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Posted by David Scriven
on May 11, 2009, 3:57 pm, in reply to "Re: Swillington Bridge Pottery"
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Thanks for the pictures, Cheryl. They confirm my initial thought that the plate was made by William Ridgway & Co. of Hanley (now part of the Stoke-on-Trent conurbation)in Staffordshire. As Andrew Pye mentioned, both Ridgway and the Swillington Bridge Pottery used the impressed shield mark with the lion and unicorn supporters and the words Opaque Granite China, but the Ridgway version also contains the abbreviated name "W.R.& Co.". Excavations at the Swillington Bridge site produced wasters bearing the impressed shield mark but I have not seen it mentioned anywhere that any of them had "W.R. & Co." on them. As far as I am aware there was no link between the two factories. I have not discovered any explanation why they used similar marks.
Although blue printed transferware was made at Swillington Bridge I am not aware of any floral patterns. Heather Lawrence, in her book on Yorkshire potteries, states that examples found during the excavations of the site included Chinese landscapes, pastoral scenes and Gothic ruins. On the other hand the British Flowers series of patterns can be linked with William Ridgway. Some of the shapes of pieces bearing these patterns, particularly dessert service wares, are very distinctive and are known Ridgway shapes. The transfer printed "British Flowers" mark on the reverse is similar to other Ridgway pattern marks.
I hope that helps.
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