Wood family

Ralph Wood I (1715–1772) was apprenticed to John Astbury in 1730, then worked with Thomas Whieldon at Fenton Low where he learned to make coloured glazes.

In 1754 he started making his own salt-glazed wares at Burslem, and by about 1760 was creating ceramic figures of humans and animals, mostly famously stags.

Ralph Wood II (1748–1795) followed in his father's footsteps, manufacturing a variety of figures coloured with overglaze enamels; at least some were supplied to Josiah Wedgwood in 1782 and 1783.

He also employed the mysterious figure of John Voyez, who Wedgwood had dismissed and then prosecuted either for theft of designs, or for being caught drawing the daughter of another employee in the nude (perhaps acceptable in France, but not in Staffordshire).

His work is associated with "thick-lidded eyes, somewhat flattened noses, and a general roundness of contour",[3] and "somewhat pugnatious facial details on almost all his figures, even those representing women".