Belleek Pottery Fine Parian China

Belleek Pottery was first founded by John Caldwell Bloomfield. In 1849 after his fathers death in which he inherited his estate. Because of the Irish potato famine Bloomfield's tenants needed other ways of making a living. After discovering that his land had high levels of minerals he went in to business with Robert William Armstrong an architect from London and David McBirney a merchant from Dublin.

In 1884 after all the original founders deaths the business was taken over by a group of investors. The new owners renamed the business Belleek Pottery Works Company Ltd. Frederick Slater moved to Belleek from England in 1893. By 1920 the business was mostly selling high quality porcelain. The company fell on hard times throughout the first and second world wars and mainly produced earthenware but when the wars were over they stopped producing earthenware completely.

The Belleek factory was originally powered by water and then by coal before converting to electricity in 1952. On the original site there is currently a museum where you can take guided tours where you can see the amount of effort that goes into the making of this unique pottery.

Belleek Pottery was named after the town where it has been hand crafted since 1863. Many people across the globe including Queen Victoria and The Prince of Wales have found Belleek to be unique in it's craftsmanship to be worthy of collecting. The Belleek collection includes china that is hand woven with a basket like exterior and egg shell delicacyand the color of translucent ivory . One of the many patterns include the green shamrock. The shamrock is important in the history of Ireland when St. Patrick used the shamrock to symbolized the trinity. Some of the items collected include teacups and saucers and intricately designed pots. Many of my relatives have their own collections of this fine Irish china.