Maker: T. Furnival & Sons
Elder Road, Cobridge, Staffordshire Date of manufacture: 1876 - 1890 |
Maker: Furnivals
Elder Road, Cobridge, Staffordshire Date of manufacture: 1890 - 1895 |
ALTON
T. FURNIVAL & SONS |
JAMES M. SHAW & CO.,
NEW YORK; "ALTON" FURNIVALS ENGLAND |
The mark on this piece is particularly interesting. It indicates that the compote was imported into America from Staffordshire by James M. Shaw & Co., of New York.
The company was based at 25 Duane Street and 78 Chatham Street, New York. They imported a range of pottery makes, including Copeland, Wedgwood, Belleek, Royal Worcester and, of course, Furnivals. They were also contracted to provide fine china dinnerware to the US Navy between the 1890's and the 1930's. In addition, the company commissioned various patterns of china from leading china and pottery manufacturers and marketed these under the James Shaw brand. In 1936, James M. Shaw & Company was bought by Nathan Straus Junior. Straus was a co-owner of R.H. Macy & Company, one of New York's largest department stores, having inherited it on the death of his father, Nathan Straus Senior, in 1931. |