Wedgwood & Co. Ltd.
Wedgwood & Co. Ltd. (later Enoch Wedgwood (Tunstall) Ltd ) was an English manufacturer of ceramic - dishes , of 1835 to 1980 in Tunstall, a modern suburb of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire existed. This company is often confused with the company of Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795) due to the similarity of names . However, apart from the distant relatives of the two namesake, the two companies had no connection whatsoever until 1980.
Surname
Namesake of Wedgwood & Co. Ltd. was Enoch Wedgwood (1813-1879), who had entered the business between 1850 and 1854 and renamed it Wedgwood & Co. in 1860 . Until then, the company changed its name as Podmore, Walker & Wedgwood , and even before that as Podmore, Walker & Co .
The company then went through several name changes before moving from Josiah Wedgwood Ltd. in 1980 . (formerly Josiah Wedgwood & Sons ), the same rival manufacturer of tableware and art objects, was taken over. With the takeover, the name Enoch Wedgwood disappeared and the range was continued as Unicorn Tableware for a while .
history
The year of foundation is indicated on the company's stamps as 1835. This information refers to the establishment of Podmore, Walker & Co , which manufactured pottery in Tunstall from 1835. Between 1850 and 1854, Enoch Wedgwood became a partner in the company, which then appeared under the name Podmore, Walker & Wedgwood , before Enoch Wedgwood took over the management completely and renamed the company Wedgwood & Co. in 1860 . Around this time Enoch Wedgwood brought his brother Jabez Charles Wedgwood (1821-1880) into the company. In 1900 the company was converted into a Limited Company (Ltd.) ( Wedgwood & Co. Ltd. ), and in 1965 it was renamed Enoch Wedgwood (Tunstall) Ltd. In 1980 it was taken over by Josiah Wedgwood Ltd. , and the name Enoch Wedgwood disappeared from the market.
Products
The Wedgwood & Co. Ltd. or Enoch Wedgwood (Tunstall) Ltd. presented mainly utility ceramics such as bowls, plates, cups, coffee and teapots, milk jugs, sugar bowls, egg cups, etc. Ä. her. The company's products were very popular on the market for decades and were also widely used in Germany in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The dishes produced were largely based on uniform shapes for the various objects, but offered a variety of different motifs and colors. These were mostly produced and sold in parallel over long periods of time. For example, crockery items from the “Woodland” series from the last three periods of the company's name can be found that hardly differ in shape, motif and color.
Widespread series in Germany are, for example, "Woodland", "River Scene", "Royal homes of Britain", "Asiatic Pheasants" or "Old English Village", some of them in different colors and variations.
Based on the trademarks on the bottom of most crockery items, you can roughly determine the age:
- Podmore, Walker & Co. brand : Manufactured from 1835 to 1860
- Wedgwood & Co. brand : Manufactured 1860 to 1900
- Wedgwood & Co. Ltd. brand : Manufactured between 1900 and 1965
- Enoch Wedgwood (Tunstall) Ltd. brand : Manufactured from 1965 to 1980
- Unicorn Tableware brand : Manufactured from 1980
In addition, some series were also sold under other brand names, for example as Royal Tunstall or under the 1968 Enoch Wedgwood (Tunstall) Ltd. acquired brand name Furnivals (Staffordshire) Ltd.
literature
- Henry Allen: People of the Potteries; with an Introduction by John Thomas. Wedgwood 1970.
- Don Henshall: Tunstall Revisited. The History Press, United Kingdom, October 2006.
- Geoffrey A. Godden: An illustrated Encyclopaedia of British Pottery and Porcelain. London 1966.