Collecting Antique Ironstone: The Ultimate Guide

Identifying English Pottery is the key to collecting Antique Ironstone China. This is the Ultimate Guide. Ironstone is a type of stoneware introduced in England early in the nineteenth century by the Staffordshire potters, who were looking for a substitute for porcelain that could be mass-produced for the cheaper market.

The result of their experiments was a dense, hard, durable stoneware that came to be known by several names e.g.: semiporcelain, opaque porcelain, English porcelain, stone china, new stone -all of which were used to describe essentially the same product.
There is no iron in ironstone - it was so named because of its durability.

In 1813, a patent was granted to Charles Mason for manufacturing "English porcelain", a white ware that he marketed as Mason's Ironstone China. Mason used a mixture of Cornwall clay, ironstone slag, flint and blue oxide of cobalt to produce a hard, opaque, bluish white pottery that had a smooth, glossy finish after glazing and firing.

When the patent expired after 14 years, many British potters made their own version of ironstone, including Samuel and John Bevington, who were in business in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent from 1855 to 1863. This video features a meat platter from Samuel and John Bevington and 3 serving dishes from John's 3 sons who took over the Kensington Works factory in 1892 on his death for a further 3 years.

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