Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bloor, Robert
BLOOR, ROBERT (d. 1846), ceramist, was probably born at Church Gresley, where many of his family are buried. He succeeded Kean and the second Duesbury at the Old Derby China Works, from whom he bought the concern, about the year 1810–11, for 5,000l. and the payment of certain annuities. He had for some time previously been clerk and salesman at the works. He was an energetic man of business, and greatly increased the sales of the manufacture, employing at one time as many as fifty painters, besides a great number of potters, burnishers, apprentices, women, and girls. Under his management, however, the former high quality and finished decoration of the Derby ware deteriorated. About the year 1820 his business was at its height; and, by the aid of auctions in various parts of England, Derby china, for the most part showily painted, but some of it slightly injured in the firing, was dispersed throughout the country; but this inferiority of the ware at length led to a falling off in the demand. In 1828 Bloor's mind gave way, and he never recovered. A statute of lunacy was taken out a few years before his death, which happened on 11 March 1846 at Hathern in Leicestershire. The works were then carried on by his widow and children, and finally by his granddaughter, Mrs. Thomas Clarke; she at length sold the concern to Samuel Boyle, who failed.
[Haslem's Old Derby China Factory; letters from Mr. Haslem; information supplied by S. Keys in Chaffers's Marks and Monograms on Pottery, 6th ed.]