Tg Green Pottery
Back in 1846 Thomas Goodwin Green, son of a Lincolnshire corn merchant, had a fancy for a lady by the name of Mary Tenniel (sister of Sir John Tenniel the famous illustrator of such books as Alice in Wonderland). He asked her to marry him but was rejected. So in true romantic spirit, he took his broken heart and sailed for Australia, where he made his fortune as a builder. Fifteen years later he had word that Mary had changed her mind so he returned home in true prodigal fashion, wooed and won his sweetheart and they were married.
Whilst on honeymoon, Green met Henry Wileman who owned the Pottery Works in Church Gresley, Derbyshire. Having sold up his business in Australia, Green was looking for something to do now he was back in the Old Dart so he bought the pottery from Wileman. After all, how hard could it be?
Fortunately he had bought a well run operation and being a strong-minded and determined man he soon made his new business a great success; in the process, setting up a pottery dynasty that lasted until 1964, when it went the way of so many family potteries, and went into receivership. The company assets were purchased by larger outfits who continued trading under the TG Green name.
TG Green expanded into the kitchen and table wares market. And during the first half of the 20th century the pottery produced a number of popular designs. The most famous is Cornishware.
Supposedly named by a TG Green Regional Sales Representative who was inspired by ‘the blue of the Cornish skies and the white crests of the waves’, Cornishware is the most famous of all the TG Green lines. It is the definitive blue and white kitchen ware pottery of the 20th century (Willow pattern doesn’t really count as it is primarily used on dinner wares rather than than kitchen ware). When the popularity of Cornish Kitchen Wares took off it spawned dozens of ‘me too’ lines from competing manufacturers: Kleenware, Fowlerware, Stanley Ware, Bretby Ware, to name a few. But none of them really captured the market like Cornishware.
Blue banded white wares had been around since the mid-Victorian years and there’s no record of who at TG Green came up with the idea of turning this type of pottery into a modern range of kitchen wares. It is believed that the idea was driven by the need to give the TG Green lathe turners employment in the mid 1920s during the post WWI recession. A Pottery with a background of social conscience. Gotta love that!
The Cornishware pieces are fired, coated with slip which is allowed to dry and then coated with the blue slip. When this is dry the pieces are mounted on a lathe and bands of blue slip are turned off to reveal the white body beneath. Then of course they are fired again. This also gives the pieces their texture as they have a very definitive edge to them; not achievable by just painting the stripes onto the body. This hand lathe process is still carried out today in the modern Cornishware pieces.
Over the years Cornishware has been made in several colorways: yellow (Sunlit Yellow), buff (Cornish Gold), red, black, green and teal. My collection focuses on the original blue range with pieces mainly from the 1930s and 40s; although I have a teapot from the 1960s when the range was redesigned by Judith Onions in an effort to modernize it and revitalize its market appeal.
The TG Green range expanded during the mid 20th century to include many other designs, many of which are quite collectable today. but my favourite TG Green range is the Streamline kitchen and table ware. This was characterised by a cream coloured body formed into a distinctive rounded shape with a series of green stripes piped onto to it. The stripes are raised on the surface of the pieces making them very tactile. The range is huge and was in production from the mid-1930s to about 1950, But because it was never as popular as the famous Cornishware, Streamline pieces are harder to find, especially the more unusual items.
TG Green pottery is great to collect as the range if different pieces is so large and you can build up a really interesting collection of different shapes and pieces within the same ‘family’. And it makes a sensational display on a kitchen dresser or shelf.
Karen Bellamy is a digital as well as a traditional scrapbooker from Australia. She writes the Scraps of Mind blog which she describes as:
A feast of Scrapbooking information and tutorials for both the Digital Scrapbooker and the Traditional Paper Scrapbooker. Seasoned with Antiques & Collectibles, Music inspired, and Blog Presentation articles to add some extra spice. All served up with a light hearted and fun style.
Tags: church gresley, cornishware, kitchenware, pottery, streamline, tg green
Add A Comment