Middlesborough-on-Tees.
The Middlesborough Pottery was established in 1831; the first oven being fired in April of that year, and the first order shipped to Gibraltar in September. They were the first public works established in Middlesborough. From 1831 to 1844 the firm traded under the style of “The Middlesborough Pottery Company,” and from that year until 1852 as “The Middlesborough Earthenware Company.” From 1852 to the present time the firm has traded under the name of the proprietors as “Messrs. Isaac Wilson & Co.” The works, with wharf, occupy an area of about 9,702 square yards.
At the first commencement of the works the proprietors directed their attention to the production of the better classes of ordinary earthenware for the continental trade, and in the same year in which the works were started, their present extensive warehouse at Roding’s Mart, Hamburg, was established. The goods produced are the ordinary “opaque china,” cream-coloured ware, and lustre enamelled ware in dinner, tea, and toilet services, and all the general classes of domestic vessels, enamelled flower pots, bread trays, &c. Some of these are of very good quality, and the printed services are equal to the more ordinary Staffordshire goods. The principal impressed marks, used are the following—
The printed marks indicating the pattern have, in addition to the name of the pattern (“Convolvulus,” “Trent,” “Nunthorpe,” &c.) the initials of the firm, as “M. P. & Co.” for “Middlesborough Pottery Company,” and “I. W. & Co.” for “Isaac Wilson & Co.”
Wolviston Pottery, now discontinued, formerly produced yellow ware.
Coxhoe Pottery, also discontinued, produced Sunderland ware.