8″ tall Carlton Ware Mephistopheles (Red Devil) Vase sells for $5,650 in September 2009.  The mark: “Carlton Ware Made In England Trademark script pottery identification mark” was used between 1925-1970.

The company was established in 1890 by James Frederick Wiltshaw, William H. Robinson and James A. Robinson trading under the name of Wiltshaw and Robinson. The trademark “Carlton Ware” was introduced in 1894, and the company’s factory was renamed the Carlton Works. In 1911 the business partnership between Wiltshaw and the Robinsons was dissolved, leaving Wiltshaw to form a new limited company called Wiltshaw and Robinson Limited. Following the death of James Wiltshaw in 1918, due to an accident at Stoke-on-Trent railway station, control of the company passed to his son Frederick Cuthbert Wiltshaw. The company continued to expand, acquiring Birks, Rawlins and Co. in 1930. The company was renamed Carlton Ware Limited in 1958, and following the death of Frederick Cuthbert Wiltshaw in 1966, the company was sold to Arthur Wood and Sons. The company continued to trade well until developing serious financial difficulties in the late 1980s, which forced it into receivership in 1989. An unsuccessful attempt was then made to rescue the company by Grosvenor Ceramic Hardware, with production finally ending in 1992.