A very good antique Georgian pottery Staffordshire Enoch Wood type Toby Jug C.1810

A good antique Georgian English pottery Staffordshire Enoch Wood type ‘Ordinary Man’ Toby Jug, seated wearing a pale pink coat with foaming ale jug and pipe, with a spotted ruddy face. A very handsome Jug.

Circa 1790 – 1810

Good Antique Condition with chips around the tricorn hat and a few little bits of glaze loss and minor fritting – please view images – generally a good Jug in good condition

9.5 inches (24cm) height approx

Safe UK shipping is included in the price, and international shipping is at cost.

Enoch Wood (1759–1840) was an English potter and businessman, from one of the major families in Staffordshire pottery. Starting as a modeller, he established a successful business in Burslem in the Staffordshire Potteries, from 1790-1818 trading as Wood and Caldwell. In the 18th century they produced many Staffordshire figures, which Wood modelled himself, and other types of earthenware and stoneware. After 1818 his company, now Enoch Wood & Sons, produced large quantities of blue and white transfer-printed tableware in earthenware, much of which was exported to America.

He began a business in Burslem in 1783 with his cousin Ralph Wood II, as an earthenware manufacturer; the two were the leading pottery modellers of the period. In 1790 he went into partnership with James Caldwell (1759-1838), a local lawyer, as Wood and Caldwell, and a new factory was built at Fountain Place in Burslem, which produced a wide range of earthenwares. The company also had mining interests: the Bycars Colliery in Burslem provided fuel for the factory. The partnership was successful, and continued until 1818, when Wood bought out Caldwell and Wood’s three sons became partners, the firm becoming Enoch Wood & Sons.

The new company produced a large quantity of blue transfer-printed earthenware, like other large potteries largely abandoning the figure market. A substantial amount of the wares were exported to America, where trade in earthenware increased after the end in 1815 of the Anglo-American war; Wood designed a range of items particularly for America.

Enoch Wood died in 1840, and the business closed in 1845; finances were affected by a loss of trade with America, and by his children claiming their legacies.