Royal Winton Chintz Price and Identification Guide

Introduction About twenty years ago, I bought a cottage-shaped teapot. The name stamped on the bottom was that of Royal Winton. Soon afterwards I began collecting pretty chintz plates and again, the backstamp was Royal Winton.

As my collection grew, I became intrigued. Who was Royal Winton?

Where was the factory based? How old were my plates? And where could I find the answers to my questions?

A few years later I entered the world of antiques. As I learned more about ceramics, I bought reference books. These helped me to date the chintz ware I'd bought and informed me that the factory using the Royal Winton backstamp was known as Grimwades and was based in Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, but I found out little more than that.

Books were available on other pottery manufacturers, but none on Grimwades.

Finally, in desperation, I decided to write the book myself. I was a freelance writer and used to researching facts. And so began the odyssey that was to take me six years. It was a slow process, frequently interrupted by other writing projects. I was also hampered by the fact that, after the take-over of the Winton Potteries by Howard Potteries in 1964, all catalogues and pattern books appeared to have been destroyed. Indeed, one Royal Winton worker who had been employed at the time told me that the main pattern book had gone "walk-about' during the move, and that all catalogues had been burned.

The museum at Stoke-on-Trent, although helpful, could find no documentary information and neither could the present day Royal Winton Company.

I was lucky enough to be put in touch with Stella Colter, the granddaughter of Leonard Grimwade who was the founder, chairman and managing director of the firm until his death in 1931, and she opened a great many doors to me. Also at this time I m a n a g e d to locate the whereabouts of several Grimwades catalogues which were to be of immense research value. The latest of these catalogues is dated 1930, when the Royal Winton chintz ware was in its infancy and no other documentary evidence, apart from short reports in The Pottery Gazette, have been uncovered.

This means that there are several gaps in information about chintz.

There are shapes I have been unable to identify, and shape names found in catalogues which I have been unable to match to manufactured items. Also there are patterns mentioned in The Pottery Gazette which do not appear to exist, neither here in the UK nor in America, Canada or Australia.

Some patterns have been found which have no identifying names; these have been given names set within quotes, such as "Violets', for