W&R Carlton Ware blushware plantholder

Wiltshaw and Robinson  made fashionable earthenware which included a range of blush ground items imitating Royal Worcester, blue transfer printed wares, plain white, tinted faience, a range of Imari-style wares in the traditional blue, red and gilt and even sprigged ware in a variety of colours, reminiscent of Wedgwood.

From the 1900s to 1920s Wiltshaw and Robinson was a leading producer of china crested ware under the trade name ‘Carlton Heraldic China’.

• James Frederick Wiltshaw had worked in a managerial role for his father, Thomas, who was the managing director of another pottery company at the Washington Works, Burslem, until his death in 1887.
• Three years later, in 1890, James founded Wiltshaw and Robinson in partnership with two brothers, James Alcock Robinson and William Herbert Robinson. They took over the relatively modern Copeland Street Works in Stoke-on-Trent that had previously been occupied by a series of (unsuccessful) partnerships whose production had included parian statuary, china and earthenware.
• In 1906 Harold Taylor Robinson, son of James Alcock Robinson, replaced his uncle, William, as a director of the company and this was reflected by the change of name for a brief period to Wiltshaw, Robinson & Son Ltd.
• 1911 – With hindsight of the subsequent business dealings of the Robinsons it seems inevitable that a split would occur.
  James Wiltshaw became sole proprietor of the company in 1911 amidst much rancour having bought out his partners. He proclaimed this in his advertising of the day by stating that he was now the sole proprietor of Wiltshaw & Robinson Ltd.
• The business continued to trade as Wiltshaw & Robinson Ltd.
• A new designer, Horace Wain, was employed to create new patterns and shapes that would replace the Victorian styles still being made.
• In 1918 a tragic accident at Stoke Railway Station in 1918 resulted in the death of the founder James F Wiltshaw. His son, Frederick Cuthbert Wiltshaw, who served in the Royal Flying Corps, was allowed compassionate leave from the war to enable him to put the company’s affairs in order. The Armistice was signed, he never returned to service and became the head of the Company.
• In the early 1920s the designer Horace Wain left and moved to A.G. Harley Jones & Co (where Wilton Ware was made) and Enoch Boulton was engaged to be Carlton Ware’s designer. The period leading up to 1930 was one of the most inventive and productive in the history of the Carlton Works and much of this can be attributed to the new designer.
• In 1933, after a long association, they took over Birks Rawlins & Co Ltd, a bone china manufacturing company, and the Vine Pottery was also used to produce ‘Carlton Ware’.
• In January 1958 the company name was changed to Carlton Ware Ltd. Frederick Cuthbert Wiltshaw continue as owner and Managing Director until his death in 1966.