Collection of W.H Goss Crested Ware, Heraldic, Souvenir China

Offered for sale is lovely collection of G.H Goss crested china, thirteen pieces in total, souvenirs from Aberystwyth, Barmouth, Colwyn Bay (2), Flamborough, Harrogate, Hastings, Knaresborough Abbey, Littlehampton, Mansfield, Pontypridd, Sandown & Shoreham. The development of the heraldic china souvenir business: William H Goss had invented an improved technique for the body and enamels for heraldic china and in 1873 registered a patent. W.H. Goss had been producing small vases and pots with the Arms of Colleges and Schools on for presentations. His son Adolphus joined the business in 1883 and noted how the lower classes were now able to travel further (due to the expanding train network) and had more spare time and disposable income than ever before. A market had developed for souvenirs for people to take home from their day trips out. Goss developed the small vases and pots into small cheap items and produced them with any town names and crests on. These were an instant success, and Adolphus travelled the country, and eventually around the world, signing-up agents to sell from, as well as drawing pictures of the local scenes to send back to the factory for new designs. The collecting of these souvenir items caught on in a big way and by the turn of the century had become a collecting craze. From the beginning with seaside resorts, virtually every town and city in the land now had its arms produced and sold by a Goss appointed agent and by 1900 there were 481 agencies in Britain. It is said that, in 1910, some 90% of homes in Britain had some "Crested china" in their home. Between 1883 and 1900 the Adolphus Goss criss-crossed the country, building up a network of more than 1,000 local agents, each responsible for promoting their local coats of arms, which could be placed on any one of upwards of 600 small, mass-produced named models. The first of these were copied from museum pieces (such as these on offer), but the later ones reproduced animals, lighthouses, fossils, fonts, statuary and crosses and many other things.