Portmeirion China

Portmeirion Pottery is a British pottery company based in Stoke-on-Trent.

History

Susan Williams-Ellis (daughter of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis) and her husband, Euan Cooper-Willis, purchased a small pottery decorating company in Stoke-on-Trent called A. E. Gray Ltd in 1960. Susan had been working with A. E. Gray for some years, commissioning designs to sell at the Ship Shop gift shop in Portmeirion Village, North Wales and the Portmeirion Antiques Shop in Pont Street, Knightsbridge, London (later Portmeirion Pottery's first headquarters).

Initially Susan Williams-Ellis produced items under the mark Gray's Pottery Portmeirionware , but in 1961 the name was changed to Portmeirion Pottery when they amalgamated Gray's Pottery with Kirkham's Pottery. Gray's factory was closed and the remaining workforce moved to the Kirkham's site on London Road, Stoke (formerly the Goss crested china works).

Susan Williams-Ellis produced a wide range of influential designs in the 1960s, such as "Totem" (1962), "Magic City" (1966) and "Magic Garden" (1970), but the company is better known for "Botanic Garden" (from 1972), which has evolved over the decades and continues to be Portmeirion Pottery's best selling design.

On 23 April 2009 Portmeirion Pottery purchased the rival Royal Worcester and Spode brands, together with some of the stock, after their parent company had been placed into administration the previous November. The purchase does not include Royal Worcester and Spode's manufacturing facilities.

References

1. ^ "Stoke kilns fired up for Spode again". Staffordshire Sentinel (Nortchliffe). 2009-04-24 . http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Stoke-kilns-fired-Spode/article-936167-detail/article.html . Retrieved 2009-04-25 .  

Further reading

• Jenkins, Stephen, & Mckay, Stephen 2000. Portmeirion Pottery . Richard Dennis. ISBN 0-903685-78-7.

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