– 2018/25 – vintage crockery –

You know what they say about buses… you wait for ages for one to arrive and then two show up at once. Same with vintage finds.

Last weekend? the one before? who can remember… I popped into a big charity shop (thrift store for you across the pond) on the way back from a super early and wet hockey match to cheer myself up and I found four delicious dessert bowls waiting for me… in the sale section!!

Check that border out! Perfection right?

The reverse had this mark: Royal Art Pottery.

Now researching things is a passion of mine and with a little digging I think I cracked it. The company hails from Stoke on Trent, like many of the great pottery manufacturers, in the area around what used to be called Waterloo Street and was renamed in the 50s Barford Street and is now a Matalan superstore (sadly). I can’t quite decipher when it was established but we know that by 1897 the Waterloo Works had become the Royal Art Pottery Company. To be precise the Waterloo Works had a number of companies working from it through it’s life span (including Alfred Deakin Co etc., you might have come across some its products if you’re a pottery hunter like me!).

From what I understood the company operate as Royal Art Pottery Co from 1897 to 1915 and had a different mark etc (Royal Art Pottery Longton might be from this period too). From at least 1940 to the mid 1960s was operate by Alfred Clough ltd and became Royal Art Pottery with the mark under the plates I found. This is when things got a little confused because Alfred Clough ltd produced a lot of other pottery out of Staffordshire too.

I don’t know. Please help out if you can with more details.

Anyway, back to the buses… a few days later I stumbled on (eBay) onto this little gem of a side place…