We are an authorized, direct-from-the-publisher retailer of NEW books. Our titles are ON HAND and available for immediate shipping. Table of Contents The Birks family has been involved in the ceramic industry in the Potteries since 1812 when ten year old Isaac Birks modeled a black basalt creamer. Isaac worked for Minton where ten members of the Birks family covering at least three generations were employed at some time, usually as modelers. His eldest son, Arthur, left Minton after a very short time and became a modeler at Copeland, and it was his eldest son, Lawrence Arthur Birks, who in 1894 founded the Vine Pottery in Stoke-upon-Trent with his brother-in-law, Charles Frederick Goodfellow. The firm enjoyed royal patronage, mainly from Queen Mary, and received many awards at national and international exhibitions. Unfortunately, as for so many other pottery manufacturers, the National Strike of 1926 had a disastrous effect on the Birks Rawlins enterprise and this, coupled with the return of competition from other European countries after the First World War, resulted in it being bought by Wiltshaw & Robinson Ltd. The Wall Street crash of 1929 was the final nail in the coffin, wiping out the export trade that the factory had built up and the firm closed in 1934. This was a sad end for an enterprise which had been producing such high class and original porcelain as well as quality bread and butter lines. - The first book to be devoted to the Vine Pottery of Stoke-upon-Trent, England
- The first book to concentrate on the amazing Birks family, providing a complete history of the family and the pottery
- Includes tables of trade marks used by the pottery
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