| Leben & Wirken (Englisch) |
D. J. Evans was the last owner of the Swansea Potteries during the period 1850-1870. Before that period, he was the manager of the Glamorgan & Dillwyn China Producers for Lewis Weston Dillwyn, who came from a wealthy family of landowners – the Penllergaer Estate in N.E. Swansea. Originally, fine porcelain was produced and hand-painted in a style and quality similar to Dresden or Meissen. Those pieces of Swansea porcelain were bought by discerning collectors, including the British Royal Family.
When the rare clay found on the banks of the River Tawe was exhausted, ceramics of inferior quality continued to be manufactured—cheaper tableware for the local market. Lewis Weston Dillwyn lost interest in the company and sold the business to his former manager, D. J. Evans, whose son later joined him. The mark on the china changed from D. J. Evans & Glasson (his agent) to D. J. Evans & Son.
I believe D. J. Evans's brother or uncle emigrated to America and became editor of a leading newspaper—either The New York Times or the Chicago Herald Tribune.
Mary Evans, his daughter, married David Hopkins, a former employee in the Potteries. When the Potteries closed, he became a publican, running an inn called either Middle Compass or Lower Compass Inn, which buildings still exist in Swansea.
Their son, John (Jack) Hopkins, was the Chief Electrician of the Vivian Copperworks, the largest & most famous copper smelting works in the world. His job was hugely important to the day-to-day running of the plant and the process of copper smelting. The market price for copper was set every day in Swansea and sent by telegram around the world. For that reason, Swansea was known as Copperopolis. [1] |
