Giovanni Meli | People from Stoke-on-Trent

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Giovanni Meli

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Giovanni Meli wife:
Jane Meli
sons: 4 - "Edward John Salvatore, Vincent, Leopoldo, + one other

 

c.1815 born in Palermo, Sicily 
1838 came to England and originally worked in London.
c.1840 Samuel Alcock invited him to Burslem, however Meli and Alcock had a disagreement and Meli moved to Stoke and he set up as a free lance modeller. 
1850 GM was a founding member of the Stokeville Building Society. However he never lived at the housing development "The Villas" and he sold his share in 1853. Meli took out British naturalisation papers so that he could undertake the conveyance of property. 
c.1852 (?1858) Meli set up his own works around Glebe Street, Stoke - near the Stoke Town Hall 
1861 At this time he was living at West Bank, Penkhull. 
1862 Meli showed his parian ware at the 1862 exhibition. 
1865 Known to have voted for the Conservative candidate, Beresford Hope in the 1865 election. 
1865 Meli sold his Glebe Street Works to Robinson & Leadbeater
c. 1865 Giovanni Meli returned to Italy with the intention of setting up a terra cotta works but he was unable to find suitable clay.
  Meli emigrated to the USA and set up a factory in Chicago.

Staffordshire Potteries that Meli worked for:-

Adams of Tunstall
Sir James Duke & Nephews
Copeland Garratt

"By the early nineteenth century William Adams had expanded his business greatly. He had six factories producing – five at Stoke and one at Greenfield, besides two at Burslem let to John Wedgwood and Enoch Wood and Sons. Taking his sons into partnership the firm became William Adams and Sons with extensive overseas connections and they turned out every type of useful earthenware, hospital wares and stone ware, besides high grade dinner and tea services. In the 1840's they followed Copeland's lead in making 'Parian' ware figures modelled by Giovanni Meli and W. Beattie."

 


Sources: "People of the Potteries", Mazkowitz & Haggar - Encyclopedia of English Pottery & Porcelain. 

24/08/2002