The History of
Leeds Pottery and Creamware
Brothers' John and Joshua Green in partnership founded LEEDS POTTERY in Leeds in 1770 with Richard Humble. Success soon came with the production of household goods in a variety of ceramic bodies, the most popular being
CREAMWARE, a type of earthenware made by several companies from white Cornish Clay with a translucent glaze, producing the pale cream colour from which it took its name. In an age when the rediscovery of Rome's classic past brought a new elegance to design and ornament, pottery from Leeds with its fine embossing and intricately pierced openwork decoration reached a peak of perfection.
By 1781 William Hartley had added his design and business expertise to the Green brothers' production skills and under the name
Hartley Greens & Co the company flourished, expanding its trade across Europe and into Russia. Such was its success that from then on Creamware would also be known as
Leedsware. In the 19th century after the death of its founders the different tastes of the Victorian era brought a gradual decline in business, leading eventually to the Pottery's closure in 1878. Despite the later demolition of the kilns and buildings, surviving moulds and clues from pattern books together with fine examples of Leeds pieces in local museums enabled production of Creamware to the original designs to continue to this day.
Creamware
For the 18th century Leeds potters creating this range of ware the clarity and simplicity of cream colouring meant that its appeal would rest on elegant shapes. Classical proportions and flawless craftsmanship coupled with moulding and openwork decoration, which was imaginative yet, restrained. The same qualities are evident today in ware unchanged from the original designs and which still involves painstaking work to cast, jolley, assemble and glaze every piece by hand in a process lasting over a week. Particular skill is required for the pierced wares, decorated with patterns of oval; diamond and heart shaped holes each of which is individually cut out using a simple metal tool.
Bowls, Dishes, Baskets & Serving Vessels
Rapidly improving agricultural techniques and means of transport in the 18th century brought a wider choice of foodstuffs than ever to the Englishman's table. A Georgian dinner reflected this abundance with a variety of meat and fish dishes, arranged in a perfectly symmetrical pattern. When the first course was over, it would be removed and a fresh selection of savoury dishes laid out, a process repeated two or three times before the appearance of dessert and necessitating a vast array of serving vessels.
The Chestnut Bowl (Shown here with a Chestnut Plate)
First manufactured in the late 18th Century The Chestnut Bowl and Lid, this piece was designed as inverted bell with a scalloped rim and a pair of intertwined cord handles with flower and leaf terminals, the high domed lid with a 'fir apple' knob, the sides and lid pierced with a complex openwork pattern. Examples of The Chestnut Bowl can be seen in museums throughout the country, and local to the old pottery site at
Temple Newsam House Leeds.
Plates
With its emphasis on elegance and good manners the Georgian age brought a new sense of style to the art of table setting. The simple platters and trenchers of former times gave way to plates in a profusion of shapes and sizes, arranged around the table to serve sweetmeats and pickles or as stands for larger dishes.
Modelled in plain cream the Tudor Rose of England becomes the White Rose of Yorkshire, a natural choice of decoration for the county's most famous pottery.
Large Dessert Plate
First manufactured in the late 18th Century the Large Dessert Plate, this piece was designed as a plate or a stand, hexagonal with moulded scroll edges, the rims moulded with festoons of husks suspended from leaves between panels of openwork pattern. Examples of The Large Dessert Plate can be seen in museums throughout the country, and local to the old pottery site at Temple Newsam House Leeds.
Dessert plates were traditionally pierced to echo the baskets in which fresh and candied fruits were served. Piercing also had the advantage of making ware lighter and therefore cheaper to export.
Teawares
Tea, which had been first brought to England in the late 17th century, became a favourite beverage of the Georgian polite society. Hugely expensive, it was kept in locked caddies and served very weak, sweetened, and with milk or cream to counter it's feared stimulant effect. The fashion for tea drinking created a demand for a whole new range of crockery, cups saucers pots and kettles, to be shown off when ladies called on one another in the late afternoon. Leeds Pottery Creamware tea services with their smooth lines, elegant twisted handles and intricate pierced decoration met this need perfectly, as they still do today.
The Chocolate Kettle and Stand
First manufactured in the late 18th Century The Chocolate Kettle or Tea Kettle, this piece was designed with a depressed globular shape with a curved spout moulded with a female mask and foliage, large intertwined wavy rope handle with flower and leaf terminals and a large pierced baluster-knob on the lid. The bowl shaped stand on three lion mask and paw feet and provided with three shell and three foliate projections on the rim to support the kettle, the sides with panels of openwork pattern. Examples of The Chocolate Kettle or Tea Kettle can be seen in museums throughout the country, and local to the old pottery site at Temple Newsam House Leeds.
Useful Wares & Garnitures
The Georgian taste for beauty and elegance meant that even the most mundane domestic articles were exquisitely crafted and decorated. The same skill and care would go into the design of ink stand for personal use as into a grand table centrepiece for public display at a dinner party, ensuring the continued appeal of pieces which long since have lost their useful purpose but still find their place as " garnitures" in the modern home.
Ink Stand
First manufactured in the late 18th Century The Ink Stand, this piece was designed rectangular standing on a tray which has four low feet and vertical shaped sides decorated with pierced openwork. The stand has three circular apertures into which fit a sand box with a pierced top, a fountain ink stand-a ink pot with three holes for pens and a covered wafer box. The 18th century inkstand required a lidded box for sealing wafers, made from a mixture of flour and gum, and a pot for pounce (powdered pumice) used to dry the ink before the introduction of blotting paper in around 1840. Examples of The Ink Stand can be seen in museums throughout the country, and local to the old pottery site at Temple Newsam House Leeds.
Charlotte Creamware
Creamware pattern books published by Hartley Greens in the late 18th century contain, alongside the famous pierced wares, page upon page of every day articles for use below stairs in middle class households. Intended as purely utilitarian objects the simple lines of this range of dinner and
Teawares nonetheless have an elegance of their own, revealing without the distraction of any decoration the full beauty of the cream coloured clay.
These traditional shapes are revived in the Charlotte range of cream tableware, fashioned to provide to provide elegance whilst dining for the below stairs servants.
Charlotte Dinner Plate
Henrietta Creamware
Creamware pattern books published by Hartley Greens in the late 18th century contain, alongside the famous pierced wares, page upon page of every day articles for use below stairs in middle class households. Intended as purely utilitarian objects the simple lines of this range of dinner and
Teawares nonetheless have an elegance of their own, revealing without the distraction of any decoration the full beauty of the cream coloured clay.
These traditional shapes are also revived in the Henrietta range of cream tableware, further fashioned to provide to provide even more elegance whilst dining for the below stairs servants.
Henrietta Dinner Plate
Hunslet Creamware
Creamware pattern books published by Hartley Greens in the late 18th century contain, alongside the famous pierced wares, page upon page of every day articles for use below stairs in middle class households. Intended as purely utilitarian objects the simple lines of these jugs and bowls nonetheless have an elegance of their own, revealing without the distraction of any decoration the full beauty of the cream coloured clay.
These traditional shapes are revived in the Hunslet range of cream tableware, named after the village on the outskirts of Leeds, where the pottery stood during the years of its greatest acclaim.
Hunslet Large Jug
Shell Edge Creamware
The late eighteenth century saw the development of a style of tableware, which combined handsome colour, and smooth texture of plain Creamware with a moulded and often tinted edging, intended to draw the eye to the food being served. The most popular edging pattern proved to be one, which imitated the random yet rhythmic structure of a scallop shell, and Shell Edge Ware was produced in vast quantities by potteries throughout England. Inspired by original designs in Leeds Pottery's eighteenth century pattern books this new range of Shell Edge dinnerware rekindles the spirit of the Age of Elegance.
Blue Tinted Shell Edged Plates
The Way It Is Now
MODERN technology is now used to ensure that the pottery is consistently produced and fired to the highest standard, whilst jolleying, piercing and assembly are still carried out by hand, giving each piece a freshness and character of its own. The wide range created from the original moulds is now being extended to include new items inspired by 18th century pattern books. While older pieces of Leedsware take pride of place in numerous museums, today Hartley Greens & Co continues to bring pottery from the most elegant period in English history to a new generation of admirers.
History Is Still Being Made Today
Each piece of pottery maintains its own identity, as it passes through the experienced hands of
Hartley Green's potters. Every detail of the manufacturing process is meticulously controlled by the pottery's quality control routines, from the raw clay stage, through moulding to intricate piercing, to glazing, all crafted by hand. It takes a keen eye and a very steady hand to delicately form the clay into the beautiful patterns necessary to follow the traditional designs of yesteryear. Every single pot exquisitely patterned to follow the original design in every way. Each piece truly a work of art, ready to enhance the most discriminating person's collection.
Information Required?
As most pieces are made from historical moulds it is often possible to trace back the dating of the original moulds if existing or new owners of pierced Creamware can recognise their pieces from the items on display additional information may be available on them please contact
The Mall Office
with enquiries.
An example of the Creamware Range. A small Pot Pourri
Example of the Creamware Range: Trinket Box
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