1882 Ltd. is a design driven ceramics brand produced in Stoke-on-Trent, England formed by fourth and fifth generations of the Johnson Brothers family.
At the core of 1882 Ltd. is a drive to marry progressive design and industrial craftsmanship. We produce a combination of essential everyday objects and special pieces, each one highlighting the centuries of heritage craft skills and knowledge that reside in Stoke-on-Trent, the heart of the British ceramics industry.
1882 Ltd. was established in 2011 by Emily Johnson and her father, Christopher, the fourth and fifth generations of the famous Johnson Brothers pottery family, based in Stoke-on-Trent. Emily and Christoper continue the Johnson legacy with a company name that evokes the deep roots of family heritage, expertise and passion.
Our ceramics are to be used, loved and desired. Each collection has a different spirit because we work with a variety of leading British and international artists, designers, and even pop stars; but each collection always stay true to our core beliefs which centres on celebrating the importance of the human hand in everything we do.
Our focus is on both shining a light on the processes behind how something is made and the skills built over generations that this requires, as well as celebrating importance of good design. We will always champion superlative quality that will last the test of time.
In 2021 we proudly took the opportunity to no longer outsource from various factories around Stoke-on-Trent but to establish 1882 Ltd.’s home on part of the factory floor of the Wedgwood factory in Barlaston. We have now outgrown this space – we moved in with four potters and four kilns, and we now have 23 potters and 11 kilns.
We will always pursue the unique, the impossible, the daring, the naughty and the pleasing – aesthetically, texturally, emotionally, physically – because we will always make what we love.
RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS
Since forming 1882 Ltd., Emily has remained ceaselessly true to the ceramic brand’s manifesto of quality, innovation and modernity. She has collaborated with pioneering artists and designers such as artists Barnaby Barford and Bruce McLean, designers Max Lamb and Faye Toogood, architectural designer John Pawson, fashion designer Giles Deacon, popstar Robbie Williams and Oscar & Bafta award-winning set designer Shona Heath on producing works of art as well as everyday objects and tableware.
Each collaboration takes 1882 Ltd. to new heights, challenging the way they push the boundaries of the material (bone china, earthenware, stoneware), the techniques of finishing, glazing and gilding, and the parameters, proportions and machinations required to physically produce a piece so that it can actually sit, stand, pour, hold water or salad.
With Barnaby Barford, 1882 Ltd. was tasked to produce the stunning ‘Tower of Babel’, exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum from September – November 2015. An awe-inspiring six and a half metres tall, it comprised 3,000 uniquely decorated fine bone china mini shops. Each building was hand-made in exquisite detail – a true testament to the specialist skills of the potters in Stoke-on-Trent.
In 2017 ‘Garden Ware’ with acclaimed conceptual artist Bruce McLean was exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, proceeded by a follow-up exhibition at the New Art Center in Salisbury, Wiltshire in May 2018.
‘Crockery’, a collaboration between Max Lamb and 1882 Ltd. of vases, plates, bowls, mugs and jugs (and even a collectible chair) in white, black and candy pink has been included in the permanent collection of the Louvre’s Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris. ‘Tryst’, produced with ceramicist Amy J Hughes, has been included in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
In 2019, we started to work on the first of many commissions in collaboration with the globally successful British beauty brand Jo Malone London. The first was ‘Up the Garden Path’ with Oscar & Bafta award winning set designer Shona Heath, a limited collection of vessels for scented candles, inspired by the otherworldly magic and romance of an English garden, launched in 2021. The style was not traditional, but the skill set required was time honoured – each piece skilfully cast, assembled (the most complex design executed in six parts), and hand painted. Since then, other candle collaborations have included working with creative polymath Martyn Thompson on two collections.
For British Nigerian multi-disciplinary artist and designer Yinka Ilori MBE’s takeover of Sotheby’s Public Café on London’s New Bond Street in September 2024, 1882 Ltd. helped to produce a limited-edition dove-topped bottle-shaped urn that stood over one-metre-high. The ‘trophy’ – fashioned by hand and decorated in the blue and white of the late 18th century chinoiserie-inspired Willow pattern, but resonant also of the indigo-coloured fabrics of his Nigerian heritage – was created in tribute to Ilori’s multi-cultural childhood home in Islington and the lives of immigrant families in the UK.
Other 1882 Ltd. collections are sold in retail outlets all over the world, from Japan and China to Europe and the USA.
THE JOHNSON BROTHERS
In 1882 the J.W. Pankhurst Company declared themselves bankrupt, the business sold at a receivers’ sale. Bought by Alfred and Frederick Johnson (grandsons of the renowned English potter Alfred Meakin), the partnership became the Johnson Brothers. The factory was situated in Hanley, the largest of the ‘Six Towns’ (alongside Burslem, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton, and Stoke), which joined together to form the city of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910 (officially granted city status in 1925), which was soon lovingly known as the Potteries.
The company produced mainly white ware which was popular at the time. Within a few years they introduced under-glaze printed ware, a commodity for which, over many years, they became renowned. The end of the Civil War in America had created a great demand for consumer goods and Johnson Brothers took quick advantage of the opportunities to trade with America.
With the increased demand, the factory grew and in 1889, the brothers first built Hanley Pottery and then Imperial Pottery, the two factories situated opposite each other on Eastwood Road, Hanley. 1896 also saw the opening of a new venture for the brothers, the Trent Sanitary Works. In 1895, they opened another factory in the north of the city, named ‘Alexander Pottery’ after the then Princess of Wales, Alexandra of Denmark, the wife of Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales who would later become King Edward VII. A year later, they added a new venture, the Trent Sanitary Works, to their empire.
By the 1950s, the Johnson Brothers were producing 1 million pieces of pottery a week, each made with knowledge learnt from and carried forward from the shop floor across every department. They were awarded a Royal Warrant by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and received the Queen’s Award to Industry twice in a row. Ever innovative, one of the most identifiable collections of last century was the Johnson Brothers’ Heritage White – its unexpected octagonal shape perfect for the increasingly modernist world.
GENERATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE
The Johnson Brothers started producing ceramics in Stoke-on-Trent in 1882. By the 1950’s the Johnson Brothers were producing 1 million pieces of pottery a week. The knowledge has been learned from the shop floor and through every department.
1882 Ltd co-founder, Chris Johnson worked in the industry for 63 years. He proclaims that he knows very little and is ‘just a simple Potter’. Emily Johnson has a very steep learning curve ahead of her and few years to catch up on.
OUR BEGINNINGS
The Johnson Brothers started producing ceramics in Stoke-on-Trent in 1882. By the 1950’s the Johnson Brothers were producing 1 million pieces of pottery a week. The knowledge has been learned from the shop floor and through every department.
Chris Johnson has worked in the industry for 63 years in 2021. He proclaims that he knows very little and is ‘just a simple Potter’. Emily Johnson has a very steep learning curve ahead of her and few years to catch up on.
Owner
EMILY JOHNSON
Stoke born and raised, Emily Johnson left school in search of adventure, landing in California in her early twenties and staying for almost a decade selling television advertising. When she returned home to the UK to study for a master’s degree in architectural interior design, she was required to choose a material to study in detail. She chose fine bone china and, in the process, realised that not only did she know more than she thought about this age-old material, but she became acutely aware of how undervalued it was as a vehicle for innovative design. For her final year project, she designed a series of thin, cylindrical bone china lights that at first seemed impossible to make but came to life with help from her father. It sparked the beginnings of what would become 1882 Ltd. and with that a drive to not only create fresh, intriguing, inspiring and forward-thinking designs, but to support the ceramics industry of Stoke-on-Trent.
