According to the report of a a bankruptcy hearing in the Pottery Gazette, George Guest was in partnership with his eldest son as George Guest and Son at the Black Works, High Street Tunstall. He told the hearing he had gone into business as a “jet and rockingham’ manufacturer in the 1870s. In 1883 the business failed and he borrowed £200 to go into business again. In 1885 he told on a business in Albert Street in Tunstall but found he could not complete the purchase and lost the money he had paid on account. The hearing was told he owed almost £6,000.