Manufacturer of earthenware at the Church Bank works, Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent.

• From c.1912 also at the Swan and Soho Potteries, Tunstall.

• The Booth's family business in pottery manufacture was started by Thomas Booth in Burslem in the 1850's and from 1868 at the Church Bank Works in Tunstall.

• Thomas's son - Thomas Gimbert Booth was in business with his father and in 1876 continued on his own account.  

• By 1881 the factory employed 50 Men, 60 Boys, 15 Women, and 30 Girls

• From 1883 - 1887 he was joined by his brother Frederick as T G & F Booth.

• In January 1887 Frederick left the business and Thomas Gimbert continued on his own accoint.

• The business was registered as a limited company about 1898, and Thomas acted as managing director until 1904 then as chairman.

• In 1905 Charles H Bowers was appointed general manager and under his guidance Booths became a leading manufacturer. 

• Thomas Gimbert Booth died September 1907 and was buried in the churchyard of St. Margaret, Wolstanton

• By 1914 the company employed 800 people

• In the 1920s the Person Group acquired an interest in Booths and then later full ownership - the name Booths was retained.

• Booths remained open during the Second World War under the Wartime Concentration Scheme - they were permitted to produce undecorated domestic ware. They also produced canteen ware for the British armed forces.

• In 1944 Booths acquired Colclough China Ltd - merging with them in 1948 to become Booths & Colclough Ltd 

Staffordshire Advertiser 
28th September 1940

The Late Mr. C. E. Green

The funeral took place in London on Monday of Mr. Charles Edward Green, who was well known in the North Staffordshire pottery industry as chainrman of directors of Booths Ltd. Tunstall. 

Mr Green, who was 74 years of age, was a son of the late Mr. Thomas Allen Green, a member of the noted Fenton pottery family of Green, and a cousin of Mr. Samuel Green, of the Crown Staffordshire Porcelain Co., Ltd., whose death occured last week. 

Deceased became associated with [Messers.] T. G. and F. Booth, tile manufacturers, of Tunstall, in 1886, and [under his] direction it developed into a large earthenware business, the present company being formed in 1900, with Mr. Green as financial director. He had been chairman since the death of Mr. T. G. Booth.

His wife, who survives him, was a Mis Louise Cass, daughter of Sir John Cass, of Yorkshire. Their daughter, the Marquisa Malacrida, was killed in a motoring accident in 1934.   

Booths 'Real Old Willow' plate

pattern number: 9072
used c.1906 to 1944 

Booths 'Real Old Willow' plate

pattern number: A8025
introduced 1944 and used by Booths
and also subsequent Booths companies into the 1980's

NOTE: Royal Doulton produced the Booths 'Real Old Willow' pattern under its own name from c.1981 to 1999
the name 'Real Old Willow' has also appeared on Royal Albert branded bone china ware

impressed mark and date of manufacture - Jan 1917

Royal Semi Porcelain
Canterbury Pattern
Booths
England 

typical style of mark used c. 1891 - 1906

often including the name of the pattern

Royal Siam Porcelain
Canterbury Pattern
Booths
England 

Note the name "Royal Siam Porcelain" - this mark occurs on a few items in the Canterbury pattern, most have the typical "Royal Semi Porcelain" 

It is assumed that this was an engravers mistake

This trade name was used c.1906 onwards

CHESWICK is the pattern name

printed mark 1912+

Typical mark with or without "England" or "Made in England" underneath the mark.

Often with "1750" divided either side of the mark.

The date of 1750 is not that of Booths Ltd who started operation in 1891. 
The earliest date of Thomas Booth & Co. was c.1868 at the Knowels Works in Burslem.
The 1750 either refers to a distant relation or to the date that a potworks that Booths used was first established.

in addition to the printed mark this example has the impressed name BOOTHS together with the numbers 7.27


7.27 is the date of manufacture - July 1927

The numbers 7.38 indicate the date of manufacture - July 1938

"GR VI" is the Cypher for King George VI who became king of the United Kingdom 
(Great Britain and Northern Ireland) in 1936. 

Booths (and others) were given government contracts throughout the late 1930s and into the 1940s (WWII) and produced canteen ware - most likely for the armed services.

printed mark with impressed BOOTHS

MING is the pattern name