Gray, James A

Haggarty, George

National Museums Scotland Research Repository

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Haggarty, George (c.1997) Glasgow Delftfield Ceramic Resource Disc 18th century 
tin-glazed earthenware & creamware. National Museums Scotland and AOC 
Archaeology 
Introduction, History, Acknowledgements & References 
 
AOC Archaeology Data Structure Report: Broomielaw Glasgow, Evaluation August 
1997 
 
File 1 - 38a (Box 1) 
 
File 39 – 65 (Box 2) 
 
File 66 – 97 (Box 3) 
 
File 98, 100-101, 103-104, 106-108&110 (Box 4) 
 
File 99, 102, 105, 109 & 111 (Boxes 5-7) 
 
File 112-117 (Boxes 8-9) 
 
File 1-9 (Boxes 10-11) 
 
File 1-3 5-9 1A (Boxes 12-13) 
 
 
 
 
 
http://repository.nms.ac.uk/1183 
 
Deposited on: 28 May 2014 
 
 
 
 
 
NMS Repository – Research publications by staff of the National Museums Scotland 
 
http://repository.nms.ac.uk/  
Delftfield Introduction 
 
George R. Haggarty & Jim Gray 
 
The archaeological excavations carried out by the AOC Archaeology Group on the 
site of the Delftfield pottery in Glasgow produced a large ceramic assemblage which 
we have divided into four groups. Produced on site was 18
th
 century tin-glazed 
earthenware, folder (1), and 18
th
 century creamware folder (2).  A group of 19
th
 
century pottery found on the site, almost certainly derived from the nearby 19
th
 
century Verreville pottery, folder (3), and a few shards of post medieval reduced ware 
folder (4). These were catalogued in a total of (117, 9, 9 and 1), word files and packed 
into 12 boxes.  
 
Over the years shards recovered from the area of the Delftfield pottery have been the 
subject of a number of papers; one anonymous in (1981, 64-7), Quail in (1978, 19-21; 
1981, 64-7 & 1982, 58), and more importantly Denholm in (1982, 39-84).  A number 
of other papers have used this material to suggest extant examples, including Archer 
(1966, 16-22), Austin (1994) Kinghorn & Quail (1986).  
 
 
Delftfield Pottery Glasgow: Historical Synopsis 
 
Much of the following synopsis is derived from the excellent history, ‘Delftfield – A 
Glasgow Pottery, 1748 – 1823’ by Jonathan Kinghorn and Gerard Quail, Glasgow 
Museums and Art Galleries, 1986. 
 
Laurence Dinwiddie (1696-1764) was a prominent Glasgow merchant with important 
political positions and business enterprises. After his eldest brother Matthew, had lost 
the family lands through bankruptcy, Laurence retrieved them in 1748 and hoped that 
the local Glasgow clay might be suitable for making pottery. Laurence then brought 
one of his older brothers, Robert (1692-1774), into the pottery enterprise, which by 
then already had two other prominent businessmen, Robert Finlay, a tanner,  and 
Patrick Nisbet as partners. Robert Dinwiddie became Collector of Customs in 
Bermuda, later the government’s Surveyor General for the southern part of America 
and finally in 1751 he was appointed Governor of Virginia.  
 
Many of the Glasgow merchants, like the Dinwiddies, had become immensely 
wealthy by importing tobacco, rum and sugar from the New Colonies and Caribbean. 
They also knew that the colonists needed manufactured goods. Laurence hoped that, if 
local Glasgow clay could be readily supplied for the new pottery, a lucrative export 
market for ceramics and other goods could open up across the Atlantic.  
 
None of the four partners in the new enterprise knew about pottery manufacture. Two 
major miscalculations then contributed to a disastrous start for the Delftfield pottery. 
Firstly the local clay was found unsuitable and soon had to be replaced by expensive 
clay imported from Carrickfergus near Belfast; clay from this source was already 
being used by potteries in Bristol and Liverpool. Secondly, from the 1740s on, the 
delftware industry as a whole was in decline, largely due mainly to competition from 
the new and more popular white salt glazed stoneware and creamware both first 
manufactured large scale in Staffordshire.      
 
The partners engaged a pot painter from Lambeth, John Bird, to advise and oversee 
the planning and construction of the pottery, the recruitment of suitable workmen and 
the manufacture of the delftware itself. The pottery was situated to the west of the city 
on the right bank of the Clyde and with immediate access to the Broomielaw Quay 
whence the goods could be exported either direct in shallow draught vessels or via 
Port Glasgow or Greenock. Immediately there were problems. Bird felt he had been 
coerced into signing his contract and there were quibbles over his salary. Either Bird 
miscalculated about the planning or the partners interfered with his plans for the 
pottery which was built of expensive stone rather than brick. The work space was 
found to be cramped, notably around the kiln.  
 
In January 1749 the first firing of biscuit ware was a disaster. Saggars made of local 
Germiston clay and tiles, made of Carrickfergus clay, were all ruined. The second 
firing, this time of glazed and decorated ware, fared no better. Part of the blame was 
attributed to the poor material of the grinding stones, their misalignment, and their 
possible contamination with sand. Correction of these defects required replacing and 
resetting the grinding stones with better quality stone.   
 
Bird was now also being criticised because he had recruited the wrong ratio of turners 
to pot painters, having too few of the latter. The workmen objected to the number of 
apprentices being employed, fearing that, when they had trained them, the apprentices 
would compete with them for their own jobs. As his salary was in arrears and he had 
virtually been dismissed, Bird complained. He and the partners went for arbitration in 
early 1749 but were unable to find agreement. There followed a lengthy lawsuit 
between the two parties heard in Edinburgh. This resulted in a 100 page document, 
‘State of the Mutual Processes’, which can still be read today. It contains much 
interesting information about the running of a mid-18
th
 century delftware pottery as 
many of the workforce – turners, painters, labourers - as well as the managers, were 
called as witnesses. By December the court’s findings were completed and were 
almost entirely in Bird’s favour. He was to receive his full salary and the arrears and 
full compensation. As far as is known, Bird then left Glasgow and may have gone to 
Ireland (Delft-work Law Case). 
 
Despite all these problems, the pottery was still able to produce delftware. As early as 
February 1749 ‘earthenware’ and, by March 1749 specifically ‘delftware’, are 
recorded as being exported. Advertisements for the products appeared in newspapers 
in April of that year. Additions were made to the pottery buildings in the form of a 
manager’s house and a warehouse. However, although Delftfield was originally built 
fit for purpose as a pothouse rather than adapted from previous buildings, the pottery 
became complex, cramped and inconvenient to work in.  
 
About 1757, now in competition with the influx of Staffordshire creamware pottery, 
Delftfield diversified into making a new product which may have been tin-glazed 
stoneware. This had the advantage of resisting thermal shock from boiling water and 
was advertised as such. Whether the celebrated engineer, James Watt, was involved as 
early as this is unclear but, by the 1760s, he had invested in the company and had 
become a partner (Hills 2001). With his wife and family he moved into the manager’s 
house in Delftfield Lane. Between then and 1774, when he moved to Birmingham, 
Watt probably initiated and oversaw innovations in pottery manufacture with new 
kilns, the improved firing of stoneware and possibly the introduction of creamware. 
Soon, however, there was also local competition for creamware production, following 
the establishment of a new creamware pottery by Thomson and Anderson, in 
Glasgow’s Gallowgate. 
 
By 1772, the younger Robert Dinwiddie, son of Laurence and nephew of the earlier 
Robert Dinwiddie, Governor of Virginia, was in partnership with William Martin. 
They advertised stoneware and delftware ‘to the greatest perfection’ under the name 
of Dinwiddie, Martin and Company. After Martin died in 1779, an important Glasgow 
merchant, Gilbert Hamilton, brother in law to James Watt, was in charge of the 
factory. It diversified into more sophisticated wares advertising sets or pieces with 
coloured decoration carrying crests and coats of arms. 
 
  After the younger Robert Dinwiddie died in 1789, William Young took over the 
management. He had risen from apprentice in 1760 to become the clerk or manager. 
A new range of ceramics was introduced including ‘Egyptian Black’, porcelain and 
brown glazed wares. By 1803 the pottery was renamed William Young & Co. Six 
years later the active partners were recorded as Daniel McKenzie, Archibald Hamilton 
and William Young. 
 
In 1809 the Delftfield Company took over the modern Caledonian Pottery at 
Townhead near the Monkland Canal Basin and gradually and smoothly moved its 
business there. In 1823, after the deaths of James Watt (1819) and William Young 
(1820), Robert Muirhead, one of the remaining partners, retired. The Delftfield 
Company was wound up and the Caledonian Pottery went up for sale, bringing to an 
end fifty year history of the Delftfield pottery.    
 
Most of its early ware was exported to the Caribbean and the Americas and very little 
has been identified in the United Kingdom. However the excavated shard and waster 
material from the pottery site and its adjacent dumps, recorded here gives some idea 
of the wares that were produced by Delftfield.  Excavations in the USA, notably at 
Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, have yielded shard evidence which correlates well 
with some of the delftware shards and wasters dug up in Glasgow.   
 
  
Acknowledgments 
 
While cataloguing the Delftfield ceramic assemblage, the work of the National 
Museums Scotland volunteers, David Doxey, Robert Stenhouse, Suzie Reed, Grant 
McMillan and Francis McLaren all working in the NMS ceramic store, was crucial in 
getting the shards washed, sorted and, where possible joined. As usual, Sheila Forbes, 
carried out, with amazing speed and good humour, the tasks of shard marking and 
packing. For practical support we are indebted to a number of people in the Museum 
of Scotland: David Caldwell, George Dalgleish & Jackie Moran. We are also grateful 
to a number of people at the AOC Archaeology Group, especially Anne Crone, Cira 
Clark, Andy Heald and Martin Cook. 
 
 
References 
 
Delft-work Law Case: Signet Library Edinburgh; The Petition of Laurence 
Dinwiddie Merchant and Late Provost of Glasgow, Patrick Nisbet and Robert Finlay 
Tanner there, and Robert Dinwiddie Merchant of London, Proprietors of a Delft-Ware 
Manufactory lately fet up at Glasgow: Published 8
th
 Jan 1751.  
 
Anonymous 1981 ‘More pieces of Glasgow Delftware’ Scottish Pottery Historical 
Review No 6 (1981), 64-67. 
 
Archer, M 1966 ‘Delftware made at the Glasgow Pottery Delftfield’ Connoisseur 
Sep; 1966, 16-22. 
 
Austin, J C 1994 ‘British Delft at Williamsburg’ Williamsburg. 
 
Denholm, P 1982 ‘Mid eighteenth-century tin-glazed earthenware from the Delftfied 
Pottery, Glasgow’ Post Medieval Archaeology, 16 (1982), 39-84. 
 
Fleming, J A 1923 ‘Scottish Pottery’ Glasgow. 
 
Haggarty, G 1980 `The pottery' in Ewart, G `Excavations at Stirling Castle 1977-78' 
Post-Medieval Archaeol, 14 (1980), 36-46. 
 
Haggarty, G 2007a ‘The Verreville pottery Glasgow: Ceramic Resource Disk’ The 
Northern Ceramic Society Journal 23, word files 21-26). & 
http://repository.nms.ac.uk/ 
 
Haggarty, G 2007b ‘Lancefield Quay Verreville Glasgow: Ceramic Resource Disk, 
word file 5 http://repository.nms.ac.uk/ 
 
Haggarty, G Hall, D & Chenery, S 2011 ‘Sourcing Scottish redwares’ Medieval 
Pottery Research Group, Occasional Paper 5. 
 
Hills, R 2001 ‘James Watt and the Delftfield Pottery, Glasgow’, Proceedings of the 
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol 131 (2001), 375-420. 
 
Kinghorn, J & Quail, J 1986 ‘Delftfield A Glasgow Pottery 1848-1823’. Glasgow 
Museums and Art Galleries. 
 
Quail, G 1978 'Preliminary Report on Wasters Finds at Carrick St. and  James Watt 
St. from the Delftfield Pottery, Glasgow' Scottish Pottery Archive News, 3 (1978), 00 
 
Quail, G 1981 'More pieces of Glasgow Delftware' Scottish Pottery Historical 
Review, 6 (1981), 64-67. 
 
Quail, G 1982 'Maxwell's Pig House, Calton', in Four Early Glasgow Potteries, 
(1982), 1-3.   
 
Quail, G 1982 'More Delftware Shards' Scottish Pottery Historical Review, 7 (1982), 
58. 
 Robertson, E & McKie, D 1970 ‘Partners in Science: James Watt & Joseph Black’, 
Constable, London.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Glasgow Delftfield Ceramic Resource Disc 18th century tin-glazed earthenware & creamware

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