Chapter XIV: Wedgwood 247 (4)

It may be observed in passing that the distinguishing feature of Nantgarw is the elaborate painting of flowers and fruit on the pieces manufactured there. We reproduce a beautiful Nantgarw dish, marked “NANTGARW. C. W.,” with pink ground, having garlands of raised white flowers bound with a knot, and encircled with richly gilded scrolls. The centre is white, with a handsome floral piece from the brush of Billingsley. The roses are exquisitely drawn, such as no other ceramic artist ever drew them; and the pear, of a warm, luscious brown, has all the bloom of the natural fruit upon it.

Mr. Dillwyn, of the Swansea works, has left us an interesting memorandum concerning the proprietors of Nantgarw. He says:—

“My friend Sir Joseph Banks informed me that two persons, named Walker and Beeley, had sent to Government, from a small manufactory at Nantgarw (ten or twelve miles north of Cardiff), a specimen of beautiful china, with a petition for their patronage, and that, as one of the Board of Trade, he requested me to examine and report upon that manufactory. Upon witnessing the firing of a kiln at Nantgarw, I found much reason for considering that the body used was too nearly allied to glass to bear the necessary heat, and observed that nine-tenths of the articles were either shivered, or more or less injured in shape by the firing. The parties, however, succeeded in making me believe that the defects in their porcelain arose entirely from imperfections in their small trial-kiln, and I agreed with them for a removal to the Cambrian Pottery, at which two new kilns under their direction were prepared. While endeavouring to strengthen and improve this beautiful body, I was surprised at receiving a notice from Messrs. Flight & Barr, of Worcester, charging the parties calling themselves Walker and Beeley with having clandestinely left an engagement at their works, and forbidding me to employ them.” This was in 1814, and it was in the same year that Billingsley and Walker entered the service of Mr. Dillwyn at Swansea and commenced to make the beautiful china, highly decorated and of exquisite finish.

In concluding our remarks on Nantgarw we may observe that this factory was not finally abandoned till 1820. From 1812 to 1814 is its first period, when Billingsley and Walker and Young (of whom we shall have more to say later) were all at Nantgarw. Its second period is when the trio appear there again from 1817 to 1819. Billingsley and Walker then left for Coalport, and Young carried on the works till their close.

(Richly decorated and gilded. With exquisite flower painting.)]

The only marks that appear on the china are the word “Nantgarw” with the letters “C. W.” underneath, which in all probability meant China Works, but which by some collectors are said to denote the name of the artist. This is impressed in the china. Sometimes the word “Nantgarw” is found in red, but this must be regarded with suspicion, as a great many forgeries have been perpetrated in this china owing to its rarity and the favour which it finds with collectors.

Swansea has a more extended history. In the middle of the eighteenth century a small manufactory of earthenware existed here. This gradually grew into the “Cambrian Pottery,” which, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, passed into the hands of Mr. Lewis Weston Dillwyn, a Fellow of the Linnæan Society and author of works on botany.

Before Mr. Dillwyn’s day a fine opaque china was produced at Swansea, but under his management and guidance the china assumed a more artistic appearance.

W. W. Young, whom we spoke of as having come over from Nantgarw, was especially skilful at painting flowers and birds, butterflies and insects, and sometimes shells. Some of the pieces of Swansea bear his name upon them. Young was also employed by Mr. Dillwyn to illustrate his works on botany and natural history.

Marked “SWANSEA,” in red.

(White ground, finely decorated with red roses.)]

Besides Young and the two Nantgarw flower painters and decorators, there was at Swansea Baxter, who was considered one of the cleverest painters on china of his day. He came originally from Worcester and eventually returned there. Some of the subjects from the canvases of Sir Joshua Reynolds were successfully copied by him. Baxter was at Swansea for three years, and while there decorated a service with garden scenery in the style peculiarly his own. There was Morris, a clever fruit painter, and Beddoes, a noted heraldic painter, and, above all, Billingsley, the first flower painter of his day.

Stamped “Dillwyn’s Etruscan Ware.”

_In Collection of Mr. W. G. Honey._]

About the year 1820 the Swansea factory was discontinued and the whole of the moulds and appliances were transferred by Mr. John Rose to Coalport. Since that date no china has been made at Swansea. Some of the marks that we give are of a later date than 1820, and are upon earthenware.

Among the marks of Swansea will be seen the oblong mark stamped on “Dillwyn’s Etruscan Ware.” This ware was introduced in 1848, and was of a fine rich red body. On this was printed, in black outline, Etruscan figures, borders, and other details. The general surface was then painted over, with the exception of the figures and designs within the black outlines. The result was that the figures were left the original red of the body and the effect was extremely good. The illustration we give is of a specimen in Mr. W. G. Honey’s collection, late at the Cork Exhibition.

The older pieces stamped with the above-mentioned mark are sought after. Later the name and title of the firm changed and passed into the hands of Messrs. Evans & Co. Besides the manufacture of white, and blue and white china, they supplied Ireland and the West of England with agate earthenware, and a good deal of it found its way to America. No trade-mark was used by them.

CHARACTERISTICS OF NANTGARW AND SWANSEA CHINA.

_Nantgarw_ porcelain is of very fine texture; it has a glassy appearance, and when held up to a strong light, such as an incandescent electric globe, it exhibits a number of small bubbles, like pin-holes, in the body. It is inclined to have the glaze cracked in parts with a network almost like Chinese crackle ware. Some of the thinner pieces will be found to be not quite true, being slightly warped or bent, owing to its uncertainty in the kiln.

_Swansea_ china is frequently decorated with birds, butterflies, and shells, drawn from nature by W. W. Young. Much of it is of a glassy nature like Nantgarw; but later the Swansea ware was of a duller, heavier nature, and having a hard white appearance.

SALE PRICES.

NANTGARW. £ s. d.

Plates, seven, painted with birds, bouquets
of flowers in border, all with
impressed mark. Foster, December
4, 1902 97 0 0

Dessert service, each piece painted with
a bouquet of flowers in the centre,
the borders with raised white scrolls
painted with birds and flowers, consisting
of centre dish, on foot, four
square-shaped dishes, two leaf-shaped
dishes, seventeen plates, two
small plates. Christie, January 23,
1903 128 2 0

Plate, painted with border of stippled
gold and roses, the centre painted
with a pastoral landscape, figures
and sheep, exhibited at the 1851
Exhibition. De Rome & Son, Kendal,
May 13, 1903 27 16 6

Plates, pair, painted with groups of
flowers, in gilt borders, and birds in
centre; impressed mark. Sotheby,
May 4, 1903 33 0 0

Plate, the centre with three roses, and
the rim with rose festoons on a
dotted gold ground, impressed
mark. Sotheby, May 17, 1920 18 0 0

Pair of Plates, painted with flowers
and fruit, and the borders moulded
with scrolls in relief, impressed
mark. Christie, July 20, 1920 26 5 0

SWANSEA.

Jug, painted with bouquets and wreaths
of flowers and gilt, and with a shield
of arms, 10 in. high; and a pair of
plates with a wreath of flowers, impressed
mark. Christie, February
18, 1902 17 6 6

Jug, moulded with leaves, and with
flowers and butterflies in green and
colours, 10-3/4 in. high. Christie, February
5, 1902 8 8 0

Dessert Service, painted with cornflowers
and with gilt edges,
consisting of centre dish, on foot;
eight oblong, four shell-shaped and
four octagonal dishes; pair of
sugar tureens, covers and stands;
thirty plates; eighteen small
plates. Christie, November 21,
1902 65 2 0

Swansea china covered Porringer and
Saucer, finely decorated with flowers
in natural colours on a dotted gold
ground. Sotheby, May 17, 1920 14 0 0

Swansea Dessert Service, painted with
named flowers with gilt foliage and
trellis work round borders, consisting
of pair of sugar-tureens and
covers, four octagonal dishes and
twelve plates. Christie, July 5, 1920 25 4 0

A pair of Swansea small vases, painted
with panels of flowers on dark blue
ground, richly gilt, and with swan
handles, 7 in. high. Christie, July
20, 1920 22 1 0

X

MINTON

Mazarin blue ground, raised and chased gold scrolls. First half 19th century.

(_By permission of Messrs. Mortlock, Oxford Street._)]

_By courtesy of Messrs. Minton & Sons._]

X

MINTON

Messrs. Minton, of Stoke, in Staffordshire, manufacture pottery, porcelain, and majolica. By this latter, that massive ware, of bold design and bolder ornamentation and positive colours, principally blues, yellows, and greens, Minton’s at the Paris Exhibition of 1855 created quite a sensation, and won universal admiration.

Ten years before the commencement of the nineteenth century Thomas Minton established his factory at Stoke-upon-Trent. Only earthenware was manufactured at Stoke Works up till 1798, chiefly ordinary white ware, ornamented with blue, in imitation of Nankin china. From about 1799 down to 1811 a semi-transparent china was also made, but was abandoned as unprofitable. In 1817 Mr. Minton’s two sons entered the firm. In 1821 the manufacture of china was again resumed; about this time, too, a very marked improvement was noticeable in Minton’s printed earthenware; the body was whiter, and the glaze was more highly finished.

We give the two early marks of the firm down to 1837. These were usually in blue, and very often had a number underneath. In these earlier examples the flowers and other decorations were painted. They very shortly became mostly printed designs, except in elaborate pieces, and the personal character of the ordinary china grew, in consequence, of less interest.

[Minton and Boyle
1837]

[1851.]]

Sometimes “M. and C.” (the C. standing for Company), with an impressed stamp “BB.” or “BB. New Stone,” occurs. BB. signifies “best body.” A design of passion-flowers printed in blue is a favourite subject.

In 1836 Mr. John Boyle was admitted a partner, on the death of Thomas Minton; the firm became then Minton and Boyle, and the marks were accordingly changed. After continuing for five years Mr. Boyle went over to the Wedgwoods.

(_Exhibited at Paris Exhibition_, 1867.)]

Mr. Minton was subsequently joined by his nephews, M. D. Hollins and Colin Minton-Campbell. The second Minton seems to have been of considerable business ability. In his father’s day fifty hands were employed at Stoke, but in his time the factory employed no less than 1,500. The various branches he developed were earthenware, and ordinary soft porcelain, hard porcelain, parian, coloured and enamelled tiles, mosaics, Della Robbia ware, majolica, and Palissy ware.

It will be seen from the accompanying illustrations how highly decorative Minton porcelain is. The vase we reproduce was one of the most admired specimens of china in the Paris Exhibition of 1867.

What is known as the ermine mark (the dark trefoil with the three dots), either indented or painted in gold and colours, has been used on porcelain since 1851, and since 1865 the word “MINTON,” impressed, has been used for both china and earthenware.

[Used since 1868].

M. & Co.]

In 1868 the globe, with the word “MINTON” across it, was first used, and all the firm’s works subsequent to that date are so stamped. In 1872 the design was registered, and frequently a rhomboidal stamp occurs either without or in addition to the globe mark, which has the letter R in the centre, denoting that the particular pattern of china is “Registered” as a design. This rhomboidal mark occurs on chinas other than Minton’s, and is a feature of modern china.

“Minton, Hollins & Co.” are a firm at Stoke largely engaged in manufacturing encaustic and majolica tiles. They are an offshoot of the main branch.

The illustration we give of the lion ewer is a fine example of Minton’s reproduction of the celebrated Henri II. faïence. This wonderful ware is of distinct character and ornamentation, differing from every other kind of pottery. It was made at Oiron, in France, from 1524 to 1550. There are less than one hundred known pieces. Five pieces are in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Two are in the Louvre. Some of the pieces are valued at over £3,000 each. Who shall say that there is no romance in old china and pottery when vases and ewers, tazzas and salt-cellars, have pedigrees as long as a race-horse’s, and whose whereabouts are as well known as that of a reigning prince?

Reproduction of “Henri II. Ware.”]

The plaque of painted majolica is a good specimen of what Minton can do. It was made about 1865, as was the lion ewer alluded to on p. 184, and the candelabrum is also of the same period. There is a fine fountain executed in Minton majolica; it is 36 feet high and 39 feet in diameter. At the summit there is a group, larger than life size, of St. George and the Dragon. It was one of the features of the International Exhibition of 1862; it now embellishes the scanty grass plot in front of the Bethnal Green Museum.

Some fine old Sèvres pieces have been copied by Mintons, and great fidelity has been shown in reproducing the old ground colours of rose-du-Barri, gros-bleu, turquoise, and pea-green. Chinese porcelain has been imitated with especial success. The most notable artistic achievement is the _pâte-sur-pâte_ work, by M. Leon Solon. The coloured background is worked upon in white clay, and the delicate modelling of figures in this material is of great artistic beauty. Each result is a personal creation of the potter which cannot be duplicated.

SALE PRICES.

MINTON. £ s. d.

Vases, pair, gold wreath handles, with
panels of Cupids in gold and pink
on an ivory ground, 16-1/2 in. high;
and a vase nearly similar, by A.
Birks. Christie, January, 1902 42 0 0

(_These first nine items were from
the Colin Minton-Campbell Collection._)

Vases, pair, and covers, nearly similar,
with fruit in the Oriental taste on
brown ground, by A. Green, 46 in.
high. Christie, January, 1902 15 4 6

Vases, pair, beaker-shaped, painted with
lilies and grasses in colours and gold
on dark-blue ground, richly gilt, by
Leroi, 33 in. high. Christie, January,
1902 33 12 0

Vases, pair, with Cupids and flowers in
white and colours on black ground,
in coloured and gilt borders, by L.
Birks, 33 in. high. Christie, January,
1902 63 0 0

Vases, pair, oviform and covers, the
bodies encircled by four shaped
medallions in relief, suspended by
gilt cords and oak foliage, alternately
painted with camp scenes in the
Moran School and trophies-of-arms,
apple-green borders; the ground of
the vase _gros bleu_ with marble decoration
in gold, the whole executed in
the style of old Sèvres, by Boullemin
and Leroi, 21 in. high. Christie,
January, 1902 162 15 0

Cup and saucer, with panels of figures,
vases and festoons of drapery in
white on a sage-green ground, by
Solon. Christie, January, 1902 11 0 6

Candlesticks, pair, decorated in grisaille
and gold in the taste of Limoges
enamel, 12 in. high. Christie, January,
1902 6 6 0

Dish, on pedestal, with a figure of
Fortune in white on sage-green
ground, by Solon, 11-1/4 in. diameter.
Christie, January, 1902 17 6 6

Jardinières, pair, fan-shaped, with
panels of figures and exotic flowers
in colours on a Rose-du-Barry
ground, painted in the taste of old
Sèvres, by Leroi, 7 in. high. Christie,
January, 1902 63 0 0

Vases and covers, pair, Solon ware, by
Minton, with Classical figures and
Cupids in arabesque borders, in
white on a sage-green ground, richly
gilt, 15 in. high. Christie, April 17,
1903 22 1 0

Pair of Minton pilgrim bottles and
stoppers, decorated with Cupids in
white on blue medallions, in the
manner of Solon, on pink ground
richly gilt, 9-1/2 in. high. Christie,
July 5, 1920 7 7 0

Minton Sèvres pattern vase and cover,
painted with panels of flowers and
trophies on green ground, 15 in.
high. Christie, July 5, 1920 9 9 0

XI

OLD ENGLISH EARTHENWARE

Made by John Dwight in Fulham Stoneware about 1671.

_At British Museum._]

_W. G. Honey._] [_Cork._

SUNDERLAND JUG.

(Two positions.)]

XI

OLD ENGLISH EARTHENWARE[2]

It requires a word of apology for including the following “Chats” on earthenware in a volume bearing the title “Chats on English China,” but as the chief end of this little volume is to render to the beginner such aid as may be useful in the determination of the various classes of china, it was thought desirable in his interest to treat somewhat generally of earthenware in this and the succeeding chapters.

Earthenware suggests pots and pans, and the word is redolent of kitchen smells, but a Wedgwood teapot or a Toby jug, though earthenware they be, are worth the having. Pottery is the poor relation of porcelain. The one comes in silks and satins, in purple and fine linen; the other in cotton gown, like Phyllis at the fair.

The following remarks may lend a zest to dusting days, and, mayhap, the poor relation may be invited to come down from the top shelf in the kitchen to occupy a niche in the drawing-room.

It is to be hoped that what has already been said on china may have created a taste in the reader for the inventions of the potter. A blue bowl may convey a world of meaning, and may be fragrant with memories of the eighteenth century, if one cares to peer beneath the surface. To the uninitiated it will be a blue bowl—and ugly maybe at that. To some the potter’s art is as dead a thing as was Nature’s message to Wordsworth’s insensate:—

“A primrose by a river’s brim
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more.”

That it is not always easy to determine where a piece of china may have come from we have already shown, even if it be “A Present from the Crystal Palace.” The ordinary mind may possibly imagine some hitherto unknown factory away at Sydenham, but the legend “Made in Germany” underneath instantly dispels that illusion.

It is necessary here to state that the world of _bric-à-brac_ is divided into two parts—earthenware or pottery, and china or porcelain. All that is not earthenware is porcelain, and all that is not porcelain is earthenware. One may liken it to prose and poetry; what is not one must be the other, as Monsieur Jourdain discovered after he had spoken prose for forty years without knowing it. To continue the simile, some of Ruskin’s prose writings approach as near to poetry as do Wedgwood’s finer wares to porcelain.

Porcelain is produced by the artificial mixture of certain minerals known by their Chinese names of _kaolin_ and _petuntse_, or their English ones of china-clay and felspar. The former is infusible under the greatest heat, the latter is not, but unites in a state of fusion with the china-clay, making a paste or “body,” which is hard, and, when broken, shows a smooth, vitreous fracture. Those who have attempted to mend old china must have noticed how different the broken surface is from that of pottery with its rougher edges.

Strictly speaking these “Chats” on earthenware ought to have appeared at the commencement of the volume, for earthenware comes first chronologically. In passing we will glance for a moment as to how porcelain came into Europe.

Porcelain was first invented by the Chinese some two centuries before Christ. It reached Europe as the Eastern civilisation penetrated to the west, and for hundreds of years vain attempts were made by potters to reproduce the fineness of porcelain with its beautiful glaze and hard paste. At Venice, at Florence, in France, and in Spain, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an approximate success had been arrived at; soft paste had been developed to its furthest limit, but the real ingredients of the Chinese hard paste were unknown.

Accident, however, completed what centuries of industry had attempted. From perruque to porcelain seems a far cry, but the story is worth telling.

John Schnorr, an ironmaster, riding near Aue, observed that a soft earth adhered strongly to his horse’s hoofs. Considering that this earth might be used as a substitute for wheat flour as hair powder, he carried some away with him, and it was subsequently sold in large quantities for this purpose at Dresden, Leipsic, and other places. This _kaolin_ (the base of hard paste) continued to be known as “Schnorr’s white earth.”

Johann Friedrich Böttcher, chemist to the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, discovered the secret about 1709. One morning, on taking up his wig, he noticed it was much heavier than usual. He was informed by his valet that a new kind of hair-powder had been used. This was the ironmaster’s white earth. Böttcher was convinced that he had discovered at last the base of porcelain.

This was the foundation of the manufacture of porcelain at Meissen, and the factory then established has supplied the world with Dresden china ever since.

So great was the secrecy at first, that Böttcher and his assistants, when Charles XII. of Sweden invaded Saxony, were removed by the Elector for greater safety to the castle at Königstein, where they were practically imprisoned. Even the clay was sealed up in barrels by dumb persons, and every workman was required to take a solemn oath not to reveal the secret. “Be silent unto death” was the motto of the establishment.

How the method of manufacture and the secrets of Meissen finally became known to other countries, and how manufactories came to be set up at Vienna and Petersburg, is one of the romances of trade.

So much for the early history of porcelain in Europe. During this period the art of the potter had not made very great progress in England. These “Chats” have shown of the heroic attempts to emulate the success of Meissen, but it was slow, uphill work to reach the heights of Worcester and of Derby in porcelain and of Wedgwood in earthenware.

Stoneware mugs were more in accordance with the taste of our forefathers than pewter pots for drinking purposes, a comparatively modern prejudice. A variety of mugs called Longbeards, largely imported from Low Countries, were in general use during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at inns for serving all the customers. The name “Bellarmine” was sarcastically given them in reference to the cardinal most conspicuous in opposing the Reformed faith in the Netherlands, the potter representing, with grotesque art, his Eminence with short stature and rotund figure.

Blue and white (10-1/2 in. high).

_From Collection of Mr. W. G. Honey._]

It is but a short step from the ware imported from the Low Countries to the pottery of Staffordshire. The celebrated pattern of the Toby jug is well known. Dickens, in “Barnaby Rudge,” makes Gabriel Varden ask Dolly to “put Toby this way.” Uncle Toby himself might have suggested the design, but it is said to be derived from one Toby Philpot, “a thirsty old soul as e’er drank a bottle or fathomed a bowl.” We give, from Mr. W. G. Honey’s collection at Cork, two fine specimens—one an old Staffordshire jug (10-1/2 in. high), representing John Bull, and marked “I. W.”; the other, the well-known pattern of the Vicar and Moses (9-1/4 in. high). This latter is the work of Ralph Wood, of Burslem, and was frequently reproduced by later potters. Both these pieces are blue and white.

_W. G. Honey._] [_Cork._

THE VICAR AND MOSES.

Blue and white (9-1/4 in. high).]

Of Josiah Wedgwood, the English Palissy, we deal in a separate “Chat.”

A whole volume could be written about him and his work. His busts, magnificently produced in black basalt, his cameos and gems, with which the name of Flaxman must be coupled, his white terra-cotta, and his cream-coloured earthenware, known as Queen’s ware (first made for Queen Charlotte), may be ranked among the most important factors in the history and development of the potter’s art in England.

Of the most important of the other Staffordshire potters, perhaps the name of Spode is the best known. After 1798, Spode the younger commenced to make porcelain.

Concerning Liverpool, to which we devote a separate “Chat,” it seems remarkable to read that in 1754 the making of pottery was the staple manufacture of the city. “The blue and white earthenware almost vie with china,” so says an eighteenth-century journal.

John Sadler conceived the idea of transferring prints from copper on to pottery, and struck out a new line in printing on earthenware.

Another factory, called the “Herculaneum Pottery,” was started on the Mersey side by Messrs. Abbey and Graham in 1794. The making of china was started here in 1800.

About the end of the eighteenth century, a potter named Absolon had works at a place called “The Ovens” at Yarmouth. The work consisted of decorating the articles which were manufactured elsewhere, and very little more is known about it.

At Swansea both pottery and porcelain were made. In 1750 works were established, and in 1790 “Cambrian Pottery” became quite well known. In the early part of the next century a superior kind of ware, called “Opaque China,” was made.

Leeds pottery is well known. At one time it had quite an extensive Continental trade, and the pattern-book of the pottery was issued in several languages. Alas! now it is the French and the German and the Japanese pottery books that are issued in several languages.

It is largely cream-coloured ware and such articles as candlesticks, teapots, mustard-pots, cruet-stands, tea-canisters, and sugar-basins, with covers, together with the usual dinner and tea services, that were manufactured.

Bristol claims to have made pottery at a period as remote as Edward I. Wherever excavations have been made in the city, along the north bank of the river from Bristol Bridge to Redcliffe Pit, remains of pottery and shard heaps have been discovered.

Joseph Ring, in 1787, successfully imitated the Queen’s ware of Wedgwood and the best Staffordshire pottery. Ring’s cream-ware is thin and well made, the edges being remarkably sharp, and the fluted pieces very regular and well defined. It is generally yellower than either Wedgwood’s cream-ware or the Leeds pottery. Both of these have coloured bodies, but Ring’s Bristol ware has a white body, the yellow surface tint being obtained by means of a glaze.

The mugs and jugs of Newcastle and Sunderland are much sought after on account of their quaint inscriptions.

By kind permission, we reproduce some fine specimens of this ware from the collection of Mr. W. G. Honey, of Cork, which were on view at the Cork Exhibition. Many of these jugs have a frog in the interior of the vessel. As the liquor is drunk the creature appears to be leaping into the drinker’s mouth.

The mug in commemoration of the cast-iron bridge across the Wear bears the date 1793. We give three positions of the mug, and in the inverted one the frog can be plainly seen. On the reverse side are the following lines:—

THE SAILOR’S TEAR.

“He leap’d into the boat
As it lay upon the strand,
But, oh, his heart was far away
With friends upon the land.
He thought of those he lov’d the best
A wife and infant dear:
And feeling fill’d the sailor’s breast
The sailor’s eye—a tear.”

Nottingham, too, has produced some excellent earthenware. Wrotham, in Kent, had an old-established factory. A dish in the British Museum is dated “Wrotham, 1699.”

(Two positions.)

_From Collection of Mr. W. G. Honey._]

_W. G. Honey._] [_Cork._

SUNDERLAND FROG MUG.

(Showing interior.)]

London and its environs has given birth to several celebrated potteries. Fulham pottery has a worthy history. Letters patent were granted in 1671 to John Dwight, for the “misterie of transparent earthenware, commonly knowne by the names of porcelain or China and Persian ware, as alsoe the misterie of the stone ware, vulgarly called Cologne ware.” There was, too, a pottery at Mortlake. “Kishere, Mortlake,” is the mark generally used. Isleworth had a small factory at Railshead Creek, Isleworth. Much of the coarse pottery made here was known as “Welsh ware.”

Lambeth pottery is well known, the art productions of Messrs. Doulton having done much to popularise their ware. In the middle of the seventeenth century certain Dutch potters settled at Lambeth, and made pottery tiles. Lambeth delft ware had quite a reputation in the eighteenth century.

Some particularly quaint devices appear on the old English jugs and mugs during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They were used by the common people who could not afford silver and for whom glass was too expensive a luxury. They succeeded the old leathern jacks and leathern bottles, and played no inconspicuous part in social gatherings both at home and in alehouses. Many of the mugs have two (and sometimes as many as four) handles, which were made to supply the needs of several drinkers.

These English mugs possess little artistic merit, but they come as a very interesting link in the history of the manufacture of pottery in this country. One would have thought that the conquering Roman who settled in various colonies in our islands would have left some permanent mark on our pottery; that the Norman, who possessed some artistic skill, or peradventure the Spaniard who settled in the West in Armada days, would have taught the Anglo-Saxon a lesson in pottery; but it appears that the principles of art fell upon very stony ground in these islands.

(Dated 1631.)

_At Victoria and Albert Museum._]

In the national collection in the Bethnal Green Museum is a barrel-shaped mug (5-1/2 inches high), which we reproduce; it is painted in blue with birds and flowers, and inscribed “William and Elizabeth Burges, 24th August, 1631.” This delft mug is believed to be of Lambeth manufacture.

A mug of elegant shape was quite recently dug up in some excavation near Bishopsgate Street, London, for the Great Eastern Railway extension. It bore the inscription—

“The gift is small,
Good will is all,”

and was dated 1650, which conjures up pictures of crop-eared ’prentice lads and mercers of busy Chepe, and junketings at the fair by London Bridge in days when train-bands and Ironsides were as integral a part of City history as were the C.I.V.’s of a year or so ago.

Brown and chocolate-coloured body with yellow dotted decorations is a very common form of this old English ware. A Posset Mug, dated 1697, bears the inscription: “The best is not too good for you”—evidently a present of some sort, although much of this class of ware was in common use in taverns, as the inscriptions go to show. We reproduce this dated Posset Mug in the accompanying illustration; next to it, on the lowest shelf, is an old Fuddling Cup. On the top shelf is a Cradle with incised decoration. The other cradle has slip decoration by Joseph Glass, 1703; while beside it is an old Posset Pot inscribed “God bless Queen Ann.” These specimens are reproduced by the kindness of Mr. S. G. Fenton, of Cranbourne Street, W.

Puzzle jugs were known in the time of Henry VIII. There is a puzzle jug at the Bethnal Green Museum, which was made by Mr. John Wedgwood, great-uncle to Joshua Wedgwood, and is dated 1691. The principle of the puzzle is that there are three spouts, each projecting from a tube which runs round the rim and down the handle to the bottom of the vessel. The top of the neck being perforated, it seems impossible to obtain any of the liquor without spilling it. The secret is to stop two of the spouts with the fingers while drinking at the third.

Other forms are the Tyg, a tall cup, with two or more handles, and decorated either with names or initials; and the Piggin, a small shallow vessel some few inches high, provided with a long handle, and used for ladling out the liquor brewed in the tyg. The doubled-handled tygs are generally called “parting-cups,” while those with more than two handles pass under the name of “loving-cups.” The word tyg comes from the Anglo-Saxon “tigel,” or tile, and survives in the word “tilewright” and other corruptions common in Staffordshire.

Some of the puzzle jugs bear interesting doggerel lines upon them. One runs—

“What though I’m common and well known
To almost every one in town?
My purse to sixpence if you will
That if you drink you some do spill.”

Not a very good recommendation for a jug, but a very profitable alehouse amusement from mine host’s point of view.

Another bears the lines—

“In this jug there is good liquor,
Fit for either priest or vicar;
But to drink and not to spill
Will try the utmost of your skill.”

_By courtesy of Mr. S. G. Fenton, Cranbourne Street._

GROUP OF OLD ENGLISH DATED WARE.]

There is a very quaint inscription on a four-handled goblet, possibly a christening cup. It is dated 1692, and has the sides decorated with rough devices. Attached to one of the sides is a whistle; the mug has written upon it in atrocious spelling—

“Here is the geste of the barley corne;
Glad ham I the child is born.”

The orthography of potters in the age before School Boards is something to marvel at. Apparently the following is the gift of an amorous potter to his lady-love. I. W. has gone the way of all lovers, but the little mug he made for his sweetheart lies on the museum shelf, an object-lesson to all “golden lads and lasses” who, as Herrick’s fair daffodils, “haste away so soon.”

“Ann Draper, this cup I made for you, and so no more.—I. W.”

Dated 1707, in the days of the great Marlborough.

Some mugs have the precept, “Obeay the King,” while others bear the superscription, “Come let us drink to the pious memory of Good Queen Anne.” One or two utter the toast, “God Save King George.” A Gossip’s Bowl, dated 1726, has the couplet—

“I drink to you with all my hart,
Mery met and mery part.”

Another old mug, doubtless sent as a present, has the words—

“As a ring is round
And hath no end,
So is my love
Unto my friend.”

There is one quaint piece of advice given to all lovers who wish for success in their love affairs. It is on a level with the Shakesperian methods adopted in the conquest of Kate in the “Taming of the Shrew”—

“Brisk be to the maide you desire,
As her love you may require.”

(Dated 1691.)

_Victoria and Albert Museum._]

Some of the pronunciation is as curious as the spelling. We know Pope makes “tea” rhyme with “day,” as does the modern Irishman; but in the following lines “join” is evidently pronounced “jine”—

“Come, brother, shall we join?
Give me your two pence—here is mine”

—an invitation issued to the frequenters of some inn where the brown jug bearing the inscription had an abiding place.

Another mug essays to point a moral while the toper is draining its contents. The potter who would strew his moral lessons in stoneware had about as much sense of the ludicrous as the gentleman who used to mark the London pavements with the text “Watch and Pray,” which he had printed in reverse on the soles of indiarubber shoes he would wear. On the bottom of a drinking mug the notion is quaint enough—

“When this you see,
Remember me—
Obeay God’s Word.”

For our part, we prefer the following, which has a truer ring about it—

“Drink faire,
Don’t sware.”

A large bowl of Bristol delft bears on it “Success to the British Arms.”

A fine breezy inscription, dated 1724, smacks of the hunting field. One can hear the rollicking voices of the eighteenth-century squires such as Randolph Caldecott loved to depict. Only two lines, but they ring in one’s ears as a message from the good old times—

“On Bansted Down a hare was found,
Which led us all a-smoaking round.”

Not classical English, perhaps, any more than that of the ladies from town who declare in the family circle of the Vicar of Wakefield that they are in a “muck-sweat.”

A set of six plates bear a line of the following inscription on each—

“What is a merry man?
Let him do what he can
To entertain his guests
With wine and merry jests;
But if his wife does frown
All merriment goes doune.”

There is an exceedingly interesting Fulham ware flip mug, which bears an inscription on it showing that it once belonged to Alexander Selkirk, from whose adventures Defoe built up his story of “Robinson Crusoe.” Doubtless this mug accompanied the Scots sailor to the lonely island of Juan Fernandez when he set sail with the Cinque Ports galley—

“Alexander Selkirke. This is my one.
When you take me on board of ship,
Pray fill me full with punch or flipp.—1703,”

which suggests that it may have been a parting present from one of his friends.

Jugs and mugs with portraits of Nelson are not uncommon. A quart jug in white ware with crimson border has a man-of-war in full sail on one side, and on the other a copy of West’s picture of the “Death of General Wolfe,” probably made by Thomas Wolfe, of Stoke-on-Trent, who was related to the general. On one mug is a view of the Thames Tunnel and a portrait of the engineer Brunel, to commemorate the opening in 1843. We give as a headpiece a Sunderland jug from Mr. Honey’s collection, having floral decorations in purple lustre, and having on one side a picture of the “_Columbus_, the largest ship ever built.” On the reverse side are two jolly tars, and the inscription runs—

“Thus sailing at peril at sea or on shore,
We box the old compass right cheerly;
Toss the grog boys about, and a song or two more
Then we’ll drink to the girls we love dearly.”

Mugs seem to have in former days been manufactured to celebrate some political event or great victory. There were the coronation mugs of the present Czar of Russia, at the distribution of which so many peasants lost their lives. The Transvaal War produced no china mementoes. Mafeking buttons and ticklers are more representative of modern feeling.

To us these old English mugs are as the dry bones which, if one is only skilful enough magician, resolve themselves into dream-pictures, historically accurate enough, of our forbears of the eighteenth century. Our children’s children, when they come to examine our everyday ware, will find little else to observe save the legend “Made in Germany.”

The field of English earthenware is very large and very diverse. We have been prohibited by space from saying anything of salt-glaze ware, of Elers, or of Astbury, and we regretfully have to pass on without touching Leeds ware. But we give an interesting illustration of a group of Mason’s jugs of the celebrated “Patent Ironstone China.” The largest of these jugs is 9-1/2 in. high. This is not a complete set, as the writer knows of the existence of a jug of smaller size, and another size between the second and third largest, which make a set of eight.

[Earliest mark 1780].

[Later Marks].

[Stamped in blue—1813].

MARKS ON MASON’S WARE.]

We give, too, a set of marks used by the firm of Mason, from the early days till the factory ceased. In the advertisement mentioned below he says, “The articles are stamped on the bottom of the large pieces to prevent imposition.”

Miles Mason established his pottery at Lane Delph, in Staffordshire, about 1780. “Miles Mason, late of Fenchurch St., London,” so runs his advertisement in the _Morning Herald_, October 1, 1804, “having been a principal purchaser of Indian porcelain, till the prohibition of that article by heavy duties, has established a manufactory at Lane Delph, near Newcastle-under-Lyme.” The “Ironstone China” was patented by Charles James Mason in 1813. It consisted in using the slag of ironstone pounded with water together with flint, Cornwall stone, and clay, and blue oxide of cobalt. The ware is usually outlined with flowers in transfer printing, and painted and gilded by hand. Some of Mason’s blue plates are in colour equal to old blue Delft. On account of its handsome decorative effect it is rapidly rising in value.

(Largest 9-1/2 in. high.)

_In Collection of Mr. W. G. Honey._]

SALE PRICES.

STAFFORDSHIRE. £ s. d.

Jug, Bacchanalian, 13 in. high, figures
in bold relief of “Bacchus” and
“Pan” supported by a barrel with
grotesque animal handle and dolphin
spout, in rare colours and highly
glazed by Voyez, Cobridge, 1788.
Edwards, Son & Bigwood, Birmingham,
May 13, 1902 15 0 0

Vase, Etruscan, 18 in. high, snake-and-mask
handles, marked S. A. & Co.
(Alcock & Co). Edwards, Son &
Bigwood, Birmingham, May 13, 1902 10 0 0

MASON’S WARE.

Vase 27 in., decorated with flowers and
gilt, and ornamented with gilded
head handles supporting a cornucopia
and mermaid. Gudgeon &
Sons, Winchester, April 3, 1902 8 5 0

FOOTNOTES:

[2] “Chats on English Earthenware,” the companion volume to this, deals in detail with the subject of earthenware as outlined here.

XII

LUSTRE WARE

_In the Collection of Mr. W. G. Honey._]

_W. G. Honey._] [_Cork._

COPPER LUSTRE JUGS.

(4-3/4 in., 6-3/4 in., 7-1/4 in. high.)]

XII

LUSTRE WARE

The old Spanish golden red and canary coloured lustrous dishes with Moorish ornamentation, and the wonderful Italian majolica, with its copper and purple and amber surfaces glowing like beaten metal, are probably the early masters from which our English potters took the idea which they adapted to the decoration of their pottery.

In this chapter we shall treat solely of English lustre ware. It is roughly divided into three classes—copper, silver, and gold.

The copper or brown lustre was made at Brislington, near Bristol, as early as 1770. Compared with the Spanish lustre dishes, it is more rudely ornamented and poor and inartistic in form compared with their Arabic designs. Our English copper lustre, or “gilty” ware, as it is called in some parts of the country and in Ireland, may be sub-divided into two classes. The plain copper lustre, in which the jug, or dish, or teapot is entirely covered with the copper lustre; and secondly, the partially lustrous ware, in which some portions of the pottery are in relief and are coloured with some bright pigments, or left white.

(15-1/2 in. high.)

_From the Collection of Mr. W. G. Honey._]

In the group of lustre ware, which we reproduce, with the exception of the centre dish, all the pieces are copper lustre. The three fine jugs are decorated with turquoise blue, as are also the two cream jugs. This blue, though it comes out white in our illustration, is of a deep turquoise. On the top shelf, the jug to the right is decorated with red as well as blue. It will be observed that the spouts of the jugs are in the form of a man’s head with long beard, and the handle is the figure of a man’s body. The scenes depicted on them are typically English in treatment. A castle in background and a shepherd with his flock in foreground. The small lustre cup has simply a rough-surfaced band of white running round it. The whole form a representative group of this class of ware.

_W. G. Honey._] [_Cork._

COPPER LUSTRE JUGS.

(4-1/4 in., 6-1/2 in., 7-1/2 in. high.)]

The best period in the copper lustre is in the first years of the nineteenth century, before the introduction of colours in conjunction with the coppered surface. It may be observed in passing that the art of producing copper lustre has continued in a spasmodic manner down to the present day, the latter specimens being of a rougher exterior and of a coarser finish.

(8-3/4 in. high.)

_From the Collection of Mr. W. G. Honey._]

By the kindness of Mr. W. G. Honey we are enabled to reproduce some fine examples of lustre ware from his collection on view last year at the Cork Exhibition. The copper lustre bust, 15-1/2 in. high, is a perfect example of lustre ware at its highest level. This specimen has no equal in any of the public collections. Two other illustrations, one of which appears as a headpiece, giving half a dozen forms of copper lustre jugs, are from the same collection. While the copper lustre jug, 8-3/4 in. high, is a beautiful specimen of fine modelling.

_W. G. Honey._] [_Cork._

SILVER LUSTRE SUGAR-BOWL.

(3 in. high.)]

With regard to silver and gold lustre, that in all probability became extinct for a little time, but in recent years the great demand for silver lustre has produced a corresponding supply, manufactured abroad for the English collector, but it is very inferior and easily detected from the early examples by its coarse and dull surface and slovenly finish.

The places where lustre ware is known to have been manufactured are at Brislington, by R. Frank, about 1770; at Etruria, by Wedgwood, in 1780; and by Wilson, in Staffordshire, in 1785; also by Moore & Co. and Dixon & Co., at Sunderland, about 1820.

Swansea, at the Dillwyn pottery (of which we spoke in our “Chat” on Swansea), also, about 1800, is known to have produced lustre ware.

_W. G. Honey._] [_Cork._

SILVER LUSTRE JUGS.]

Different processes were employed in producing the lustre, but they all consist in reducing the metal from a state of combination, by dissolving it in some chemical, and depositing it in a particularly thin layer on the surface of the pottery, so that it exhibits its characteristic lustre without burnishing. As may readily be supposed, the amount of platinum used for the silver ware, and gold for the purple or gold lustre, is extremely small.

Of the silver or platinum lustre very many fine examples exist, and it is extremely popular owing to its similitude to old English silver or plate. The sugar bowl we reproduce, with beaded pattern and fluted design, is quite in the style of the Sheffield plate of the Georgian period. Of the three silver lustre cream jugs, that in the extreme right is of the same design, while the other two show at a glance the beauty of form that silver lustre in its best period reached.

Other varieties of this silver lustre are quite plain, as in the teapot we reproduce (p. 229), which is an example of a slightly later period. This is a fine specimen of the unornamented variety of silver lustre which is undistinguishable from silver. In fact the highly burnished surface of such a teapot as this cannot be obtained on silver, the lustre is of a richer and deeper quality. Alas! it possesses the dangerous property of dissolving, like a fairy gift, into nothingness. Elfin gold will turn into a circle of whirring, dancing, mocking leaves, and if your wondrous lustre teapot slips to the ground, it lies a heap of brown earthenware fragments.

One word in passing to collectors of this ware. Do not wash your specimens any more than you can help, as warm water has a deleterious effect on the lustre, and tends to make it less brilliant; we recommend our readers to polish their lustre ware with a soft cloth, and we wish them absolute and entire freedom from all mishaps. Treat the ware lovingly and kindly, it will never come again; the potters who made it are dead, the modern imitator is but a poor imitator, fraudulent at heart and feeble in result; if cunning lie in his heart it is not in his finger-tips, for, of a truth, his hand has lost its cunning.

Besides the plain silver lustre, there is a decorated variety which is very handsome, and much sought after. Sometimes the ground is of silver lustre decorated in white, and sometimes the ground is white with an elaborate pattern of foliage, of fruit, or of birds, woven in silver thread. The rarest of this variety is the silver pattern on a canary ground.

(White Decoration.)

_From the Collection of Mr. W. G. Honey._]

The first method, with the design left in white, was produced in handsome and highly artistic styles, and there is a pattern known as the “Resist” pattern which is much sought after.

From Mr. W. G. Honey’s collection we have selected a very good example of this silver lustre with design in white. This is of the “Resist” pattern, its artistic excellence speaks for itself.

(Raised coloured flowers.)

_From the Collection of Mr. W. G. Honey._]

With regard to gold or purple lustre, the middle dish in the group in our illustration is gold lustre ware, and is probably of Swansea manufacture. Wedgwood produced a gold lustre of remarkable brilliancy. The dish above alluded to is decorated with stags and staghounds, but in some of the gold undecorated examples, such as Wedgwood’s, covered with a mottled ruby-gold lustre, the effect was due entirely to the shape and to the lustre.

The reason that this variety is called gold or purple lustre is that in the lights it shines like gold, and the rest of the pattern in those pieces decorated with flowers and floral pattern, glows with a rich purple.

This purple lustre shows more signs of the hand of time than any of the other lustres, and it is nearly always found to be partially worn off. We give an interesting example of a jug with gold lustre ground and raised coloured flowers from Mr. W. G. Honey’s collection.

* * * * *

NOTE.—Lustre ware is more fully treated in a chapter in the companion volume, “Chats on English Earthenware.”

XIII

LIVERPOOL WARE

(Decorated with military trophies in blue, and having three-masted man-of-war inside.)

Diameter, 20-1/2 in.

_At Victoria and Albert Museum._]

_In possession of Messrs. Fenton & Son._

OLD LIVERPOOL TILES.

(Transfer-printed in black.)]

XIII

LIVERPOOL WARE

It is the hope of the writer of these “Chats” that Worcester and Derby, Bristol and Plymouth, Bow and Chelsea have become something more than mere names to the readers who have followed our journeyings. The china-shelf has been shown to hold the monuments of men’s lives. Behind the delicate pencillings and the shower of rose-leaves lies many a tragic story. Liverpool and its ware is not the least of the great landmarks in the history of English ceramic art.

In entering on the threshold of the history of Liverpool, and of the printed ware stated to have been first produced there, we find ourselves in the midst of a controversy. If discussions upon points of china-collecting were waged physically, the opponents in their heat would have demolished each other long ago with their own china collections, but luckily, they have confined themselves to hurling opinions and nothing more tangible. Philosophically, they have agreed to differ, and have parted good friends, to renew the argument another day, or they have each gone to his last home and the echoes of the conflict have come down to us, and fresh battles are fought over the theories of dead collectors. Up till quite recently a wordy war was being waged over Lowestoft, and the laurels of that much-disputed factory were in great danger of being snatched away.

To John Sadler, of Liverpool, is generally ascribed the honour of having discovered the useful art of printing on pottery from copper-plate engravings. He was the son of Adam Sadler, a printer, in Liverpool, who had formerly served as a soldier under the Duke of Marlborough in the wars in the Low Countries. John Sadler carried on the business of an engraver in Harrington Street, and having noticed that some of his waste prints were used by children to stick on to fragments of earthenware obtained from the potteries, he commenced experiments with a view of extending this application to the purposes of decoration.

He associated himself about the year 1750 with Guy Green, who had succeeded to the printing business of Adam Sadler.

The secret of the manner in which an engraving was transferred from a copper-plate to the rounded surface of a bowl or a teapot, was well kept, but it was fairly obvious that in some way or another the design was transferred to paper and then retransferred to the china object to be decorated.

Sadler and Green, after working at the discovery, applied for a patent. The value of the invention can best be understood by the following affidavit made by John Sadler and Guy Green, in 1756.