Early silver coffee pot with rosewood handle and knob.

The first decade at the Old Mill, 1955 to 1965, was a period of immense creativity.

Old Hall, his first serious contact with industry and volume production, was one

of the few British tableware companies that understood the significance

of the Scandinavian stainless steel onslaught. The Swedish company Gense

in particular had made big inroads into world markets. But investment

in new patterns and the embrace of new disciplines in design and manufacture

did not come easily to British industry. The desire was there but the spirit often

flagged. The Council of Industrial Design suggested that perhaps Old Hall and

another firm with progressive intention, Walker and Hall of Sheffield, should

combine manufacturing and sales resources, while Robert

and his friend from student days David Mellor, by now established as a designer

craftsman in Sheffield, would become the joint creative force.