Gordon Barker was soon negotiating business with Jeffery Port who proposed splitting the company into leisure, pottery manufacture, and pottery sales companies (based in England and America).

During the protracted negotiations, in order to improve the cash flow, the sales director allowed Jeffery Port to sell the stock of ‘seconds’ at lower prices.

Port swiftly put his network into motion and the cut price market was flooded with seconds, including Cinnamon tableware. Harrods were furious because Hornsea Pottery had agreed to make Cinnamon exclusively for them and only sell seconds at the factory shop.

It was during this time that John Clappison’s unique Strata trinket boxes and his People series were also produced. John was made redundant on 31 December 1984, subsequently gaining employment with Royal Doulton.

Still the problems continued and in April 1984 the National Westminster Bank sent the receivers in and four days later they accepted an offer from Steinberg. Despite all efforts, Gordon Barker was unsuccessful with his High Court writ opposing the sale to Steinberg, but succeeded in obtaining considerable damages.