English family of potters of German birth. David Elers and John Philip Elers were the sons of Martin Elers, a German who had settled in Holland. David is first recorded as a silversmith in London in 1686, and both brothers then made ‘Browne muggs and red theapotts’ in Staffordshire and Vauxhall, London, from c. 1690. In 1693 they were sued by John Dwight for infringing his stoneware patent but subsequently made red stoneware under licence from Dwight. In 1698 John Philip gave up the lease of his house at Bradwell Wood, Staffs, where he had been both potter and gentleman farmer, but continued making teapots at Vauxhall with David until they were declared bankrupt in 1700. John Philip became a merchant in Dublin in 1701 and was supplied with Chinese porcelain, imported by the British East India Company, by David during the period 1715 to 1722. The primary importance of the Elers brothers to the history of English ceramics is in their introduction of sprigged, red stoneware to Staffordshire, where it was revived in the 1740s; secondly in their use of slip-casting with plaster of Paris moulds; and thirdly in their use of lathe-turning to achieve lightness and sharp profile. Although David claimed in ...