Pitcher, 7 inches tall. Black transfer. Printed maker's mark for Burgess & Leigh. The "Ionia" pattern features a collection of cartouches filled with stylized floral and foliage motifs and floral sprays. The large rectangular cartouche on the handle-right side has a keyhole pierced by roses. The border consists of a simple repeated geometric pattern of alternating circles and ovals.
The Hill Top Pottery, or Hill Pottery, formerly belonging to Ralph Wood, and were for many years carried on by Samuel Alcock & Co., by whom they were in 1839 rebuilt and enlarged. In 1860 the works and general estate were purchased by Sir James Duke and Nephews, and continued by them until 1865, when they sold it to Thomas Ford, who in 1866 sold it to the Earthenware and Porcelain Company, by whom (under the management of Mr. R. Daniel, once a noted china manufacturer at Stoke, Hanley, and Burslem) it was carried on under the style of the “Hill Pottery Company, Limited, late S. Alcock & Co.”
The operations of the “Hill Pottery Company” were of short duration, for in 1867 it was put in liquidation and sold up, when the property again came into the hands of Mr. Ford. In the same year the works were divided, the china department being taken by Alcock and Diggory, and the earthenware part by “Burgess & Leigh (late S . Alcock & Co.),” by whom it was carried on under the style of “Burgess, Leigh & Co.”
The mark used by the firm is a beehive on a stand, with bees, a rose bush on either side, and a ribbon bearing the name of the pattern beneath, and under this the initials of the firm, “B. L. & Co.” Many of the patterns were registered.
