William Greatbatch is one of the most important names in English ceramic history.

Apart from the various members of the Wood family, William Greatbatch (1735-1813) was the most talented and prolific designer and maker of potters’ moulds during the second half of the 18th century. Not only was his reputation such that the Staffordshire potter Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) employed him regularly to supply block-moulds, but he also ran his own pottery, apparently without any conflict of interest. Long before the Victorian Age, when ceramic designs could be patented, the close-knit fraternity of Staffordshire potters accepted the sharing and copying of designs. The advantage was that identical tablewares or figures could be made simultaneously by several potteries in order to fill urgent orders.(http://collections.vam.ac.uk)

Creamware/pearlware saucer, biscuit, with underglaze blue painted decoration which has been air dried, rather than hardened-on in an oven. From phase III of the Greatbatch pottery site, Fenton, excavated 1979 to 1981. Piece is highlighted in ‘William Greatbatch, a Staffordshire Potter’, David Barker, 1991, plate 32, p.130

1765 - 1770

Biscuit, creamware/ pearlware saucer with underglaze blue painted decoration, which has been hardened on at high temperature. The warping of the piece suggests that the hardening on was in an oven which reached the biscuit firing temperature of around 1,100 degrees centigrade or more, thereby causing it to collapse. From phase III of the Greatbatch pottery site, Fenton, excavated 1979 to 1981. Piece is highlighted in ‘William Greatbatch, a Staffordshire Potter’, David Barker, 1991, plate 36, p. 132

1765 - 1770

William Greatbatch (1735-1813) was a Staffordshire Potter whose career lasted over half a century. Between 1762 and 1782 Greatbatch worked as an independent potter in Lower Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent.(http://www.stokemuseums.org.uk)