The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware  19735

Telephone: 302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

Creator:         Wagner, J. Richard                                                    

Title:               Adams Pottery research files

Dates:             circa 1991-2000

Call No.:         Col. 921         

Acc. No.:        13x98

Quantity:        10 boxes (about 2.5 cubic feet)

Location:        12 F-G 6

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

J. Richard Wagner and his wife Judith Wagner have long been interested in ceramics and collectibles.  He was a professor of international relations from 1964 to 1981, and when he retired, he started a business selling collectibles.  Judith Wagner was a social worker from 1963 to 1978; she works with her husband in the collectibles business.  The Wagners became interested in Adams pottery in 1993 when they walked into a collectibles shop and fell in love with some Adams plates decorated with birds.  The two of them collaborated with David A. Furniss of England in research on the Adams family pottery business.  Furniss was a physician who wrote about ceramics.  His family used Adams pottery every day.  These three lovers of Adams ware co-wrote the book Adams Ceramics: Staffordshire Potters and Pots, 1779-1998 (Schiffer Publishing, 1999; held by the Winterthur Library).

 

The Adams pottery company was located in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England.  The Adams family had been farmers in Staffordshire at least since 1307, but some members also made pottery for local use.  William Adams I (1746-1805) began to make higher quality wares, including jasper, basalt, and cream stoneware.  His family died out, and a cousin William Adams III (1772-1829) established the William Adams & Sons pottery.  The company concentrated on the export trade for much of its existence.  In 1966, the company was sold to Wedgwood, which continued to use the Adams name until the 1990s.

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

Collection includes some of the research notes which the Wagners and David Furness gathered for their book Adams Ceramics: Staffordshire Potters and Pots, 1779-1998 (Atlgen, Penn.: Schiffer Publishing, 1999).  Of particular note are lists of registration marks and lists of souvenir wares made by the Adams pottery.  Some advertising material, promotional brochures about various lines, copies of 19th century bills of lading, copies of photographs made at the Adams pottery, a complete run of Adams Notes (a small periodical published by David Furniss about the Adams pottery), price lists, and other information is included.  Beginning around 1908, the Adams company collaborated with the American company JonRoth (John Roth & Co.) to produce souvenir plates, and information about this collaboration is included. 

 

Also found are “pulls,” the engraved transfer prints which were used to decorate the ceramic dishes.  Some of these are flat, while others are in rolls.  Rounding out the collection are cassette tapes of interviews with Joscelin Adams, the last of the Adams master potters.   The interviews were conducted in 1991.

 

           

ORGANIZATION

 

The folders are in alphabetical order, with the exception of the legal size files in box 1.  Cassette tapes are in box 7.  Pulls are in boxes 8-10. 

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are in English.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

Collection is open to the public.  Copyright restrictions may apply.

           

 

PROVENANCE

 

Gift of Judith and J. Richard Wagner.

           

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

People:

            Adams, Joscelin F. W., 1919-1991

 

Topics:

            William Adams & Sons.

            Advertisements – Pottery.

Staffordshire pottery - History.

 

Additional authors:

            Wagner, Judith.

            Furness, David A.

           

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 12 F-G 6

 

 

Box 1: (legal size files)

 

Folder 1:          Adams, Benjamin: appraisal of factory contents, Jan. 30, 1822

 

Folders 2-3:     Bills of lading, 19th century  [copies, not originals]   

 

 

Box 2:

 

Folder 1:          Adams & Co. bankruptcy, 1860/61 and 1892

 

Folder 2:          Adams closure: notice to retailers, 1987

 

Folder 3:          Adams factory: history

 

Folder 4:          Adams factory: letterheads and advertisements

 

Folder 5:          Adams factory: pattern numbers

 

Folders 6-8:     Adams factory: price lists      

 

Folder 9:          Adams factory: price lists, 1960s

 

Folder 10:        Adams factory: product brochures

 

Folder 11:        Adams family

 

Folder 12:        Adams jasper and basalt wares

 

Folder 13:        Adams jasper ware: catalog (1904) and loose sheets (1925)

 

 

Box 3:

 

Folder 1:          Adams, Joscelin: collection

 

Folder 2:          Adams, Joscelin: collection: photos

 

Folder 3:          Adams Notes, numbers 1-21 (1988-1994)

 

Folder 4:          Adams original border

 

Folder 5:          Adams, Percy: scrapbook, some photocopies

 

Folder 6:          Adams potteries: locations, dates, photos of factories and wares

 

Folder 7:          Adams pottery sites: maps and pictures

 

Folder 8:          Adams pottery sites: working notes

 

Folder 9:          Adams registration marks (and some Meir)

 

Folder 10:        Adams registration marks: working papers

 

Folder 11:        Adams to Wedgwood: invoices

 

Folder 12:        Borders, prints, chromos, small engraving and couple pulls

 

Folder 13:        “A Brief History of One of Staffordshire’s Earliest Potteries,” 1908

                        [about Adams]

 

Folder 13:        Cartographics (firm): Tunstall sites

 

 

Box 4:

 

Folder 1:          Country Life: articles

 

Folder 2:          Engravers note book, 1947-1949 (Engraving shop time book)

 

Folder 3:          Factory topography

 

Folder 4:          Factory topography: Adams sites (Stoke Centre)

 

Folder 5:          Factory topography: map of Stoke on Trent and Newcastle under Lyme

 

Folder 6:          Greenfield Pottery: sale notice, 1955 [copy]

 

Folder 7:          JonRoth (John Roth & Co.)

 

Folder 8:          JonRoth/Adams: copies of souvenir pulls

 

Folder 9:          JonRoth: engravings, listed by state (p. 4-32 only)

 

Folder 10:        JonRoth: history and engravings list

 

Folder 11:        JonRoth: history of engravings (what, when del, for whom, cost)

 

Folder 12:        JonRoth: lists of engravings at Adams factory

 

Folder 13:        JonRoth: numerical list of engravings – Adams and other patterns used

 

Folder 14:        Laura Ashley: coordination with sprig pattern

 

Folder 15:        Londiniad: verses about Adams pottery, 1866

 

Folder 16:        London and Provincial Magazine: article about potteries, 1910

 

Folder 17:        Micratex wares: promotional materials

 

 

Box 5:

 

Folder 1:          National Society of Pottery Workers’ Handbook of Agreements, 1926

 

Folder 2:          Nurserywares

 

Folder 3:          Parian ware

 

Folder 4:          Patterns: Chinese Bird

 

Folder 5:          Patterns: Cries of London

 

Folder 6:          Patterns: Tokio

 

Folder 7:          Patterns: Willow (Spode/origins)

 

Folder 8:          Portsmouth Oracle [New Hampshire], Nov. 25, 1815 [copy]

 

Folder 9:          Potteries and pottery: articles about

 

Folder 10:        Pottery Gazette: articles, 1903, 1963, 1967

 

Folder 11:        Priestly, J. B.: extracts from English Journey re Adams factory

 

Folder 12:        Pulls

 

Folder 13:        Pulls: engravers pulls for badged wares

 

Folder 14:        Scriven papers, 1842 [about employment of children]

 

Folder 15:        Shapes

 

Folder 16:        Shards: pictures

 

 

Box 6:

 

Folder 1:          Souvenir list

 

Folder 2:          Stoke Museum: Adams earthenware and bone china

 

Folder 3:          Stoke Museum: Adams: jasper ware and stoneware

 

Folder 4:          Stoke Museum: Adams: jasper ware: 1st period and 20th century

 

Folder 5:          Stoke Museum: Adams: stoneware (non-jasper), basalt and parian

 

Folder 6:          Thomas the Rhymer

 

Folder 7:          Wheelock & Co.

 

 

Box 7:             8 cassette tapes of interviews with Joscelin F. W. Adams, the last of the master potters of the Adams pottery company

 

Boxes 8-9:       rolls of pulls (engraved designs for plates)

 

Box 10:           flat pulls