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As a young man he worked as an assistant to his uncle, who was a stationery salesman.
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Next door was a Chinese porcelain shop whose owner died in 1775, leaving his 9-year-old daughter Ruth an extensive estate and a fortune of over $55,000.
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Seven years later Ruth and Miles married, giving birth to four children, a daughter and three sons.
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From his late father-in-law's shop began Miles Mason's journey in the ceramics trade. He soon found contacts with manufacturers and started production himself.
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At the end of the 18th century the East India Company auctioned porcelain twice a year and the market was divided between major players who colluded.
Without bidding against each other, they bought the porcelain cheaply and then shared it among themselves.
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By the end of the century the East India Company was winding down mass imports, which created a great opportunity for English manufacturers to fill the gap and increase production of oriental ceramics.
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Mason was wealthy enough to open a pottery factory in Staffordshire with his own money. In 1806 Mason's factory began production under the fictitious name of Minerva Works. Three sons joined the business and the factory soon became known simply as Mason's.
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Unsurprisingly, Miles' previous experience with Oriental porcelain strongly influenced the appearance of the early pieces.
In 1813 Charles James Mason - the youngest son - took out a patent for ironstone porcelain. This hardened earthenware was used extensively for table porcelain and also for industrial purposes: floors, cookers and fireplaces.
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Because of its extraordinary strength, ironstone became the most successful product made by Minerva, and the Mason name spread throughout England and Europe. The rapid growth of the company was fuelled by the marriage of Charles to Sarah Spode, granddaughter of the great Josiah Spode. As a result, Minerva Works acquired a second factory run by the Spode family.
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By the 1820s ironstone products were being produced in a great variety of motifs, with Italian and English landscapes being added to the oriental patterns.
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Decline and closure
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In 1969 the company was renamed Mason's Ironstone Ltd and began reproducing many of its previously successful series such as Vista, Denmark Blue, Christmas Village, Regency-Plantation Colonial and Mandalay (in that order in the photo).
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Their design combines the simple elegance of oriental elegance with the vibrancy of English art.
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In 1973, like many of their contemporaries, Mason's was taken over by the Wedgwood Group and sadly shut down for good in 2000.
Photo source: Pinterest