Soup plate, 9 inches diameter. Blue transfer. Printed maker's mark for Wood & Sons.
Ralph Wood, the eldest, born in 1715, achieved renown around 1750 with his famous and now rare Staffordshire figures, and especially his delightful Toby Jugs, which started a vogue that has never died out. Aaron, born in 1717, was the finest mold-maker in the Staffordshire Potteries. His claim upon our notice is twofold. He is the father of the even more celebrated Enoch Wood, whose fame rests not only upon his great skill as a modeler, but on his ability as a practical potter and his keenness and enthusiasm as a collector of pottery.
Enoch was a man of great enterprise with a flair for invention, whose masterly craftsmanship served to build up the considerable business of Wood and Caldwell, a partnership which endured from 1790 to 1818. In the latter year he bought out his partner and took into the business his three sons, when the firm became known as Enoch Wood EL Sons. Under this regime the firm achieved a great reputation, especially in America, for which market Enoch designed his admirable and extensive range of the most artistic blue and white plates with rich and finely disposed borders encircling views of England, of which there are known 71 centers. Enoch lived into his eighty-third year and died in 1840. To Moses, the third of the three brothers, can be traced to the beginning of an unbroken succession of seven generations of Master Potters.
In 1865 Absalom Wood (a descendent of Moses) became the founder and senior partner in Wood, Son & Co. It is believed that the reason he commenced business at this particular time was because in 1865 the American Civil War ended, and the intention was to cater for the American market. The site of the original factory was at Cobridge, situated between Rushton Road and Elm Street. It was called the Villa Pottery. It is believed that some 100 to 133 people were employed.
Absalom Wood had six sons, four of whom, namely Thomas F. Wood, William, and Henry J. Wood became master potters. In 1877, Thomas, or T. F. as he was called in later years, along with his brother William, purchased for £5,075 a site in Navigation Road, which they called New Wharf Pottery, and which they had probably been tenants or since 1875. The name New Wharf was probably derived from the New Wharf that was built on the nearby canal at that time. In 1879 the Trent Pottery, which adjoined New Wharf, was bought at an auction held at the Leopard Hotel, Burslem by T.F. Wood for £6,700. It was at this time that the Villa Pottery was transferred to within the additional site.
In 1889 the site as it is today was made up by the acquisition of land purchased by the younger brother Henry J. Wood, who later traded as B. J. Wood. Also in 1889, on the 27th June, Absalom Wood died, and this was the year his eldest son Thomas was the Mayor of Burslem.
The firm of Wood & Sons Ltd. was ultimately established, probably in 1910, Thomas Wood being the principal proprietor of a firm, which was now employing roughly 1000 people. It is at this stage that we concentrate on T.F., because it was his descendants who were directly concerned with the Wood as we know it. T.F. had two sons - Harry and Clive, and it was the former who became Chairman of Wood & Sons Ltd., and who also learned from his father an immense knowledge of pottery skills. The site occupied at this moment in time, namely the Stanley Pottery, was purchased by Wood's in 1931, and it was made up of two factories - the Stanley Pottery and the Crown Pottery.
