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John Philip Elers (7 September 1664 – 1738) and his brother David Elers were Dutch silversmiths who came to England in the 1680s and turned into potters. The Elers brothers were important innovators in English pottery, bringing redware or unglazed stoneware to Staffordshire pottery.V&A; MET Arguably they were the first producers of "fine pottery" in North Staffordshire, and although their own operations were not financially successful, they seem to have had a considerable influence on the following generation, who led the explosive growth of the industry in the 18th century.
Around 1690, John Philip Elers settled in Bradwell Wood, near Burslem, a secluded spot, where he established a factory. The products were stored in Dimsdale, about a mile away, and the buildings were said to be connected by a speaking tube;Elliott, 19 - this is probably a misreading of Shaw the pottery was sold by David Elers in London, at his shop in the Poultry.
Their speciality was a red unglazed pottery, chiefly teapots, with sprigged relief ornament mostly in Chinese styles. Like earlier Dutch stoneware, their teapots, one of their most common lines, were heavily influenced by Chinese Yixing ware, also unglazed stoneware mostly used for teawares. The vessel shapes often also drew from European silversmithing. Some pieces, like the teapot in the Victoria & Albert Museum illustrated, have imitation Chinese characters,Lo, 250; V&A; MET usually described as "imitation Chinese seal marks" by scholars. Yixing teapots had been reaching Europe over recent decades.
It is now accepted that they used slipcasting for all their wares, even the round shapes which would have been easy to pot on a wheel. This increased their costs, and so their selling prices, and probably led to the financial failure of the business.V&A They were important innovators in this, probably drawn to the technique by their experience of making pewter objects by casting, which was the standard technique for forming that material.Elliott, 20 A letter later written to Paul Elers, son of John Philip, by Josiah Wedgwood, mentioned the brothers making ware "by casting it in plaster moulds and turning it upon the outside by lathes"; this was dismissed as "astounding" by the Rheads,Elliott, 20; G W and F A Rhead, Staffordshire Pots and Potters, Hutchinson and Co., 1906 was a standard work. See Frederick Alfred Rhead but research in recent decades has shown it to be correct.
Simeon Shaw, in his work History of the Staffordshire Potteries (1829), made much of the commercial secrecy employed by the Elers brothers in their Burslem pottery; Shaw relied on local oral tradition. He wrote that they employed the stupidest workmen they could obtain; and an idiot to turn the wheel. At last Josiah Twyford and John Astbury discovered the secret, the latter by feigning idiocy.
The Elers brothers became the targets of legal action by John Dwight, also of Fulham, who had a monopoly of salt glazed stoneware. In the period from 1691 to 1693 they set up in Staffordshire, but also kept a London outlet, and a works in Vauxhall. Though archeological digs have not found any evidence of salt glazed shards under their workshop, they settled with Dwight by taking out a licence, that ran to 1698.
In 1698, John Philip gave up his lease on the Bradwell property, where he had also been a gentleman farmer, but the Vauxhall works continued until both brothers became bankrupt in 1700.
After Elers left Bradwell, he became connected with the glass manufactory at Chelsea, where he assisted in the manufacture of soft-paste porcelain. Subsequently he moved to Dublin, where he set up a glass and china shop.
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