The Stoke-on-Trent based, Moorcroft Pottery announced the appointment of Moore Recovery to help the company go into voluntary liquidation. As a result of the company’s collapse, a total of 57 members of staff have lost their jobs.
Indications the company was struggling were revealed earlier this year, when the company warned of potential redundancies and said the firm’s energy costs had risen by nearly £250,000 in just two years. In the current economic environment, energy intensive, manufacturing industries such as the ceramic industry are particularly vulnerable and in a seemingly unsustainable financial position.
In the announcement, the board of directors thanked each employee for their unique heritage skills and commitment to the art pottery during a very challenging economic period. Adding: “The directors have pursued every avenue possible to save the business, however they have been left with no other option than to engage the services of a local insolvency firm to place the company into liquidation.”
Some of Moorcroft’s most collectable patterns included the Claremont, Poppy, and Iris, date back to 1900-1920. The company’s designers often drew inspiration from the natural world, incorporating flowers, fruits and landscapes. To produce specifc collections, the pottery partnered with organisations such as the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). A long-standing partner of the RHS, the RHS Moorcroft collections were inspired by historic hand-coloured engravings from the RHS Lindley Collections, such as those by the celebrated English botanist, botanical artist and engraver Henry Cranke Andrews.
The first pieces of fine art pottery from Moorcroft were designed by William Moorcroft and launched in 1897 while he was employed at James Macintyre & Co. Moorcroft was a graduate of what is now the Royal College of Art in London. With funding from Liberty, Moorcroft established his art pottery factory in Sandbach Road under the name of W. Moorcroft Limited. In 1928 it was appointed as Potter to HM The Queen during the reign of George V and Mary. From 1993 until 1997, design at Moorcroft was spearheaded by ceramic graduate, Rachel Bishop.
