Sovereign Potters Ltd.

Picture from Superior Engravers Hamilton 1936

(from Hamilton Public Library)

Sovereign Potters Limited -282 Sherman Avenue North. 1933-1973.

Sovereign Potters Limited was formed in 1933 by W. G. Pulkingham and

Alfred with the financial support of a group of local businessmen, and

was one of Canada's largest manufacturers offine 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. Hamilton, Ontario

I suspect that one of the gents in in pictures # 09 & #10 is W. H. Hall

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History of the property

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.

That 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 setback along Biggar Avenue.

In 1933, Sovereign Potters began making semi-porcelain tableware and

vitrified here. Although it no longer occupies the building,

most recently, Royal Recycling operated on this site.

This view looks southeast towards the mountain.

The factory between the two smoke stacks in the center is the Hoover Co.

(workerscity)

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The above, is the history of the property.

The picture shows a working Sovereign Potteries in ~1936.

Note the Bottle Ovens (kilns) and the automobiles.

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