‘SylvaC’ (the name was written with a capital ‘C’ after registration of the trademark in 1938) was a trade name of Shaw and Copestake, a company formed by Mr. William Shaw and a Mr. Copestake around 1900. Mr. Copestake sold his shares to a Mr. Richard Hull after about six months of business and this partnership continued until Mr. Hull’s death in 1935. He was succeeded by his son, Mr. Richard Hull junior. In the following year, the business became a limited company. Various mergers and acquisitions followed and in the 1950s new premises were built and production expanded considerably continuing until the early 1980s when changing markets and increased competition forced the company into liquidation.

Sylvac were known for imaginative glazed wares, particularly animals, but this design with its reminiscences of the Orient in both form and decoration is rather more unusual and particularly pleasing. These jars were produced in a variety of colours but the combination here of green and black, loosely recalling Chinese ‘Famille Noire’, is probably the most successful.