Gibson & Sons Ltd
KEY DATES
1875 S Gibson founded Gibson & Sudlow
1885 - Gibson & Sons Ltd.
1885 - 1957 Harvey Pottery, Lingard Street, Burslem
1885 - 1965 Albany Pottery, Moorland Road, Burslem (transferred to Howard Pottery)
1925 - 1930 C. Chelsea Works, Moorland Road, Burslem
1965 - Howard Pottery, Norfolk Street, Shelton (with Royal Winton)
1947-48 Company sold to Mineral Separation
1949 Company sold to the Howard Pottery Group
DESCRIPTION
The company was founded in 1875 by Samuel Gibson and was run as a family concern. They exhibited at the following exhibitions:
1893 International Exhibition in Chicago
1911 Crystal Palace Festival of Empire and Imperial Exhibition
1911 International Exhibition of Turin
1913 Ghent International Exhibition - won Diploma of Honour and special backstamp created
1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco
In the 1890s they are reported as making two handled tea urns with floral decoration.
Samuel Gibson was elected Mayor of Burslem in 1906.
Prior to the second World War Gibson & Sons were producers of dinner and tea wares. They operated from several locations in Burslem as noted above. A range of backstamps are illustrated in Godden's Encyclopaedia of British Pottery and Porcelain Marks, some of which incorporate the names of these potteries - HP Co. (Harvey Pottery); Albany and Harvey. Trade marks used by the company included Silvoe Art Ware; Windsor Art Ware; Royal Harvey (dinner and tea wares). Commemorative wares were produced including an art deco shaped teapot for the Silver Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary in 1935.
When industry concentration was imposed during the second World War, Gibsons limited their production exclusively to teapots which had always been their speciality product. Although the range of products manufactured was extended again in the postwar period, the company decided in 1954 to once again focus on teapot production only. Export to America was also seen as a priority with the introduction of teapot sets - teapot, hot water jug, sugar basin and cream jug. Teapots were manufactured in both red and white clay. The export labels read:
This is a genuine English GIBSON teapot
The Chinese strated drinking tea,
Back in a distant century,
The English started to make the Pot,
To serve this beverage piping hot.
'Tis easy now for all to see,
Why English people love their tea,
With milk or lemon, iced or hot,
'Tis better made in a GIBSON pot.
The limiting of the range of products available can be seen in the entries from the Pottery Gazette Reference Book:
The 1952 edition lists - breakfast, dinner, tea, coffee, hotel, canteen, kitchen ware, sandwich, supper, fruit, salad sets; badged ware; cheese dishes; cigarette sundries; measuring jugs; pudding, salad bowls; teapots.
The 1959 edition lists - beakers, coffee ware, teapots (brown, plain or banded), teapots (brown, decorated), teapots (earthenware, decorated)
In 1954 the company introduced the Patent T.T. Teapot. This was internally fitted with a detachable hot water jug. Infusion took place exclusively in the space between the walls of the teapot and the internally fitted hot water jug. When the first two or three cups of tea have been poured, water from the internal hot water jug automatically replaces this and re-infuses the tea leaves. It claimed to pour a stronger and more uniform cup of tea than a conventional teapot. In addition, only two teaspoons of tea in this teapot were the equivalent of three in a normal teapot and so it was more economical.
One of the company's other novel creations was the Largest Teapot in the world, manufactured c.1907-1910. This held 1024 cups of tea. Its origins are not clear - either it was made for promotional use at trade fairs or as the result if a bet between Sydney Gibson and another (unknown) teapot manufacturer. The original teapot was press moulded by hand in a block case mould. The body was made in two halves, the handle in one and the spout in two parts, divided along the shaft. It was fired in a bottle oven which had to be partially dismantled to accommodate the large pieces and allow a wall to be built around the teapot in place of a saggar. Three teapots were made but, by 1955, only one survived. The mould for this teapot survived and another one was built in the 1930s from this mould by Sadlers - another Burslem teapot manufacturer. This one was biscuit fired and cellulose painted with brightly coloured fruit and vegetables raised from the surface of the teapot.
Some expansion of the product range appears to have occurred in the mid-1960s - it may be that these were products manufactured by other companies within the group but marketed under the Gibsons name.
The 1962 edition of the Pottery Gazette Reference Book lists Gibsons products as mostly teapots, but in the 1964 edition we find "apothecary jars, beakers, biscuit barrels, cafe ware, coffee sets, kitchen ware, milk jugs, mocca cups, oven-to-table ware, teapots, teapot sets and tankards.
In 1965 the company was reported to have £70,000 in orders, 70% of which were for export, but was unable to fill them because of a shortage of skilled workers. The Burslem works had become too big for the number of staff and so they were closed and production moved to new buildings at the Howard Pottery, Norfolk Street, Shelton. Production of red-bodied wares ceased in favour of white teapot production.
COLLECTION DETAILS
The Museum does not hold any examples of Gibson and Sons Ltd. wares.
FURTHER READING
On teapots
Bramah, Edward Novelty teapots : 500 years of art and design Quiller Press, 1992
Emmerson, Robin British teapots and tea drinking HMSO, 1992
Miller, Philip & Berthoud, Michael An anthology of British teapots Micawber Publications, 1985
Street- Porter, Janet The British teapot Angus & Robertson, 1981
Sources used above
Supplying teapots for markets of the world. Company profile in British Bulletin of Commerce Potteries Survey, 1955
Pottery Gazette and Glass Trades Review reference book and directory (various years)
ST June 2001
Images & Texts © The City of Stoke-on-Trent 2000
