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INTERNATIONAL BOSSONS COLLECTORS SOCIETY

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history of BOSSONS COMPANIES


"The history of these companies is essentially the story of two men, trained in the craft of making pottery, who transformed their craft into a serious art form.  It is also, to borrow a phrase from Dickens, a tale of two cities, or, to be more exact, a tale of two towns in England.  The towns were the beginning.

STOKE-ON-TRENT

Stoke-on-Trent, a manufacturing center in Staffordshire, England, where these two men were trained, is the recognized "Potteries" district in England.  It was here, some 35 miles south of Manchester in northern England, that Josiah Wedgwood of Wedgwood China fame introduced fine china in the 1700's.  Today, potteries still form the main industry of Stoke-on-Trent.  Wedgwood, Spode, and Staffordshire ware all came from this area.

CONGLETON

Congleton, home of the W.H. Bosson companies, is aver quaint and endearing English town in the county of Cheshire.  It lies some 8 miles north of Stoke-on-Trent and approximately 185 miles north of London". (Dr. Robert Davis, The Imagical World of Bossons, Book I)

W.H. Bossons

"Mr. W.H. Bossons studied pottery-making in Stoke-on-Trent.  he was a graduate of the Burslem School of A and an honors student at the Stoke-on-Trent College of Ceramics. It was in the ceramic tile industry that he found his subsequent career.  

Mr. Bossons retired to Congleton in1944 in ill health. It was then he began to make lead soldiers and Christmas figures out of metal and plaster, merely as a hobby, but as people began urging him to make these objects for them personally and paid him for them, what started as a hobby in his home in Congleton gradually became a profitable business.

To  W.H. Bossons, plaster represented both a challenge and a way out of difficulty.  Pottery manufacture was at best a most difficult and costly occupation, especially so at that time for a man in his circumstances.  However  he had a substantial streak of independence and enterprise in his make-up and possessed a wide range of technical skills, including that of mold-making.  He decided to develop and improve the production of plaster ornaments and figures." (Dr. Robert Davis, Imagical World of Bossons, Book I)

W.H. Bossons passed away in 1951.




W. RAY BOSSONS

"In October of 1946 W. Ray Bossons, the son of W.H. Bossons, returned to Congleton after six years of service in the war (including combat in northwest Europe as Captain and Adjutant of the 79th Field Regiment, Royal Artillary). 

Like his father, he had been trained in pottery making at the Burlem School of Art in Stoke-on-Trent.  He also brought another asset to the enterprise: pre-war experience and professional training in advertising and publicity.  In 1938 he had qualified as a Diploma Member of the Advertising Association, London, while attending the Federation of Master printers' full-time course in printing technology at Manchester University.  

His experience was gained as an employee of the former potteries advertising firm of Smedley Advertising at Stoke-on-Trent, which specialized in designs for local pottery and china manufacturers.

Mr. Bosson, Senior, now concentrated on the technical and managerial side of the business while his son developed the designs, modeling and marketing.
(Dr. Robert Davis, Imagical World of Bossons, Book I)

The Bossons Company ceased production and closed on 
December 6 ,1996.

W. Ray Bossons passed away on May 27, 1999.




International Bossons Collectors Society

29-19 170th Street

Auburndale, NY 

11358-1516


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