Featured Grainger the Tea Man Plate, Clever Design

Hi,
I bought this heavy dinner plate at a car boot sale in Bristol some years ago, thought it would be easy to find out about it, and haven't been able to find any information at all about "Grainger the Tea Man" or C H Wood, who patented the shape of the plate, I presume. I thought it was actually very topical, because to serve a platter of food with helpings of condiments already added would be a good idea in this era of great attention to hygiene! I think the plate must have been made prior to the introduction of the UK registration diamond in 1842, or C H Wood would probably have put his registration mark on the back. I have a vision of a coaching inn, with a coach pulling in, the horses being watered while hungry passengers pile out and are seated at a long table outside and then handed platters of meat and potatoes to gobble down before they have to get back on. Pure fantasy, of course!
Many google searches have failed to find any information about this plate. I did contact the museum at Worcester who suggested I visit the county archives there. I must get around to that when it is deemed safe to travel - it was on my to do list for this summer - but in the meantime I wonder if anyone has any ideas about the tea firm, the design or the manufacturer? I think it was a very enterprising piece of advertising in the late Georgian era (I presume), but the firm seems to have disappeared without trace.

 

Are you on Facebook? There's a terrific group - British Pottery & Porcelain Discussion Group. Very knowledgable people who would love to help.

 

Love your plate, this would be right up my collecting alley!

From the 1851 Lascelles & Co.'s Directory & Gazetteer of the City of Worcester & Neighbourhood:



EDIT: I've also found an 1840 notation of Joseph Grainger, grocer, at 16 High Street. If you want to pursue Joseph any further, there are a few references to him at newspapers dot com. I don't have a subscription there so I can't read them. I searched "Joseph Grainger" + tea + Pershore.

 

Thanks Bev, I am on Facebook but hardly ever log in. I'll have a look at that group and maybe join, sounds like a good idea, the more enthusiasts to call on the better!

Great research bluumz, do you own that Worcester directory or did you find it online? Two years of intermittent searching for +Grainger, +Worcester +Tea failed to produce any results for me, and I've just failed to find Joseph in the 1841 and 1851 censuses for Worcester, so maybe he lived somewhere else. You've solved my mystery in a few minutes! I can access lots of newspapers via FindMyPast, and I have found a few references to Joseph Grainger. He took over the grocery shop in 1835, was made an overseer for the poor in 1840, signed petitions to bring the railway to Worcester and to end hostilities between Britain and Afghanistan and China (bad for business?), signed a pledge to close the shop at 8pm along with lots of other local grocers (how long were they usually staying open?), and tragically lost two small children on successive days in February 1847. Nothing about the plate or tea, though! The plate must be a little later than I thought, probably early Victorian rather than Georgian, but could still have been used to serve passengers on coaches, because the railway didn't come to Worcester until 1852.
What are your collecting interests? I collect almost anything which takes my fancy, which is why the boxes of ceramics and books are now starting to pile up in every room. When lockdown really eases I hope to get back to listing on ebay and make a bit of space, but the auctions will reopen too so it will be a balancing act between coming in and going out, with the coming in probably winning.

 

I found it online by googling the words: Grainger tea merchant Pershore. It was actually the first item in the first page of the results.

He sounds like an interesting man!

Mine are varied. Mostly, I enjoy English pottery/china, vintage clothing and textiles, and old books about cooking or travel. My basement is full of stuff waiting to be flipped! I find treasure hunting is so much more fun that treasure selling! But I consider it all my retirement investment.

 

She's leaving out her new-found interest in cameos.

Hear, hear!

I try to keep telling myself that.

 

How could I have done that?!
(Must be because I haven't bought much in a while and I don't have them displayed, LOL.)

EDIT:
Well, I actually do have one displayed. I forgot to mention my penchant for British royalty stuff!

 

What a fabulous teapot! It makes me think of one of the many objects of desire that have got away over the years (i.e. I was outbid) - a Staffordshire teapot in a large job lot painted, I think, with flowers, underneath which I could just make out a dedication to Queen Caroline of Brunswick, the unhappy wife of George IV. The whole marriage was a notorious business and the manufacturer must have decided to stay neutral and changed its bit of royal memorabilia to something quite bland. I wonder if any unaltered ones survive.