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John Henry Potter & J.H. Potter & Sons of Rockingham Works


Kalfred

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Hello, I saw on line what I thought was an interesting image of a spoon box. The original contents of the box had been supplied by J.H.Potter of Sheffield and I thought I could just add this nice image to another post featuring JOHN HENRY POTTER or J.H. POTTER & SONS, the very well known and productive Sheffield flatware, cutlery and holloware manufacturing "company". 

1513510948_J.H.Potterbox.jpg.5099dc62e0ddb8a428c896889fb4ef36.jpg

Well I thought they were well known but seemingly not in our Forum. The only reference I found was was concerning  a house belonging to a "silversmith", John Henry Potter that was on the site where the Hallamshire Hospital was built. It is true John Henry Potter did have 2 silver marks registered with  the Sheffield Silver Assay office between 1885 and 1936. They were his initials "JHP" and these mark were registered to "Rockingham Works, Rockingham Street, Sheffield". We see "Rockingham" as the address of the silver plate works on the box image. We can also see a date of 1907 on the box.
There is a lot of information on the Hawley website Name on a Knife Blade about "Potters" and a lot of "Potter" electroplate mark images on the website "silvercollection.it". Below are a few  EP marks I came across. "Silva" is probably the most readily recognised of the Potter trade names.

2120566253_Potterbannercomp.jpg.a6fd1627c55061929dc60b1419f41e42.jpg

 

1173674936_PotterdSilvaIdiumIriumcomp.jpg.b2a7c25392e74011ee560e6c01b38c79.jpg

 

554549755_PotterKnifecomp.jpg.0cf3f8d0f5a1e87775ec1813405831a3.jpg

 

231615292_PotternHollowaremarks.jpg.2d65ff1e6bc82231fb5160945fdd66bb.jpg

 

1512647222_PotterRockinghamPlateCoLtd.jpg.8eaefffef65b4d626328ef8eb7befe08.jpg

The last image featuring the 2 Rockingham Plate marks are probably from a slightly latter company controlled by 2 "Potter" sons, Cyril and Percy. There is a bit of dating evidence with the "Rockingham Plate & Cutlery Co Ltd" mark. The blurred extra mark is likely "X-NS". This was a mark, I believe to indicate non "War Department" cutlery manufactured around the World War II period.

Kalfred

 A quick note about Joseph Watson & Sons of Leeds. They started in the  2nd quarter of the 19th century in the tannery and leather industry and moved into soap making with the biproducts, becoming a large concern, and were taken over by Lever Brothers in 1913.     
 

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Potter John Henry, table cutlery manufacturer, 124 Rockingham Street; residence, 159 Spring Vale Road. Kelly's 1881.

Potter John Henry, silversmith, cutler & electroplate manufacturer, 65 Division Street; house, 11 Marlborough Road. Kelly's 1901, 1905.

Potter John Henry, silversmith, 65 to 71 Division Street; house, Five Oaks, 428 Glossop Road. Kelly's 1911.

Potter John Henry, silversmith, 53 to 69 Division Street;  house, Five Oaks, 428 Glossop Road. Kelly's 1925.


There is also a warehouse listed in the 1925 directory, corner of Rockingham Street ans Division Street.

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1909 envelope and letterhead:

potter envelope.jpg

 

potter.jpg

 

And an enlargement of the picture of the works in that letterhead:

rockingham works.jpg

 

Presumably I thought the letter wasn't interesting as I don't appear to have scanned it. Maybe I will if I ever find the documents amongst all the other bits of paper in my house!

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Thank you SteveHB and Madannie77 for the additions to the post. That envelope from 1909 makes it clear to me now that the trade name "Rockingham Plate" had been used from a much earlier period than I had thought.
Kalfred 

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