
Sometimes from tragedy is born beauty. Following the great Potato Famine in the 1840s, John Caldwell Bloomfield decided to help the populace on the Castle Caldwell Estate along River Erne at the village of Belleek, Northern Ireland. He had found pottery and china quality materials and identified peat, water power, and available labor on the Caldwell Estate around 1850. Bloomfield sought capital and expertise to provide jobs and income on the estate. Through a chance meeting with Robert Williams Armstrong, a London architect, inventor, and ceramics aficionado, he found a willing co-conspirator. Armstrong partnered with Dublin investor and Caldwell friend David McBirney, brought English potters to supervise and train personnel, and designed and built the famous Belleek factory. Armstrong also arranged a train line to bring coal for kilns and remove finished products. While initial products starting about 1857 were primarily porous, lower temperature-fired earthenware, such as telegraph insulators, shaving mugs, kitchenware, and so on, in 1863 Belleek began producing its famous Parian porcelain/china, as well as high-fired stoneware. The kaolin-based porcelain became the hallmark of the factory. A series of marks (Black 1, 1863-90; Black 2, 1891-1926; Black 3, 1926-46; Green 1, 1946-55; Green 2, 1955-65; Green 3, 1965-80, + eleven more) were stamped on products from then until the present. (photo 1) Despite periodic financial difficulties beginning with the death of the founding partners in the 1880s after which locals bought the factory, Belleek has been a grand and gorgeous Irish tradition, weathering wars and downturns. Unique pieces have been designed and produced for royalty in Great Britain and other nobility particularly following a gold medal at the 1856 Dublin Exposition. Exports to the United States, Canada, and Australia ensued.


Intricate baskets are and were made from a dried slip and gum arabic mixture, which is more resilient than the normal porcelain. All basket parts have been produced by hand; plaited bottoms, extruded basket rods attached to the bottoms as lattice work. Flower petals, stems, buds, twigs, and shamrocks have always been individually hand-formed, carefully combined, and attached. Leaves were and are molded. Even the smallest basket has 273 “separate and distinct parts: twenty seven panels of four rods each, plus sixteen flowers and shamrocks of more than 165 separate segments.”2 Baskets are hand-packed in a sand-filled refractory basin lined with paper before firing to maintain structural integrity. All this leads to exquisite detail.

Holy Water fonts, crosses, and other religious items are available, along with a series of Christmas plates. Vases and containers appear in an amazing variety of forms and sizes. Candlesticks, jugs, flower pots, and center pieces can be sought out. I have seen some amazing sets and pieces at the World Wide Antique and Vintage Shows (coming in March and June to Denver), as well as pieces on EBay and Etsy. Of course, as noted earlier, there is an active Belleek website for current production and information. Periods from 1926 through 1980 contain in the trademark the words “DEANTA IN EIREANN” (made in Ireland). May it continue so.

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