The pottery business which later became Shorter and Son was first set up by Arthur Shorter in 1878 with a partner called James Boulton in Stoke on Trent. Their products were in the main-stream of Victorian taste, majolica wares of all types: jugs, bowls, flower pots and tableware, predominated.
In 1891 Arthur's brother-in-law A. J. Wilkinson died in an accident and Arthur was asked to manage the pottery that Wilkinson had established in Burslem in 1885. 
Later he bought the firm and in 1898 Arthur's son Colley joined him. His younger son Guy, who became manager at Shorter's in 1900, joined his father and Colley at Wilkinson's in 1905. The two factories worked in closly together, advertising and showing their wares together.
In 1916 Colley and Guy were made directors of Wilkinsons, the same year that Clarice Cliff, aged 17, started work there as a decorator. In 1920 the family acquired the Newport Pottery, also in Burslem, later famous for its production of Clarice Cliff's "Bizarre" ware. 
In 1925 Colley Shorter was so impressed by Clarice's work, he gave her, her own studio next to his office, and also sent her on a modern design course at the Royal College of Art and a trip to Paris to see the arts scene there.
She was allowed to experiment with old Newport Pottery shapes, andshe produced her new bold geometric designs, so expressive of the Art Deco age. Colley was an excellent salesman and it was he who had the idea of personalising her designs with her signature, thus launching one of the 20th century's design legends. 
In 1926 Arthur Shorter died and over the next few years his sons felt they could develop their business and products along a more adventurous line.
The Shorter factory itself, still the most traditional in its output, felt the wind of change. In their book 'The Shorter Connection', Gordon and Irene Hopwood explore in detail the extent to which the creativity of Clarice Cliff was channeled into Shorter products in the late 1920's and early 1930's.
Shorter's received a further creative boost in the 1930's when they employed the designer Mabel Leigh, who in two short years with them produced an extensive and exciting range of ' Period Pottery'. This was based on ethnic designs from around the Mediterranean, Africa and Central America. Even though she left the firm in 1935, the designs had such appeal they continued to be produced for years afterwards.
In 1940, after the death of his first wife, Colley married Clarice Cliff who became Artistic Director of the group of potteries. Shorter's flourished through the following two decades, producing popular new lines and re-producing some of their old ones. Running into stiffer competition in the 1960's and with the loss of Colley's participation, retiring due to ill-health in 1961, to die in 1963, the firm began to falter.
Clarice Cliff-Shorter disposed of the family shares in Wilkinson and Newport and so control passed to the Midwinter Company. Shorter's were effectively taken over by Crown Devon in 1964 and their distinctive identity was finally lost with the retirement of the last family member John, Guy's son in 1972.