Ridgway — the Staffordshire pottery family whose factories produced blue-printed earthenware and fine porcelain through the nineteenth century — appears in poems about English domestic life as a reliable presence on the sideboard; A poem about a Victorian household's china might describe Ridgway's blue-printed patterns: "the Indian Tree, the Coaching Days, the Humphrey's Clock — a dozen different stories available for the price of a dinner service"; Ridgway's American market — the factory produced blue-printed earthenware depicting American scenes for the United States export trade — gives poems about transatlantic culture a ceramic example; In a poem about a provincial auction, Ridgway china is the most common lot: "twelve pieces of Ridgway, blue and white, pattern uncertain — the estimate modest, the bidding indifferent, the quality undeniable"; The Ridgway family's involvement in Staffordshire pottery over several generations gives poems about dynasty and craft continuity a specific example; A poem about a Sunday dinner in a Victorian rectory might describe the Ridgway service: "the tureen large enough for both clergy and occasion — the pattern a scene of coaching that bore no relation to anyone's life and was loved for that."