Bow Porcelain Factory

Sectors:

  • Luxury / consumer goods production Domestic ceramic products manufacture

Notes:

Opened at Bow, East London, in c1747 when owned by Thomas Frye, a decorator, and Edward Heylyn, a merchant. In its early days Alderman George Arnold, 1691-1751, a wealthy linen draper, important in funding the business. The factory was a pioneer in England in manufacture of soft paste porcelain and imitator of the Chelsea Factory. Frye and Heylyn applied for patents, 1744 and 1748. By 1750 owned by John Crowther & Weatherby under Frye's management. c1749 relocated locally to a new factory that by c1758 accommodated c300 workers. Crowther bankrupt 1764 by which time Weatherby dead. Finally closed 1776

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