In the 1850s the raw materials for making pottery and porcelain, specifically feldspar and kaolin, were discovered on the Castlecaldwell estate, Belleek, Co. Fermanagh. The estate’s owner, John Caldwell Bloomfield, in partnership with architect Robert Williams Armstrong and merchant David McBirney, built a pottery at Belleek. Experienced potters were brought from Stoke-on-Trent to train local employees and production started c.1860. Initially the firm, known as McBirney & Armstrong, concentrated on useful earthenwares for domestic and institutional use, and while it produced some decorative porcelain from the 1860s, earthenware remained the main product until the 1920s. The plaited baskets and modelled flowers that Belleek became famous for were introduced c.
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1867 and the firm also made a range of Parian figures. The firm’s goods were exported widely, and their porcelain was highly regarded. McBirney died in 1882 and Armstong two years later. A new group of investors acquired the assets of the firm and formed the Belleek Pottery Works Company Ltd., which operated until 1920 when it got into financial difficulties. The pottery was bought for £10,000 and renamed Belleek Pottery Ltd., making both earthenware and porcelain. After World War II the production of earthenware ceased, and the firm concentrated on its decorative porcelains using a glazed Parian porcelain body. The company changed hands several times in the 1980s and is now known as the Belleek Pottery Group, having acquired Galway Crystal in 1993, Donegal China in 2000 and the Staffordshire brand, Aynsley China, in 1997.
Text source: Miranda Goodby
