High and Low Lights, North Shields

Thanks to Ian Holmes for sending photos of a jug attributed to John Carr. It has the verse transfer on the plaque in my Aug 3rd posting.  It also has a transfer titled 'Shields the mouth of River Tyne', showing the High and Low Lights, North Shields.  (Click on images to enlarge.)

Now, here I have to confess to having never visited North Shields. So it came as a revelation to me that the name of John Carr's 'Low Lights' Pottery, refers to the lower of two lighthouses, built in 1802, just inside the mouth of the Tyne.  (Again, click on the details below to enlarge.) In the detail of the transfer, note the two kilns to the right of the lower lighthouse. The right photo, taken from Google, shows the view from a similar perspective today.

For interest, here's the transfer on Ian Sharpe's jug, showing the view from South Shields, down river towards Tynemouth (see my August 3rd posting). The High and Low Lights are concealed from view behind the cliffs on the left (Ian Holmes drew me an excellent map). The buildings on the left of the cliff top seem to relate to Tynemouth Castle or Priory (not kilns as first supposed).  The large ruin in the centre is Tynemouth Priory.  The tower on the right was used as a lighthouse until the new St Mary's lighthouse was built in 1898. The bottom right photo (lifted from Sabre) is roughly from the same place.  The building on the right is a modern coastgaurd centre.

In the August 3rd post I showed photos of the base of a bachelor set with the Tynemouth Haven transfer, and a 'C. C. & Co' printed mark.  Ian Sharp thought that the item looked c1840, whereas the Cornfoot, Colville and Co partnership ended sometime c1832.  I queried why one of the later partnerships would use the C. C. & Co mark. Thanks to Keith Bell for getting in touch with what looks like the answer...

I have found an advertisement which was carried in the Northumberland Advertiser of 13th March 1832, headed 'North Shields Pottery' and going on to inform the public that the North Shields Earthenware Manufactory is now carried on under the name of "Cornfoot, Carr and Co." and continuing "C.C. & Co. take this opportunity of announcing....."

So the C. C. & Co mark appears to have been used beyond 1832 and perhaps into the 1840s. This has implications for the circular plaques with the impressed C. C. & Co mark. Perhaps some of them were produced later than is generally supposed.