Match Striker
Gallery 
Match Striker
Gallery
Manufactures
(click to view match strikers and company history)
Charles Allerton &
Sons
Arkinstall & Sons Ltd (Arcadian China) Beswick Birks, Rawlins & Co W.T. Copeland & Sons Ltd (Spode) Doulton & Co Ltd Dudson Empire Porcelain Co (Ltd) Fieldings & Co Grimwades Ltd (Royal Winton) F. & W. Goebel Co Gouda Ralph Hammersley & Son  Edward Jones & Co Ltd Lister Lovatt & Lovatt James MacIntyre & Co Manor Ware Mintons Olivant Potteries Ltd F. & R. Pratt & Co (Ltd) Price, Bristol Prinknash Abby Pottery A.G. Richardson & Co Ltd (Crown Ducal) Salopian Art Pottery Co "Victoria" Schmidt & Co (GEMMA) Shelley Potteries Ltd Soho Pottery Ltd Taylor, Tunnicliff & Co Unknown Makers Watcombe Wedgwood Wiltshaw & Robinson (Carlton Ware) (1) Wiltshaw & Robinson (Carlton Ware) (2) W. Wood & Co Composite Section
(brings together information on types of match striker from elsewhere on the site) Advertising Match Strikers Crested Match Strikers |
Company
History
One of the most recognized names in the pottery industry Josiah Wedgwood founded his firm in 1759, operating from Burslem in Staffordshire, following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and great grandfather who had all been potters. He bought Etruria in Staffordshire to build both a house and new factory and the Etruria works began production in around 1769. His first major technical innovation was Queen's Ware, a durable cream coloured china which spread the name Wedgwood across Europe. Next he developed Black Basalt, a black porcelain with which he produced replicas of the newly excavated Etruscan pottery from Italy along with busts and other items. Finally he developed Jasper Ware, an unglazed, coloured stoneware that can be almost any colour (pale blue, dark blue, green, pink & purple have all been produced) Josiah Wedgwood died in 1795, and running the factory fell to his nephew Tom Byerly, and subsequently to his sons John and Josiah II. The firm remained in the family and was next run by Josiah III and then his son Francis, all of whom took the firm though difficult times. In 1930 the task fell to Josiah V, who instituted wholesale reform of the products of the firm, and in 1938 began construction of a new factory in Barlston but as the war intervened this was not completed until 1949. The post war period has been a success for Wedgwood, and they wave absorbed a number of other famous pottery firms (including Mason’s Ironstone, Rosenthal, Royal Tuscan, Susie Cooper, Waterford and William Adams) to form the Wedgwood group. Marks Wedgwood typically used an impressed mark such as the one shown below. Many pieces also have a date letter.  Decorative Match Boxes These jasper ware boxes decorated with classical scenes were designed to keep your matches in. The match could then be struck on the ridges on the underside of the lid (this would mean staining which could occur to the body would not be seen when the box was closed).   Match Striker and "Go To Bed" This circular jasper ware box incorporates a match striker on the base, and a hole in the top in which a match could be placed to act as a temporary candle thus letting you 'go to bed'. Unfortunately I cannot make out the date letters on the base.  The first match striker shown below incorporates an ash tray for spent matches and cigarette ash, and is decorated in majolica style glaze. The marks underneath date it to 1876. The second is jasper ware, and is designed to hold a match box, it dates to 1907. The third and fourth are different colour patterns on the same basic shape, and are impressed Wedgwood, AD7 and OS7 respectivly (I'm unable to translate these codes into dates, but the absence of England put them prior to 1891).     |
