Bedford Works - Pillar Candlesticks

Bedford Works
Pillar Candlesticks

For a long time wares made by the Ridgways at the Bedford Works were thought to have been made by Dudson. There was clearly co-operation between the two factories and it is difficult to establish exactly how far that went. There have, however, been doubts expressed as to whether a factory the size of Hope Street with its two tiny bottle ovens (the large oven was not completed until 1872) could have been capable of manufacturing the wide range of wares attributed to them. Tony Curnock was the first to express the opinion that the ebony wares attributed to Dudson were made by Ridgway at the Bedford Works. These wares share many shapes with the jasper wares. I became convinced of the matter after reading Jewitt's The Ceramic Art of Great Britain (1878). Volume 2 where he describes the products of both the Bedford Works and Dudson's Hope Street Works. Jewitt states that both factories produced moulded ware and mosaic ware, but only the Bedford Works produced jasper ware and jet ware, and he praises both wares with effusive language. Whilst the comment on jet or ebony ware was to be expected after Tony Curnock's article, that on jasper ware was not. All jasper wares were, up to then, thought to have been produced at Hope Street. It now seems clear that Dudson made no jasper ware between the 1830s and March 1882. It appears that, after James Dudson completed the construction of the large bottle oven in 1872, he was looking for additional wares to produce. It is on record that he experimented with simplifying the production of mosaic and jasper wares. The Ridgways must have agreed to allow him to produce some mosaic ware from the mid-1870s and jasper ware from March 1882. Audrey Dudson has admitted that Dudson only started to advertise jasper wares in 1882. Both factories continued in production (presumably with some sort of joint marketing agreement), and the Ridgways seem to have withdrawn from the market around 1891, leaving Dudson in sole production. Only Ridgway production will be found listed here. Dudson manufactured wares will be found in the Dudson section of 'Other Manufacturers'.

E. J. Ridgway & Son
Ridgway, Sparks, & Ridgway