Rockingham Pottery

The Rockingham Pottery was a 19th-century manufacturer of porcelain of international repute, supplying fine wares and ornamental pieces to royalty and the aristocracy in Britain and overseas, as well as manufacturing porcelain and earthenware items for ordinary use.

It is best known for its finely decorated and, to modern tastes, somewhat gaudy rococo style of porcelain; indeed its name has almost come to classify such a style and as such pieces by other factories are regularly and incorrectly attributed to Rockingham.^[1] A famous piece is the (50 kg) ornate item known as the Rhinoceros Vase (of which two are known) made to demonstrate the skill of producing such a large and complex item as a single piece of fired porcelain.^[2]

The factory was located in Swinton, near Rotherham, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, and for the later part of its lifetime existed under the patronage of the Earls Fitzwilliam, indirect descendants of the Marquesses of Rockingham,^[3] who were the major landowners in the area, and whose stately home and extensive park was located several miles away in Wentworth.

What is often called "Rockingham-glazed" pottery or "Rockingham ware" was widely produced in Britain and the United States in the 19th century, earthenware with a thick brown ceramic glaze, in a style associated with the earlier 18th-century production.