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Elers’ Ware

In 1690 two brothers, John Philip and David Elers, settled at Burslem as potters. They had accompanied the Prince of Orange to England in 1688. Though they were of Dutch extraction these men came of a noble Saxon family, and Mr. Solon says that their social position was such that “the Elector of Mentz and Queen Christina stood sponsors to John Philip at his baptism.”

Finding, at a secluded spot called Bradwell Wood, a fine clay suitable for making red pottery, they settled themselves there, and stored and sold their wares at Dimsdale, about a mile distant. It is interesting in these days, when the offices of many business men are connected with their residence by telephone, to recall the fact that the Elers connected their works at Bradwell Wood and the warehouse at Dimsdale “by a speaking-tube made of clay pipes, through which to converse” (Solon).

The Elers guarded the secret of the ingredients used and the methods employed in the manufacture of their ware most jealously. It is said they preferred to employ men whose intellect was not of the highest order, and idiots seem to have been at a premium in those days. Two men, Astbury and Twyford, took advantage of this, and, feigning imbecility, gained employment at the works. As a result of this the Elers’ ware was afterwards copied by other Staffordshire potters, though their productions do not bear comparison in the quality of the work.

Elers’ ware is red, and is characterised by a peculiar mode of decoration. The ware was most carefully turned on the lathe, and the shapes used for small pieces are dainty and elegant in form; a tyg, with a delicate little ladle, in the Bethnal Green Museum, offers a striking contrast to wares which had hitherto been manufactured in Staffordshire.

The ornamentation took the form of applied flowers and geometrical devices, which Mr. Solon describes thus-

“On the surface, delicately lined over and finished on the wheel, a little lump of wet clay was applied at a place where a relief was intended, and stamped in the same way as the impression of a seal is taken upon wax. The excess of clay round the outlines was then carefully scraped off with a tool, and the flowers and leaves were connected together with stems made by hand, so that, with the same tools, the pattern might be greatly varied.”