TG Green's Factory in Church Gresley where they made Cornish Blue Pottery
© Copyright Chris Allen and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The company of T.G. Green is the maker and has been based in Church Gresley, Derbyshire since Thomas Goldwin Green bought the pottery in 1864. The company became very profitable producing kitchen and table wares. It remained in the hands of the family after Thomas G. Green's death in 1905 and, despite a catastrophic fire, also continued to be successful until the 1950s and 60s when sales declined. It was bought by Cloverleaf in 1987 and is still part of that group.

In the mid 1920s Cornishware was introduced into the company's range of products and quickly won its first Certificate of the Institute of Hygiene in 1928. It went on to win a Silver Seal from the Institute in 1935. It continued to win Institute awards for another thirty years. Perhaps the most notable result of winning the Institute's first award was that the company started to promote Cornish Ware for the first time by emphasizing it in catalogues - something it had failed to do when the range was first introduced.

T.G. Green continued to produce Cornish Ware, with just a break during the Second World War. In the 1960s, Cornish Ware was redesigned by Judith Onions and her range has been produced until this year.

Over recent years, T.G. Green have been struggling and went into liquidation last year. Happily, Chomette Ltd has bought it from the receiver and Cornish Ware will continue to be made. At first production is moved to China where the main production will be continue but a small workshop for 'artisans' will be set up in Derbyshire. Here limited editions and new designs will be produced.

The company also intend to set up an official collectors club.

Dominoware from TG Green

The different kinds of Cornish Ware that can be found are enormous. Of course, there are plates, mugs, cups, saucers, jugs and bowls - all the kinds of table and kitchen ware we would expect. There are also rolling pins, clocks, toast racks and flour sifters. There are even tea cosies, tea towels and tablecloths made to match.

Because of its popularity, it became something of a style icon and has been used in advertising for other products like Homepride Flour, who use the distinctive blue and white stripes on their packaging, the Daily Mail, cocoa and even a poster for financial services. All of this gives collectors a chance to find ephemera associated with Cornish Blue.

T.G. Green made kitchen and table wares with other bands of varying widths and also Domino Ware - white spots on a coloured background or the reverse, coloured spots on white.
Some collectors of Cornish Ware concentrate on particular types, for example, just the pieces with names of household products on them. You can find containers with the words Flour, Baking Powder, Milk, Oil, amongst many others. The beauty for collectors is that some of these were made to order for particular retailers so there are very rare and so more valuable examples. These include include Fish Dripping, Apricots, and Borax.

Dating is not as straightforward as it is with most other kinds of pottery. Usually backstamps are a good guide but the company didn't use these in a strictly chronological order, in fact they used more than one during the same periods. This changed when the Judith Onions' designs were introduced in the 1960s so these can be identified by their backstamps. Although the shapes and positioning of the blue stripes can be an indicator of period, they are not reliable as pieces were made for many years, overlapping with newer designs.

Many dealers begin as collectors and this was the route that Peter and Lucy Ferrary took. Peter says, "I guess we started dealing because we began picking up duplicates and obviously had an appreciation for their worth and how to describe them properly. I've always had a bit of a technical bent so thought I'd do a website...the rest, as they say, is history."

It all began with Lucy's grandmother who had received some Cornish Ware for a wedding present in 1941. Lucy says, "As a very young girl helping her cook, I would ask 'When you die can I have your blue & white jars?' So I had a definite interest from an early age."

Sure enough, she eventually did inherit her grandmother's Cornish Ware.

They can both still remember the first pieces they bought. Lucy's was a small milk jug costing £2 ($4) in 2000 and now worth around £15 ($30) and Peter's was a Soda storage jar for £8.50 ($17) in 2001 and now worth between £100 ($200) to £150 ($300).

Their most unusual piece is a solitary lid to a coffee or tea pot - it came in a collection of other early pieces - it just doesn't fit any recorded tea or coffee pot.

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Their advice to collectors is to be aware that it is very addictive and not to get too carried away. Peter suggests that collectors should choose a theme. He says, "A lot of people like to collect spice jars as they are nice and small and easy to display or maybe choose an era like Early Church (so-called from the image on the backstamp) or Judith Onions pieces."

Of Judith Onions' designs, Peter says, "From a purely design point of view the JO items, especially the shakers, are design classics - I also think the brief period when Cloverleaf introduced the tapering conical jars and mills combining the classic ceramic with beechwood in the late 90's was the peak of Cornish Ware design - very practical and very stylish too."

Above all, though, they agree that collectors should use their blue and white Cornish Ware as well as display it. Lucy says, "Everyday we have coffee in the coffee jar, tea in the tea jar etc." Peter continues, "...and obviously we drink our tea and coffee from Cornish Ware mugs, eat from Cornish Ware plates, the bread lives in a Cornish ware breadbin and the kitchen clock is also Cornish Ware." They definitely practice what they preach.