Chats on Old Earthenware

by Arthur Hayden

J. Phillips, Hylton Pottery, appears on some Sunderland pieces. This firm was established as early as 1765.

Ford is another name in connection with the South Hylton works about 1800.

Dixon, Austin & Co., sometimes with the addition of Sunderland, is found at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

W. S. & Co., with the word Wedgewood (having an additional "e") was the mark used by William Smith & Co., of Stockton-on-Tees, or even "Wedgwood & Co." Against this firm Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood & Sons, of Etruria, obtained in 1848 an injunction to restrain the use of their name.

Another equally confusing mark to collectors is that of a firm near Pontefract, who marked their ware "Wedgwood & Co." sometimes with the word name of the factory, "Ferrybridge," and sometimes "Tomlinson & Co." Their ware is mainly cream ware of an ordinary type.

In regard to the productions of Newcastle and Sunderland these are best known by the familiar mugs and jugs having a nautical flavour, with ships in black transfer decoration, and never without verses appropriate to the clientèle of sailors, for whom they were made. These mugs and jugs are frequently decorated with pink lustre at the rims and in bands around the body. A feature which associates these northern factories with Leeds is the frequent use of a modelled frog crawling up the inside of the vessel, which was intended as a practical joke on the person who was lifting the jug to his lips. These frog mugs were previously made at Leeds, and the one illustrated ([p. 303]) has a frog so affixed in the inside.

The ware, as a whole, is rather crude in its potting and slightly inferior to similar Staffordshire ware, but all these northern factories are now closed, and the quaint doggerel, the queer nautical allusions, and the strain of patriotism found on much of this humble earthenware always appeal strongly to the collector.

MARKS USED AT LEEDS, CASTLEFORD, ROCKINGHAM, NEWCASTLE, AND SUNDERLAND.

	Leeds. From 1783, Hartley, Greens & Co. 1825–1832, Samuel Wainwright & Co. 1832–1840, Leeds Pottery Co. 1840–1847, Stephen and James Chapel. 1850–1863, Warburton, Britton & Co. 1863–1878, Richard Britton & Sons. After which the works closed.
	Don Pottery (at Swinton near Leeds). 1790–1834, at one time in hands of John Green, of Leeds Pottery.
	1834–1850, Samuel Barker, and 1851–1882, Samuel Barker & Sons.
	Late Marks used by the Barkers during above period:— In addition to the lion with pennon the word Barker was added later, when the mark was printed.
	Another printed mark was an eagle and ducal coronet, used when the firm became Samuel Barker & Sons in 1851. But was shortly discontinued, and the lion-printed mark again used.
	Castleford (near Leeds), 1790–1820. David Dunderdale & Co., and the impressed mark in margin is found on some of the productions of the Castleford Pottery.
	Rockingham. The name of the factory at Swinton, established 1757. Came into the hands of the Bramelds in 1807. Ceased, 1842. The "Cadogan" lower glazed teapots sometimes bear the impressed mark "Mortlock," the London agent for whom some of them were made.
	The crest of the Fitzwilliam family was printed as a mark after 1826, and is also found printed on porcelain made at the Rockingham factory.
	Newcastle-on-Tyne . Fell of Newcastle (about 1815), impressed cream ware mugs and jugs with this mark. Various figures appear underneath, denoting the particular pattern.
	Sunderland. Messrs. Sewell, established about 1780, after Sewell & Donkin, used these marks. Other Sunderland makers—Dixon, Austin & Co., Dixon & Co., Scott Brothers & Co. (established 1788), Phillips & Co. (established about 1800), J. Phillips, Hylton (established, 1780), Dawson (about 1810)—impressed their names on ware.