Best known today for its Ironstone china, Mason’s has, for over two hundred years, been one of the most important names in English ceramics. The business was founded by Miles Mason in 1796, and he established his own porcelain factory in Staffordshire in the early 1800s.

The original intent was to reproduce the Chinese porcelains which were then so popular. This ideal led to experiments to produce a new, commercially viable durable porcelain in the Chinese style, from which came, in 1813, the highly successful Mason’s Patent Ironstone China.