Enoch Wood

Enoch Wood (1759–1840) was an English potter and businessman. He established a successful business in the Staffordshire Potteries: his company Enoch Wood & Sons produced earthenware, much of which was exported to America.

Life

He was born in 1759; his father Aaron Wood (1717–1785) was a highly regarded pottery modeller (mould maker), and his uncle Ralph Wood (1715–1772), also a potter, became famous for producing well-modelled figures.[1][2][3] Enoch Wood studied drawing and anatomy with his relatives the Caddick family in Liverpool, and was apprenticed to Humphrey Palmer, an earthenware manufacturer in Hanley. He became a skillful pottery modeller.[1][4][5]

Sauceboat by Enoch Wood & Sons, c. 1840, showing a pass in the Catskill Mountains. In Brooklyn Museum.

He began a business in Burslem in 1783 with his cousin Ralph Wood, as an earthenware manufacturer. In 1790 he went into partnership with James Caldwell, a local lawyer, and a new factory was built at Fountain Place in Burslem, which produced a wide range of earthenwares. The company also had mining interests: the Bycars Colliery in Burslem provided fuel for the factory. The partnership continued until 1818, when Wood bought out Caldwell and his three sons became partners.[1][3]

The company produced a large quantity of blue printed earthenware. A substantial amount of this was exported to America, where trade in earthenware increased after the end in 1815 of the Anglo-American war; Wood designed a range of items particularly for America.[1][3]

Enoch Wood died in 1840, and the business closed in 1845; finances were affected by a loss of trade with America, and by his children claiming their legacies.[1][4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Enoch Wood & Sons Patriotic America. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  2. ↑ The Wood Family www.thepotteries.org. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Wood and Sons Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  4. 1 2 Enoch Wood (1759–1840) thepotteries.org. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  5. ↑ Humphrey Palmer www.thepotteries.org. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
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