TG green ceramic

In 1846, Thomas Goodwin Green, the son of a Lincolnshire corn merchant, became infatuated with a lady named Mary Tenniel (sister of Sir John Tenniel, the famous illustrator of books such as Alice in Wonderland). He asked her to marry him, but was refused. So, in a true romantic spirit, he took his broken heart and sailed to Australia, where he made his fortune as a builder. Fifteen years later, he learned that Mary had changed her mind, so he returned home in a truly lavish manner, courted and won his bride, and they were married.

During their honeymoon, Green met Henry Wileman, owner of the Pottery Works in Church Gresley, Derbyshire. Having sold his business in Australia, Green was looking for something to do now that he was back at Old Dart, so he bought the pottery from Wileman. After all, how hard could it be?

Fortunately, he had purchased a well-run operation and, being a strong and determined man, soon made his new business a huge success; in the process, he established a dynasty of potters that lasted until 1964, when he went the way of so many family potteries and went into receivership. The company’s assets were purchased by larger teams who continued to operate under the TG Green name.

TG Green expanded into the kitchen and tableware market. And during the first half of the 20th century, pottery produced a number of popular designs. The most famous is Cornishware.

Supposedly named after a TG Green regional sales representative who was inspired by “the blue of Cornish skies and the white crests of the waves”, Cornishware is the most famous of all the TG Green lines. It’s the definitive blue and white pottery for 20th century cookware (the Willow pattern doesn’t really count as it’s mostly used on dinnerware rather than cookware). When the popularity of Cornish Kitchen Ware took off, it spawned dozens of “me too” lines from competing makers: Kleenware, Fowlerware, Stanley Ware, Bretby Ware, to name a few. But none of them really captured the market like Cornishware.

White wares with blue bands have been around since the mid-Victorian years and there is no record of who at TG Green came up with the idea of ​​turning this type of pottery into a modern range of kitchen wares. The idea is believed to have been prompted by the need to employ TG Green turners in the mid-1920s during the post-World War I recession. A Pottery with a background of social conscience. Gotta love that!

Cornishware pieces are fired, slipped and allowed to dry, then slipped blue. When dry, the pieces are mounted on a lathe and the bands of blue slip are turned off to reveal the white body beneath. Then of course they get fired again. This also gives the pieces their texture as they have a very sharp edge; cannot be achieved by simply painting the stripes on the body. This hand-turning process is still carried out today on modern Cornishware pieces.

Over the years, Cornishware has been made in various color combinations: Sunlit Yellow, Cornish Gold, Red, Black, Green and Teal. My collection focuses on the original blue range with pieces mainly from the 30s and 40s; although I do have a teapot from the 1960s when Judith Onions redesigned the range in an effort to modernize it and reinvigorate its market appeal.

The TG Green range expanded in the mid-20th century to include many other designs, many of which are quite collectible today. but my favorite TG Green range is the Streamline crockery and kitchen. This was characterized by a cream colored body formed into a distinctive rounded shape with a series of tubed green stripes on it. The stripes are raised on the surface of the pieces making them very tactile. The range is huge and was in production from the mid-1930s to around 1950, but because it was never as popular as the famous Cornishware, Streamline pieces are harder to find, especially the more unusual items.

TG Green pottery is great to collect as a range if the different pieces are that big and you can build a really interesting collection of different shapes and pieces within the same ‘family’. And it makes a sensational display on a dresser or kitchen shelf.