Vine Potteries: Birks Rawlins & Co.

The Vine Pottery was founded by Lawrence Arthur Birks and Charles Frederick Goodfellow in Stoke-upon-Trent in 1894. Beginning with small scale production of fine bone china tableware, the company fortunes were transformed in 1901 when Edmund G. Reuter was employed as designer. He introduced an ivory porcelain with middle eastern decoration known as 'Persindo Porcelain'. Many new designers were then attracted to the firm resulting in numerous international awards and even royal patronage from Queen Mary. Troubled times in the 1920s after the National Strike and the Wall Street Crash led ultimately to closure in 1934.