Church Bank Works, Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent

NOTE: Dates are approximate. The dates given in Godden "Encyclopedia of British Pottery and Porcelain Marks" and Jewitts "Ceramic Art of Great Britain 1800-1900" do not agree exactly.
Ralph Hammersley and Thomas Booth & Co appeared to operate the Church Bank works at the same time. (this was not unusual)

The Church Bank Works 

Built in 1842 by Robert Beswick, by whom they were carried on unti1 1860, and since then by Beech & Hancock, Eardley & Hamrnersley (1862 – 8), Ralph Hammersley alone, and from 1870 by Thomas Booth & Son. The firm commenced business in 1864 at the Knowles Works, Burslem, as Evans & Booth, which in 1868 was altered to Thomas Booth & Co., and in 1872 to Thomas Booth & Son. In about 1876, Thomas G. Booth succeeded. 

In 1883, Messrs. T. G. & F. Booth took over and continued to 1891, when the style became Booths. 'Ltd' was added in about 1898. This firm continued to the 1940s. 

Various marks have been used incorporating the initials of the various firms – T B & Co., TGB., 
etc. All these firms produced good quality earthenware objects. 

Messrs. Booths Ltd. became famous for their 'Royal Semi-Porcelain' and for their 'Silicon China'. An important twentieth-century development that should be noted here was in the large scale reproduction of eighteenth-century Worcester (and other 'collectable') porcelain. Such pieces may bear the crescent-shaped mark (really the initials of C. Bowers) or copies of the old marks. Other specimens are unmarked and are often offered for sale as originals. It should be noted that the Booth copies are in opaque earthenware, not porcelain as were the originals. 

Jewitt's "Ceramic Art of Great Britain 1800-1900"

Questions/comments? email: Steve Birks