26 
House & Garden 
Two examples of 
Whieldon agate ware 
teapots, showing the 
remarkable veining of 
color 
THE WARE OF THOMAS WHIELDON, POTTER 
This 18 th Century Master Had Wedgwood for Partner and Left Us a Heritage 
of Distinctive Wares That Collectors Should Enjoy 
GARDNER TEALL 
I N the history of the 
art of the English 
potters, the Whieldon 
period, which extended 
from 1740 to 1780, is 
one of the utmost impor¬ 
tance. Despite this fact, 
collectors of Whieldon 
ware have been few in 
America, although devo¬ 
tees at the shrine of the 
blue-and-white Stafford¬ 
shire have been myriad, 
and hundreds have been 
worshippers of the wares 
of Wedgwood, who be¬ 
came Whieldon’s part¬ 
ner from 1753 to 1759. 
There have been those 
who have contended that 
Whieldon owed much of 
his reputation to the 
group of his associates 
and apprentices who sub¬ 
sequently became so fa¬ 
mous—J o s i a h Wedg¬ 
wood, Josiah Spode, 
William Greatbach, 
Aaron Wood (who was employed by 
Whieldon as a block cutter at Little Fen¬ 
ton) and others. Be this as it may, I 
think there can be no question but that the 
master hand and the master mind of 
Thomas Whieldon inspired the efforts of 
these younger men and gave them the 
foundation on which their later successes 
were reared. 
A group of 
W hie Id on fig¬ 
ures, from the 
collection of 
Mr. Myers 
The rediscovery of the 
original manuscript “Ac¬ 
count and Memorandum 
Book of Thomas Whiel¬ 
don” by Mr. T. W. Twy- 
ford of Whitmore Hall 
in Staffordshire, and its 
presentation by Mr. 
Frank Partridge to the 
Hanley (Stoke-on-Trent) 
Museum has given im¬ 
petus to a revival of in¬ 
terest among collectors in 
the subject of Whieldon 
ware. In this little book 
we find recorded the fol¬ 
lowing entry: “1749. 
April 9. Hired Si ah 
Spoade, to give him from 
this time to Martelmas 
next 2s. 3d., or 2s. 6d., if 
he deserves it.” If he 
deserves it — the great 
Josiah Spode who, as 
Arthur Hayden observes, 
acclimatized the “Willow 
Pattern” in Stafford¬ 
shire ! The same year he 
“Hired a boy of Ann Blowes for treading 
ye lathe” at 2s. per week, but I imagine 
Boy Blowes grew heartily sick of his job 
and found no incentive in it for clamber¬ 
ing up the steep hillside of Fame to sit 
with Wedgwood, Spode and the gods. 
There must have been many “now-and- 
thens” turning up at Whieldon’s pottery 
to be set to work for anything they were 
An oval platter 
of Whieldon 
make. Courtesy 
of Mr. Louis E. 
Myers 
Tortoise shell ware was a feature of 
Thomas Whieldon’s pottery. This is 
a characteristic octagonal plate 
Another type of Whieldon ware was the ani¬ 
mal figures. Teapot and cat of tortoise shell 
pattern; chickens in white and brown 
In addition to the remarkable tortoise 
shell glaze that Whieldon used was the 
pierced work, as in this platter 
