Collection of South Yorkshire pottery and porcelain comes to auction

The collection was put together over 60 years by the late Robert and Betty Clark of South Yorkshire Robert was an antiques dealer for many years but was also the great grandson of the last of the potters from Hawley Pottery in Rawmarsh. With this family connection, and living just five miles from the Brameld Rockingham Pottery, the Clarks developed a love for the Yorkshire potteries and conducted numerous research projects into the subject.

Highlights of the collection include a Brameld plate commissioned by the Dundee and Hull Steamer Packet Company and printed with a depiction of their Forfarshire Steamer, which was to meet a tragic end. On September 5, 1838, the Forfarshire left Hull bound for Dundee. At 4 o’clock the following day the ship ran aground off Bamburgh on the Northumbrian coast. All aboard perished, save for nine who were rescued by Grace Darling and her father, the local lighthouse keeper, in what became the most romantic and well known of sea rescues of the Victorian era. It is not known if the present plate was salvaged from the wreck, or if it was a spare from the factory.

Rare examples of marked pieces from the Hawley factory dating from 1800-1815 are also on offer, such as a Hawley pearlware teapot, which is moulded with chinoiserie figures and decorated in Pratt colours.

All lots are to be sold without reserve.