Galaware (Denby)

Galaware was a line of tableware made by Denby Pottery in the 1950s.  Some of it was designed by Frederick Cooper and Tibor Reich, both major designers of the day.  Their ceramics were only marked “Galaware” and exported to Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand.  Never made in large volumes, what little remains today rarely comes up for sale.

These ramekins were designed in the 1950s by Frederick Cooper for Denby to be sold exclusively through T. Eaton and Co. (Eatons Stores) in Canada. The range was very successful in North America. Influenced by the American Industrial Designer Russel (with one l) Wright.  His designs are still produced by Bauer Pottery in the US.

Denby pottery was made by a two-hundred year old English company in Denby, Derbyshire.  They originally made china, porcelain and stoneware tableware, as well as later branching out into glassware and cooking utensils.  A body of clay was discovered during roadworks in 1806 and two locals, Jacob and Brohier began making stoneware bottles.  Later, in 1815, local businessmen William and his sons John and Joseph Bourne took over.  William came from a family of potters.  They took over a couple of other potteries, naming the company “Joseph Bourne and Company,” a name it kept.  Their pottery is usually marked “Bourne Denby England.”

Expanding rapidly because of the new railways cris-crossing England, they dug 25 tons of clay daily to be used in their patented kilns.  They produced a huge range of pottery during the 19^th Century from ink-wells and insulators to water filters and everything in between.  They produced decorative as well as utilitarian wares in clay, slip and terra-cotta.

Denby continued to make decorative homewares until the early 1950s when they then began to concentrate on tablewares, such as these ramekins, wartime restrictions being recently lifted.  Designed by Albert Colledge (1891-1972) in 1951, his “Peasant Ware” pattern on another post is an example.   It is claimed that they can withstand oven temperatures, but I wouldn’t try it, just in case.  Ramekins are intended to be used to cook food in, but, due to their age and rarity, don’t risk it.  These are earlier than their “Oven to Table” ware and are described as being “tough, ovenproof and long lasting”.

Like many companies in the 1980s, Denby was taken over.  In 1987 they were bought by the Coloroll group, an English home furnishings company from Manchester who themselves went into receivership in 1990.  Unwilling to let the company die, Denby was then subject to a management buyout by the Managing Director and a few other executives, and subsequently publicly floated in 1994; it was a bargain.  Bought for 6 million, it floated for around 40 million, although a lot went to pay off debt.  Today, Denby still produce a wide variety of products including fine china and porcelain, as well as that old staple, stoneware.

Since then, Denby has purchased other companies such as Burgess, Dorling & Leigh, Poole and Leeds Pottery.  Since the buyout, they have opened many more retail outlets and increased staff.  As well as pottery, they also make cast-iron products.

Denby now sells into more than thirty countries including Japan, South Korea, North America and China.  In 2011 export sales increased over 30%.  Despite this increase in exports, production remains in the UK.  A new distribution warehouse is planned, as is a new visitor centre, shopping centre and hotel are well progressed.