Worcester Porcelain Company
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| Private | |
| Industry | Pottery |
| Genre | Porcelain ceramics |
| Founded | 1751 |
| Headquarters | Worcester, Stoke-on-Trent, England |
| Parent | Portmeirion Group |
| Website | http://www.royalworcester.co.uk/ |
Royal Worcester is believed to be the oldest or second oldest remaining English porcelain brand still in existence today, established in 1751 (this is disputed by Royal Crown Derby, which claims 1750 as its year of establishment). Since 2009 part of the Portmeirion Group, Royal Worcester remains in the luxury tableware and giftware market, although production in Worcester itself has ended.
Technically, the Worcester Royal Porcelain Co. Ltd. known as Royal Worcester was formed in 1862, and wares produced before this are known as Worcester porcelain, although the company had a royal warrant from 1788. The enterprise has followed the pattern of other leading English porcelain brands, with increasing success during the 18th and 19th centuries, and a gradual decline during the 20th century, especially the latter half.
Dr John Wall, a physician, and William Davis, an apothecary, attempted to develop a method of making porcelain that could then be used to boost prosperity and employment in Worcester. The success of their early experimentation is unknown but they clearly came in to contact with the Bristol manufactory of Lund and Miller around 1750-1751 who were using soaprock as a prime raw material in their porcelain production. This appears to be a then unique method for producing porcelain. In 1751 Wall and Davis persuaded a group of 13 businessmen to invest in a new factory at Warmstry House, Worcester, England, on the banks of the River Severn but whether the business plan put forward to the prospective partners was based on the future ‘buy out’ of the Bristol factory is uncertain. Wall and Davis secured the sum of £4500 from the partners to establish the factory, known then as "The Worcester Tonquin Manufactory"; the original partnership deeds are still housed in the Museum of Worcester Porcelain. Richard Holdship, a Quaker and major shareholder, was prominent in the process of the subsequent ‘buy out’ of the Bristol manufactory in early 1752. Holdship personally bought from Benjamin Lund, a fellow Quaker, the soaprock licence that ensured the mining of 20 tons pa of soaprock from Cornwall.
The early wares were soft-paste porcelain with bodies that contained soaprock, commonly called in most ceramic circles as soapstone. The chemical analyses of these wares closely correlates to those of the Bristol manufactory. This places Worcester in a group of early English potteries including Caughley and factories in Liverpool.
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Wikipedia