Gray's Pottery

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Gray's Pottery
Company type Private
Industry Pottery
Founded1907 (1907)
FounderAE Gray
Defunct1961 (1961)
FateAcquired
Successor Portmeirion Pottery
Headquarters,

Gray's Pottery, also spelled as Grays Pottery and formally known as A.E. Gray Ltd. was a British pottery company based in Hanley, Staffordshire, later Stoke-upon-Trent, which existed until it was taken over by Portmeirion Pottery in 1960. [1]

Contents

The company was founded by, and named after, Albert Edward Gray (1871–1959). [2] Gray's business began in Stoke-upon-Trent (one of the six towns of the City of Stoke-on-Trent) in 1907 and became a production operation in Mayer Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent by 1912. [3] It returned to Stoke-upon-Trent in 1933 [4] and ceased by 1962. [5] The company, which was noted particularly for the quality of its design in the 1920s and 1930s, [6] [ unreliable source? ] took part in every British Industries Fair that was held between 1915 and 1951. [7]

Notable employees of the company include Susie Cooper, who worked for Gray's in the 1920s. [8] She stayed with the company until her 27th birthday in 1929, when she left the company in order to set up her own business. [9]

Samuel (Clyde) Talbot succeeded Cooper as the company's Art Director around 1930, remaining until 1959. He gained national recognition on the National Register of Industrial Art Designers alongside other notable ceramic designers such as Reco Capey, Michael Cardew, Keith Murray, Eric Ravilious and Victor Skellern, as well as Susie Cooper. [10]

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Staffordshire is a landlocked ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the south-east, the West Midlands county and Worcestershire to the south, and Shropshire to the west. The largest settlement is the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and the county town is Stafford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stoke-upon-Trent</span> One of the Six Towns of Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, England

Stoke-upon-Trent, also known as Stoke, is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Burslem, Fenton, Longton and Tunstall form the city of Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, England.

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Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. The town is the main business, commercial and cultural hub of the wider Potteries area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fenton, Staffordshire</span> One of the Six Towns of Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, England

Fenton is one of the six towns that amalgamated with Hanley, Tunstall, Burslem, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent to form the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910, later raised to city status in 1925. Fenton is often referred to as "the Forgotten Town", because it was omitted by local author, Arnold Bennett, from many of his works based in the area, including one of his most famous novels, Anna of the Five Towns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tunstall, Staffordshire</span> One of the Six Towns of Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, England

Tunstall is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Hanley and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It was one of the original six towns that federated to form the city. Tunstall is the most northern, and fourth largest town of the Potteries. It is situated in the very northwest of the city borough, with its north and west boundaries being the city limit. It stands on a ridge of land between Fowlea Brook to the west and Scotia Brook to the east, surrounded by old tile-making and brick-making sites, some of which date back to the Middle Ages.

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Shelton is an area of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England, between Hanley and Stoke-upon-Trent.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chell, Staffordshire</span> Suburb of Stoke-on-Trent, England

Chell is a suburb of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, England, that can be subdivided into Little Chell, Great Chell and Chell Heath. It lies on the northern edge of the city, approximately 1-mile (1.6 km) from Tunstall, 2 miles (3.2 km) from Burslem and 3 miles (4.8 km) from the county border with Cheshire. Chell borders Pitts Hill to the west, Tunstall to the south west, Stanfield and Bradeley to the south, with the outlying villages of Packmoor and Brindley Ford to the north and Ball Green to the east. Since 2011 the area has been divided into the electoral wards of Bradeley & Chell Heath, Great Chell & Packmoor and Little Chell & Stanfield.

Predominantly centred on Hanley and Burslem, in what became the federation of Stoke-on-Trent, the 1842 Pottery Riots took place in the midst of the 1842 General Strike, and both are credited with helping to forge trade unionism and direct action as a powerful tool in British industrial relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Greatbatch</span>

William Greatbatch was a noted potter at Fenton, Staffordshire, from the mid-eighteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. Fenton was one of the six towns of the Staffordshire Potteries, which were joined in the early 20th century to become the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Millicent Taplin</span> British ceramics designer

Millicent (Millie) Jane Taplin (1902–1980) was a British designer and painter of ceramics who spent most of her career at Josiah Wedgwood and Sons (1917–1962). She was trained in painting by Alfred and Louise Powell, and supervised Wedgwood's ceramics painters. She became a designer of decorative patterns in 1929 and by the mid-to-late 1930s was one of the company's main designers, although she did not design pottery shapes. She was one of only two working-class women to become a successful ceramics designer before the Second World War. Her tableware designs were exhibited by Wedgwood at Grafton Galleries in London in 1936, and several of her designs are now on display at the V&A Museum. Her design "Strawberry Hill", with Victor Skellern, was awarded the Council of Industrial Design's Design of the Year Award in 1957.

Victor G. Skellern (1909–1966) was a British ceramics designer and stained glass producer who was the art director at Wedgwood from 1934 to 1965. He helped to modernise Wedgwood, and his design work was a factor in the company's resurgence after 1935. He was also known for employing well-known designers from outside the company. Skellern's ceramics designs were exhibited at Grafton Galleries (1936) and the Britain Can Make It exhibition (1946) in London. Some of his designs are now on display at the V&A Museum, Yale Center for British Art, Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences and the Wedgwood Museum. His design "Strawberry Hill", with Millicent Taplin, was awarded the Council of Industrial Design's Design of the Year Award in 1957.

References

  1. Grant, Tina. International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 88. St. James Press, 2007, p. 309.
  2. Victoria and Albert Museum. British art and design, 1900-1960: a collection in the making. 1984, p. 98.
  3. Stoke and Hanley Rate books 1907-1916
  4. The Pottery Gazette and Glass Trade Review, September 1933 p.1124
  5. Conway, Hazel (1987). Design History: A Students' Handbook. Harper Collins. p. 35. ISBN   9780415084734.
  6. Josiah Wedgwood V writing to Sir Cecil Weir in September 1941
  7. British Industries Fair. The Pottery Gazette and Glass Trade Review: June 1915, June 1916 p.388, March 1917 p.262, April 1918 p.309, April 1919 p.356, April 1920 p.475, April 1921 p.596-7, April 1922 p.560, April 1923 p.656, June 1924 p.1016, April 1926 p.602-3, April 1927 p.632, April 1928 p.624, April 1929 p.606, April 1930 p.606, April 1931 p.542, April 1932 p.492, February 1933 p.203, February 1934 p.222, February 1935 p.231, Feb 1936 p.248, February 1937 p.250, February 1938 p.248, February 1939 p.251. Pottery and Glass May 1947 p.47. The Pottery Gazette and Glass Trade Review: May 1948 p.417, May 1949 p.504b, June 1950 p.852, June 1951 p.738.
  8. Rodgers, Don (7 April 2012). "What's in a name? DON RODGERS Bargain Hunter.(Features)". Western Mail (Wales) . Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  9. "Obituaries: Susie Cooper". The Independent. 1 August 1995. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
  10. Pottery and Glass Record, December 1937 p.320

Further reading