And the history, my fav part, continues....
The third, and perhaps the most attractive type of pot, especially to the collector, is the underglaze printed variety. As well as the suppliers name these pots often have extremely attractive designs ranging from cows and milkmaids to buildings, plants and even dairy machinery.Underglaze printed pots were produced in two ways, those made by the transfer printing method, which display all the engravers skill, and those where the design was stamped by hand or machine directly on to the body of the unglazed pot, probably by means of a rubber stamp.
Underglaze transfer printed pots were made in the following way. A copper plate was hand engraved with the design to be used. Pots were moulded by hand or on a machine known as a 'Jolly' from Devonshire clay often with a percentage of china clay added to improve the quality and colour. The heated copper plate was then covered with with colour and the design was transferred by means of a specially prepared kind of tissue paper on to the body of the unglazed pot. The pot then passed through a small kiln called a Muffle where oil in the colour was burnt off. finally, the pot was glazed and fired in a kiln.
Most underglaze printed stoneware dairy pots fall in to the category of pottery known as 'Bristol Glazed Stoneware', so named because of the characteristic cream coloured liquid glaze used in the manufacture. The glaze was developed and patented by William Powell and first used in Bristol UK in the early 19th century.
Cream pots were supplied by numerous stoneware manufacturers and dairy outfitters. Unfortunately, many pots bear neither mark nor stamp, possibly because most of the operations in a pottery were on a 'piecework' basis where time spent meant money lost.
Of the pots that are marked, by far the largest number seem to have been made by the Port Dundas Pottery Co in Glasgow Scotland, run by Mr James Miller and, subsequently, by his sons Frank and Stanley. Scotland was at that time an important center for the manufacture of 'Bristol Ware'. Other firms that made cream pots were Govancroft, Possil Pottery, Kennedy, Caledonian and Portobello all firms based in Scotland. Other areas of the country produced dairy cream pots and pots were supplied by Price of Bristol and Priest Canton of Cardiff in Wales. Pots were also supplied by dairy outfitters such as the Dairy Supply Co of London, and Freeth and Pocock also of London, but there is some doubt as to whether those firms actually manufactured them.
The famous Beleek Pottery of Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, and the equally famous Coalport Co in Shropshire produced some exquisite transferred cream pots, but as they were so delicate few have survived.
Good Gord I love my little hobby.
