Henry Daniel and his son Richard made some of the finest porcelains in England in the first half of the 19th Century. Their achievement was long forgotten, until research in the 1970s succeeded in identifying Daniel wares and re-establishing the factory’s reputation.

The main reason Daniel porcelains had later languished in obscurity is because most are unmarked. Only the largest potteries, such as Spode, had their own retail outlets. Daniel was forced to rely on outside retailers who prevented the firm from applying its own mark from fear that repeat customers would bypass the shop and deal directly with the factory.

Born in 1765, Henry Daniel was the son of a successful colour maker in Burslem, one of the six pottery towns that amalgamated to form Stoke-on-Trent. Henry finished his apprenticeship around 1785, worked as a decorator in local porcelain factories, and in 1796 went into a potting, enamelling and gilding partnership with John Brown. In 1805 they opened a decorating branch within the Spode works at Fenton, another of the six Potteries. Daniel broke off the partnership with Brown in 1806. From then until his departure in 1822, he was in charge of all on-glaze decoration at Spode.

Daniel ran his own factory inside the Spode works, employing his own enamellers and gilders and firing the decorated wares in his own kilns.  Spode sold him blank wares and purchased them back once they had been decorated by Daniel’s team. In 1822, the relationship ended abruptly, and Daniel opened his own manufactory in Stoke, opposite Minton’s. Daniel pattern numbers start at around 3600, the number he had reached at Spode at the end of 1821.

The reputation of the factory was secured with an order from the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1826 for an extensive and magnificent service.

Henry took his son Richard into partnership in 1827, starting the firm H&R Daniel. Henry died in 1841 and Richard proved unsuccessful at business. The firm ceased trading in 1846 and Richard was declared bankrupt in 1847.

© Cotswold Antiques 2018