Tableware Blog — A Brief History

Wedgwood is one of the most popular manufacturers of fine china, tableware, porcelain and numerous luxury accessories. The company has been around since 1759, making it one of the oldest china and tableware companies in the country. It was created by Josiah Wedgwood. Just 6 years later, Wedgwood created a new type of creamware and that impressed even the British Queen consort who gave permission to have it called the Queen’s Ware. This product in particular sold very well all over Europe. In 1765 Wedgwood acquired Etruria, which was a large estate with a factory. They started to add numerous...

Hornsea Pottery was created in 1949 by two brothers named Desmond and Colin Rawson, with the help of funding from a local businessman named Philip Clappison. The company began with Plaster of Paris giftware for sale in Hornsea on the East Yorkshire coast. The original such product was a Toby Jug. By 1954 the company was already registered, had a factory and a staff of 64, which grew to 250 by 1974. Some of the earliest pieces created by the company were designed by Colin Rawson, and since those sold very well the Hornsea Pottery chose to move to larger...

Royal Worcester, a revered porcelain company, was created in 1751 by Doctor John Wall and a group of local businessmen. One of their first product lines was the Worcester porcelain, painted in blue under the glaze. Soon Robert Hancock arrived at Royal Worcester, and he started to apply print transfers onto porcelain. That was a huge deal at the time, and it helped the business take off swiftly. In fact, Royal Worcester grew so much that in 1770 they made one of the first Royal dinner services for the Duke of Gloucester at that time. Even when the founder retired...

Royal Doulton was a company widely known for creating some of the highest quality collectibles and tableware in the world. It was created in 1815 by John Doulton, Martha Jones and John Watts, and it was designed to primarily create luxury ceramics, at least in the beginning. But as time went by, the company expanded to create porcelain products, glassware, lighting, curtains, linens, jewelry, giftware, dinnerware, and many others. The company started as a partnership between the three founders. However Martha Jones left the company in 1820. That’s when the first name change occurred, with the business being renamed to...

Johnson Brothers is a pottery known for introducing early semi-porcelain tableware. Founded by Frederick and Alfred Johnson way back in 1883, the brothers were actually the grandsons of renowned English potter, Alfred Meakin, which no doubt helped to stir up interest in their new pottery venture. They started with simple wares of flow blue porcelains, but as they expanded, more variety was introduced, specifically with the introduction of transferware for which they established a name for themselves early on. In 1888, their elder brother Henry joined the business venture as well.  Henry produced his wares in a factory named the...