Sovereign Design Ware- Dwyne (Dwine) Genealogy & Personal Site
🏠Home 👪Gen ←Back ↑Top

Sovereign Main
History

Recently received an inquiry about Sovereign Products that I had never heard of,
- Design Ware Pottery -
produced at Sovereign Potteries in Hamilton.

Photo - John William (Bill) Dwyne pottery designs

I can add:

Sovereign were still producing china in 1953.
My Father J. W. Dwyne b1901 d1953 was a potter at Sovereign in Hamilton.
In 1952/53 He designed & produced these items that he took as gifts to th UK in 1953.

For the following

Thanks to - Donald E. Osborne - and - (A Ben Seibel Design) Link is no longer valid (05/26).

Information Received:

CANADIAN MODERN: Sovereign Potters:

Collector notes on Anne Kerr's book "Collector's Encyclopedia of Russel Wright," which updates or corrects her text in the section on "Knowles Esquire" line. With so little information on Sovereign, she conjectured that the Wright "Canadian Modern" line for Sovereign was a reworking of those Knowles pieces.
Design date: 1949. Date Source: Design in Canada (2004) p. 179 "Sovereign Potters served as the major manufacturer of white-ware china in Ontario. Between 1949-1957, the company produced modern design pottery by architect A. Bruce Etherington and manufactured (reinterpreted) designs by Mary and Russel Wright.” Special Collections, Carleton University.
Family connections with the influential American designer Russel Wright and his wife, Mary Wright, enabled Sovereign Potters to produce some of their patterns in 1954 under licence.58
The company "borrowed" the Wrights' design elements for its own line." Special Collections, Carleton University. Sovereign Potters, of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (which Kerr has described as the "Knowles Wright shape.") Although one can find some similarities to Knowles Esquire in the teapot, that seems to be where the similarities end. This is clearly a completely different line. And if one believes the signature, that this is a design of Mary and Russel Wright, it should pre-date Esquire and would have been produced at the latest in the early 1950's.
We have a newspaper notice of discontinued lines from 1959 which includes the patterns used on the Wright shapes. There is some evidence of this line being marketed as Canadian Modern in ads from 1956-1957.

Questions that need more study:

Kerr mentions a connection between RW's sister and her husband with Sovereign, but it's not clear what that connection is. Were they part of the firm? Were they simply relatives living nearby acting as intermediaries?
Kerr mentions a great deal of correspondence between RW and his sister. Is this correspondence dated? Mary Wright died in 1952. Did this happen posthumously?

Signed pieces of Sovereign appear in three colors: white, blue and pink with the marking: "Mary & Russel Wright By Sovereign Potters."
5 known patterns that appear on Canadian Modern shapes don't bear the Wright mark. They are presumed to be stock designs, not designed by Mary or Russel Wright:

Mitsouki (1289-56)
Fancy Free (1290-56)
Celebration (1293-56)
Constellation (1294-56)
and In the Pink (1298-56)

Gary found the following markings with patterned pieces:

the 1956 date was not on a box, but "56" were the last two digits on the 1294 56 Constellation inscription number,
1274 55 for the Vogue pattern, 1268 55 for the Las Vegas pattern, and 1310 57 for Happy Days.
It looks like the first four digits were some chronological coding for patterns and the last two referred to the year of either design, manufacture, or issue. - pieces include: dinner plate, salad plate, soup bowl, vegetable bowl, covered casserole, teapot, creamer, covered sugar, teacup (2"), coffee cup (3¾"), saucer, gravy server, salt shaker (4"), pepper shaker (2½"), platter (11¾").

In January 2023 Kathryne J. Lyons posted an egg cup in the Constellation pattern.

Paul Beedenbender has created a Sovereign chart, pieces and patterns at: http://www.abenseibeldesign.com/RW/RW_Sovereign_Potteries.htm From a posting August 4, 2010 on Yahoo by Gary: In addition to the three solid colorways (white, pink and aqua), we have five distinct patterns. The solid pieces are the only ones signed "Mary & Russel Wright by Sovereign Potters" (Mark 34 in Kerr). The patterned pieces just say, "Sovereign Potters Fine Tableware" around a maple leaf in which "Made in Canada" is written. In addition to the "Constellation" pattern, shown in Kerr and Keller & Ross, we have the pattern shown in the "Tea with Russell" photo on MODish, another with what looks like pussy willows and some kind of flowers (this one comes in at least three colorways-pink, yellow and green), a fourth that I would describe as blue, yellow and magenta "starbursts" with gray leaves. The fifth pattern is the most intriguing, as it is identical to the "Spring" pattern in Eva Zeisel's Tomorrow's Classic line by Hall. There is debate as to Eva's involvement with the various patterns of Tomorrow's Classic, as there is about the Wrights' involvement with the patterns of Sovereign, but this is, as far as I know, the only example of a Zeisel-related line sharing a pattern with a Wright-related line. (note: on Paul's Sovereign page, he calls this pattern Spring) Some pieces have turned up with a pattern mark. "Fancy Free"

From the collectors gathering at Manitoga Nov. 17, 2024 as reported on Facebook:

Gregory Spinner At his recent talk, Michael presented evidence that this line, made by Sovereign Potters and signed “ Mary + Russel Wright,” was marketed as Canadian Modern. One advert was shown. Michael had permission to share that image with us for educational purposes. I do not believe it can be displayed on-line, at least not yet.

The Toronto Star Apr 20, 1956 · Page 36
The Toronto Star Jun 26, 1957 · Page 28 — mention only of speckled white
The Kingston Whig-Standard Dec 7, 1956 · Page 23

Direct link to - Sovereign Potteries Photos. - Sovereign Main - History