Dudson Ridgway - Dragon Handled Square Jugs

Dudson — Ridgway
Dragon Handled Square Jugs

There was clearly co-operation between the two factories and it is difficult to establish exactly how far that went. Both factories appear to have manufactured jugs of this shape. Dudson probably supplied the Bedford Works with moulds, glazes and ideas. Ridgway supplied the manufacturing capacity that Dudson did not have. Presumably there was a sharing of profits.

Up to this point I have considered it fairly simple to distinguish the wares produced by Dudson and those by the Bedford Works. Basically, everything with a fractional pattern number was Ridgway, and everything else was Dudson. I was, however, confronted with a problem after reading Jewitt's The Ceramic Art of Great Britain (1878). Volume 2 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, that on jasper ware was not. All jasper wares were, up to now, thought to have been produced at Hope Street. Until this apparent contradiction is resolved, I shall be listing the wares by type and number series rather than factory.