Decorative wares and figurines by Arthur J. Wilkinson Ltd. (Royal Staffordshire Pottery) (England), early 1900s

Arthur J. Wilkinson, Royal Staffordshire Pottery was a pottery at Newport in Burslem, that had been owned by the Shorter family since 1894. The pottery had formerly been operated in turn by Hopkin & Vernon, Hulme & Booth, Thomas Hulme, Burgess & Leigh, and Richard Alcock, who enlarged the works extensively. On Alcock's death in 1881, the owners became Wilkinson & Hulme and in 1885 to Arthur J. Wilkinson.

The works at first produced earthenware for the home market, but later operations concentrated on white graniteware for the United States. Wilkinson introduced gold lustre on graniteware, and in its heyday it employed about 400 manual workers. In about 1896 A. J. Wilkinson took over the Royal Staffordshire Pottery in Burslem.

The pottery was managed by Colley Shorter and his brother Guy Shorter. By 1920 business had expanded so much, that the firm of A.J. Wilkinson was able to more... take over another neighbouring pottery which came to be known as the Newport Pottery Co.

Colley Shorter's second wife was the ceramic designer Clarice Cliff who had been working for the Royal Staffordshire Pottery since the age of 17. She attended evening classes at Burslem School of Art from 1924-1925 and studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 1927, but returned after only a few months to set up a small studio in Wilkinson's Newport Pottery, decorating traditional white-ware.

In 1927/8 a market testing of 60 dozen pieces of "Bizarre Ware", using reject stocks of sub-standard whiteware, and masking the blemishes with highly coloured decoration was organised by Colley Shorter. Wilkinson's salesmen were shocked by the extreme boldness of the Clarice Cliff designs and further astonished by the rapidity with which they sold. Handpainted Bizarre, the name chosen by Colley Shorter, the managing director of Wilkinson's, to cover the whole range, was launched.

In 1964 The factory was sold to Midwinter. less...