The north wing of Temple Newsam House, home to large part of Leeds’ museum collections.

The Leeds

The rise and fall of Leeds Pottery followed the same script as so many localised manufacturing industries in the nineteenth century. Ivor Hughes visited Temple Newsam House to look at Leeds City Council’s own collection. by Ivor Hughes

The wider picture , with a translucent lead glaze and hardly ever Leeds Pottery is inextricably associated with its pierced decorated. But they also made highly decorative examples of what creamware, made from white Cornish and local flint. So might today be called folk art, not the finest bone china, but honest much so that few people are aware of the fact that anything else and expressive everyday pieces of art pottery. Like French , was ever made there, and so universally that just about any pierced it was the poor man’s of the time. And, like its French creamware turning up at fairs or auction is automatically desig- counterpart, it is highly prized today. nated ‘Leeds’. Today, ‘Leeds’ ware is still being made in quantity Leeds Pottery also produced (similar to Doulton in Staffordshire, some 120 miles to the south. But Leeds Pottery’s Lambeth), blackware (rivalling ) and transfer ware own production wasn’t confined to Leeds ware. Far from it. (similar to Sunderland and Derby). The fact that there is still debate on the question of whether porcelain was ever manufac- Leeds tured on a commercial basis means that it probably never was. It Today, Leeds is the country’s second largest metropolitan district appears that Leeds Pottery’s diversions from Leedsware and other and third most populous. But it was a late developer. The creamware were speculative rather than sustained. population of eleventh century Leeds was 200, compared with London’s 18,000 and Oxford’s 5,000. It became a town only in The writing on the wall 1207. It didn’t get a mayor until 1656, by which time the farming Leeds Pottery had financial problems from early on, notably a community was benefiting from the boom in the wool trade. Leeds closure in 1806 following a five-year partnership with Swinton also had quarries, water, timber and coal. It already had brick- Pottery (see ‘Publications’ below) and in 1830 the sale of the works. In the mid-eighteenth century it was a prime candidate for factory and stock to creditors. They bounced back again and again, a pottery, when streamlined and simplified production techniques though later in the nineteenth century they were to become victims from France began to spread across England. of the very factors that had made the town so successful. The Industrial Revolution had caused the population to explode. In Leeds Pottery 1840 it exceeded 150,000. The Leeds Liverpool Canal, the Leeds Pottery was founded in 1770 by Richard Humble and the Industrial Revolution’s most important artery, had been completed brothers John and Joshua Green. The Greens’ cousin Savile Green in 1816. Comprehensive rail connections started appearing in the and an entrepreneur William Hartley joined soon after. It was as 1830s and were completed by the 1840s. Leeds not only retained Humble, Hartley, Greens & Company that they were to become its importance in farming and wool, but also developed heavy and known for decorative table ware. Their best years for art pottery light industries, notably becoming an important centre for clothing started around 1780, and then spanning barely half a century. The manufacture. But where the Leeds woollen garment industry was ongoing series of mergers, closures and bankruptcies continued a winner, pottery was to be a loser. The barges and trains that until the company closed for good in 1881. By that time they had carried Leeds goods all over the country weren’t going to come become focused on producing less decorative utilitarian ware. back empty. Pottery was a prime candidate for the return trip. They were by far the largest of the thirty-five in Leeds, The undisputed centre of UK pottery production at that time, and with only five of those recorded as having produced similar wares. today, was the area around Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire. Stoke had The bulk of Leeds Pottery’s production was and remained already been producing industrial quantities of ceramics for two

ANTIQUES INFO - September/October 08 LPC’s trademark piercing made this an unusual and attractive slotted spoon …

Four of the eight Leeds Pottery wine bin labels stored away at Temple Newsam House. Leeds Pottery production such as this is prized more highly for scarcity than quality, these just don’t bear comparison with the output of Wedgwood or Minton. LPC exported worldwide in its heyday, though this oil and vinegar never made it … but the jury must still be to Holland .… All images with permission of Leeds City Council Art Gallery. out on the practicality of this jelly mould.

.… nor this cruet to Germany.

This 22cm puzzle jug is a fine These two figurines are example of the genre. among the 400 pieces of Transferware was popular Leeds Pottery held in the city’s among all towns’ production collection. But moulds and ‘perhaps Leeds 1780s’. ‘Probably Yorkshire 1820s’, the talent was there, but not patterns often changed hands the demand. between factories, so don’t just accept a dealer’s word if the piece isn’t marked.

In 1802 the butcher James Ibbotson would ‘lay 18 to a Attribution can be difficult. Guinea this is Best Beef in Botanical decoration such Although the decoration is Some of the City’s collection OTLEY MARKET’. Leeds as this (c1800) is among known to have been done in is openly displayed, here one Pottery was poor man’s Leeds’ finest, but indistin- Leeds in the 1770s, the jug of a pair of fountains in the porcelain at the time, but guishable from the work at itself might have been made dining room. original folk art has never Swinton pottery. in Derbyshire. been more popular. ANTIQUES INFO - September/October 08 Selection of Leeds Pottery from our centuries. Its potters had adopted new pottery firing techniques in the 1750s database at www.antiques-info.co.uk and are credited with introducing creamware at that time. Although Stoke had its own supply of coal and clay, it too relied on Cornish clay for the manufacture of creamware. But Stoke is 120 miles closer to 1 Cornwall. The canals and railways brought them even closer to the clay 5 supplies, and easily in touch with the rest of the country when it came to the shipping out of finished goods. Why should the town of Leeds receive barges full of Cornish clay when the good people of Stoke could turn it into earth- enware en route? Looking at it like that, it’s surprising that the Leeds Pottery Company lasted until 1881. 18thC Leeds creamware jug, intertwined handle moulded with green sprigs, painted in Attribution difficult Unusual late 18th/early 19thC puce with floral bouquets, Leeds Pottery was not alone in the production of colourful art pottery, nor creamware 3 tier Grand Platt 4.5in. Gorringes, Lewes. Mar was their output by any means unique. Before Stoke became so well 01. HP: £550. ABP: £646. Menage, each tier with five connected, mass-production of pottery in UK was shared by several other shell pattern recessed dishes industrial towns. That was, quite simply, because of the vast quantities of supported by dolphins, finial as a seated figure of ‘Plenty’ coal required. In 1807 Leeds Pottery burned around thirty tons of coal per holding a cornucopia, pierced day. Similar pieces were being made elsewhere in Yorkshire, and next door base, 17.75in high, probably in Derbyshire, Lancashire and Northumberland. Of comparable production Leeds pottery, some restor- 6 outside Staffordshire, Sunderland ware is perhaps the best known. ation. Canterbury Auction There was such similarity between different towns’ production that museums Galleries, Kent. Feb 06. HP: Leeds creamware chintz can sometimes give no more than “best guess” attributions, eg by describing £1,800. ABP: £2,117. pattern coffee pot and cover, English c1775, enriched with a jug as being ‘Yorkshire, possibly Leeds’ or ‘Leeds, possibly decorated bands of stylised floral/ Derby’. In that respect, museum curators and researchers are far more geometric decoration in tones cautious than auctions, dealers or collectors. It is tempting, and all too easy, of yellow, purple, black/iron to declare an unattributable piece as ‘Derby’, ‘Leeds’ or ‘Sunderland’ if that’s red, impressed triangle to base, what the customer is looking for. 22.5cm. Rosebery’s, London. Jun 05. HP: £500. ABP: £588. 2 Publications 7 If the reviews are to be believed then the only authoritative book on the Leeds creamware documentary subject is by John D Griffin, in two volumes, sponsored by Leeds Art teapot and cover, 1774, one side inscribed/dated ‘Elizath. Collection Fund and £75 for the two volumes. The book’s meticulous Webster Winstrope, 1774’, research included ‘family letters, partnership agreements, wills, factory price reverse in polychrome with a lists, fuel accounts, shipping records and court proceedings’, mainly because Chinaman in a garden, chips Leeds Pottery’s production was generally unmarked, so other clues had to be to lid and spout, 14.5cm high. used. Not only were pattern books and drawings used to identify Leeds (2) Sworders, Stansted Leeds pearlware figure of Mountfitchet. Nov 04. HP: Neptune, crowned figure in production, the author also researched factory marks, moulds and shards of £1,650. ABP: £1,940. loose-fitting robe, standing pottery that had been excavated from the site. beside dolphin, impressed mark, In the process, the book dispels many earlier conclusions about Leeds 7.5in. Gorringes, Lewes. Nov Pottery and, erring on the side of caution, dismisses previously accepted 05. HP: £380. ABP: £446. attribution of many pieces and lines. In particular, the author examines the overlap of Leeds designs with Swinton Pottery and Don Pottery. They were in Rotherham, 30 miles south, and all three had for a while employed the 3 8 same master potter. Accurate attribution appears even more difficult if you visit Rotherham websites and find information such as Don Pottery going Leeds creamware teapot, Leeds Pottery creamware fruit bullet-shape, scroll handle, comport, lobed body pierce bankrupt in 1834 and selling off its moulds and pattern books to others. painted with a basket of fruit with flowers, 12.25in wide. Furthermore, Leeds Museum reports that pieces excavated at the Swinton and flowers within floral leaf- Andrew Hartley, Ilkley. Apr site are indistinguishable from Leeds. scrolls in rust enamel, c1770, 01. HP: £370. ABP: £435. Perhaps there is a lesson there for us all, do not accept unmarked and 4.5in. Gorringes, Lewes. Nov 05. HP: £1,300. ABP: £1,529. otherwise unattributable early English pottery at the vendor’s description without seeing cast-iron provenance. 4 The Leeds City Collection Due to the wealth of other exhibits at Temple Newsam House, only a small 9 proportion of Leeds City Art Gallery’s collection had been on view until Leeds creamware chintz recently. However, since 2007, the newly refurbished ‘Still Room’ was pattern coffee pot and cover, turned over to a very large display of creamware and, in the process, freeing English c1775, associated 18thC Leeds(?) creamware domed cover, bands of stylised up a lot of exhibition space for the more decorative pieces. The larger sauceboat, moulded with a floral/geometric decoration in decorative pieces are displayed on the furniture in the dining and adjacent heron and a fox within a stiff tones of yellow, purple, black/ terrace room, and the more highly decorated pieces in upstairs cabinets. acanthus leaf border, handle iron red, impressed triangle to Until October, Temple Newsam House, Leeds, is open from 10.30 until 5.00 formed as a classical bust, base, 22.5cm, chips, damage on Tuesdays-Sundays plus Bank Holidays. Telephone 0113 264 7321. 8in. Gorringes, Lewes. Mar to spout. Rosebery’s, London. 01. HP: £600. ABP: £705. Dec 05. HP: £360. ABP: £423. ANTIQUES INFO - September/October 08 15 26 31

Two Leeds creamware plates, 10 9.75in. Gorringes, Lewes. 21 Apr 04. HP: £260. ABP: £305. Leeds creamware 2-handled Leeds Pottery pearlware Leeds Pottery meat plate, cup inscribed I. Barns, c1800, basket, blue printed with a oval form, blue printed with Leeds pottery figure of Air, 16cm, damage. Woolley & chinoiserie landscape, geo- a classical temple by a river, late 18thC, bust length figure Wallis, Salisbury. Jun 00. metric printed rim, 11.25in border of landscape scenes, draped in an eagle on a HP: £340. ABP: £399. wide. Andrew Hartley, Ilkley. 13.75in wide, impressed stepped plinth 15.5cm and a Apr 01. HP: £150. ABP: £176. mark for ‘Hartley Greens & figure of Bacchus, restored, 16 Co’. Hartleys, Ilkley. Dec 07. stamped. (2) Sworders, HP: £80. ABP: £94. 22 Stansted Mountfitchet. Feb Leeds Pottery creamware 07. HP: £110. ABP: £129. mug, inscribed ‘Thomas 32 Buck, Danby Mills’, double 11 impressed marks, late 18thC, 9.5cm, well restored hair crack. Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury. Nov 03. HP: £240. 27 Early 19thC Leeds-type Toby ABP: £282. 18thC creamware box, jug, without barrel, character 17 19thC pottery figure of a fish Leeds creamware jug, ‘Loyal wearing black tricorn hat, attributed to Leeds, screw- Volunteers’, inscribed ‘L wife with fish in her apron, cover painted with a floral mottled blue jacket and black potters mark to the under- Volnteers’, relief-moulded breeches, small chips around bouquet against a black with infantrymen firing and side, (possibly Leeds), 16.5cm ground, 2.75in, faults. hat, 10in Gorringes, Lewes. high. Thos Mawer & Son, on guard, painted in blue, Sep 04. HP: £340. ABP: £399. Gorringes, Lewes. Apr 05. yellow and black, impressed Two Leeds creamware oval Lincoln. Sep 04. HP: £150. HP: £100. ABP: £117. ABP: £176. mark, c1803, 5.75in. dishes, 10.25in and 9.5in. Gorringes, Lewes. Apr 05. Gorringes, Lewes. Apr 04. 23 HP: £60. ABP: £70. HP: £240. ABP: £282. 28

18 Prices quoted are actual 12 hammer prices (HP) and the Pair of creamware plates, Approximate Buyer’s Price. Leeds creamware teapot, beaded border and pierced (ABP) Includes an average bullet-shape scroll handle, rims, late 18th/19thC, 10in premium of 15% + VAT. painted with a basket of fruit wide, probably Leeds ware. and flowers within floral Images are in descending Hartleys, Ilkley. Jun 07. HP: Leeds pearlware tea canister, leaf-scrolls in rust enamel, hammer price order. £140. ABP: £164. painted with a shoulder c1770, 4.5in. Gorringes, Leeds creamware jug, design of roses, impressed Lewes. Apr 05. HP: £340. entwined handle with flower mark, 6in. including contem- ABP: £399. head terminals, painted with foliage in yellow, red and porary cover. Gorringes, Lewes. Apr 05. HP: £100. green, 4.75in high, late 24 18thC. Hartleys, Ilkley. Jun ABP: £117. 06. HP: £210. ABP: £247. Leeds Pottery creamware 29 basket, moulded basket weave base and strapwork sides, brown line banding, 33 13 10.25in wide. Andrew 19thC Leeds(?) baby in a Hartley, Ilkley. Apr 01. HP: cradle group with red and Leeds creamware tea caddy, £120. ABP: £141. 18thC creamware plate, painted with a biblical scene (possibly Leeds) with black green sponged decoration, 3.5in. Gorringes, Lewes. Mar in black and red, probably 19 transfer printed pheasant painted in Holland, inscribed 25 decoration, 9.25in dia, 2 hair 01. HP: £55. ABP: £64. ‘Samuel 10-7’, late 18thC, cracks, and a pottery plate. Creamware jug, probably 34 3.75in high. Hartleys, Ilkley. Leeds painted with floral Sworders, Stansted Jun 07. HP: £320. ABP: £376. sprays and diapher border, Mountfitchet. Apr 01. HP: 18cm high, cracks. Peter £90. ABP: £105. 14 Wilson, Nantwich. Jul 02. HP: £160. ABP: £188.

19thC Leeds Batavian-ware 30 Leeds creamware plate, tea caddy, body with panels moulded with central Tudor of blue and white flora, Leeds creamware teapot, Rose design and pierced 20 shoulder with criss-cross bullet-shape with entwined Leeds Pottery house with acanthus border (8in.) and blue/white banding, silver Leeds pearlware teapot, handle, painted with flowers blue/grey painted roof, an oval Wedgwood Queens- cover with ribbed knop finial, painted with flowers/ribbon in pink lustre, impressed chimney and foliate moulded ware plate moulded/pierced mark indistinct, 4.75in high. scroll in enamels, impressed mark Leeds Pottery, 4.5in, spreading base, 4.25in high, with masks and acanthus, Dee, Atkinson & Harrison, mark Leeds Pottery, c1780, cover restored, body cracked. impressed mark. Hartleys, 10.75in. Gorringes, Lewes. Driffield. Apr 06. HP: £120. 4.75in. Gorringes, Lewes. Gorringes, Lewes. Apr 05. Ilkley. Oct 06. HP: £30. Apr 04. HP: £280. ABP: £329. ABP: £141. Apr 05. HP: £160. ABP: £188. HP: £90. ABP: £105. ABP: £35. ANTIQUES INFO - September/October 08