Ridgway is among the most illustrious families of English potters. The dynasty was founded by Job Ridgway, who established the famous Cauldon Place Works in 1802 in what is now Stoke-on-Trent. The golden era for Ridgway was the first half of the 19th Century, although potteries bearing the Ridgway name continued to operate into the 1960s.

Ridgway porcelain dates from 1808, the year Job took his two sons John and William into partnership. In his memoirs, Job wrote that he ‘erected a manufactory by the Cauldon Canal, and commenced working it in the year 1802 … My eldest son being now near twenty-three years of age and my other son more than twenty-one, and having served me at Cauldon Place for six years, I gave them, in 1808, an equal share in my business, in this year also we began to make China [porcelain], which increased our labours and cares ….’

 Job Ridgway died in 1813. and John and William became co-owners of the Cauldon Works. The brothers made fine porcelains as well as stoneware and blue-and-white printed earthenwares. The quality of design and printing of their ‘Oxford and Cambridge Colleges’ blue-and-white wares is superb. Another series, ‘Beauties of America,’ followed a visit by John Ridgway to the United States. The brothers parted in 1830. William left to produce earthenwares and stonewares elsewhere in Stoke while John continued to make porcelain under his own name at Cauldon Place.

Very few Ridgway porcelains bore any name mark until John Ridgway was appointed ‘Potter to Her Majesty Queen Victoria’. Keen to advertise the accolade, he had the Royal Coat of Arms printed on many of his wares.

Early, unmarked Ridgway pieces were often mistakenly attributed to better-known makers until Geoffrey Godden succeeded in identifying them through pioneering study and detection, resulting in his 1972 book ‘The Illustrated Guide to Ridgway Porcelains.’ See also the 1983 book Staffordshire Porcelain that Godden edited, and his own chapter on Ridgway.

Cotswold Antiques has many fine examples of Ridgway porcelain made at Cauldon Place by Job Ridgway & Sons, John & William Ridgway, and John Ridgway. Some are identical to those chosen by Godden for illustration.

The factory was later owned by Brown-Westhead, Moore and Cauldon.

TIMELINE OF THE CAULDON PLACE WORKS

Ridgway

1802-1808        Job Ridgway

1808-1814        Job Ridgway & Son(s)

1814-1830        John & William Ridgway

1830-1855        John Ridgway (& Co)

1856-1858        John Ridgway, Bates & Co

Brown-Westhead, Moore & Cauldon

1859-1861        Bates, Brown-Westhead & Moore

1862-1904        T.C. Brown-Westhead, Moore & Co.

1905-1920        Cauldon Ltd.

1920-1962        Cauldon Potteries Ltd

 

© Cotswold Antiques 2018