William Henry Goss
GOSS, William Henry (1833-1906), potter, Stoke upon Trent.
William Henry Goss was born in London on 30 July 1833, the son of Richard Goss and Sophia, nee Mann. He studied at the School of Design, Somerset House, London, then in 1857 came to W. T. Copeland as chief artist. A disagreement led to his setting up in business on his own in 1858.
Initially he specialised in ivory porcelain and was awarded a medal at the 1852 International Exhibition. He perfected a method of improving the finish of jewelled porcelain and invented the body and enamels for the heraldic china by which he is best known today. He transferred his factory from the Cock Works, Leese Street, Stoke upon Trent, to the Falcon Works, Sturgess Street, about 1870. His sons later joined him in the business and he gradually retired from active management.
These works (together with the next door Kirkham works) are now the site of Portmeirion .
He gave the vases for the terrace in Hanley Park.
William Henry Goss was an improvement commissioner in 1866. He wrote a number of books and articles and was vice-president of the North Staffordshire Field Club. He was a friend and the biographer of Llewellyn Jewitt, a fellow of the Geographical Society and of the Royal Meteorological Society. Which may explain why the 'Goss' entry in Jewitt's Ceramic art of Great Britain is lengthy and reports the Goss products in glowing terms.
William Henry Goss's article on Stoke Wakes sports, entitled 'English Olympic Games', was published in the Pottery and Class Trades Review in 1878.
He married Georgiana Goldswain in 1854 and had seven children. He died in Stoke upon Trent on 4 January 1906. He was buried in a very prominent position in Hartshill cemetery, very close to the vault of Colin Minton Campbell.
Detail of the monument to Goss
in Hartshill cemetery
Take a 'walk' around
Hartshill cemetery
The buildings of Goss which remain today in the Portmeirion works are listed.
The two remaining bottle kilns of the Falcon works
taken from Sturgess Street.
SOURCES: N Emery, W. H. Goss and Goss Heraldic China; E. A. Goss, Fragments from the Life and Writings of William Henry Goss; J. D. Magee, Goss for Collectors; People of the Potteries; Jewitt's Ceramic Art of Great Britain 1800-1900.
