Auction Insights

A Longton Hall porcelain Crossed Fence pattern cream jug circa 1756-58 (FS17/80)

Something of an enigmatic factory based in the ‘Potteries’ it was formed by William Littler perhaps as early as 1749 until flourished until 1760. When Longton Hall was wound up the auction of the retained stock amounted to some 90,000 pieces of porcelain. Where has it all gone, we don’t see much of it now, so someone’s been pretty careless?

A Longton Hall porcelain coffee cup circa 1754-55 (FS17/74)

Based in the ‘Potteries’ where there was the greatest concentration of ceramic skills in the country it ought to have lasted longer. However, as the potteries primarily produced earthenware and stoneware not all the skills were transferable, perhaps with the exception of modelling – so there is little surprise that much of the early production was for figures.

   A Longton Hall Castle Painter coffee can circa 1756-58 (FS17/72)

Longton Hall also produced a wide range of decorative wares including leaf shaped dishes, vases and tea wares. In the latter group my favourite has to be the unnecessarily fussy (but beautiful) leaf and bud handles of their cups. When decorated in the Chinese idiom the blue is particularly vivid, but it is with the polychrome wares that Longton Hall excels and the zenith of these has to be the work of the so called ‘Trembly Rose Painter’ and the ‘Castle Painter’.

A Longton Hall porcelain dish by the Trembly Rose painter circa 1756-58 (FS17/76)