Earlier this year a friend gave me this very pretty tea set.

Only it’s not actually a “set.”

Intriguingly, it’s a group of China pieces with nearly identical pansy paintings—made by different companies.

• cup and saucer: Duchess, est. 1888, fine bone china, made in England (crown logo)
• teapot: Arthur Wood & Son, Staffordshire, England, est. 1884 (#6424)
• sugar bowl: Melba Kitchenware, made in Staffordshire, England, hand crafted
• teabag caddy: unmarked

Wondering whether Duchess was also made in Staffordshire, I began there.

Duchess Bone China

Duchess, according to their website, was founded in 1888 by A. T. Finney, who advertised his Bone China as “free from flint” and “silicosis eliminated.” Since silicosis is lung fibrosis caused by breathing silica-laden dust, I assume he was also advertising his concern for his workers’ welfare.

This was, after all, on the heels of the era in which English consumers were concerned about adulteration in food and tea, and the push was for domestic (e.g., not Chinese tea, but tea from India instead) products, including an equivalent to prized Chinese porcelain.

Bone china is exactly what its name suggests: animal bones are burned, ground into a fine powder, and added to the clay.

Fine Bone China is categorized as having more than 45% animal bone within the formulation, it is this constituent that give [sic] it its strength and translucent qualities when combined with Cornish China Clay and Feldspars. (Duchess China)

This inclusion of bone (i.e., calcium phosphate ash)—a technique developed by Josiah Spode, both father and son, in 1790–1810—gives the china the qualities of both soft- and hard-paste porcelain.

Hence, bone china is more durable, harder, less permeable, more translucent—and cheaper to make.

Still, a Duchess bone china item even today undergoes 15 manufacturing processes and 3–4 firings, making it labor intensive.

Their facility is in Stoke-on-Trent, a 1910 federation of six towns—the North Staffordshire Potteries or simply the Potteries.

Which explains why this tea set actually is a set of sorts, all the pieces being produced in the same place if not by the same manufacturer.

Staffordshire Potteries

Pottery-making began in this area as early as the 1400s as farmers supplemented their income; by 1740 it was England’s production center and a leader in innovation.

And output was intense—from the 1700s through the 1960s, Staffordshire contained some two thousand bottle ovens or kilns!

The bottle part—the chimney—is called a hovel, and reaches up to 70 feet (Birks).

The actual kiln is inside the structure.

Below is a glost oven; you can see the firemouth (where the fire is located) and the iron bands that support the kiln as the high temperature causes expansion. Saggers (fireclay boxes) containing the pieces to be fired would be stacked inside the kiln.

You can imagine the air pollution:

It required about fifteen tons of coal to fire one bottle oven once, and almost half the heat generated would go up the bottle shaped chimney as smoke. (Birks)

With the city situated on coal seams, fuel was readily at hand, along with the clay required for porcelain.

This confluence of materials supplied numerous successful companies, including Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, Spode, and Duchess—whose founder, when promoting his “free from flint” and “silicosis eliminated” china, perhaps should’ve also considered what those bottle ovens were sending up into the air.

Today, under stricter manufacturing standards to be sure, Duchess continues to sell bone china, although none with the proliferation of pansies found on my set, and while my teacup and saucer may be vintage, the “Made in England” inscription dates them to the twentieth century.

Next up, a look at Arthur Wood & Son and Melba china, plus why all those flower decorations match!

Sources:
–Duchess China, https://www.duchess-china.co.uk.
–How to Mend Your Treasured Porcelain, China, Glass and Pottery, by L. A. Malone, Reston Publishing, Reston, VA, 1976.
–The Local History of Stoke-on-Trent, England, by Steve Birks, thepotteries.org.
–”Staffordshire pottery marks,” Pottery–English, https://pottery-english.com/staffordshire-pottery-marks/.
–”Staffordshire pottery—the history,” StaffordshirePottery.com.