STUNNING & VERY RARE William Smith & Co Multi Brown WEDGeWOOD Fruit Basket & Floral Transferware Plate

William Smith of Stockton on Tees, Yorkshire England 1825-55 VERY RARE Fruit Basket Plate marked WEDGeWOOD ( note the misspelling of Wedgwood!) Circa 1839 This is an absolutely gorgeous and beautifully detailed multi colored transferware plate with an incredibly detailed basket of fruit at the face and an ornate, brown border. William Smith, a builder, founded the Stafford pottery situated between Thornaby road and the river in 1825 with a clay pit in close proximity for the manufacture of brown ware. However shortly afterwards he decided to branch out into making the more saleable white ware by importing the specialist clay from the West country. Then he went headhunting in Stoke on Trent and  engaged, and ultimately took into partnership  Mr John Whalley,  a potter of considerable skill to carry out the work. Smith called his works "Stafford Pottery" (after Staffordshire- the county where Stoke-on-Trent is situated).   By late 1826 William Smith & Company were selling more whit