Richard Chaffers

pieces by Chaffers in the Victoria and Albert Museum

Richard Chaffers (1731 – 8 December 1765)[1][2] was a pottery manufacturer in Liverpool, England.

Life

Cup and saucer by Richard Chaffers & Company; transfer-printed soft-paste porcelain. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Chaffers, son of a shipwright in Liverpool, started in business at Shaw's Brow in 1752. He produced blue and white porcelain, mainly for export to the American colonies.[1][2]

In 1755 Robert Podmore, a potter from the porcelain factory in Worcester, showed him and his business partner Philip Christian how to make porcelain using soapstone, discovered in Mullion Cove in Cornwall; Chaffers subsequently became a rival to Josiah Wedgwood.[1][2] Many pieces from the factory have transfer printing by John Sadler.[3]

Chaffers died in 1765, and was buried at the Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas, Liverpool.[1] Philip Christian continued the business until 1778, trading as Philip Christian & Co, and later as Philip Christian and Son.[2]

See also

• Liverpool porcelain
• William Chaffers

References

1. Seccombe, Thomas (1901). "Chaffers, William" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). Vol. 1. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 409.
2. Richard Chaffers & Co (Biographical details) The British Museum. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
3. Richard Chaffers & Co. (maker) Printed British Pottery and Porcelain. Retrieved 17 October 2018.