Review by Teresita Majewski
Adams Ceramics: Staffordshire Potters and Pots, 1779–1998

David A. Furniss, J. Richard Wagner, and Judith Wagner. Adams Ceramics: Staffordshire Potters and Pots, 1779–1998. Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer, 1999. 336 pp.; over 1,250 bw and color illus., appendices, bibliography, index. $79.95.

The Adams family of Staffordshire potters was an important force in the British ceramic industry from the late eighteenth century until well into the twentieth. Although other authors have researched the Adams family (e.g., Turner^[1] and Nicholls^[2]), this is the first comprehensive study. Adams Ceramics: Staffordshire Potters and Pots, 1779–1998 combines a scholarly treatment of the history of the Adams potteries with a catalog of pieces and price guide. Using historical research, oral interviews, and ceramic products, the authors trace the history of the family and the various factories from the late eighteenth century and provide extensive footnotes. 

Because the Adams factories focused for much of their existence on exporting the bulk of their production to the Americas and other foreign markets, the collaboration of authors from different geographic backgrounds is a key factor in the success of this study. David Furniss, who has been collecting and researching Adams ceramics in England for over a quarter of a century, provided a fairly comprehensive picture of Adams products for the period 1780 to 1835, but found few pieces in Britain dating from 1835 to 1900. American antique dealers Richard and Judith Wagner filled in the gap by tracing Adams products made for sale in the Americas, particularly transfer-printed wares and “Persian painted” wares.

Adams Ceramics is one of the few books that thoroughly treats a specific company’s full range of products for both the home and export markets. As a rule, museums and reference materials that focus on the finest examples of a factory’s production, ignoring the majority of the wares actually made by that factory, are of little use to an archaeologist trying to interpret the ceramics excavated from an isolated farmstead in the Missouri Ozarks or to a collector who is unable to afford the most expensive pieces. Staffordshire potters often made completely different lines of wares for sale to the home and to the export markets. Some lines (e.g., white granite, “ironstone” in collectors’ parlance) were often so distinct that English collectors, ceramic historians, and museums, for example, were sometimes unfamiliar with wares exported to the Americas because they did not appear on the home market. 

The material presented in chapter 1 is essential background for the rest of the book, although some of it is repeated in subsequent chapters. The authors trace the fortunes of the various branches of the family through the 1960s, when Williams Adams & Sons was taken over by Josiah Wedgwood Ltd. A useful chart of the male lineage of Adams master potters helps the reader keep track of all the master potters christened William. Information is provided on Adams family history, the various independent factories that they built or maintained, and the products for which they are best known. The authors’ allusions to world economic history help the reader understand the fates of the Adams potteries as well as the rise and denouement of the Staffordshire ceramic industry in general. 

Chapters 2 and 3, “Patterns and Context 1779–1917” and “Patterns and Context 1918–1998,” comprise the majority of the book. In these chapters, the authors discuss the wares produced under a particular Adams master potter, primarily within the contexts of family and economic history. They then present an alphabetically arranged catalog of the various patterns that were made during the period in question (primarily on earthenware, but on small amounts of bone china items as well). Highlights of the pattern catalogs include later Adams products, particularly transfer-printed series such as “Birds of America,” “Currier and Ives,” “Dickens,” Dr. Syntax revivals, and “Cries of London,” and twentieth-century patterns on Micratex and Titian Ware bodies. The years covered in chapter 3 are a somewhat neglected period in ceramic history, and the authors are to be commended for not simply focusing on the early Adams years.

The catalogs are amply and beautifully illustrated, for the most part in color. The quality of the photographic reproductions in the book is in almost all cases excellent (however, it is unfortunate that many of the photographs included a clear plate stand; for example, the cover art on the dust jacket). In many cases, the maker’s mark for an item is shown alongside it. Most images are photographs of flatware, with occasional images from company pattern books or advertisements, and a few engravings used as source prints for transfer-printed patterns. 

In addition to the pattern name, catalog entries usually include measurements, descriptions of each item and applicable mark or marks, the factory with which the vessel is associated, and the date range for that factory. The dates given for a particular pattern are based on factory marks alone, although more specific dates from documents, archaeological sites (shipwrecks), and temporally sensitive styles are occasionally referenced. The reader attempting to define dates for a pattern is cautioned to refer to the text for additional information, instead of simply using the mark date. 

Each illustrated catalog entry incorporates price information, apparently current as of the late 1990s. It was not clear how these prices were derived, nor how they were tied to the condition of the vessel. Including cost information in a book that could have a considerable shelf life seems counter productive—what will happen when the prices are outdated? Separate price guides often accompany a book specializing in collector literature; with this strategy the publisher has the opportunity to print price updates from time to time.

An abbreviation key like that in chapter 4 would have been useful as well for chapters 2 and 3. Additionally, it is not always clear whether or not a pattern or color name has been assigned or attributed by collectors or was actually one used by the manufacturer. The authors allude to the difference between collectors’ and manufacturers’ terms on page 23, but this difference should have been stated explicitly at the outset. Some entries in the catalog are not really patterns at all, but the names of ceramic bodies, such as “white granite,” “Calyx Ware,” and “Royal Ivory,” or specific lines, such as “Toys.” The authors were no doubt faced with the dilemma of where to include this information, but the catalog could simply have been titled more broadly. By and large, the authors’ use of terminology follows preferred usage by contemporary ceramic historians, but their use of charger for platter, teapoy for tea cannister, white graniteware for white granite, and washstand set for toilet ware is open to question. There are a few gaps in the authors’ knowledge of ceramic technology, e.g., their use of “transfer” for what is more properly referred to as a decal or lithotransfer, and the use of “overglaze decorated” to refer to bat-printed decoration.

Adams souvenir and commemorative patterns are presented in alphabetical order by importer and series in chapter 4. The best-documented years of souvenir and commemorative production were the mid-1890s through the 1960s. The discussion of the Adams’ relationship with the American importer John H. Roth & Co. is a fascinating look at this aspect of the ceramic industry, which was often based on personal relationships between entrepreneurs but fraught with conflicts of interest inherent in the dealings between importer and manufacturer. 

In chapter 5, the authors catalog known jasper, stoneware, basalt, and parian products of the Adams potteries in chronological order. Many of the pieces are from the Adams’ family collection and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery. Particularly interesting is the discussion of the reuse of Adams’ eighteenth-century jasper molds in the twentieth century. 

Chapter 6 is an amply illustrated discussion of characteristic makers’ marks and backstamps used by the Adams factories, from the earliest impressed marks to printed marks used through the 1950s.

Useful information is provided in the five appendices included in the book: A, “Nineteenth century series”; B, “Adams and Meir Pattern Numbers” (John Meir bought Adams’ Greengates Pottery in 1822); C, “The Scriven Report” (on child labor in the potteries); D, “Institutional and Hotel Ware” (by Ewart H. Edge); and E, “Museums with Adams’ Holdings.” Inexplicably, the latter included some but not all the institutions mentioned in the stoneware section of chapter 5.

The bibliography is extensive, but not all items listed as primary sources are documents produced by participants in an event or by eyewitnesses (e.g., bills of lading or invoices). It is unfortunate that the book does not contain a more thorough index, although the alphabetical pattern arrangement makes it easy to find patterns with known names.

This is one of the most scholarly books yet published by Schiffer, which is due in large part to the care taken by the authors themselves in writing and compiling their manuscript. Although the book could have benefited from more editorial support from the publisher, there are really very few errors given its length and scope. Adams Ceramics should be on the shelf of anyone interested in English ceramics, regardless of whether they are collectors, dealers, appraisers, historical archaeologists, or museum staff. A book such as this allows the reader to do much more than simply identify a piece. For those who are history-minded, production and distribution are put into the context of world politics and economics. For those primarily interested in the pots, it is possible to learn about the range of shapes and decoration on Adams ware, what was deemed appropriate for various export markets, and stylistic influences and revivals. As noted on the dust cover, the “combined knowledge” of the authors truly “makes this the Adams book for all time.”

Teresita Majewski