Moden reproductions of Shorter & Son Ware

Shorter & Son and later Chinese copies / reproductions

Shorter & Son was a Staffordshire pottery manufacturer based in Stoke-on-Trent. The business developed from the nineteenth-century pottery trade and became especially well known during the twentieth century for its decorative earthenware, including brightly coloured art pottery, novelty wares, floral designs, baskets, vases, jugs and ornamental pieces.

Shorter ware was characterised by strong moulded shapes, raised decoration and hand-finished colouring. The company also had close family connections with A.J. Wilkinson Ltd and Newport Pottery Co. Ltd, where the celebrated designer Clarice Cliff worked.

After the decline of many Staffordshire manufacturers in the later twentieth century, some distinctive pottery designs were reproduced by overseas manufacturers, particularly in China.
In some cases these were not simply pieces inspired by Staffordshire styles, but close copies of original shapes.
Examples exist where a Shorter form appears to have been reproduced directly, including the moulded details and even the impressed “SHORTER ENGLAND” mark from the original piece.
This can cause confusion, as the moulded mark suggests Staffordshire manufacture, while the printed backstamp and decoration indicate later Chinese production.

explore the original English pottery company - Shorter & Son

The “Flora & Fauna” pheasant-decorated basket illustrates this problem. The piece carries a moulded SHORTER ENGLAND mark, showing that the shape was copied from a Shorter original, yet the printed decoration belongs to a later Chinese-made range.

The same pheasant design is also found on other “Flora & Fauna” wares, including wash sets that do not carry the Shorter mould mark, showing that the decoration was applied across a range of copied and newly produced shapes.

moulded basket with the same pheasant design as
the wash set shown above

Flora & Fauna
Staffordshire England

printed mark

Shorter England 395 M/S

cast in mark

The printed “Flora & Fauna” mark is the later Chinese reproduction/export mark, not an original Shorter printed backstamp.

The mould, however, has been taken from an original Shorter & Son shape

395: This is the design's unique mould or shape number. In the Shorter catalogue, number 395 denotes a small, ornamental handled posy basket, which was a highly popular style during the late Art Deco and post-war eras.

M/S: This stands for Medium Size. Shorter and Son frequently scaled their popular vases and baskets into three distinct sizes: S/S (Small Size), M/S (Medium Size), and L/S (Large Size)

The Chinese maker has apparently copied the original mould so faithfully that the cast-in “SHORTER ENGLAND” mould mark survived.