A Spotlight on Emma Bridgewater
From The Potteries
to Piccadilly.
Emma Bridgewater is both a British ceramicist and founder of the classic pottery brand of the same name. You'll most likely recognise her iconic half pint mugs, each lovingly crafted by Emma's team and brimming with charm. Noticing the unique beauty of each pottery piece, Fortnum's was one of Emma Bridgewater's first stockists - and today we even have a collection of oh-so-lovely collaborative mugs!
Learn Emma Bridgewater's story, how each of her wonderful pieces are created, and shop our collaborative mugs below...
The Emma Bridgewater story began with a simple gift. Emma was searching for two teacups for her mother in 1985 and found nothing with the charm she had in mind – so she decided to make them herself. A friend pointed her towards Stoke-on-Trent, where generations of pottery craftspeople helped her discover the spongeware techniques and riverbank pottery shards that inspired her earliest designs.
Emma’s factory now occupies a Victorian red-brick pot bank beside the canal - a site that has been home to pottery since 1883. When much of the industry began moving overseas in the 1990s, Emma went against the tide. She moved into the old Johnson’s Eastwood Works with just sixteen staff, determined to preserve local skills and jobs. Forty years on, the company employs around 350 people and remains proudly rooted in the city that shaped it – Stoke-on-Trent, the World Craft City and home of British ceramics for more than three centuries.
Each mug begins as clay mixed to a historic recipe using raw materials from Devon, Cornwall and Staffordshire. From there, Emma's skilled team help bring each mug to life – cast into moulds, seams smoothed by spongers and fettlers, dipped in glaze, hand-placed into kilns, and finally decorated using traditional spongeware or intricate lithographic transfers.
This same level of craftsmanship goes into making each of our collaborative Fortnum’s mugs, too. Illustrated by Matthew Rice and inspired by Fortnum’s icons – from the bees buzzing atop our rooftop hives to the famous Knickerbocker Glory – they capture both Emma’s unmistakable cheer and our love of a delicious brew. Made entirely in Stoke-on-Trent, with thirty highly skilled pairs of hands involved in making each one, the collection is a small celebration of British pottery.
Inspiration
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