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“but like all other attempts they do not equal the productions of S&G for
Mr Wedgwood,” the implication being that Thomas Rothwell was being
employed as an engraver.
There are some examples of engravings for transfer printing signed by
Rothwell c1763-1767. Stretton is unsure whether these engravings were
done at Liverpool or Hanley. At the time Stretton’s work was published
(1966) there was in his collection a creamware bowl with a black print of a
shepherd and shepherdess in a rural landscape signed ‘Rothwell Sculpt’.
Also extant were two teapots of this period in Liverpool Museum one with
a black transfer print of Minerva surrounded by clouds and symbols of
Wisdom and the legend ‘Let Wisdom Unite Us’ signed ‘T Rothwell
Sculpt.’Also in the City of Liverpool Museum is an unmarked mug
ornamented with a Scene of ‘The Death of Wolfe’ printed in black. This
print was signed ‘Rothwell sculpt’. Elizabeth Collard in ‘The Potters View
of Canada’ postulates that Rothwell worked for one of the early
creamware potters of Liverpool. A tea caddy currently on the Internet with
Cathcart Antiques of Australia has the identical print which is attributed to
Rothwell and the caddy being attributed to Neale, the point here being that
if this attribution is correct then it confirms that Rothwell was at H.Palmer
at Hanley, bearing in mind that Palmer’s dates were 1760 –1788 and
Palmer and Neale were in partnership from 1769-1776 at the Church
Works, Hanley. It is now generally accepted that Rothwell was with
Humphrey Palmer during this period.
The second teapot in Liverpool Museum again has a black print of ‘The
Haymakers’ signed ‘T.Rothwell Delin Et Sculpt’. This ‘The Haymakers’
print also occurs on the reverse of a teapot in the Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge. This print is signed ‘T.R.S.’. The other side of that teapot has a
black print of a man and a woman sitting at a table on which stands a
coffee pot and cup and saucer, the man smokes a long stemmed clay pipe,
the whole print is surrounded by a framework of rococo scrolls and
flowers. Incidentally ‘The Haymakers’ print on the Cambridge teapot is
taken from the same copper plate used on the Liverpool Museum teapot.
After completing our research we are still unable to ascertain with
certainty whether Shaw is right and that Rothwell was employed by
Palmer at Hanley or whether he was still at Liverpool perhaps being
employed by Sadler and Green. According to E Stanley Price, in addition
to five named engravers employed by Sadler and Green (John Evans,
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