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Truly a quintessential British brand, Emma Bridgewater specialises in beautiful handmade pottery. Manufactured in Stoke-on-Trent in the heart of the English Potteries, Emma and her team have built a brand of pottery with true British character.
At David Shuttle, we are proud to stock the entire range of Emma Bridgewater tableware, glassware and other gift items. From humble beginnings our selection is now unsurpassed by any other independent retailer. We have accrued marvellous knowledge of the brand as well as a portfolio of new ranges and historical imaginative pieces. View Our New Emma Bridgewater Items
Choose from our two most popular patterns such as Polka Dots and Toast & Marmalade. For a slightly different twist, consider the Blues or, for the lovers of pink, maybe Emma Bridgewater's Pink collection. For enjoyment all year round, you'll need the beautiful Textiles to compliment your striking pottery.
During the festive period, what better way to get into the spirit than with Emma Bridgewater's Christmas collection.
Emma Bridgewater pottery is handmade in Stoke-on-Trent by the talented pottery decorators who painstakingly decorate each piece with either spongeware designs or intricate litho transfers. Subsequently, every piece of Emma Bridgewater is unique. It is important customers understand the nuances of the manufacturing process and that each item that is purchased may arrive slightly differently to the image we provide on our website. We do not ship faulty or second quality goods, but if the perceived fault is merely a difference in the decoration process, we will ask customers to burden the costs of delivery requirements.
Emma Bridgewater is a brand that really captures the imagination. With its iconic shapes and designs which are fresh and original, the products are already cemented in pottery history as classics.
More about Emma Bridgewater
A lot of people ask us whether there is a real Emma Bridgewater, and we are happy to say yes! Emma Bridgewater Ltd is a British company owned and run by husband and wife Emma (Bridgewater) and Matthew Rice. The core of the business is pottery, which is made with loving care in much the same way as it would have been in Victorian times when our factory was built.
The company was born in 1985, when Emma was looking for a birthday present for her mother. She wanted to buy a cup and saucer, but in the shops she couldn’t find anything that she liked; the choices seemed to be either bewilderingly formal bone china with stiff silver or gold patterns, or clunky earthenware. She liked some of the colourful Italian designs that she saw, but being made of terracotta, they would crack or chip in the dishwasher. So she set out to design it herself.
Emma drew four shapes, a mug, a bowl, a jug and a dish. She went to Stoke-on-Trent to find a model-maker; she worked with him to get these first pieces just right. Luckily, her strong preference for cream earthenware was easily met as this was still in wide production in many large and small potteries in the city. Staffordshire earthenware has had a world-wide reputation since Josiah Wedgwood pioneered his beautiful creamware in the early 1800s. When her shapes were sampled, she started experimenting with the forgotten decorative technique of sponge printing, applying simple patterns with a cut sponge. She showed these samples to a selection of buyers, who almost all placed orders, and the show was on the road.
Stoke-on-Trent, the midlands city known as The Potteries, became the focus of Emma’s working life. At first, she had her designs made under contract, but within a few years, her company acquired their own manufacturing facility and soon expanded into a big nineteenth century factory on the Caldon canal, where they still make all of their ceramics (with the exception of some lines such as plates, which are locally outsourced). Many Emma Bridgewater designs are also adapted for application onto textiles, glass, tin, stationery and melamine, and lots of further developments are planned in the studio. Wherever possible, these new products are sourced in the UK.
Today, Emma’s husband Matthew also designs for Emma Bridgewater. He indulges his passion for birdlife in the best-selling and highly collectible Birds range. Matthew has always had an interest in lettering since his art master taught him how to produce bold italic for posters at school, and this interest gave the inspiration for the Black Toast range.
Emma Bridgewater is very proud of the fact that they are the sixth biggest employer of potters in Staffordshire. Stoke-on-Trent is rightfully proud of its reputation as home to the Potteries and Emma Bridgewater are delighted to affirm their commitment to Stoke-on-Trent and to playing our part in the local business community.
Emma Bridgewater make their wares in a warm cream coloured earthenware which is a quintessential Staffordshire product, drawing on a long and well-evolved expertise and a tradition which stretches back 200 years.
