Mariner's Compass – Tyneside
Attributed to Carr & Patton, North Shields – 1838–1846
Photo Ramsay Cornish Auctioneers & Valuers
The jug below is firmly attributed to North Shields on the basis of the ship transfer. The hand-painted text is similar to that on a North Shields jug dated 1843. Note the scratch above the point 'W' on the compass.
Below, a puzzle jug, showing that North Shields was producing high quality items during this period.
Both of the jugs above and below have the small scratch on the transfer, just above the point 'W' on the compass.
A frog mug again with the scratch clearly visible. The frog is similar to those found on Dawson items and I had previously attributed this group to that pottery.
The jug below appears to have an identical Mariner's Compass transfer to the those above, but it is cleaner, without the nicks and scratches. So it is perhaps earlier, although it doesn't resemble anything I've recorded from North Shields in the 1830s.
John Carr and Co, North Shields
Click here to read about the history of the business partnerships at North Shields (Low Lights Pottery). The jug below was made after the Carr and Patton partnership dissolved in 1846. In this version of the transfer, there are two masts to the right of the compass.
John Patton, Phoenix Pottery Newcastle
After the Carr and Patton partnership dissolved (1846), John Patton continued to produce lustre wares at the Phoenix Pottery in Newcastle. The printed mark under the transfer states business interests in both Newcastle, and North Shields where Patton owned the Low Lights Brewery.
The first row below shows the other transfers on the jug. Beneath it an example with coloured enamel decoration (clobbering).
This mug below, from the Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums collection, and the one beneath it, are decorated with orange lustre, which was introduced in the early 1860s. It is unclear when Patton ceased operating at the Phoenix Pottery. R C Bell states that by 1857 it was trading as the Phoenix Pottery Co, and by 1858 as Bell, Cook & Co. These orange mugs must have been produced after the pottery was converted into a chemical works in 1860, and presumably the copper plate was sold to another Tyneside pottery. The Museum catalogue lists their mug as Low Lights, c1880.
The jug below is also likely later and has a degraded version of the transfer with profuse lustre decoration.
John Hobson
As yet, we know very little about the potter John Hobson. The wares below are linked to him on the basis of the initials 'JH' in the transfers, and impressed marks. However, if it weren't for those marks, the wares below would likely be assumed to be made by John Carr.
The same transfer also appears on slop bowls. Note the two black speckles, nicks on the transfer plate, that appear to the left of SSE in the bottom centre details.
Below are the other transfers on the slop bowl. This bowl doesn't have an impressed mark on the base.
And next, a similar slop bowl with the same transfer and the impressed mark JH under a Staffordshire knot on its base. NB it was not uncommon for Tyneside potteries to try to pass off their wares as made in Staffordshire.
Finally below, a bowl marked Hobson. Thanks to Ian Sharp for drawing my attention to an article in the Northern Ceramic Society Journal, Vol 17, 2000, where the following paragraph appears:
On 1 August, 1882, the Pottery Gazette reported that the Pottery [the North Shore Pottery] had closed permanently. It is just possible that, between William Smith leaving in 1880 and the Pottery closing in 1882, the executors of James Smith’s will let the premises to a John Hobson. A local directory dating from about 1880 [Porter’s Directory of Stockton, Middlesbrough, etc. undated but c1881, p.125] contained an advertisement relating to John Hobson, Potter of the Rockingham Works, Stockton . A John Hobson and other members of his family worked at the Stafford Pottery, South Stockton , over a very long period. No other reference to the Rockingham Works has been found and it is just possible that in order to avoid confusion the Pottery [the North Shore Pottery] was given this name for a short period.
On 1 August, 1882, the Pottery Gazette reported that the Pottery [the North Shore Pottery] had closed permanently. It is just possible that, between William Smith leaving in 1880 and the Pottery closing in 1882, the executors of James Smith’s will let the premises to a John Hobson. A local directory dating from about 1880 [Porter’s Directory of Stockton, Middlesbrough, etc. undated but c1881, p.125] contained an advertisement relating to John Hobson, Potter of the Rockingham Works, Stockton . A John Hobson and other members of his family worked at the Stafford Pottery, South Stockton , over a very long period. No other reference to the Rockingham Works has been found and it is just possible that in order to avoid confusion the Pottery [the North Shore Pottery] was given this name for a short period.
The bowl above certainly matches the rather poor quality we might expect from the early 1880s. However, that doesn't apply to the plaque above with the JH transfer, which I had previously guessed was made in the 1850s. The mariners' compass transfer on this bowl is different to the J H items above. It appears to be a degraded imprint from the John Patton transfer above. Compare the details below: Hobson impressed bowl below left; J P clear imprint below centre; and later degraded J P imprint below right. More work needs to be done about tying these wares together.
Ball's Deptford Pottery, Sunderland
As with many other Tyne and Wearside copper transfer plates, the JP plate above seems to have found its final resting plate at Ball's Deptford Pottery in Sunderland. Ball's was the last manufactory in the in the North East to continue the tradition of making pink lustreware and did so into the 20th century (NB Maling reproduced pink lustre items from about 1930 onwards). Ball's Pottery was not above trying to pass off their wares as earlier 19th century items, and various transfers have been found on their items with fake Garrison Pottery marks. Given the similarity of decoration of the bowl below to the 'HOBSON' marked bowl above, It is possible that the impress is a spurious Ball's addition. The bowl below, although unmarked, is firmly attributable to Ball and has a medley of Sunderland and Tyne transfers.
Attributed to Thomas Fell, St Peter's Pottery
This is a one of a group of transfers that I've attributed to Fell because they appear on bowls with the crown impress, known to have been used at St Peter's Pottery. See the Marco Polo page for another. They are from the same copper plate as the 'Hobson' transfers above, but after a round of re-engraving. Note that the JH under the compass has been hatched out.
This plaque form is usually attributed to John Carr. However, the Marco Polo and May Peace and Plenty transfers on the Fell bowl above also appear on this form of plaque. So it seems that these plaques were produced by multiple Tyneside potteries.
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It was hard work deciding whether the 'Fell' version of the transfer came from the same copper plate as the imprints on the Hobson-attributed items above. There are some very obvious differences. The first row of details is from the smaller Hobson-attributed plaque, and the next two rows from the Fell-attributed plaques above respectively. Most notably, the initials JH have been greyed out on the Fell versions. That's consistent with the copper plate being repurposed by another pottery. But the arrangements of masts and sails are different also. However, those differences are, in my view, consistent with the copper plate being re-engraved over time. Note in the middle row, right detail, the ghost of the second seagull just behind the new rigging. |
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In the Fell imprints from the copper plate (see also the Marco Polo page) you sometimes see fragments of neighbouring transfers (see bottom left detail above). It appears that Fell had someone embellish the borders of the neighbouring verse (?) transfer to the extent that they now encroached on the design. The third seagull in the bottom left detail has been subsumed by the neighbouring design. This accounts for why it was trimmed off in the detail above. The ghosts of the gulls point to there being one copper plate with these transfer re-engraved over time. See also the Gudrun page for similar ghost details.
A monumental jug with the transfer and an improvised blacksmith's repair to the handle. The dates on the jug, unfortunately, don't much help as they record past events rather than being contemporary with the date of manufacture.
A monumental jug with the transfer and an improvised blacksmith's repair to the handle. The dates on the jug, unfortunately, don't much help as they record past events rather than being contemporary with the date of manufacture.
Below an orange lustre mug with the Mariners' Compass transfer with erased JH initials.
