Greenock.
The Clyde Pottery.—The “Clyde Pottery” works were built and established by Messrs. James and Andrew Muir and others in 1815, and it is still the property of the Muir family, the present proprietors being the daughters of the late Andrew Muir. The business was first carried on by the proprietors under the style of the “Clyde Pottery Company,” with Mr. James Stevenson as manager. Mr. Stevenson was succeeded in the management by Thomas Shirley, to whom the business was transferred, and who altered the name of the firm to Thomas Shirley & Co. In 1857 the Messrs. Shirley were succeeded by the “Clyde Pottery Company (Limited),” with James Brownlie as manager. This company acquired the ground adjoining the pottery known as the “Blubber Yard” (from the fact that formerly the blubber obtained at the whale-fishing was boiled there), and this piece of ground gave ample scope for extending the works. The “Clyde Pottery Company (Limited)” existed for five years, and was then succeeded by the present firm, who carry on the business under the old style—the “Clyde Pottery Company”—and who, in taking over the lease, also acquired the ground adjoining already referred to, and have extended the works so as to do double the business of any of their predecessors. The firm consists of three members—John Donald, Robert Gibson Brown, and John McLauchlan—the two last taking the active management of the concern. The goods produced are the ordinary qualities of cream-coloured, sponged, painted, printed, pearl-white, enamelled, and gilt, suitable for the home trade, and various kinds of ware also to suit particular foreign markets. The mark used upon goods is “C. P. Co.” (Clyde Pottery Company). The markets supplied are the Home, Scotch, and Irish; and considerable business is done abroad with Calcutta, Mauritius, Rangoon, Java, Newfoundland, and Canada.