Wood & Sons Stoke on Trent

The topic of Wood and Sons came up in another thread so we decided to start one dedicated to them.

I will kick off with this sandwich plate. The stamp dates it to 1958+. The 258 is most likely Feb 58. Anyone know the pattern or have any other examples?

The impressed mark dates the manufacture of the plate not the pattern
Woods was bulldosed a few years ago

I have a few details for an intro keep or delete at your pleasure.

Wood & Sons founded in 1865 but didn't start trading as Wood & Son(s) until 1910. Priciple designers would be Frederick Alfred Rhead, Charlotte Rhead (briefly in 1940's) and Edward Radford. Producers of Earthenware, redware, ironstone and semi-porcelain. They bought Crown Pottery in 1920 and Elgreave Pottery 1921. Know association with Susie Cooper who initially used their blanks and collaborated with them before moving her Susie Cooper Pottery to the Crown Works in 1931. Marketed Susie Cooper and H J Wood designs amongst others

Couple of their most popular lines would be Beryl Ware (green bodied tableware) first produced in the 1930's, Piazza Ware first produced in the 1950's.

Went into receivership in 2005.

skay wrote: Thanks Oldmagpie.

I wonder what happened to pottyprimate

xx

The Missing Link

You are mostly correct with the intro about Wood and Sons. Charlotte Rhead worked with her father at the Elgreave Pottery during the twenties-I think the works were bought for him. It closed down in 1926 after a fire. When Susie Cooper moved to Crown Works in 1931 she utlised several of Rheads tubeliners to produced similar wares but in a modernist idiom. susie Cooper used Woods blanks as early as 1926-27 whislt at Grays and she continued to use them all her life. Woods only made holloware shapes to her specifications. The famous Dresden Spray pattern was designed by Susie Cooper for them but they felt it was too modern-it had a square plate with various fittings. So Susie Cooper took it on board and it was her best seller. She rejected the varios smaill fits (sprigs) and used wash banding instead. This explains why this pattern is so very different from all her other work from that period. In the late forties and early fifties one of the senior members of the Woods business told his sons that they need to up their game as Susie Cooper was doing so well. Beryl Ware was not launched in the thirties. Susie Cooper produced an interesting range of patterns for Woods and modified some of the shapes-some of these patterns such as Cavendish are very rare. I spent an afternoon at the Woods Archive with a wonderful woman called Dora Shaw in about 1990. Its all gone.

I would like to post a few images but not sure how

andrew casey

is this the same as Arthur Wood ?/

Can never get the quote thing to work

No Brin, Arthur Woods was a separate company out of Longport around the same time. Known as Capper & Wood initially in about 1884, then as Arthur Wood from 1904 and then Arthur Wood & Son (Longport Ltd) from about 1928. They owned Carlton Ware from 67-87 I think. Also traded under the name of Royal Bradwell.

With regards to Beryl Ware, the book I have here says first introduced in the late 1930's and was available during WW2 though of course it may not of been known as that until the 40's when the Beryl Backstamp was used.

Thanks.....Oldmagpie. As a Newcastle Supporter i love the user name

brin mcardle wrote:Thanks.....Oldmagpie. As a Newcastle Supporter i love the user name

I was thinking more along the line of the Magpies notoriety for shiny things when I decided to start using it a few years back.

Woohoo got the quote to work this time

i guessed

Susan Thomas Ellis met Gene Roddenberry that is. And called Astra as well! I don't know when this was designed but I would have thought 60s or 70s. On the base of a couple of the pieces there is a Maxwell Wood signature. Barely concealed Portmeirion Totem decorative influences with a nod to Star Trek in the shape design - unless this came first, in which case the influences flow the other way!

PS Isn't American spell-checking wonderful? It has, in the past, insisted that I wanted to send a cheese to someone rather than a cheque (a little known, archaic form of monetary transfer), but it won't let me spell Roddenberry (a vital American cultural icon) wrong. I am so greatfuel !!!!!!!!!

Williams.....duh!

Tea set marked Wood's Ivory Ware. Seems there are a lot of different patterns and shapes under that name. Would it be by Arthur Wood or a different company like H.J. Wood Ltd. ?

Neither of the above. It's one of the brand names for Wood & Son then Wood & Sons Ltd., who had the Trent and New Wharf potteries in Burslem. The same company made Beryl Ware. The company began in 1865 and finally closed in 2005.

As the pattern suggests this is a mark used in the 1930s.

http://www.thepotteries.org/mark/w/wood_sons.html

is the decoration under the glaze or over? Looks like under by the pristine condition.
Is it hand-painted or transfer?

Transfer printed flowers, handpainted stripes. Underglazed? There is wear on the transfer on the saucer so I think it must be on top of the glaze.

An important and underrated pottery.
Some of my collection of Wood's "Prunus", designed by Frederick Rhead,
(Charlottes's father) in the 1920s, with it's own unique backstamp.
Later copied by Burleigh as "Calico".

christ DD! I think you could give Naomi a run for her money when it comes to number of pots collected

Denby certainly has more banana boxes full than me :)

Ha Ha, But Naomi has a garage, I don't!
One day we will both have to hire Pickford's and an airfield, and have a count-up!

better do it soon DD or you will need an airfield each

Hi all...any idea of age ?/

That specific mark, they used many, is not shown in Goddens.
I would guess 1930s or 50s.