Samuel Lear

Samuel Lear jnr. was a decorator of ware produced by others and a manufacturer of Jasper, majolica and china ware at the Mayer Street works and in the High Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, England.

His father, Samuel Lear snr. (c.1816 to 1882) was the material 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

Samuel Lear
Manufacturer of Plain & Decorated China
Earthenware, Majolica, and Jasper,
suitable for the home and foreign markets
High Street, Hanley
Works - Mayer Street

Samuel Lear
Manufacturer of Plain & Decorated China
Earthenware Jasper and Majolica
suitable for the home and foreign markets
High Street and Mayer St. Hanley
Buyers attention is particularly called to the superior quality of majolica

notice of Bankruptcy Petition presented against
Samuel Lear by Albert Frances Wenger

Examples of ware produced:

Samuel Lear was a short lived manufacturer, producing ware for around nine years with the main production apparently concentrated in the 1881 to 1886 period.

Although Lear produced china and jasper ware it is the prolific manufacturing of majolica that he is known for.

For a comprehensive record of Lear majolica ware see the the Etruscan Majolica blog.

Lear employed the services of the pioneering designer Christopher Dresser who generally designed vases in the aesthetic style for Lear.

Samuel Lear - Mossed Ware vase

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 made produced similar designs which he called 'Moss Ware'

Marks used on ware for identification:

All known examples of marking are impressed or cast-in, no printed marks are known.

Some pieces produced were not marked and can be identified through advertisements and comparison with other items which are marked.

Majolica ware was marked with a registration diamond and no examples are known to have a name.

Jasper and art ware was marked 'Lear'

sometimes the impressed marks are not clear as they became filled with glaze
during the decorating process, some pieces did not have a mark