When they first came into use in the 1830s, friction matches were hazardous and could combust without warning, so vesta cases were something of a necessity. But as their production became more ...

Up to the mid-1670s, English glasses, like their Continental counterparts, were made of soda glass producing thinly constructed, lightweight vessels of fluid design. The patenting by George ...

The form emerged in the early 18 th century, though the origin of the name is obscure. Chairs of this type were manufactured in large numbers in the Thames Valley in Buckinghamshire, and Windsor may ...

Silver spoons for the dining table have been around since antiquity - a much longer history than the table fork, which did not come into general use until the 18 th century. By this time spoons had ...

It was very much a local concern and local is the best word to describe the scope of factory and its wares, the geographical spread of its original clientele and, by and large, the nature of its ...

After 1840, F. & R. Pratt of Fenton in Staffordshire, became the leading (but not the only) manufacturer of multicoloured transfer printed pot lids and a huge range of related wares. Long admired for ...

While the origins of the game date back over a millennium (early precursors have been traced to the 6th century AD), its popularity in Europe really started to grow in the Medieval period as the game ...

The most viewed stories on this website over the last week included news of a monumental Hans Coper (1920-81) vase which was found in a London garden among weeds selling at Chiswick Auctions ...

Records date back to 1720 for a small glassworks off London's Fleet Street, but Britain's longest running glass house, best known as the Whitefriars factory, really came into its own when James Powell ...

That, at least, was the theory. In fact, relatively little Irish ‘provincial’ silver made the journey to the metropolis to receive official approval – for reasons of security and economy. It is a ...

"In their view, we Londoners know little about God, and nothing about pottery". Royal Doulton's rise from London makers of domestic stonewares to an internationally-recognised Staffordshire Potteries ...

Burmantofts Pottery was born out of James Holroyd’s architectural brickworks, taking advantage of the rich local deposits of both coal and clay. However, today, the church built in Shakespeare Street ...