Born in 1819 into a Quaker family, George Skey was an affluent mine owner who operated coal mines at Wilnecoate, Tamworth. Upon discovering substantial deposits of clay on his property Skey decided to enter the pottery business.
George Skey (18119-1897)
The George Skey Wilncoate Works
History
Skey's pottery works, George Skey & Company Ltd., was founded in 1859 but didn't begin production until 1862 producing terra-cotta utilitarian wares used in construction as well as stoves, terra cotta sewage pipes, tiles, chimneys, bottles, crocks and glazed brick. He then began potting conservatory items.
Female workers at the Skey Works
Skey registered design for a terra-cotta gas stove
George Skey chimney pot
1881 Skey trade ad
George Skey stoneware crock
Advertising ginger beer bottle for Skey Wilncoate Works
Skey stoneware advertising bottle
By 1864 Skey expanded his company to encompass the production of decorative earthenware: fountains, vases, tazzas, brackets, pedestals, flower vases, mignonette boxes, fern stands, tiles and garden seats. He also made lined cane ware game dishes and began the production of porcelain items for construction.
Skey cane ware game dish with liner
Skey monumental terra cotta lion made for
the Tamworth Club in Staffordshire
Majolica was introduced at the Wilnecoate Works in the 1860s under the brand name Rustic Ware. Designed to imitate wood, the company used a limited palette of color glazes over an ochre earthenware body. The majority of items made by the company were garden items, but soon the company expanded to table and desk items as well as porcelain. In The Ceramic Art of Great Britain by Llewelyn Frederick William Jewitt (1878) the ware was discussed thus:
"In "Rustic ware," vases, garden-seats, flower-pots, brackets, fern-stands, and an infinite variety of beautiful articles are made. This "Rustic ware" is a fine buff coloured terra-cotta, glazed with a rich brown glaze, and sometimes heightened with a green tinge, just sufficient to give it a remarkably pleasing effect. The modelling (sic) of some of these goods is highly artistic."
The Skey display at the South Staffordshire Industrial & Fine Art Exhibition, 1869
Skey's Rustic Ware fern stand
Skey Rustic Ware fern stand
Skey Rustic Ware fern stand base
Skey Rustic Ware jardiniere stand
Skey hanging basket, called a "suspender" in the company literature
Rustic Ware suspender
Skey majolica footed jardiniere Floral presentation piece in porcelain for Herbert Ward
with majolica glaze
Skey shell Rustic Ware ice container
Skey majolica Rustic Ware wall pocket
Skey majolica epergne
Skey majolica Rustic Ware wall shelf with owl
Skey majolica Rustic Ware wall shelf with monkey
Skey majolica Rustic Ware deer wall shelf
Skey Rustic Ware pen and ink stand
Skey majolica Rustic Ware desk stand
Skey bear pitcher often erroneously attributed to Holdcroft
Skey mark on the bottom of bear honey pitcher
A pair of Skey Medici lions
Skey majolica Medici lion
Skey desk watch holder stand with pin cushion
Napoleon Bonaparte salt glazed jug Skey porcelain shell center
Majolica production continued at the Wilnecoate Works for another twenty years but ceased with the retirement of Skey in 1892. When Skey died in 1897, the company was sold but remained in production producing stoneware crocks, tiles, porcelain sanitary items and decorative terra-cotta until 1935 when it was acquired by the Doultons. The pottery was demolished in 1980.
Marks
Not always marked, Skey used the marks shown below on his decorative ware.
Skey Works, 1934
Tile on the top of the Skey memorial to workers killed in WW1
At Tamworth Castle Bowls Club we have a George Skey lion statue which measures four and a half feet,we would like to know the history of it .
ReplyDeleteSounds intriguing! If you ever have a chance to snap a photo of it please send it to me. My email address is in my profile.
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