Throughout the nineteenth century, the chief suppliers of the ceramic wares used in Canadian homes were the potters of Great Britain. Goodwin & Co. of Liverpool is an example of a firm that not only exported to Canada but actually established its own warehouses here. The Canadian market was a protected one for British potters but aggressive marketing methods, such as displayed by Goodwin & Co., also had a significant role in the distribution of British products.
In the 1840s John Goodwin, who had moved his business from Staffordshire to Liverpool in 1852, opened a warehouse in QuΘbec, sending out two of his sons to take charge. The advertisement seen here appeared in the Globe on July 3, 1856, when a second warehouse was opened in Toronto. From documents extant in England, it has been estimated that over one trillion articles a year were produced at the Seacombe Pottery, the bulk of them destined for Canada. Goodwin died in 1857. In 1864 his sons closed the pottery. Well into the 1870s, however, there was still a Goodwin Brothers importing business in QuΘbec. Even while their own pottery was in operation, the Goodwins were also importing and selling in Canada wares from other British potters. As this advertisement indicates, they also sold glass.
