Plate, 10.75 inches diameter. Brown transfer. Printed maker's mark for the Campbellfield Pottery Co. Ltd. This pattern seems to include a little bit of everything. In the center a family of deer, standing on a jut out section of land, look out over the lake with mountains in the background that are reflected in the lake. At the top we see a sharp point which defines the edges of two cartouches in the shape of papers. Each paper has a different scene: one a mountain with trees, the other a floral spray. Ferns and unusual plants on a small piece of land on the edge of a lake complete the bottom pattern with a singing bird sitting on a bush. Off to the left is a small round geometric cartouche.
The Campbellfield Pottery Co. was first established in the Gallowgate, in the east end of Glasgow. It is thought that it was mainly a brick and tile works using the local clay. The Campbellfield Estate was purchased by William Wilson in 1819. As well as owning Campbellfield, the Cambuslang Brick & Tile Works, and the Pretty Three Brickworks, Wilson also owned the Barlinnie estate, where he had a fire-clay works (part of this estate was sold for the building of the Barlinnie prison). Wilson went bankrupt in 1849. His son William Jr. bought the works in 1849 and ran it until 1874 when he sold it to a potter, William Rankine Currie. At this point it is thought that Currie produced stoneware, Rockingham ware and white earthenware jam jars. It is not thought that the Gallowgate pottery produced any transfer printed wares. Currie formed The Campbellfield Pottery Company Ltd. in 1881 with the express purpose of purchasing the Springburn Pottery of William McAdam, formerly of Hydepark Pottery. The Springburn works was a newly built factory having been completed in 1879. It was at these works that Currie and his manager William Arnott produced a range of transfer printed pieces for the domestic and Irish market. The Springburn works continued until 1899 when the company went into voluntary liquidation. The Gallowgate works closed in 1885.
