Biography for William Howson Taylor

Employment

In 1898, William Howson Taylor's father, Edward Richard Taylor, the Principal at the Birmingham School of Art, founded The Ruskin Pottery, named after the artist John Ruskin whose teachings and philosophy Taylor so admired. William took over the pottery in 1912.The company experimented with glazes, producing results that were quite different from anything seen before. The recipes for the glazes were kept secret, and when William Howson Taylor died in 1935 the recipes went to the grave with him.In the early 1900's, the Ruskin Pottery introduced small round cabochons, which they called 'enamels' or 'plaques'. The idea was to use them as gems for inserting into wood, or mounting into metal and jewellery.