G L Ashworth and Brothers Limited

Manufacturers of earthenware at Hanley. c.1861-1968

In 1968 renamed Mason’s Ironstone China Ltd.

Nationality:  British

Brief Bio:  1861-1968, potter; manufacturer of earthenware, Hanley, England

Notes:

• 1859-1862 – traded as Morley & Ashworth
• 1862-1968 – G. L. Ashworth & Bros
• Becoming a limited company in 1914; 1968 – known as Mason’s Ironstone China; The factory was at Broad Street Works, Hanley, in the Staffordshire Potteries area
• Acquired by the Waterford-Wedgwood Company, subsequently closed and the site cleared in 1999. 1830s Francis Morley bought up the moulds and patterns of Mason’s.
• 1857- Taylor Ashworth joined the business and became a partner.
• Morley retired in 1863, and George Leach Ashworth bought the business for his sons, trading under the name Geo. L. Ashworth and Brothers; other brothers were James and Taylor Ashworth.

The latter was instrumental in extending the scope of the business and, in addition to table wares and kitchen utensils, chemical goods, sanitary wares and electrical insulators were produced.

George Ashworth became a partner of Francis Morley at Broad Street in 1859 but subsequently took over the works in his own right later taking his brothers into the firm. Most famous for their reproductions of Masons Ironstones which they started producing after purchasing the moulds and copperplates of that famous company when Charles James Mason closed his works at Lane Delph in 1858. They also continued Morleys work and produced some fine new patterns in ironstone.

Working in both earthenwares and Ironstones the marks suggest that they were producing “Asiatic Pheasants” wares in the period between 1862 and 1880. Revisited the pattern in the C20th producing a version of the pattern in red in a series of Hotel wares

The company was renamed and refloated in 1968 as the Mason’s Ironstone China Ltd and continue to trade.

Messrs Ashworth possess the original Mason Ironstone designs and moulds and have produced ‘Mason’s Ironstone’ to a considerable extent, sometimes re-using the Mason printed marks.

The Ashworth impressed name-mark may also occur on these Mason marked examples,
see Morley.

Marks

Credits:
http://collectionsonline.nmsi.ac.uk/
Potteries.org