East View of the Iron Bridge... – bridges 6 & 20
Bridge 6
The mug below, from the Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums collection, is very similar to the bridge 20 items below. Those items are signed 'Edwd Barker', whereas this mug is signed 'Edward Barker'. The area to both the right and left of the bridge are drawn differently.
Attributed to Dawson's Pottery – bridge 20
Photo John Howard
This bridge transfer (Baker's bridge 20) is attributed to Dawson on the basis of the distinctive frog in the mugs below.
The jug below, from the Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums collection, has the transfer paired with the 'view of the cast iron bridge to be erected over the River Thames'. Parliament passed the Bill for the Southwark Bridge to be built in 1811, and the bridge wasn't opened until 1819. So the jug was likely made sometime between those dates.
A mug with an inscription Thomas Thompson. Norman Lowe has tracked down a Thomas Thompson born 13/7/1820 to Thomas Thompson (snr) and Mary Wardell, so this could be a Christening present made in 1820. Interestingly, Thomas Thompson (jnr) by 1841 is recorded as living in the same house as William Barker, believed to be the son of Edward Barker, an engraver who received payments from Scott's Southwick Pottery between 1796 and 1800 (see his mark in the last detail below). For 40 years Edward Barker was foreman at Scott's Pottery, dying in first quarter 1841.
