Sovereign Potters Ltd.
Picture from Superior Engravers Hamilton 1936
(from Hamilton Public Library)
History - Sovereign Potters Limited -282 Sherman Avenue North. 1933-1973.
Sovereign Potters Limited was formed in 1933 by W. G. Pulkingham and Alfred Etherington with the financial support of a group of local businessmen, and was one of Canada's largest manufacturers of fine porcelain and earthenware.
- Operations began on a modest scale; however, with the outbreak of war the company boomed, supplying army china. At its peak in 1946 and 1947 it employed about 450 people.
- On July 1 1947, the company was purchased by British dinnerware manufacturer Johnson Brothers(Hanley) Ltd.
- In 1952. W. H. Hall was sent by the parent company to become president of its Canadian operations. It continued to manufacture dinnerware until 1958 when it concentrated on the production of ceramic wall tiles and decorated blanks sent out from England. The company underwent a name change (H. & R. Johnson (Canada) Ltd.) and a new address at 15 Biggar Avenue.
- I suspect that one of the gents in in pictures # 09 & #10 is W. H. Hall
History of the property.
North East Corner of Sherman Ave N, & Biggar Ave.
Hamilton, Ont. The view looks southeast towards the mountain.
And shows a working Sovereign Potteries, Bottle Ovens (kilns) and automobiles in
~1936.
The factory between the two smoke stacks in the center is the Hoover Co.
- Hoepfner Refining Company (1899) Set back from Biggar Avenue, you can still see a red-brick building and chimney where this company was formed by many of the same men who had such success with the Hamilton Blast Furnace Company (later, Stelco) in 1895. They wanted to turn Hamilton into the Canadian centre for primary metals.
- In 1899, industrial promoter John Patterson led the formation of the Hoepfner Refining Company. The company built this brick refinery building and others in 1899. Patterson and his colleagues wanted to break the nickel-refining monopoly of the Canadian Copper Company. In the end, company officials failed to develop a cost-efficient refining process that would make production worthwhile. The buildings were never used for their intended purpose.
- The company put the unused refinery buildings up for lease in 1905. T hat year, the Pittsburgh Perfect Wire Fence Company set up in the complex of buildings north of the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway spur that ran through the property.
- Two years later, the E.C. Atkins and Company of Indianapolis, Indiana started a saw blade and machine knife factory in the rest of the buildings, which were set back along Biggar Avenue.
- In 1933, Sovereign Potters began making semi-porcelain tableware and vitrified hotelware here. Although it no longer occupies the building
- most recently, Royal Recycling operated on this site.
The following is from:
School for Studies in Art and Culture's Special Collections at
Carleton University
collections.ssac.carleton.ca/index.php/Detail/entities/442
Sovereign Potters
Organization: Identifier CU.ENT.00386, Display date: 1933-1980.
"After the war, Sovereign Potters led the design and production of informal modern dinnerware, marketed as "everyday indoor and outdoor living." At its peak, the pottery employed a staff of four hundred.
Founded by the local businessmen William Pulkingham (who later bought Medalta), Alfred Etherington and James McMaster (formerly of McMaster Art Pottery in Dundas), Sovereign Potters imported equipment from Syracuse, New York, to produce whiteware china for the hospitality market, which would remain its mainstay. The ROM holds a collection of the first dinnerware to come off the Sovereign assembly line (inscribed February 1934).
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. The company "borrowed" the Wrights' design elements for its own line. The Carnival line was created by Etherington, with assistance from his children. Lois Etherington Betteridge went on to become one of Canada’s leading metalsmith artists, and Bruce Etherington became a respected architect.
In addition to the modern dinnerware, Sovereign Potters produced over twenty traditional British-style china patterns, as well as butter dishes for Canadian Westinghouse Company refrigerators. In 1947 Sovereign became affiliated with H & R Johnson Brothers, the largest tableware manufacturer in England. Ten years later, Sovereign Potters manufactured only industrial tiles. Tableware blanks, imported from the parent company, were decorated locally. In 1974 the company changed its name to H & R Johnson (Canada). It closed in 1993."
History Source: Design in Canada (2004), p. 251-52, Domicile: Canada
Direct link to - Sovereign Potteries Photos. - Sovereign Main - Design Ware