1930’s Shorter and Sons Fish Gravy Boat and Plate Set- 2 Pieces

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1930’s Shorter and Sons Fish Sauce Boat and Plate.

A lovely piece with vibrant colors.

In excellent condition with just … Read more 1930’s Shorter and Sons Fish Sauce Boat and Plate.

A lovely piece with vibrant colors.

In excellent condition with just faint signs of crazing, which was common for the age of production. There are no signs of chipping or cracking.

Gravy Boat = 6" x 3.5"
Plate = 6.5" x 4.5"

Shorter and son, Stoke on Trent, England : The Shorter business was established by Arthur Shorter in about 1872 as a partnership with James Bolton. Although from a ‘railways’ family, Arthur Shorter was apprenticed as a china painter at Mintons under the renowned Leon Arnoux, before starting his own china decorating business in the 1860s and finally forming the manufacturing partnership with James Boulton in about 1872.

In 1891 Arthur Shorter absented himself from the business to manage of the Burslem company established by his brother-in-law A. J. Wilkinson (following the latter’s accidental death), and from 1891 to 1900 the Shorter & Bolton concern was run by James Bolton (1891-97) and then by his son William Bolton from 1897 to 1900.

In 1900 Arthur Shorter’s younger son John Guy Shorter became the manager and the partnership of Shorter & Son probably dates from this time. In 1905 John Shorter also left to join his father and elder brother Arthur C. A. Shorter at A. J. Wilkinson Ltd. The Shorter business had various managers from 1905, but in 1932 Harry L. Steele was appointed manager, a position he was to hold for the next 30 years. Arthur Shorter died in 1926 and in 1933 the business was incorporated as Shorter & Son Ltd with brothers Arthur ‘Colley’ Austin Shorter and John Guy Shorter, as Directors and Harry L. Steele as the Director-in-Charge.

Shorter & Son Ltd remained in production throughout the Second World War and in 1950 John B. Shorter, son of Guy Shorter, joined the company and was soon after appointed as sales director.

The death of Arthur Colley Shorter in early 1964 spelled the end for the Shorter companies. In 1963, faced with loss of part of the Copeland St factory to a road development scheme and the expense needed to convert to smokeless firing to conform to the Clean Air Act, the decision was made to accept an offer for the business from S. Fielding & Co. Ltd the owners of the Crown Devon name. From early 1964 Shorter & Son Ltd operated from Fielding’s Sutherland St factory under the management of John B. Shorter who continued with the new owners until his retirement in 1972. Shorter & Son Ltd was still listed as a subsidiary of Crown Devon Ltd in 1971. The other Shorter family companies A. J. Wilkinson Ltd and the Newport Pottery Co. Ltd were sold to W. R. Midwinter Ltd by Colley Shorter’s widow Clarice Cliff-Shorter, in 1964. See less