The Saggar makers bottom knocker
Created | Updated Oct 18, 2013
'The Potteries' is the area around Stoke-on-Trent, England. A pottery industry started there long before the Industrial Revolution, and the English language evolved in the locality to include many specialist words and job titles.
What?!
A saggar maker's bottom knocker was the name in the potteries for a boy whose job it was to knock out the bit of clay which would make the bottom of a saggar.1 He did this by placing a large ball of clay into a metal hoop and knocking or hitting it into place with a large mallet. The bottom knocker was employed directly by the saggar maker rather than by the pottery. This also meant there was little chance of promotion other than the saggar maker retiring.
This was far from the only unusual job name encountered in a pottery, here is a break down of some of the others
- Baller - weighs the clay and makes it into balls for the thrower to use on the potters wheel
- Biscuit rubber - rubs down biscuit stage2 china ware to remove small particles and dust
- Cod placer - places the saggars into the kiln
- Jiggers and Jolliers - places clay onto a revolving plaster form called a Jigger or a Jolly depending on the form that is being made, to make bowls or flatware
- Fettler - assistant to the jigger and jollier, presser and caster whose job it is to smooth out rough edges on plates and bowls
- Mould runner - the boys employed to run from one building to another to place newly made ware next to a heat source so it could harden
1A saggar is a large fire-clay container used to protect pots from a naked flame or to create some decorative effects 2ceramics after it's first firing but before glaze is applied
