Minor factories, major roles
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you've had a wonderful holiday period and starting the new year refreshed.
Today I am catching up, after a few days complete rest, on my latest article in Homes & Antiques. This time it's about the "minor" factories of the early 19th Century, which actually played quite a major role in British porcelain.
It is thought that in the early 19th Century there were about 300 factories in the Staffordshire Potteries, churning out huge numbers of beautiful ceramics. But while the famous factories are still celebrated today, much of the hard work in The Potteries took place in anonymity. We will never know the names and styles of every factory, and new discoveries are still being made today.
So why not put the spotlight on these important factories? As it is these lesser known, and often cheaper, factories that brought the groundbreaking styles of the great factories into the mainstream. I bet most of us have some pieces stashed away somewhere, or perhaps are using them every day, passed down our families, without knowing who made them.
An unintended result of so many factories that "aped" the more well-known factories is that we are often very confused about who made what. They didn't only imitate; they often replaced broken items, or were drawn on by bigger factories when they couldn't manage their orders.
So this new piece is all about this... you can read it in the magazine.
Where to find things
I have lots of these items for sale in my shop, you can find them among all my available items here, and if you want to stay up to date with new additions, find me on Instagram, where I put up pictures with a story several times a week.
We are open 🎁
We will resume shipping by the end of this coming week when holiday delays will hopefully have been resolved. But the shop stays open... so feel free to browse, ask questions and of course make purchases!
This week's new treasures:
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