• His father, Samuel Lear snr. (c.1816 to 1882) was the maternal grandfather of the well known potter A.G. Harley Jones.

  • Samuel Lear snr. worked in the pottery industry..

    he was shown in the 1851 census as "potter"

    1861 census as "potter ovenman"

    1871 census as "potter’s fireman"

    1881 census as "formerly potters fireman"

Samuel Lear junior (1852 to 1888), son of the above, (uncle of A. G. Harley Jones).

• "Lear Samuel, earthenware and china decorator, 5 Mayer street ; residence, Ford green" (Keates's Gazetteer and Directory of the Staffordshire Potteries, 1879.) 

• It appears that Samuel Lear started business in Mayer Street in 1877 as a decorator of ware produced by others and then also started production of domestic china. 

• In 1882 he built a new works in the High Street (which adjoins Mayer Street) producing "ordinary china, majolica, ivory body earthenware, and Wedgwood-type jasper ware" 

• In January 1887 Albert Frances Wenger, a colour manufacturer, applied for bankruptcy proceedings against Samuel Lear (who at that time was living in Gladstone Street, Hanley). 

• Thomas Forester, the majolica manufacturer based in Longton, purchased both Lear potteries in 1887 although their subsequent disposition remains uncertain. (Majolica International Society). 

The Etruscan Majolica blog gives the following information: 

"Born in 1853 near Hadley [perhaps a typo for Hanley], like so many before him, he was a child of the Staffordshire potteries. His father worked as an operator of the kilns at one of the nearby potteries. In 1871 the ambitious young man took a job as a clerk in Hanley learning the pottery trade. By the age of 21 he opened his own business in Hanley, believed to initially be a pottery warehousing business but by the age of 25 expanded to his own pottery at the Mayer Works, manufacturing all forms of earthenware. 

In 1881 he began the manufacture and advertisement of majolica, largely in the Aesthetic taste. The following year he expanded his pottery with additional facilities.

By 1886 Lear developed serious financial problems and plotted to bilk his creditors and leave England. He sent his family ahead to New South Wales in Australia and quietly sold his Mayer Works pottery to Thomas Forester, who most certainly continued the manufacture of Lear products.

Lear sent the money from the sale abroad, boarded a ship and set sail to join his family. Whether he ever arrived in New South Wales is not known, nor is it known if he settled in mainland Australia, Tasmania or New Zealand. What is known is that his body was found in a wrecked ship near New Zealand in 1888. He was 35 years old." 

Mayer Street Works

"In about 1877, Samuel Lear erected a small china works on part of the site of the old manufactory, which included as warerooms and offices the residence of Mayers. Mr. Lear produced domestic china and, in addition, decorated all kinds of earthenware made by other manufacturers - a specialty being spirit-kegs.

He added to his Mayer Street works a new manufactory, built by himself in 1882, in the High Street and there carried on a successful manufacture of ordinary china, majolica, ivory body earthenware, and Wedgwood-type jasper ware. 

Samuel Lear fell on bad times in 1886 and his creditors closed the works."

Jewitt's Ceramic Art of Great Britain 1800-1900, Revised by Geoffrey Godden

"Samuel Lear. Besides Mr. Lear's china works there is a small earthenware works on the old site carried on by Mrs. Massey; this includes the Mayers' stabling and coach-houses. There are also numerous cottage residences erected in the other spaces."

Jewitt's Ceramic Art of Great Britain 1878

LEAR

impressed mark 

design attributed to Christopher Dresser

impressed mark 

the registration diamond gives the date of registration of the pattern 
as 27th August 1881 

Registered design number 369202, Samuel Lear, Mayer Street, Hanley

Samuel Lear produced a range of patterns in these 'sand' designs, generally incorporating raised flowers. The vase shapes designed by Christopher Dresser were used as a base for some of the mossed ware range. 

Thomas Bevington, who occupied the Mayer Street Works around 1892 (after Samuel Lear) made produced similar designs which he called 'Moss Ware' 

typical impressed mark LEAR 

This brown glaze majolica jug depicts, in white relief decoration, two of the nine Muses of Greek mythology.   

The Muses were the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. In modern figurative usage, a muse is a person who serves as someone's source of artistic inspiration.

Grape and vine leaf majolica plate by Samuel Lear 

Victorian green majolica leaf plates are iconic examples of 19th-century decorative ceramics, popular during the Victorian era (1837–1901). 

These plates are characterized by their vibrant green glaze, textured surfaces, and intricate leaf designs - molded to resemble a variety of leaves, such as cabbage, grape, or begonia, and often feature raised veins and detailed textures.

LEAR 

impressed mark

1878 - 12th July, 6th November

1880 - 17th June 

1881 - 13th June, 27th August

1882 - 10th January, 27th May, 14th December

impressed mark

cast-in mark