This article details what happened to Carlton Ware’s registered trademark after the Pottery closed in 1989 following voluntary liquidation.
The closure and sale of the Pottery eventually led to the building known as the Carlton Works being sold and subsequently converted into student accommodation and workshops. Below is a picture taken in 2007, much as it is today.
Notice the inset showing the "ghost sign" above goods entrance and porters lodge at the side of the building.
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The 1989 Liquidation of Carlton Ware
During the voluntary liquidation, Carlton Ware's pattern and shape books, selected moulds, goodwill, and—most significantly—the registered trademark were sold to John McCluskey. Limited production of Carlton Ware continued at Mr McCluskey’s factory on an industrial estate in Stone, approximately ten miles away, where he produced ceramic hardware for doors and furniture. However, his Carlton Ware enterprise was short-lived, ending after three years or so, around 1992.
In 1997, following several years of dormancy, Mr McCluskey sold the Carlton Ware trademark to the London-based Francis Joseph Salmon. The trademark—now commonly referred to as the Script backstamp—was originally registered by Cuthbert Wiltshaw in 1926 and is shown at the beginning of this article.
Francis Joseph Salmon –
trading as Francis Joseph
During his ownership of the registered trademark, Mr Salmon—without a pottery of his own—outsourced production to various Staffordshire manufacturers, including Moorland Pottery, Peggy Davis Ceramics, and Bairstow Manor Pottery. However, most of the businessman's introductions lacked the originality on which Carlton Ware had built its reputation.
Initially, Mr Salmon's wares were sold primarily by mail order through a club that he set up in 1998, called the Carlton Ware Collectors Club. The club had an annual membership fee of £35—not to be confused with CWCI (Carlton Ware Club International), which was professionally run by Helen and Keith Martin and launched slightly earlier. Through its magazines and meetings, CWCI provided information on original Carlton Ware produced between 1890 and the closure of the Pottery in 1989.
Target Audience
Mr Salmon’s trademarked branded ware was aimed at the so-called “collectibles” and “investment” market, with each piece produced in small limited editions and a multitude of colour combinations, sent with a "Certificate of Authenticity".
Numerous trials—including colour trials, studio trials, samples, prototypes, artist’s proofs, and show specials—were created as part of a deliberate strategy to foster perceived rarity among collectors. Consequently, these items could be marketed at higher prices. Claims were also made that Mr Salmon's ware was being sold on the secondary market (eBay, etc.) for significantly higher prices. By 2015, however, these sales methods may have run their course, as production of Mr Salmon’s trademarked branded ware had ceased.
Backstamp-itis!
At first, the new owner added the letters TM or tm in superscript at the end of the trademark—or, less commonly, the standard registered trademark symbol ®. Occasionally, the word Genuine was incorporated into some of Mr Salmon's multitude of backstamps.
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However, on much of the businessman's branded ware, these symbols were omitted—possibly to suggest an earlier date of manufacture.
Some of Mr Salmon's backstamps were highly detailed, particularly those used on his Royale Nostalgia Collection introduced around 2006. An example—shown on the right—unusually adapted a backstamp published in the Pottery Gazette in 1926: known as the Coronet mark, it was a reworking of the earlier Crown mark though it was never used on the Carlton Works; the script mark was chosen instead as a more modern backstamp.
The fancifully named Royale Nostalgia Collection focused on designs from the past, or was at least influenced by them. Of all of the backstamps that Mr Salmon devised, these were the most showy, presumably intended to appeal to collectors of new wares—collectors do like a good backstamp, though perhaps not ones quite so contrived.
Detailed marks were among the marketing ploys of the American-owned Franklin Mint, which promoted its products as future heirlooms or investments. One wonders whether this was the business model Mr Salmon adopted. The Franklin Mint controversially produced unauthorised memorabilia, and its reputation eventually declined due to overproduction and inflated claims of rarity—factors that ultimately diluted the value of many items.
Pastiche
For the first ten years or so, many of Mr Salmon's products were imitative, including copies of designs by Clarice Cliff and "Boo Boo" figurines originally produced by Shelley Potteries in the 1930s, along with reinterpretations of several Carlton Ware patterns from the same period. Below are examples.
Figurines
Around the year 2000, Mr Salmon introduced a series of figurines named the Carlton Girl, depicting nude women provocatively draped against flower heads. One, Carlton Girl – Sunflower, was modelled by Andy Moss. The accompanying publicity was equally florid, stating:
“This Carlton Girl lies on a bed of sunflowers, the flowers forming a backdrop and gently caressing her body. It is a lovely scene of sweet innocence and youth.”
Although the well-modelled figurines were promoted as being in the Art Deco style, their seductive poses more closely resemble American pin-ups from the 1940s and 1950s. Some of the other nude figures were modelled by Douglas V. Tootle. As with most of Mr Salmon’s ware, they were marketed as limited editions and offered in a wide variety of decorations.
Bagpuss
In 2003, Mr Salmon introduced a model of Bagpuss, though it remains unclear whether a licensing agreement was in place with Smallfilms, who held copyright at the time for the original creative content by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin. The manufacturer remains unknown at present.
To the right is an image of the slightly ambiguous Certificate of Authenticity included with purchases of Bagpuss. Tap or click on it to enlarge. Similar certificates accompanied many of Mr Salmon’s other wares.
There were no subsequent sets. The collaboration was
short-lived and appears to have been a one-off.
Pendelfin Miniatures
Also in 2003, Mr Salmon produced models of whimsical rabbits to mark the 50th anniversary of Pendelfin Studios, based in Burnley, Lancashire. The studio was founded in 1953 by Jean Walmsley Heap and Jeanie Todd, two freelance artists.
As far as I can establish, Mr Salmon was officially licensed to produce the commemorative, sentimentalised rabbits— or at least, his certificates of authenticity issued with each example say so. One such example is shown on the right. Tap or click to enlarge
Pieces were available through mail order and sent boxed with their certificates of authenticity. I have not been able yet to establish who in Staffordshire made them.
Golly Gosh!
In 2004, three years after the marmalade and jam maker Robertson's discontinued its use of the "Golly" image as a brand logo, Mr Salmon introduced a number of limited edition figurines based on the controversial caricature created by Florence Upton in 1895. His "Golly" figurines were promoted through leaflets titled The Original Golly Times, issued by "The Original Golly Company", a name Mr Salmon had feigned for their distribution.
The figures drew criticism for causing offence to many Black people. As a result, several national newspapers declined to carry advertising for the products. Despite this, over a number of years, Mr Salmon greatly expanded the range of his "Golly" figures, eventually creating his TOGC Club (The One Hundred Golly Club). Most, if not all, figures were modelled by Tony Cartlidge.
Artworks Raid
From around 2007–2008, Mr Salmon began using illustrations from the books of Lucy Dawson, Florence Upton, and Mabel Lucie Attwell on various items, reinforcing the impression that they had originated in the earlier part of the twentieth century. Of the three, only Florence Upton’s work was out of copyright, as more than seventy years had passed since her death in 1922. The illustrations by Lucy Dawson (d. 1954) and Mabel Lucie Attwell (d. 1964) remained under copyright.
Mr Salmon also invented the fictitious company name LA Ltd, which appeared as part of a backstamp on wares featuring copies of some of Miss Attwell's illustrations, as well as figures based on them. The sham company name MLA Ltd was likewise used on leaflets to promote the same wares. Neither company name has any connection to Mabel Lucie Attwell's estate, as might be implied; nor, it appears, were they registered as limited companies at Companies House in London during Mr Salmon's ownership of the trademark.
Another of Mr Salmon's marketing ploys was to backstamp wares with the name The Old Chintz Company, which also appears to have been fictitious.
Confusion Marketing?
Initially, Mr Salmon's wares were sold through a club that he conceived in 1998, called the Carlton Ware Collectors Club with an annual membership fee of £35. An associated website, www.carltonware.co.uk, allowed members to purchase ware and prospective members to join.
In 2008, the Collectors Club model—with its membership fee—was abandoned as a sales channel, and Mr Salmon formed a new company called Carlton Ware Direct Ltd, for “the provision of Carlton Ware branded ceramic products.” At this point, www.carltonware.co.uk was replaced by a new platform, www.carltonwaredirect.com (now defunct).
For some reason, in 2013, Carlton Ware Direct Ltd was renamed Carlton Worldwide Ltd—possibly in an attempt to suggest a connection with the authoritative non-profit website Carlton Ware World—this site. However, no such link existed.
The myriad of different yet similarly named companies is confusing—perhaps deliberately so.
Brief Encounters
In 1999, Mr Salmon had an association with Lorna Bailey, whose designs were inspired by Clarice Cliff; in 2000, with the highly skilled Marie and Peter Graves; and around 2011, with the equally skilled Anita Harris. For reasons that can only be guessed at—perhaps due to strained working relationships or commercial tensions—these affiliations were short-lived.
Mr Salmon also produced some rudimentary designs of his own, using the monogram FS, as did the decorator Lynn Cyples, who signed her pieces with the monogram LC.
Plagiarism?
Along the way, Mr Salmon introduced his "Footware"—copying Roger Michel and Danka Napiorkowska's Walking Ware concept; snowman models echoing Raymond Briggs's 1978 The Snowman; and toucan figures reminiscent of the Guinness advertising ware. The list goes on.
Epilogue
Mr Salmon’s ware mostly lacked originality; he drew heavily on past designs and concepts, often borrowing from those who had become household names.
In some respects, Mr Salmon debased the Carlton Ware name. Yet through his multifarious output, he helped sustain some of the skills for which the Potteries had long been renowned. However, capitalising on the reputation of a respected pottery—and its loyal customer base—could only go so far. ❑
© 2025 HP.
Harvey Pettit, July 2025.