ESSEX ART POTTERY CO.

Edward Bingham's Headingham Art Pottery (1864-1901) failed in 1901 and the business and premises were bought by Hexter Humpherson & Co., owners of the Aller Vale and Watcombe Potteries. Bingham's son, Edward William Bingham (who had assumed ownership of the Headingham Art Pottery from his father in 1899) continued as manager for the new owners under the new name of 'Essex Art Pottery Co'. The business was short-lived and was closed in 1905. The Pottery manufactured ware for the local agricultural industries – pipes, crocks etc – combining this mundane business with the production of art pottery. Edward Bingham was without formal art training, but had a keen interest in local and classical history. His art ware - vases, urns, tygs and the like - were often based on museum originals or prints obtained in his travels and decorated with scenes and events from local and classical history. However eccentric the mix of styles and decoration, the pottery found a market through the Victorian interest in ‘country pottery' in the 1880s and 1890s.Wares may be marked with a representation of Castle Headingham or with incised inscriptions of the form 'Bingham, Castle Headingham, Essex’.

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