Description:Pottery factory interior with a view of a potter's printer and his female assistant at work.
They are printing transfers using a 'press print' and an engraved copper plate.
Ink from the engraving is pressed onto very thin tissue paper using a press called a 'press print'.
The pattern would then be applied to the ware from the transfer.
Using this method to decorate ware meant that perfection of detail could be achieved consistently.
The skill in this process lay in producing a transfer without blurs by carefully teasing the very thin paper off the inked copper plate.
The printer is inking an engraved copper plate as the assistant carefully takes a transfer off the press print.
Taken from the Gladstone Pottery Museum Photographic Collection.
This photograph is part of the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.