We place new or important TCC announcements, transferware news, and events listings at the top, but there is a world of value to the middle and bottom of our eNews. We rotate new entries every month to our regular features, including Featured Books, Featured Articles, and Information Websites and Blogs. So, please, page down and sample our monthly offerings.

The Spode Museum Trust Seeks Funding for Its 250th Anniversary Display of the Spode Collection

In order to complete their work, the Trust needs to raise £35,000 (approximately $46,000 US) to renovate the Old Museum space and the existing showcases, create the new displays and to link the original museum space to the existing Heritage Center opening in May 2020. The renovated space and new exhibits will take the Heritage Centre to a new level making the full range of Spode production available for future generations to enjoy.

 

Much has already been achieved by the Spode Museum Trust to make this anniversary celebration possible. The Heritage Centre has been expanded to include the Spode retail store, storage and basic display space. In partnership with neighbouring tenants, funding has been committed for lift access to the newly restored Blue Room and for opening up public access via the original factory entrance. The Spode mould collection has been digitised with funds from the University and Trustees are committed to a £100,000 feasibility study to define the long-term future of the Heritage Centre on the factory site.

Issue 22, January 2020

Iconic biscuit oven at the Gladstone Pottery Museum, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent.

Images and text provided by Terry Woolliscroft October 2019.

Huge brick-built bottle ovens, integral to a pottery factory and essential in pottery manufacture, were once the dominant feature of the Potteries landscape. At their peak, around 2,000 existed in the City of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Most of them were fired once a week, some twice. At each firing at least 10 tons of coal was burnt in each oven. Some very large ovens used over 30 tons per firing. Thick, black, choking smoke filled the air. However the Clean Air Act of 1956 put a stop to their use and sealed the fate of the traditional coal-fired oven. Pottery manufacturers were allowed seven years to find alternative fuels. The race to demolish the redundant ovens, and rid the area of its grim past, began.   Read more.

(Click on thumbnails to see larger images)

Planning is underway for the 2020 TCC Annual Meeting and Leslie Bouterie has generously offered to lead the effort again as Chair of the Annual Meeting Committee. Organizing the meeting involves too many tasks for one or two people to handle and additional volunteers are essential for the meeting to take place.   

 

Volunteers are needed to be responsible for Logistics, Programming, Promotion, Administration, the Transferware Sale, and the Raffle. Several people expressed interest during the recent meeting in Birmingham, but several more are needed. If you have interest in learning more about the available positions, please contact TCC president Scott Hanson at president@transcollectorsclub.org. Thank you!

Fewer than12 of the beautiful TCC 20th Anniversary mugs remain. This may be your last chance to obtain one, or more. Cost is $20 each (which includes shipping and a slight profit to the TCC). Checks only, payable to the Transferware Collectors Club. Contact Frank Davenport at frankdhaddonfield@outlook.com to reserve your mug(s) and to obtain address for mailing payment.  

 

Click on image to see larger version.

There are no auctions at this time.

 

Highlight Number Thirty-Seven  

 

Everard, Colclough & Townsend  

The little-known and short-lived firm of Everard, Colclough & Townsend worked in Longton, probably from about 1840 through to the end of June 1845. At the time of writing, the TCC database has no records of any wares from the factory - possibly they had little trade with America - but they certainly made some distinctive transferware jugs. More information. Visit the Article Archives.