Felix & Richard Pratt

Felix & Richard Pratt	Fenton	1818	1920's
Felix & Richard Pratt	Fenton	1818	1920's

Earthenware manufacturers at the Fenton Potteries, High Street East, Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, England.

The company made earthenware, terra cotta, Rockingham ware. They were also famous for the manufacture of decorated pot lids.

Transfer of the F & R Pratt business:-

F & R Pratt was acquired by H. T. Robinson c.1916, and from 1920 it was operating from the Cauldon Place Works as subsidiary of Robinson’s Cauldon Potteries Ltd.
Harrison & Son (Hanley) Ltd purchased Cauldon Potteries Ltd after it went bankrupt in 1933 and so acquired the business of F & R Pratt.
Harrison's owned the Crescent Pottery of George Jones and Sons and from 1936 transfer the F & R Pratt business to the Crescent Pottery in Stoke.
In 1958 E. Brain & Co Ltd acquired the name and Goodwill of F & R Pratt and Coalport China Ltd who bother operated from the Crescent Pottery Works.
In 1976 Wedgwood purchased E. Brain & Co Ltd. thus acquiring Pratt and Coalport. Coalport continued to produce ware which were decorated with 'original Pratt prints'

William Pratt was a master potter at Lane Delph (Fenton) who operated from around 1753 until his death in 1799. The business was continued by his widow with the help of her sons who eventually started up separate businesses in Fenton.

Felix Pratt may have been in business with a William Coomer (business dissolved in Nov 1809)
Felix Edward Pratt and Richard Pratt formed F & R Pratt and their brother John formed his own company eventually teaming up with William Pratt to form J & W Pratt.

"on the north side Mr. Felix Pratt's House and Manufactory, on the site where Mr. T. Heath made dipped Pottery: and who is mentioned with proper respect for his virtues, is in a subsequent part. The present proprietor is notable for affability and promptitude in alleviating the miseries of the distressed."

from the 'History of the Staffordshire Potteries', published in 1829 by Simeon Shaw.

reference: 'Handbook of British Pottery Manufacturers 1900-2010' by Michael Perry

F. & R. Pratt was acquired by H. T. Robinson c.1916, and from 1920 it was operating from the Cauldon Place Works in Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent as subsidiary of Robinson’s Cauldon Potteries Ltd.
When F. & R. Pratt moved to the Cauldon Place Works The British Art Pottery Co. took over the Fenton Potteries and the works were renamed to the Rialto works.

No. 70 is likely to be the pattern number

Godden (Encyclopaedia of British pottery and porcelain Marks)
notes this as a "Rare printed mark, c. 1847-60. Found on fine quality
Etruscan pattern vases and fine printed wares."

F & R Pratt & Co
Fenton
Manufacturers
to H.R. H. Prince Albert

c. 1847-60

Prattware Pot Lids

The firm of F. & R. Pratt of Fenton was run by Felix Edward Pratt (1813-1894) who saw the commercial possibilities of producing multicoloured pot lids and bases as containers for products such as bear's grease, gentleman's relish, food-stuffs and cosmetics including rouge. Jesse Austin (1806-1879), who had been an apprentice at Davenport before becoming a self-employed artist and engraver, joined Pratt in about 1843.

Austin subsequently left Pratt to go to Bates, Brown, Westhead and Moore for a period of about a year only to return to Pratt's. Of the two, Austin was the artistic influence and Pratt the commercial brain.

Between them they produced a substantial and widely varying selection of what we know today as Staffordshire pot lids and, with the success they enjoyed, they went on to produce Prattware, pottery decorated with the same colour pictures, for a period of some 40 odd years.

Austin was a gifted artist and engraver but he had limited imagination and drew inspiration from celebrated paintings, events and other aspects of Victorian life. He painted the designs in watercolour and then etched the copper plates in order to produce the three colour plates and the fourth black key plate.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 was to be an early high point for the products of F. & R. Pratt. The firm produced a series of what are known to collectors as 'Exhibition Pieces'. These were the best examples of each variety of picture additionally embellished with wide gold bands.

In 1897, three years after Felix Edward Pratt died, there was an exhibition of Prattware in Blackpool. In the same year it is recorded that people started collecting and in 1924 the first public auction was held.