Railway Pottery
The Railway Pottery was set up for the manufacture of high quality "General Ware and Art Ware" by Frederick Hackney and J. Kirkham, who had previously worked for Wedgwood. In 1878 Simon Fielding bought the company, which was subsequently known as S.Fielding and Co., and managed it with Abraham Fielding. Simon Fielding owned the Blyth Colour Works in Cresswell, Staffordshire, which gave the Railway Company direct control over important ceramic raw materials.
In 1879 the press praised the company for making "wonderful strides" and said, "majolica is equal to anything we have seen", but the company ran into debt. Abraham Fielding paid off the debts and took charge of the company. Hackney moved to Baltimore, United States to work for D.F.Haynes & Co. at the Chesapeake Pottery. In 1880, the Blyth Colour Works was sold to Piggot & Scarrott. The next ten years were the peak period for the manufacture of Fielding's pottery.
In 1893, a trade journal wrote of the Railway Pottery,
At the present time upwards of four hundred hands are employed by the firm, and there is every prospect of these being largely increased in the future. The reason of this success is not far to seek. The firm have aimed at the production of goods of artistic designs and excellent quality at the lowest possible prices, while by continually introducing novelties they have kept pace with the popular demand for something new. The consequence is that during the past five years the volume of the firm's business has been doubled. The firm's works, known as the Railway Pottery, is fitted up with all the latest machinery, driven by three powerful engines.
Abraham Fielding invented a patent down-draft kiln, in which the heat of the fire, instead of simply rising from the bottom of the oven up through the chimney at the top, rose and was then driven down through the centre of the kiln before rising through the chimney. This design distributed the heat more evenly in the kiln and reduced wear-and-tear.
The Railway Pottery was renamed the Devon Pottery in 1912 and developed the Crown Devon line.
Read more about this topic: Fielding Majolica
Famous quotes containing the words railway and/or pottery:
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)