Description:Lantern slide showing a thrower and assistant working at a potter’s wheel, with a third worker manually turning the wheel at J.H. Cope’s Wellington Works on the corner of Commerce Street and Stafford Street (now The Strand), Longton. The shop sign of E.H. Bloor visible outside the windows, close to William Blake’s photographer’s shop. This method of turning the potter’s wheel was old-fashioned, even in 1907. This lantern slide appears to be one of a group used for a presentation or slide show by Blake entitled “Staffordshire Pottery.”
A small folder containing approximately sixty reader cards was found in the same box as the slides. The cards contain information about the images. The card that appears to correspond to this slide reads;
"The Potters Wheel. Women as the motive power in the Throwing Shop are now entirely superseded by steam and electricity. Thrown ware is so called because a ball of clay is thrown down on the horizontal wheel to which it adheres. It is then shaped, while revolving, by the potters hand. In factory practice a mould is placed on the wheel & lined with clay by hand. Uniformity in shape and size is secured thereby".
Photographer: William Blake of Longton.