Carlton Ware Ltd

Carlton Ware was originally produced by Wiltshaw & Robinson Ltd of the Carlton Works, Stoke-on-Trent, who began production in 1890.

By the mid-1930s, its designs had become so popular that Japanese ceramic companies were beginning to imitate Carlton Ware and there was seemingly no legal way to prevent this. The worry was that Japanese products could undercut the price of British goods, and this would consequently harm the company financially. Australian companies had an arrangement with the Japanese, under the South East Asia Treaty Organisation, guaranteeing that their goods would not be copied. Wiltshaw and Robinson exploited this by registering many of their designs in Australia, thus protecting their copyright.

In January 1958, the company was renamed ‘Carlton Ware Ltd’.

After the death of Frederick Cuthbert Wiltshaw in 1966, Carlton Ware Ltd was acquired by The Arthur Wood Group, which already owned companies such as Price Bros. (Burslem) and Kensington Pottery. The firm then sold Carlton Ware Ltd to County Potteries in 1987, who rebranded it as Carlton & Kent.

In 1989, Carlton & Kent went into receivership and the Stoke-on-Trent factory was closed.