This catalogue of the glazed white wares from the King Street factory, Derby  (1849-1935), has been compiled because this quite large group of products has been neglected in the past.  It does not include an example of everything manufactured in the white, but certainly provides a very good indication of the wide variety of items produced by this small factory, which probably employed less than twenty workers at any one time (1).  In order to make this catalogue as comprehensive as possible, wares known to be in collections other than the author's have been included where possible.

The type of binding used has been chosen in order that additional entries may easily be added at a future date and provision has been made for these in the numbering of the existing entries.  The wares are divided into convenient product groups and these are listed in the contents page.

Forming this collection over the past ten years has been an immensely enjoyable task, with over one hundred and twenty basic shapes having been recorded to date.  The source of my "finds" could not have been more varied, ranging from house clearance to the major London auction houses.  With the lack of records, it is not possible to predict what is likely to turn up next.  At times this is frustrating, but I have to admit that it adds excitement to the "hunt," which most collectors enjoy.

My objective has been to form a collection which hopefully may eventually contain an example of most of the glazed white pieces manufactured by the King Street factory.  With the lack of records I will never know if this has been achieved, but as I proceed with the collection, I hope to create these missing records.  In order to carry out my task, some damaged pieces have been purchased, a number being replaced later with better examples.  I have no regrets about having adopted this policy, as many of the models recorded in the catalogue have not, as yet, been seen a second time.  The fact that many of the wares have applied flowers on them makes them very prone to damage.  I find it sad that so many items are in a very neglected state when found.  Usually very dirty, often damaged and occasionally home decorated, they show all the signs of having received no tender loving care.  This may well be due to the decline in popularity of white wares towards the end of the last century.

Views vary on whether known damage, repair or restoration should be recorded.  I firmly believe that it should and this is covered in the notes at the end of each catalogue entry.  John Twitchett's excellent definitions have been followed, where "repairing" means putting back an original piece that has been broken off and "restoration" is the making of a new piece (2).

Having looked at some records of other collection, price is seldom mentioned, except when they are sold at auction.  However, for the benefit of any future collectors, a brief mention of price is not considered to be out of place.  In this collection prices have ranged from £3 to £650, the latter being very exceptional because the dealer concerned had a major problem in accepting that a pair of figures which were of importance to the collection, were not Derby of the 1770s, but had a more realistic date of manufacture of some hundred years later.  Many unusual and interesting additions have cost well below £100.  Despite being clearly marked, several items have not been recognised and perhaps due to the crossed swords in the mark, have been labelled "continental", regrettably showing a lack of knowledge of the King Street factory.

As will be seen in the catalogue entries, almost all these glazed white wares bear the blue mark of crown over crossed swords and D, with two sets of three dots and initials S and H.  On occasions the dots and one or both initials are found missing and these omissions are recorded.  The initials S and H stand for the proprietors Stevenson and Hancock from 1861 -1866 and then for Sampson Hancock.  This mark came into use in 1861 and may have ceased to be used in blue at a date in advance of the factory closure in 1935, but so far this has not been confirmed.  At this stage in research, it is not possible to be more exact than to say that the components of this collection were  most likely turned out in the later nineteenth century.  The factory exhibited wares of this type in the Derby exhibition in 1870 and a study of the competition from other manufactures, which is sometimes easier to date, shows the popularity of these undecorated wares during this period.  The mark in blue  was also used on figures in biscuit, but as so few of these have been recorded, they are not included in the catalogue.  Although the blue mark was used mainly for glazed white and biscuit wares, it is occasionally seen on decorated pieces.  I have recorded only sixteen of these and many of these are also known to me in the white.  Some may have been decorated to meet special orders, but great care is needed when  studying these pieces, because I have come across those that have been home decorated.  A full list of the King Street factory marks is included on page 3.

Decorated wares bearing the more usual red mark, were being turned out at King Street at the same time as the white wares.  As John Twitchett has recently shown (3),  an amount of these were bought in from other manufacturers, decorated at King Street, marked with the factory mark and then sold as such. About half a dozen items in this collection are believed to fall into this category of bought in and where this is suspected, it is recorded.  To a small extent this could account for the differences in colour that are found, from a crisp white, through creamy to grey, but in some cases these variations are likely to be due to changes in paste or glaze receipes, or differing conditions in the kilns.  It is known that in 1878-9 King Street sent some pieces to the new factory at Osmaston Road, Derby, for firing, perhaps because of their own firing problems, or lack of capacity(4).

It is clear from invoices of the period 1870^s –1880^s, that Sampson Hancock was buying in baskets from other manufacturers and a number of baskets, in a variety of shapes and sizes, form part of this collection. These usually bear the factory mark on a small plaque, the size of a five pence piece, which is applied to the base of the basket. It would therefore, have been quite easy to mark these baskets on delivery from an outside supplier and pass them off as King Street production. The factory is known to have employed three modellers, Barnet, Stephan and Shufflebottom, who were specialists in the making of the flowers and fruit, so often applied to the glazed white wares. It is strange that the factory would wish to supplement the output of these workers by buying in additional baskets, but it could be that the demand for items decorated in this manner was too great for this small factory to meet.

The glaze is usually thickly applied and in most cases crazed, mainly visible to the naked eye, but if not, quite clearly when magnified. It tends to settle extra thickly in any crevices and here heavy crazing is frequently found and in these areas it has a green tint. There are often very small pinholes in the glaze, where it has not provided a total cover.

The quality control practised was not entirely effective. In common with other manufacturers, the most frequently found fault is the miscellaneous debris which has settled in the paste and glaze – a problem not easy to overcome in the working conditions that prevailed at the time. Firing cracks are found occasionally, but this does not appear to have been a major problem.

Whilst compiling this inventory, I have got to know each piece in the collection a great deal better. The task has been both satisfying and enlightening and has served to remind me of just how varied is this group of glazed white wares from the King Street factory.
 

Robin Blackwood is retired and is a member of the Derby Porcelain International Society. He is interested in all matters relating to the Old Crown Derby China Works, now more commonly called the King Street factory and especially in the wares produced in the white.
 
 
 
 

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