both for the home, colonial, continental,
and American markets, to which considerable quantities are regularly
exported. The quality of the “Imperial Ironstone China”--the staple
production of the firm--is of remarkable excellence, both in body and
in glaze, and the decorations are characterized by pure taste, artistic
feeling, and precision of execution; they consist of an endless variety
of admirable patterns, printed in various colours, wholly or partially
hand-painted, enamelled, and gilt. The great and laudable aim of the
present firm has been and is to produce the best, most artistic, and
most pleasingly effective designs, and to adapt them to ordinary
purposes, so that they may become the every-day surroundings of the
artisan as well as of the educated man of taste. Thus they associate
durability of quality in body and a perfect glaze with purity of
outline in form, chasteness of decoration, and clearness and harmony of
colour--adapting their designs and styles of decoration to the national
tastes of the people in the various climes to which the goods are sent.
One of the most successful of their ordinary printed designs is the
pattern known as “Asiatic Pheasants,” which has become so popular as
to be considered one of the standard patterns of this country and the
colonies. Other equally effective designs have also been introduced by
Mr. Wedgwood with great success.
In the higher classes of decoration--painting, jewelling, and
gilding--the productions of this firm also rank deservedly high, and
they are particularly successful in services bearing monograms and
armorial decorations.
Besides the usual classes of useful and ornamental earthenware in
services, &c., E. Wedgwood & Co. produce beautiful specimens of inlaid
decorations for hall stairs, and elaborately carved furniture, which
may hereafter be in general repute.
They have not made a public display of their distinct manufacture,
except at the Paris Exhibition, where they were awarded a medal for the
excellence of their earthenware. The marks used by the firm are the
following, impressed in the body of the ware:
[Illustration: STONE CHINA
WEDGWOOD & CO
Fig. 647.]
* * * * *
_Greenfield Works (William & Thomas Adams)._--This business was
originally established at Stoke by the grandfather of the present
owner, William Adams, who then carried on the business in his own
name until 1829, when the firm was changed to Wm. Adams & Sons; the
second William Adams being head of the firm. In 1834 the business
was considerably enlarged, and the present works at Greenfield,
Tunstall, opened. In 1853 a dissolution of the firm took place, and
the Greenfield works were carried on by William Adams (the second)
until 1865, when he retired in favour of his sons, William and Thomas
Adams, the present owners of the manufactory. The trade of this large
and important manufactory is entirely confined to foreign markets,
the principal trade being done with the Brazils, Cuba, Central
America, Java, Manilla, Singapore, the United States, &c., the first
six of which are the special trade of this firm. The quality of the
earthenware is the best of its class, and is noted in the markets
for which it is specially prepared for its durability, its “pleasant
handling,” and the richness and variety of its coloured and sponged
patterns, the bright fancy character of which is much admired in the
out markets of the world which have been named. The goods produced are
tea, toilet, and table services, besides a variety of other articles;
and these are all the best of their class, both in body, in form, and
in decoration. White granite (or ironstone china) of an excellent
quality is also made for the American and other markets, some of the
raised patterns--as, for instance, the “Dover”--being remarkably good,
and the forms of the pieces--side-dishes with covers, &c.--being
faultless. Transfer printing is much used, and is by this firm
judiciously combined with “sponged” patterns with good effect.
William Adams was an apprentice to Josiah Wedgwood, and was a great
favourite with him. He commenced business for himself at Tunstall, and
there produced some fine works of art in jasper and other wares. He
died quite in the beginning of the present century, and was, I have
heard, succeeded in the Tunstall business by his son Benjamin Adams.
Occasionally the name ADAMS, or W. ADAMS & SON, is met with.
“About 1800,” according to Shaw, “Mr. Benjamin Adams, of Tunstall, was
successful in the manufacture of jasper” in imitation of, though not
equal to, that of Wedgwood.
_Newfield Works._--These were occupied in 1857 by the father of the
members of the firm whose works have just been spoken of, and are now
carried on by Mr. William Adams. The goods are of a similar excellent
character and are produced for the same markets, with the addition of
Australia and Cape of Good Hope. An extensive business is done with the
United States, especially in Philadelphia and Baltimore (see Child).
* * * * *
_George Street Pottery_, established 1862.--At these works Mr. W.
Holdcroft (formerly Holdcroft & Wood) manufactures all kinds of
earthenware dinner, toilet, tea, and other services, and the usual
varieties of useful articles. Jugs are produced in immense quantities
and of great variety, both in form and in styles of ornamentation,
as is also every variety of goods. Even in the commoner classes a
better style of decoration is observable in the productions of this
manufactory than in many others. The styles of ornamentation are hand
painting, transfer printing, ground colours, lustre-glazes, &c. The
markets produced for are both home and foreign, and the general classes
of goods are what may be called generally commercial. Connected with
these works is the highly interesting fact that Mr. Holdcroft was
the first to introduce the down-draught system of firing into the
potteries, which has effected a great saving in fuel and a freedom from
smoke. Mr. Wood was great-nephew of one of the most celebrated men of
the district--the late Enoch Wood--and is now a partner in the firm of
Poole, Stanway, & Wood, of Stoke.
* * * * *
_Phœnix Works._--These works were built in the last century by
Anthony Keeling, one of the eminent potters of the district in the
“olden days,” and of whom a notice has already been given (page 424).
He married Ann Booth, daughter of the celebrated Enoch Booth, to whose
business he succeeded. At the commencement of the present century he
was the principal manufacturer in Tunstall, but was unsuccessful and
retired on a small independence in 1810. He was succeeded by Mr. Thomas
Goodfellow, who made considerable additions to the establishment. They
afterwards passed into the hands of Mr. Bridgwood, by whom (being,
later on, joined in partnership by Mr. Edward Clarke) they were carried
on under the style of “Bridgwood & Clarke.” Mr. Bridgwood dying in
1864, Mr. Clarke, whose large practical experience had added much to
the already extensive transactions of the establishment, became sole
proprietor, and carried on the concern until 1877, when he removed
to the New Bridge Works at Longport, which see. Mr. Clarke produced
“white granite” (_porcelain opaque_) in immense quantities and of
the very best quality, for the American markets, where it successfully
competed with “French porcelain;” artists’ palettes, tiles, slabs,
saucers, &c., were also made in large quantities, and possessing all
the requirements of hardness, evenness, and durability of glaze, are
much esteemed. Finger plates and door furniture of every variety, both
in black in white and in ivory coloured body, and plain or variously
decorated, were also produced in large quantities. In ivory body, in
white, and in brown, Mr. Clarke manufactured, very largely, castor
bowls, which are used on legs of tables, chairs, sofas, &c., and on
other varieties of furniture which require constant moving. Mr. Clarke
also for many years carried on the “Churchyard Works” at Burslem,
of which a lengthy notice is given on page 244. The marks used were
EDWARD CLARKE, impressed on the body of the ware, and the
royal arms, with supporters, garter, motto, &c., above a flowing ribbon
on which are the words “EDWARD CLARKE, PORCELAIN OPAQUE,” and,
beneath, TUNSTALL (see Enoch Booth).
* * * * *
_Lion Works_, Sandyford.--These works were commenced for goods for the
home trade by James Beech in 1838, and afterwards passed into the hands
of Thomas Walker, who made South American goods, and next, in 1856,
to Broughton & Mayer, whose productions were for the United States.
In 1862 the present firm, “Ford & Challinor,” became proprietors, and
have continued the manufacture of general earthenware for the home and
foreign markets.
* * * * *
_Victoria Works._--Established and built by Mr. John Tomkinson in 1858,
and carried on by him and Mr. G. W. Turner under the style of “Turner &
Tomkinson” until 1873, when Mr. Tomkinson retired. The business is now
carried on by Mr. Turner and his sons, under the style of “G. W. Turner
& Sons.” The goods produced are the ordinary printed and enamelled
earthenware in dinner, toilet and other services, &c., for the home and
colonial markets. The mark used is simply the initials of the firm.
* * * * *
_Swan Bank Works._--This is one of the oldest manufactories in
Tunstall. In the beginning of the present century it belonged to
and was worked by Mr. Ralph Hall, and is still the property of his
descendants, his sole executor being Mr. Frederick J. Bowers, by whom
(as successor to his father, Mr. George F. Bowers) the Brownhills
Pottery was carried on until that concern was formed into a company
(see page 288). Mr. Ralph Hall was succeeded in the manufactory by
Messrs. Podmore Walker & Co., by whom it was carried on until about
1862, when it passed into the hands of Messrs. Beech & Hancock, by whom
it was much improved, and from them to its present occupier, James
Beech.
The productions of the firm are the ordinary classes of earthenware and
stoneware for the home trade. In these wares dinner, tea, toilet, and
all the usual services are largely produced in every variety of style
and of various degrees of ornamentation, both in “sponged,” printed,
painted, enamelled, gilt and lustred styles. Stoneware jugs and other
articles are also largely made and are of excellent quality, as are
also black ware and other jardinières flower vases, &c.
* * * * *
_Church Bank Works._--The Church Bank Works were built in 1842 by
Mr. Robert Beswick (of Chell, the present owner), by whom they were
carried on till 1860, and afterwards successively by the firms of Beech
& Hancock, Eardley & Hammersley, and Ralph Hammersley alone. In 1870
the manufactory passed into the hands of its present occupiers, Messrs.
Thomas Booth & Son. The firm commenced business in 1864 at the Knowles
Works, Burslem, under the style of Evans & Booth, which in 1868 was
altered to Thomas Booth & Co. In 1872 the style was changed to its
present form of Thomas Booth & Son. The productions are earthenware
of medium quality in which all the usual services and other domestic
articles are produced for the home and colonial markets.
* * * * *
_Well Street Pottery_, called also the _Old Works_.--These works--of
old foundation--are carried on by Mr. Stephen Clive under the style
of Stephen Clive & Co., whose productions are the ordinary middle
classes of earthenware goods for the home and foreign markets. The
firm was formerly Clive & Lloyd, and after Mr. Lloyd retired became
Stephen Clive & Co. “About 1802 Mr. William Brookes, engraver, then of
Tunstall, afterwards of Burslem, suggested to Mr. J. Clive a new method
of ornamenting by blue-printing. The border of the plate was engraved
from a beautiful strip of border for paper-hangings of rooms, and many
of the manufacturers approved of the alteration. The New Hall Company
instantly adopted it for some of their tea-services.”
* * * * *
_Black Bank and High Street Works._--These works are carried on by
Mr. Ralph Hammersley; the latter for the production of ordinary
earthenware, and the former for common jet, red, and Rockingham ware
articles.
* * * * *
_Woodland Pottery._--Messrs. Hollinshed & Kirkham, formerly Edmund
T. Wood, is situated in Woodland Street. Earthenware for the home and
foreign markets is produced in all the usual varieties.
* * * * *
_Greengate Pottery._--Messrs. Henry Meir & Son manufacture earthenware
in all the usual services of the more ordinary classes.
* * * * *
_Sandyford Works._--Ordinary earthenware is here made by Mr. Jabez
Blackhurst.
* * * * *
_Tunstall Works._--Messrs. Blackhurst & Dunning commenced these works
in 1857 for the manufacture of ordinary earthenware for the home and
South American markets. In 1867 Mr. Dunning died, and since then the
business was carried on by Mr. Richard Blackhurst alone; he died in
1877.
* * * * *
_Highgate Pottery._--Established by George Hood, who purchased the
land from Mr. Randle-Wilkinson in 1831, and built the manufactory. The
works were purchased by Mr. William Emberton in July, 1846, and carried
on by him until his death in 1867, since which time they have been
carried on by his two sons, Thomas Isaac Emberton and James Emberton,
the present owners. The goods manufactured are all the usual varieties
of earthenware for the home markets, and the firm are also large
producers of special goods for Ceylon, Calcutta, Bombay, and other
Indian markets.
* * * * *
_Clay Hill Pottery._--Messrs. Thomas Elsmore & Son manufacture ordinary
earthenware.
* * * * *
_Royal Albert Works._--Mr. Albert Meakin produces the ordinary classes
of earthenware goods.
* * * * *
_Soho Works._--Mr. George Guest here manufactures common earthenware.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Fig. 648.]
_Marshall & Co._--This firm were manufacturers in the early part of
this century, but their locality is unknown to me with certainty. The
mark, Fig. 648, occurs in the Mayer Museum. It is impressed on the
bottom of a shell-piece, a part of a dessert service, painted in pink
waves with gilt edge. It is a very good design, and in painting and
gilding excellent.
* * * * *
_Walton._--The name WALTON in a scroll, and also “Walton” alone, occur
impressed in the ware of common earthenware statuettes.
* * * * *
_Stevenson._--There were more than one firm of potters named Stevenson
in Staffordshire. Some were of Cobridge. One potter of that name used a
vesica-shaped mark bearing a three-masted ship with the name Stevenson
above it impressed in the ware. Another used the mark of a crown within
a circle, bearing the words A. STEVENSON, WARRANTED, STAFFORDSHIRE,
impressed in the ware. Another mark was simply the name STEVENSON, also
impressed.
* * * * *
_Birch._--Mr. Birch produced Egyptian black ware articles of good
quality. His mark was the name BIRCH, impressed in the ware.
* * * * *
_Eastwood._--Red ware, cane-coloured ware, with raised foliage,
flowers, figures, &c., and black ware tea-pots, were made by Eastwood,
and bear his name impressed in the body of the ware, EASTWOOD or
Eastwood.
* * * * *
_Shorthose & Co._--I have met with the marks of SHORTHOSE & CO.,
SHORTHOSE, Shorthose & Co., Shorthose, on a variety of wares, including
ordinary cream-coloured services, white and printed goods, and Egyptian
black and other articles. My late friend, Mr. Bagshawe, owned some good
examples; he considered the works to have closed about 1820.
* * * * *
_Heath & Son._--The two impressed marks here engraved, Figs. 649
and 650, are supposed to be those of Messrs. Heath & Son. They occur on
well-decorated earthenware services of average quality.
[Illustration: Figs. 649 and 650.]
[Illustration: Fig. 651 and 652.]
NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME.
_Charles Riggs’s Tobacco-pipes._--Two hundred years ago, when Plot
wrote, there was a famous manufactory of tobacco-pipes at this place.
The maker was Charles Riggs, and he made “very good pipes of three
sorts of clay.” Plot says (1676), “As for _Tobacco-pipe clays_ they
are found all over the county, near Wrottesley House, and Stile Cop,
in Cannock Wood, whereof they make pipes at Armitage and Lichfield,
both which, though they are _greyish clays_, yet burn very white. There
is _Tobacco-pipe clay_ also found at Darlaston, near Wednesbury; but
of late disused, because of better and cheaper found in Monway-field,
betwixt Wednesbury and Willingsworth, which is of a _whitish_ colour,
and makes excellent _pipes_, as doth also another of the same colour
dug near the Salt Water poole in Pensnet Chase, about a mile and a half
south of Dudley. And _Charles Riggs_, of Newcastle, makes very good
_pipes_ of three sorts of clay--a _white_ and _blew_--which he has
from between Shelton and Hanley Green, whereof the blew clay burns the
_whitest_, but not so _full_ as the _white_, _i.e._, it _shrinks_ more;
but the best sort he has is from Grubbers Ash, being _whitish_ mixt
with _yellow_. It is a short britle sort of clay, but burns full and
white; yet he sometimes mixes it with the blew before mentioned.”
With reference to this Charles Riggs, pipe maker, of
Newcastle-under-Lyme, it is interesting to add that nearly a hundred
pipes, each bearing, as a heel or other mark, the initials C R
in various forms--found at Newcastle and other localities in the
district--have come under my notice, and are, there can be but little
doubt, examples of his workmanship. They are interesting too as showing
the transition in the lifetime of one maker from the flat heel to the
pointed spur. Two of these are engraved on page 432 (Figs. 651, 652).
The first has a stamp on the heel bearing the initials C R between two
crescents, one above, the other below. The second, being a pipe with
pointed spur, has the stamp on the front of the bowl so as to face the
smoker; it bears the same mark of initials C R (Charles Riggs?) and
crescents. Another mark of Riggs was simply the initials C R as shown
on the same group.
NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME.
_Thomas Wood’s Garden Edgings._--Tiles for garden edgings were in
Plot’s time made at Newcastle-under-Lyme, and must have had extensive
sale, as the gardens of the better kind were in those days always laid
out in “Knots” of more or less elaborate design. Plot, speaking of this
branch of manufacture, says: “Also at Newcastle-under-Lyme the _Tiles_
burnt in a _Kill_, the usual way, being found not to last, one _Mr.
Thomas Wood_, of the same Towne, first contrived to burn them (which we
may look upon as an art relating to fire) in a _Potter’s Oven_, wherein
he made them so good and lasting, that notwithstanding they have been
put to the hardship of dividing the parts of _Garden Knots_, to endure
not only the perpetual moisture of the earth, but frost, snow, and all
sorts of weather; yet they few of them decay, scarce 5 tiles in 500
having failed in 20 yeares time; so that now he has been followed by
all the countrey thereabout.”
* * * * *
_Newcastle Pottery._--This manufactory was established by Messrs.
Harrison & Baker in 1866, for the production of red ware, ebony or jet
ware, and terra cotta, as well as ordinary horticultural goods. In red
and jet wares the usual useful and ornamental classes of articles are
made, and are of average quality. Rockingham ware is also somewhat
largely made.
* * * * *
_Keys and Mountford._--In the Exhibition of 1851 Messrs. Keys and
Mountford exhibited, and received honourable mention for parian
statuettes.
ARMITAGE.
In 1676, when Plot wrote, there was a manufactory of pipes at this
place. They were made from the native greyish clay of the district,
which burned very white.
LICHFIELD.
The manufactory of pipes from the native clays of Cannock Wood and
other places in the county, which, though naturally grey, burned very
white, is mentioned by Plot in 1676.
PENKHULL.
In 1600, it is stated by Shaw, there “were three manufactories for
coarse brown pottery” at Penkhull, “one of which belonged to Mr. Thomas
Doody, whose descendants now reside at Tunstall.”