Mason's

Miles Mason was born in Yorkshire in 1752 and moved to London at a young age to be an apprentice. He became friends with Ruth Farrer who was the daughter of Richard Farrer, a successful importer of Chinese porcelain through the English East India Company. Richard Farrer had died in 1773 leading his nine-year-old daughter with a substantial inheritance and the family business. Miles Mason married Ruth Farrar in 1782 and thus acquired both the inheritance and the business. However, the government levies on imported goods progressively increased and the East India Company eventually ceased importing goods so that Miles Mason was forced to decide to produce his own wares. Initially he joined Thomas Wolfe and John Luckcock in partnership in Liverpool in 1780 but the partnership finished in 1800. Mason continued to work in his London business until 1802 after which he joined George Wolfe at the Victoria Pottery in Lane Delph, Fenton, Staffordshire and they worked there until 1806 when they moved to the larger Minerva Works in Lane Delph. The wares continued to feature the oriental themes with which he had become most familiar.

Miles and Ruth had three sons and his eldest son William became a partner and they took over the Sampson Bagnall Works in Lane Delph in 1811. His second and third sons George Miles and Charles James took control of the Minerva Works after 1813. Miles Mason retired in 1813 and died in 1822. The three sons took over management but William left to start his own business in 1815 and George retired in 1826.

Miles Mason’s third son Charles James Mason was born in 1791 and it was he who was left in control. Charles Mason was one of several manufacturers who had developed “Ironstone China” which he patented in 1813. This was a hardened durable earthenware made from Cornwall clay, ironstone slag, flint and blue oxide of cobalt to produce a hard, opaque, bluish white pottery that had a smooth, glossy finish. It was initially used for industrial strength tiles and later for ornamental wares. Other potteries introduced their versions of Ironstone China when the patent expired in 1827. Charles Mason married Sarah Spode, the granddaughter of Josiah Spode, in 1815 and this allowed the firm to acquire a second factory held by the Spode family named Fenton Stone Works. Ironstone productions at both factories developed an exceptional range of Oriental patterns that also included English and Italian landscapes. The two factories became known as Charles J. Mason & Co in 1829. Samuel Bayliss Faraday had been employed as Mason's sales manager and foreign traveler in 1824 and was made a partner in the business in 1840 but died 4 years later.

Charles Mason introduced a technique to sell the firm’s goods by auction but this probably eventually led to his financial downfall. He was declared bankrupt in 1848 and was forced to sell both factories to Francis Morley. Morley moved the firm to its present site at the Broad Street Works, Hanley, Staffordshire and the business traded as Francis Morley & Co. Charles Mason started a second business at Longton, Staffordshire in 1851 and remarried the following year but was forced to sell again in 1853 and he died in 1856. Francis Morley formed a partnership with his son-in-law, Taylor Ashworth in 1858, and the firm then traded as Morley & Ashworth. Francis Morley retired in 1862 passing the business to Taylor Ashworth and the company commenced trading as Geo. L. Ashworth & Bros Ltd. The firm in turn was purchased by John Shaw Goddard in 1883 and he was succeeded as proprietor by his son John Vivian Goddard in 1919.

The cycle was finally completed when the business reverted in name to Mason's Ironstone China Ltd. in 1968. The firm was acquired by the Wedgwood Group in 1973 and renamed Mason's Ironstone and continues to make the distinctive Ironstone China to the present day.

Backstamps

There are several impressed or printed text marks that help date the early pieces, such as:

M Mason      1800-1813

PATENT IRONSTONE CHINA   1813-1820

MASON’S PATENT IRONSTONE CHINA  1813-1820

G & CJ M or GM & CJ Mason   1813-1829

Fenton Stone Works     1825-1840

CJ Mason & Co.     1829-1845

CJ M & Co.      1845-1854

Backstamps were used from the early times and some examples are listed below. The word England was added after 1891 and Made in England after 1923.