Chapter VIII: Great Britain and Ireland

Continuity of History.--Early British Urns.--Scottish
Relics.--Irish Urns.--Roman Conquest.--Caistor Ware.--Anglo-Roman
Ware.--Saxon Period.--After the Norman Conquest.--Tiles.--Dutch
Potteries in England.--English
Delft.--Stone-ware.--Sandwich.--Staffordshire Potteries.--Early
Products.--The Tofts.--Salt Glaze.--Broadwell and the Elers
Family.--Use of Calcined Flint.--Wedgwood.--His Life.--Jasper
Ware.--Queen’s Ware.--The Portland Vase.--Basaltes.--Wedgwood’s
Removal to Etruria.--His Death.--Minton & Co.--Their Imitations of
the Oriental.--Pate Changeante.--Pate-sur-Pate.--Cloisonné Enamel
on Porcelain.--Other Reproductions.--Their Majolica.--Their
Artists.--Minton, Hollins & Co.--Lambeth.--Doulton
Ware.--Terra-cotta and Stone-ware.--George Tinworth.--Fulham.
--Bristol.--Leeds.--Liverpool.--Lowestoft.--Yarmouth.--Nottingham.
--Shropshire.--Yorkshire.

The ceramic history of the British Isles is invested with a peculiar interest by reason of its nearly perfect continuity from the early Celtic works to the Romano-British wares, the early Saxon, the Norman mediæval imitations of Saracenic tiling, the lead-glazed wares of the sixteenth century, the stone-ware of the same period, the pottery of Staffordshire and Wedgwood, the first appearance of English porcelain, and so on, downward, to the works of Minton, Doulton, and others at the present time. In no other country do we find material for an equally lucid illustration of the regular advance of the art from the primitive and rude to the elaborate, beautiful, and skilful. England supplies us with a wonderful and in every way admirable picture of the efficacy of persistent skilled endeavor in contending with technical difficulty.

From the old tumuli, or barrows, have been exhumed urns in which were held the cinerary remains of the dead (Fig. 309). The differences existing among them are such, in regard to both composition, shape, and ornament, that they evidently belong to different periods and to different branches or tribes of the early British population. They have been found all over England, from the Channel Islands to Northumberland. They are sun-dried and hand-made, and have wide orifices, often expanding gradually from a comparatively narrow base to the lip. They are pale in color, either yellow or gray, and the ornamentation consists of zigzags, frets, and studs.

In Scotland the general character of the remains is the same as that of the English. The appearance of a number of them suggests, however, the use of the wheel. They have been exhumed in every part of Scotland, from the Tweed to the Orkney Islands.

The Irish urns are somewhat in advance of those found in England and Scotland. The red paste shows that considerable care was bestowed upon its preparation, and the entire body is very often covered with ornaments of lines and zigzags. As in the case of the English and Scotch, we are indebted for the preservation of these relics of the Irish Celts to a usage which our researches have shown to be almost universal, that of employing urns in connection with the interment of the dead. Cremation was not resorted to in every instance. The Celts put the ashes in the urns, or covered them by inverting the urns over the spot where the ashes were laid, or placed their sepulchral vases round the unburnt remains.

In the first century before Christ the tide of Roman conquest passed the white cliffs of Albion, and a new element was introduced into its ceramics. There, as elsewhere, the Romans made and imported the ware, of which examples have been brought to light all over the old Roman Empire, from England to Jerusalem. The extent to which the manufacture was carried in England may be estimated from one fact stated by Dr. Birch, that the Roman potteries have been traced for twenty miles along the gravel banks of the Nen, in Northamptonshire. Caistor, in the same county, is an exceptionally interesting locality, as both early Celtic wares and the remains of a Roman kiln have been found there. Under the Romans it must have been an important seat of the manufacture, as its productions have been unearthed at several places on the Continent--in France and the Low Countries. The Caistor ware is very often ornamented with unusual skill and taste by means of reliefs. The Roman Samian ware is found in many sections of England, whither it was probably imported. Some of the specimens belonging to the latter part of the Roman period, and to be classed as Anglo-Roman, are of a thin black paste, carefully wrought and totally devoid of ornament. After the arrival of the Saxons the pottery was more closely allied to the Teutonic found in Germany (Fig. 314).

The urns are black, hand-made, and stamped with a variety of decorative designs. The shapes are heavy, and the appliances for firing were apparently of a rude kind. Of the Anglo-Saxon period few relics have been discovered, and little is in consequence known. One fragment of the eleventh century, or possibly earlier, is described by Mr. Marryat as “of a yellow color, coarsely made and unglazed.” It seems probable that the disturbances attendant upon the Norman invasion in 1066 distracted the popular attention from the plastic art, as the next evidences of its pursuit belong chiefly to the thirteenth century. These are the tiles employed in paving the ecclesiastical edifices of the day. In the greater number the patterns are inlaid, or filled in with white paste, and the whole then glazed yellow. To this class belong the thirteenth century tiles from Chertsey Abbey, in Surrey, and those of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries from Malmesbury Abbey and Malvern. Those from Chertsey are peculiarly elaborate. One has a scene representing a king and a female harper, surrounded by a circular border, the whole forming the inside of a square richly ornamented in the corners and on the sides. The Malvern tiles are also very elaborately decorated with designs of an apparently heraldic character. Another style of tile decoration, followed from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century, consisted of mouldings in relief. The glaze is green or brown.

In others the patterns are incised, but not filled in. A very good example of this style is to be seen in Crauden’s chapel at Ely. The fourth style of decoration was upon the _pate-sur-pate_ principle--a white paste being employed as a pigment upon the body of the tile, after which the piece was glazed. The introduction of tiling for pavements and walls was evidently in a great measure due to English intercourse with Spain and the East. Toward the close of the eleventh century, while England had not yet recovered from the first shock of the Norman invasion, Peter the Hermit was carrying from land to land the anti-Saracenic Gospel of the Sword, which led to the First Crusade. Fifty years later, in 1147, the Second Crusade was organized, while England was still groaning under the oppression of her rulers. In the first quarter of the twelfth century the Saxon chronicler says: “God sees the wretched people most unjustly oppressed: first they are despoiled of their possessions, then butchered.” Under Stephen, “Men said openly that Christ and his saints were asleep.” Clearly this was no time either for joining in crusades or cultivating art. When, in 1189, the Third Crusade was arranged, Richard the Lion-hearted was one of the three sovereigns who joined in the ineffectual enterprise. With his followers may have been brought back the incentives to art cultivation which make their effects apparent in the next century. The government was, in the mean time, taking the form which it assumed before the end of the thirteenth century, and which it has retained ever since. Political and art history here run exactly parallel. Given disorder and despairing apathy, and art is unknown. But let order take the place of chaos, and constitutional rule that of despotism, and the discarded arts again blossom into flower. Eastern influences manifested themselves in England almost contemporaneously with the revival of the ceramic art. On one specimen from Ely, a scriptural subject--Eve offering the apple to Adam, while a human-headed serpent coils itself round the tree--is surrounded by several designs of clearly Saracenic or Moorish inspiration.

For at least four centuries tiles formed the staple production of the potters of England. The annals indicate a popular indifference to the domestic use of earthen-ware, which contrasts strongly with more southern preferences. In the reign of Edward I. a chance cargo from Spain, containing some plates and other household table-wares, reached England, but failed to affect the national use of wooden trenchers, leathern jugs, and metal. Lead-glazed pottery was, however, made as early as the fourteenth century, though not to a great extent. The specimens which have been preserved are generally coarse in texture, and are covered with green or yellow glaze. A ewer of the thirteenth or fourteenth century is rudely designed to represent a mounted knight. Other examples of the same period are jugs, of which some are inartistically formed, while others are not devoid of a certain gracefulness of shape. Costrels, or costrils (elongated bottles which answered the purpose of the modern flask), occur of a red paste with red and white glaze. A candlestick with white studs for ornaments has been found of the same red color.

As we pass to the later works of English potters, we become conscious of the difficulty of following our usual plan of dividing them into pottery, stone-ware with vitrified fracture, and porcelain. The treatment of the name of Wedgwood alone would make such an arrangement undesirable, as tending to break the continuity of our narrative. Stone-ware and earthen-ware will therefore be considered together.

The making of both enamelled pottery and stone-ware appears to have been an imported industry. Dutch potters are said to have settled at both Lambeth and Fulham in the seventeenth century, and to have there originated the manufacture of what was called “Delft,” after the name of the seat of the industry in Holland. White wine-pots of this ware date from about the middle of the seventeenth century. Plates, oval and round dishes, mugs and cups, of the same ware appear in various collections, some with figures in relief, others with paintings in brown, blue, yellow, and green, and others with medallions or mottoes. They generally date from between 1650 and 1690. Delft was also made in Liverpool and in Staffordshire.

The first mention of stone-ware occurs in 1581, in the petition of a certain William Simpson, for “full power and onlie licence to provyde, transport, and bring into this realm, drinking stone pottes” made at Cologne and transported into England by a dealer living in Aix-la-Chapelle. As a reason why his prayer should be granted, Simpson stated that he would, “as much as in him lieth, drawe the making of such like pottes into some decayed town within this realm, whereby many hundred poore men may be sett a work.” Whether he found some decayed town suitable for the carrying out of his philanthropic intent does not appear; but in 1588 a Delft potter was carrying on his business at Sandwich. Lambeth, Fulham, and the Staffordshire potteries appear among the later producers of stone-ware.

The leading English centres are the Staffordshire Potteries, including Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, the Fentons, and other towns comprising Stoke-upon-Trent, Lambeth, Fulham, Liverpool, Leeds, Lowestoft, Bristol, Yarmouth, and Nottingham. Of these the place of honor must be accorded to Staffordshire. It has been associated with the ceramic art ever since the Roman invasion; and the name of a family in the district (Tellwright) is adduced as a proof that under the Saxons the advantages of the locality for the making of pottery were fully recognized. The name is a corruption of tile-wright, or potter. Many interesting facts relating to English pottery in general, and to that of Staffordshire in particular, are brought together by Mr. Marryat, whose able work deserves the study of all desirous of following the gradual development of the art in England. Early specimens of Staffordshire ware are the butter-pots of the period, and the tall vessels (Fig. 320) called “Tygs.” About 1650, Thomas and Ralph Toft and Thomas Sans were making round dishes with some pretensions to an ornamental character. The year 1680 was made memorable by the discovery of salt glaze. The story goes that a servant of Mr. Joseph Yates, occupant of Stanley Farm, near Palmer’s Pottery, Bagnall, was boiling salt in water preparatory to using it in curing pork. An earthen pot was used as a pan, and the servant having left it for a time, the water boiled over, and would also appear to have all boiled away, since the pan became red hot. When it cooled it was found to be covered with what was afterward known as salt glaze. The hint was quickly taken by the potters in the neighborhood, and the process soon became common. The Burslem makers adopted it in 1690, and called the salt-glazed ware “Crouch-ware.” Five years earlier, Mr. Thomas Miles was making stone-ware at Shelton, and the district production from about that time increased very rapidly.

At Bradwell, in 1690, the Elers brothers, from Nuremberg, who had crossed with the Prince of Orange, set up one of the first establishments worked upon a regular mercantile basis. It had been for some time the object of both native and Dutch potters to imitate the red ware of China, and the Elers were the first to reach approximate success. Having discovered a bed of red clay, they set about working it in conjunction with gray stone-ware, with which they produced very fine reliefs (Fig. 321). Notwithstanding the strictest watchfulness, and the employment of semi-idiotic workmen, their secret was stolen by one Astbury, who for several years feigned idiocy in order to be allowed to work in their place, and in that way secure possession of their methods. The competition then became so great in their neighborhood that in twenty years they closed their establishment. Their reliefs were remarkably sharp in outline, and the paste was of fine quality.

It is curious to find that to another accident the Staffordshire potters were indebted for the discovery of the value of calcined flint mixed in the paste. A son of the above named Astbury was riding through Dunstable in 1720, when he noticed symptoms of disorder in his horse’s eyes. The hostler at the inn where he stopped undertook to cure the animal by burning some flint and blowing the powder thus produced into the horse’s eyes. Astbury saw the dust, and it at once occurred to him that it might be useful in his business. From calcined flint, sand, and pipe-clay colored by means of oxides, were made the wares called “Agate” and “Tortoise-shell.” Then followed the adoption of plaster of Paris moulds and a more general resort to mouldings in bas-relief.

We now approach the era made illustrious by the name of Mr. Josiah Wedgwood (Fig. 322), the greatest of English potters, of whom it has been said, in the most unqualified terms: “With him the ceramic art received its highest development in ancient or modern times; for while greater beauty of decoration in painting characterized other wares, he produced the noblest artistic results of the moulding in clay.” However much others may be led by individual preference to qualify this encomium, there is no doubt that Wedgwood ranks among the highest names known in the history of English ceramic art. Born at Burslem, in Staffordshire, in 1730, of a family which had been engaged in the making of pottery for many years, Josiah enjoyed in early life none of the educational advantages which might have developed in him the promise of his future brilliant career. It is highly probable that his schooling did not carry him farther than reading and writing, and at the age of eleven we find him engaged as a thrower in his brother’s workshop. Then came sickness in the worst of all its forms, smallpox, which left him so lame that amputation of one leg became necessary, and ended his career at the wheel. It is possible that, in current phraseology, this misfortune may have been a blessing in disguise. He at once turned his attention to the production of ornamental pottery and the imitation of precious stones, mixing variously compounded clays with oxides, and otherwise experimenting.

The idea must have got abroad that he had talent, as, at the age of twenty-two, we find him in partnership with a Mr. Harrison, and then, in 1754, with Mr. Thomas Wheildon, of Fenton. This gentleman lacked his partner’s enterprise, and in 1759 Wedgwood was in business for himself, at Burslem, at first in a small way, then in a larger, and again in a still larger manufactory. In the last he made the ware called “Queen’s-ware”--a cream-colored fabric of very delicate color, composed of white clay mixed with flint, and brilliantly glazed. It derived its name from a specimen service having been accepted by Queen Charlotte. His fortune was now practically guaranteed, and his career an assured success. Court patronage made him the fashion in England, and we also find him engaged in an export business. Prosperity did not rob him of any of his early enterprise, but rather acted upon him as an incentive to farther and greater exertion. He continued studying, investigating, and experimenting, and with the assistance of his partner, Mr. Bentley, pushed his business in all directions. Several kinds of earthen-ware and stone-ware were produced by him (Fig. 326), and after effecting various improvements upon his table ware, he turned his attention to those imitations of the antique, and of cameos, intaglios, and seals, with which his name is indissolubly associated. With these are to be classed his fifty copies of the Barberini, or Portland vase (Fig. 327). The original is glass in two strata--dark blue and opaque white--and is an example of Roman work of the second or third century. It was bought by the Duke of Portland for £1029.

These works admit of no classification. Some are earthen-ware, others stone-ware, and others are of such a composition that they may be most correctly classed with porcelain. The name “Basaltes” was given to a series of imitations of Egyptian styles in black biscuit, with reliefs in white and red (Figs. 324 and 325). More charming than these is the jasper or onyx ware from the blue or soft green ground of which the white busts (Fig. 328), figures, and flowers stand out in the most exquisite relief. The biscuit is a porcelaneous stone-ware, colored all through by means of oxides. Wedgwood made in all more than two thousand copies of antique gems.

In 1771 Wedgwood removed from Burslem to Etruria, a village which he erected in proximity to his works, and for the accommodation of his workmen. There he also built for himself a handsome residence, which he occupied until his death, in 1795, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. His decorated cream-colored ware had, in the mean time, become known all over Europe, in India, and in this country. In 1775 he made a service for the Empress Catherine II. of Russia, undervalued at fifteen thousand dollars. We close our brief sketch of his remarkable career by noting that the success of the Etruria of his foundation was based upon commerce, and not upon royal patronage; that his humblest works are marked by a thoroughness and fitness parallel with the artistic qualities of his higher pieces; and that excellence of workmanship was in all cases his primary aim. One of his contemporaries and successors was Mr. Enoch Wood, who established a workshop at Burslem in 1770, and was succeeded by Messrs. Caldwell & Wood.

The later products of the Wedgwood factory are hardly less varied than those of its founder’s lifetime. The jasper-ware is still produced, and although some of the pieces lack the exquisite finish of the original, others show little, if any, inferiority. The plate of blue jasper, with white decoration, given in the illustration (Fig. 330), is a remarkably fine example of recent work. The Wedgwood majolica is, both in regard to color and the modelling of the ornaments and figures, unsurpassed by any similar ware of the present time. Of this the vase (Fig. 331) is an excellent illustration. The body is a clear deep blue.

In our time the Staffordshire Potteries maintain their old repute. One well-known name is that of Minton. It occurs in three firms, all located in the Potteries: Minton & Co.; Minton, Hollins & Co., of Stoke-upon-Trent; and Mr. Robert Minton Taylor, of Fenton. The establishment of Minton & Co. was founded while Wedgwood was still alive, by Mr. Thomas Minton, in 1791. The founder of the firm had been successively an employé of Mr. Thomas Turner, of Caughley, and of Spode, before, in 1788, he went to Stoke, and there bought land and built a house and factory. In 1790 he took Spode’s manager, Mr. Joseph Paulson, into partnership, and in 1793 assumed a second partner, Mr. Pownall. The latter retired in 1800, and Paulson died in 1809, after which, for a number of years, Thomas Minton carried on the works alone. Previous to 1798 the factory made nothing but earthen-ware, the greater portion of which was decorated in blue and white, after the type supplied by the porcelain of Nankin.

In 1817 Herbert Minton, a younger son of Thomas, was taken in as partner by his father, and although he practically retired from the business between 1823 and 1836, he succeeded to it in the latter year on the death of the founder. He went into partnership first with Mr. John Boyle, who subsequently joined the Wedgwoods, and secondly with Michael Daintry Hollins. At the time of his death, in 1858, he had two partners, Hollins and Colin Minton Campbell. At that time fifteen hands were employed in the factory. Herbert had directed his attention to the wide range of works which have since given the name of Minton a world-wide reputation. These were earthen-ware, artificial porcelain, natural porcelain, parian, encaustic tiles, azulejos, mosaics, Della Robbia ware, Palissy ware, and majolica. The Mintons divide with Copeland the honor of first making parian. Both firms exhibited it at the London Exhibition of 1851, and the jury to which the question of priority was referred could not decide between them. To continue the history of the firm, Colin Minton Campbell dissolved his partnership with Hollins in 1868, and now carries on the business in connection with his cousins, Thomas, William, and Herbert Minton, the great-grandsons of the founder.

The firm now ranks with the first of English manufacturers. Their enterprise has traversed a field as wide as that into which Wedgwood entered, and their success has been very great. In the pursuit of the commercial they have not neglected the artistic. It is said of Wedgwood that he copied and imitated everything worth imitating. Minton & Co. have followed a similar course, though in a different direction. Twenty-five years ago we find them attempting to make natural porcelain, but the enterprise was abandoned. When the taste for Oriental styles revived, they were among the first to succeed in gratifying the public whim. In doing so they produced specimens of color highly praiseworthy, and of a beauty vividly recalling that of the Oriental originals. Their Persian ware and _pate changeante_ have both excited the admiration of connoisseurs. The Mintons have also been successful in reproducing with wonderful fidelity the _cloisonné_ enamel of China and Japan, using a porcelain base. Here, as in the Persian ware, their turquoise blue is very effective, and the decoration in enamels reflects faithfully the tone of Oriental ornament. Leaving the East, Minton & Co. have been no less fortunate in imitating the Italian Grafitto ware of the fifteenth century, and the famous inlaid Henri Deux ware of France. Several specimens of the latter were exhibited by Messrs. A. B. Daniell & Son at the Centennial Exhibition, and included a teapot, a pitcher, and a pair of candlesticks, all of pale yellow body inlaid with red. Examples are in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and in the collections of Mr. Walters and Mr. W. L. Andrews. A mere reference must suffice for their majolica (Fig. 334), which is rather an independent product than an imitation of the majolica of Italy. It is peculiar both in composition and in the colors employed in its decoration, and is fired at a very high temperature. Mr. Herbert Minton was the first to copy the azulejos of Spain. The above are only a few of the achievements which might be adduced to show how Minton & Co. have boldly essayed to duplicate the choicest products of ceramic art. One is forcibly reminded by them of the Chinese workman’s delight in contending with technical difficulty for the mere sake of surmounting it. Among their artists are Mr. Solon, W. S. Stevens, Charles Toft, H. Darling, J. Leese, M. Mussill, Kirby, Mellor Slater, F. Fuller, and H. Protat.

The firm of Minton, Hollins & Co., of Stoke-upon-Trent, was founded by Michael Daintry Hollins, on the dissolution of his partnership with Colin Minton Campbell in 1868. He built extensive works, and began to make majolica and encaustic tiles, slabs, panels, and other similar wares. The firm now produces an almost endless variety of tiles. At the Centennial Exhibition this firm was represented by some pieces of great brilliancy of color and very careful drawing. In one scene two finely plumaged wading-birds appeared among the water-lilies in a brook. The soft gray of the feathers tipped with bright blue, and the green of the reeds and other plants, were thrown out well by the dark-brown background. On some smaller pieces birds of tropically gay plumage were painted upon a sombre chocolate ground. On others were flowers and butterflies upon a pale ground. The style of treatment is purely Oriental. Drawing and color are paramount. The ground is merely intended for contrast with, or the heightening of, the superimposed decoration. Some beautiful heads of dogs, lions, and asses were marvellous examples of animal portraiture, and illustrated the capacity of tiling for the reception of that style of decoration. In them was seen the work of an artist who fully understood that, given the requisite mastery of color, a tile may be employed as a more lasting substitute for canvas. It is also worth noting that whenever tiles are used for covering a large surface, and each one is treated as a unit, the result is an artistic blunder. The eye wearies with monotonous repetition, and no minuteness of finish in the single tile can relieve the bewildering effect of the mass. Minton, Hollins & Co. have been fortunate in designing fire-places of tiling, with side paintings of birds and flowers, and larger scenes above the mantel, of a character in keeping with their place in a household.

From the Trent we pass to Lambeth, near London. It was here that in 1640 the Dutch makers of stone-ware and delft settled. At one time there were twenty different establishments, but on the rise of Staffordshire their number decreased under the weight of competition. Some of the early Lambeth ware is very skilfully painted, the tiles with a blue ground being especially commendable. At the present time Lambeth is best known by its Doulton ware and Lambeth faience. The Doulton or Lambeth pottery was founded by Mr. John Doulton, who was born at Lambeth in 1793. He served an apprenticeship with White of Fulham, and in 1815 associated Mr. John Watts with himself in establishing the present pottery. Mr. Watts died in 1858, and Mr. Doulton in 1873, and the business is now in the hands of Messrs. Henry and James D. Doulton, sons of the founder. In 1870 they first issued an artistic ware, and in 1872 turned out the first specimen of what they have called “Lambeth faience.” The “Doulton ware” may, without detracting from the originality of much of the decoration, be described as a revival in both composition and style of the German stone-ware, miscalled _Grès de Flandre_. Like other stone-wares the body is highly silicious, close in texture, and very brittle. The necessary firing takes several days to accomplish, and the glaze is made by throwing salt into the kiln, according to the process discovered, as we have seen, in Staffordshire, and long practised at Lambeth. The body-tints are the result of washing the pieces in a preparation of oxides, varied according to the shade desired. The ornamentation is fourfold. It consists either of incrustations, indented designs, incised figures or scenes, or colors. These methods are occasionally combined. The Lambeth faience is a finer ware, and is decorated under the glaze with paintings of flowers, landscapes, portraits, and figures. The Messrs. Doultons’ artists are all taken from the ranks of pupils in the Lambeth School of Art. Among them are Miss Hannah B. Barlow, a very skilful animal painter, Mr. Arthur Barlow, Mr. Frank A. Butler, Mrs. Sparkes, and Mr. George Tinworth.

A great deal of the Doulton ware very closely resembles the _Grès de Flandre_ in its decoration, but even to these specimens is to be accorded the originality resulting from a modified development of the fundamental style. A larger experience may lead to something more perfectly original. The present tendency appears to be toward an excess of ornament, in some instances not a single square inch being left uncovered. Studs and bosses are affixed in bands, are led over the surface in floriated designs, and give the arched handles a peculiar serrated appearance. A very ingenious design consists of incised broad leaves overlapping each other, and becoming more sharply pointed and elongated as they rise up the neck to the lip. Studs are then laid in vertical bands from top to bottom, the lines converging as the leaves become smaller. In many cases, however, the reliefs destroy the outline, and mar the beauty of a host of otherwise admirable shapes. In the matter of form, the Messrs. Doulton, in fact, leave little to be desired. Many of their vases display a pure, classical gracefulness, and others are possessed of a quaintness and novelty almost equally attractive. Canettes, goblets, and small covered jars decorated with plain or ornamental bands, and dotted with flower-like studs, are to be classed among the best examples of the more characteristic or distinctive style of Lambeth decoration.

The plaques and tiles of Lambeth faience deserve separate notice. Some of the smaller pieces illustrate the capacity of the ware for portraiture. The drawing is invariably careful, and the coloring is applied with both taste and delicacy. The colors will probably be improved in time, and become more decided without losing anything in softness. The pieces we have seen inspire us with this hope, and that here again experience may lead to greater excellence. A large tile-piece, by Mrs. Sparkes, representing the departure of the Pilgrim Fathers, and painted upon two hundred and fifty-two tiles of Lambeth faience, was exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition. The lady-artist is deserving of all praise for her composition and drawing. The perspective was very well managed, and the figures were brought out in strong relief against a sky glowing with the rays of the setting sun.

The Messrs. Doulton have achieved some wonderful results in the combination of terra-cotta with their stone-ware. At the Centennial Exhibition they had a brown terra-cotta fireplace and mirror-frame, with tiled panels and hearth and terra-cotta fender. In another mantel-piece, of oak, a set of tiles in the panels showed admirably designed and executed illustrations of scenes and characters from Shakspeare. In these and other similar works a great deal of taste and ingenuity was shown in the combination of material. A magnificent example of the union of terra-cotta with Doulton ware is now in the Smithsonian Institute at Washington (Fig. 340). It is a pulpit of red and light buff terra-cotta with ornaments of blue stone-ware. The balusters on the stairs leading up to the pulpit are Doulton ware ornamented with bands of terra-cotta. Under the base of the balustrade, and round the pulpit under the panels in front and on the sides, are bands of Doulton ware. A similar band surrounds the alcoves or panels. The latter are by Mr. George Tinworth, of London, and illustrate scenes in the life of Christ, from the offering in the Temple of “a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons” to the ascension. Of this artist’s execution, also, are the panels in a baptismal font which accompanies the pulpit. These and other similar works are so deeply sunk that they have the appearance of groups of figures separately modelled and placed in the recess rather than of mouldings in relief. They are in every way admirable. The expression and attitudes of some of the faces and figures are marvellously life-like and forcible.

Fulham owes the beginnings of its pottery to the Dutch. In 1684 Mr. John Dwight was making stone-ware, earthen-ware, statues, and porcelain. The latter was very soon discontinued. The production of other wares was carried on by descendants of the founder.

The history of Bristol pottery is said to go back to the commencement of the thirteenth century, but its first piece with a date is five hundred years later. It is delft-ware, and is dated 1703. A German, named Wrede, or Reed, is said to have made stone-ware about the same period. Otherwise Bristol is unimportant in so far as earthen-ware is concerned.

Leeds is one of the towns which, toward the close of the last century, were adopted as fields for a pottery enterprise. It did an extensive trade with the Continent in a cream-colored ware.

Liverpool begins its history, in 1716, with the manufacture of delft. The first event of any importance is the invention by Mr. John Sadler, in 1753, of a method of printing upon earthen-ware. Wedgwood was in the habit of sending Queen’s-ware to Sadler to be printed. In 1752 Mr. Richard Chaffers set up an earthen-ware establishment, but soon turned his attention to porcelain, which he succeeded in making after discovering the necessary material in Devonshire. On his death the enterprise came to an end. The next name of distinction is that of Pennington, who, about 1760, made delft bowls and vases, some of which were painted by an artist named Robinson. Pennington ultimately returned to Worcester. In 1794 the “Herculaneum Pottery” was opened at Birkenhead, and was worked until 1841.

Mr. Herolin Luson made an ineffectual attempt to establish a pottery at Lowestoft in 1756. His failure is to be attributed to the infidelity of his workmen, who were induced by the London manufacturers to spoil the ware. Notwithstanding the opposition which led competitors to resort to similarly unworthy devices, Walker, Brown, Aldred, and Rickman founded a workshop within a year of Luson’s failure, and by taking the necessary precautions against treachery, placed it upon a permanent basis. It made ware of every grade. The Lowestoft earthen-ware was usually decorated with blue, and occasionally with red. The early porcelain was painted in the same colors, and the later pieces were ornamented with flowers. The latter are artistically drawn and colored, and equal the best work found on English porcelain. Plain Chinese ware was imported and decorated at Lowestoft; but the production ceased about the year 1830.

It is questionable if ware of any kind was ever made at Yarmouth, although it is certain that a decorating establishment and kiln existed there probably about 1752. It is more than possible that this workshop was in part supplied with Lowestoft biscuit.

Nottingham manufactured pottery from about 1650, and the business was continued for at least a century. The precise period at which it came to an end is not known.

The Shropshire factories were offshoots of those of Staffordshire. The Brosely establishment was founded by Mr. Richard Thursfield, of Stoke, in 1713, and passed from his family into the hands of the Roses of Colebrookdale about 1799. A black stone-ware decorated with gilt or with reliefs was the chief product.

Mr. Francis Place, of the Manor-house, York, made fine pottery or stone-ware in the latter part of the seventeenth century. The well-known “Rockingham ware” took its name from a brown pottery made upon the estate of the Marquis of Rockingham, at Swinton, in Yorkshire. The production originated in 1757, and the enterprise was subsequently carried on by Mr. William Malpass (1765); Mr. Thomas Bingley (1778); Messrs. John and William Bramfield (1807-1842), when the works stopped. The brown teapots of this factory were at one time very fashionable in England. Of these and other works each had its specialty of decoration or composition, but to detail them in full would only complicate a sketch in which it is intended to give merely salient points, on a comprehensive plan.

PORCELAIN.

Plymouth Hard Porcelain.--Cookworthy.--Bow.--Chelsea.--Derby.--Worcester.
--Minton.--Pate-sur-Pate.--Spode.--Copeland.--Bristol.--Tunstall.
--Caughley.--Nantgarrow.--Swansea.--Colebrookdale.--Pinxton.--Shelton.
--Belleek.--General Character of Manufacture in Great Britain.

It may be as well to premise that the porcelain now made in England all belongs to the soft, or, according to our classification, the artificial class. Its composition has already been described. The leading seats of the industry are Bow, Chelsea, Derby, Plymouth, Bristol, Worcester, and a few workshops in the midland counties and Wales.

With the possible exceptions of Lowestoft and Bristol, Plymouth stands alone as the only place in England at which a manufactory of hard, or natural, porcelain ever existed (Fig. 343). This distinction is due to the enterprise of William Cookworthy, who was born near Plymouth, in 1705. Cookworthy was a chemist and druggist, and was led into his porcelain venture by the discovery of kaolin and petuntse near Helstone, in 1755. Five years later his manufactory was running at Coxside, but meeting with no adequate commercial support, he sold his patents, in 1772, to Richard Champion, of Bristol. The production then ceased. Cookworthy’s first attempts were not encouraging, but perseverance brought a certain measure of success, and his later works are of fine quality. He procured a Sèvres painter, and also employed Bone, the enameller and artist, and by their help turned out many valuable services and pieces richly ornamented after the prevailing Oriental styles, with birds, flowers, and insects.

Before Cookworthy embarked in his porcelain enterprise at Plymouth, artificial porcelain was made at Stratford-le-Bow and Chelsea. The beginnings of the industry at neither place have ever been satisfactorily freed from obscurity, and it is not known to which the priority belongs. Thomas Frye, an Essex artist, superintended the works at Bow for some time, and is said to have been the first who succeeded in making English porcelain. He died in 1762. Probably the Bow and Chelsea works both started about twenty years before that date. It is certain that both stopped after less than fifty years existence. The porcelain made at Stratford-le-Bow, and designated “Bow china,” is of coarse paste, and is often found decorated with a bee either painted or embossed (Fig. 344). The painting of flowers and scenes is not of a high order, but the reliefs are frequently effective and well executed. The Bow artists also made figure groups.

The decoration of early Chelsea porcelain closely followed the Chinese, which it was intended to rival. The business there did not attain to any eminence, nor did the art rise to a noticeable height, until the works were patronized by the Court of George II and supported by the Duke of Cumberland. Between 1750 and 1765, Chelsea porcelain most closely approached its great Continental rivals (Fig. 345). After 1750 the manufacture could hardly be called an English enterprise, since material and workmen were both imported from Germany. The management also was in the hands of a foreigner named Spremont. The articles produced included all the forms of Sèvres and Dresden, table services, candlesticks, figures, vases, and the numberless designs among which the inventive ingenuity of Continental artists was exercised. In 1784 the works stopped. The Chelsea paste was extremely soft, and the glaze was vitreous and liable to crack. The colors were superb, and included some of the choicest found on Sèvres porcelain, besides at least one other, a claret color, peculiar to Chelsea. Very high prices have been obtained for this porcelain at auctions, more than a thousand dollars having been given for a pair of vases. In design, workmanship, color, and decoration, there are pieces of Chelsea porcelain unexcelled by any other establishment, either English or foreign.

Mr. Duesbury, who purchased the Chelsea works in 1769 and finally transferred them to Derby, had been making porcelain in the latter place since 1750. He had also bought and transferred the Bow works, and carried on a most extensive business, taking the place in public estimation of the two establishments he had consolidated. The elder Duesbury died about the year 1788, and the subsequent proprietorship is not very clear. He appears, however, to have been succeeded by his son, who died in 1798, and the works then fell to the third Duesbury, who carried them on in conjunction with Michael Kean until they were acquired by Robert Bloor in 1815. Bloor kept them until he died in 1849, and then Locker & Co. held them until 1859, when they were assumed by Stephenson & Hancock, of which firm Mr. Hancock, the surviving partner, came into sole possession in 1866. The ware was called Chelsea-Derby from 1769 to 1773, when it received the name of Crown-Derby, a crown having been added to the mark after a visit of the king and queen. The Derby paste was very fine and translucent, and in the production of biscuit figures it was unrivalled. The best of the old Derby colors was a beautiful bright blue.

The Worcester works were founded in 1751, by a company headed by Dr. Wall. To this gentleman has been ascribed the invention of printing on porcelain, which we have already found in use on pottery in Liverpool in 1753. The matter is involved in doubt, as the process was in vogue at Battersea about the same period, and it is improbable that it was simultaneously invented at three different establishments so far apart. However this may be, Dr. Wall availed himself of the invention, and handled it with great skill and precision. Steatite obtained from Cornwall was first used by the company in 1770, and in 1783 the Messrs. Flight bought up the original establishment, which had found competitors in the Chamberlains, who had commenced business as decorators in 1786. In 1788 the works were visited by King George III., who became a patron of Flight, and were afterward called the Royal Worcester Porcelain Works. One of the Flights died in 1791, and a partnership was formed by the survivor with Martin Barr in 1793. The concern was carried on under the firm of Flight & Barr until 1807, when it became Barr, Flight & Barr, Jun., and in 1829 another change was made to Flight, Barr & Barr. It retained that form until 1840, when an amalgamation was effected with the Chamberlains. In 1862 a joint-stock company was formed, under which Mr. R. W. Binns, the author of a history of Worcester potting, acted as superintendent of the artistic department. It is estimated that at present upward of four hundred workmen are employed in the Worcester establishment, which is made all the more interesting by reason of its being one of the few survivors of the old English works. Every effort is made to bring the porcelain to perfection, and the body and decoration are both very fine. The Worcester paste does not appear at first to have equalled that of some other English centres, but its yellowish tinge made it very well suited for the brilliant color demanded by the Oriental styles of decoration. The process of transfer printing is said to have been perfected by Josiah Holdship, who was assisted by his brother Richard in engraving the plates. Robert Hancock was also an engraver in the factory. Some rare specimens of transfer printing are found painted with colors and gold, by which means good imitations of Dresden were made. This success led to the adoption of the Dresden mark, a practice to which the Worcester manufacturers seem to have been too much addicted, as the marks of several of the leading workshops are found upon their wares. At the present time the Worcester factory is turning out a great deal of excellent work. The table ware, of which an example is given (Fig. 351), is generally tastefully and often brilliantly decorated. The colors in the specimen given are yellow, red, blue, green, and gold, very judiciously combined, and have a warm and rich effect. The portrait plaque (Fig. 349) is by A. Handley, and is executed in flat colors. The flesh-tint is especially soft and refined. It is a highly satisfactory example of its class.

A work widely differing from either of the above is the basket vase (Fig. 350), with rustic handles and feet, and decorated with leafy branches in relief. The only color used is a pale shade of blue, which deepens in the interstices of the wicker-work. These examples have been chosen not for any exceptional qualities, but for the purpose of illustrating the average products of a factory which ranks among the first in England.

The Mintons, although devoting themselves chiefly to stone-ware and earthen-ware, made porcelain at an early period of their history. This occurred in 1798, when a semi-translucent porcelain of inferior quality was made. The production ceased in 1811, and was taken up subsequently by Herbert Minton. Their _pate-sur-pate_ has been noticed under France, but we here give a superb specimen of their decoration in that style by Mr. Solon (Fig. 352).

Another famous firm working at Stoke-upon-Trent is that of the Copelands. It was founded in 1780 by the first Josiah Spode, who established himself in the works which had been occupied by Banks & Turner. He appears to have been chiefly engaged in the manufacture of blue printed willow-ware, and imitations of the more famous works of Wedgwood, especially his cream and jasper wares. He died in 1797, and his son and namesake carried on the business, and first turned his attention to porcelain about the beginning of the present century. The body he used was of great purity, and the ware was chiefly decorated with gold and flowers after the fashion of his day. In this venture he was very successful, and devoted every energy to pushing his enterprise. In 1805 he achieved another triumph by what he described as “a sort of fine ware, called opaque porcelain,” which was extensively consumed on the Continent, to the great detriment of the makers of French faience. In 1806 the honor was conferred upon him of being appointed potter to the Prince of Wales, and in 1827 he died, after amassing a large fortune. The firm consisted for some time of Josiah Spode, William Spode, and William Copeland, and in 1833 the concern was bought by a son of the latter, William Taylor Copeland. He was joined by Mr. Garrett in 1843, and the firm consisted of Copeland and Garrett until 1847, when Mr. Copeland again became sole proprietor, and continued so until 1867, when he was joined by his sons. The works are now carried on under the firm of Copeland & Sons, and have attained to great dimensions, covering about twelve acres of ground, and giving employment to about nine hundred operatives.

Mr. Abraham, art director of the Copeland works, has furnished much of the above information, and of that which follows regarding the wares of both Spode and Copeland. According to Mr. Abraham, one of Spode’s most celebrated wares was the stone china already referred to, an opaque or nearly opaque compact body of a blue-gray tint resembling Oriental china. It was fired at a much higher temperature than earthen-ware, and in reproducing it at the present time it is fired in the porcelain kiln. It was decorated by Spode in various ways, the qualities most highly prized being the “old Japans” and oven blues of different shades. Spode’s stone china and ivory bodies are exceptionally well adapted for treatment in which oven blue is employed.

This stone china has never been entirely out of use, but for a long time it did not receive the attention it deserved, and has only been recently revived. When receiving least attention its manufacture was restricted to matching sets, the possessors of which were so sensible of its high qualities as a table ware, that they were desirous of making up deficiencies in their services whenever practicable. The name of Copeland is now well known wherever commerce has carried the ceramic wares of England. Some of the most artistically designed and finely decorated pieces found in the collections of the present time are from this workshop. The Copelands have rivalled the most prominent houses of England, we might say of Europe, both in the many-sidedness of their enterprise and in its results. The best artists and modellers are employed, and the products may be compared with any in Europe. What may be considered a specialty of the Copelands is the employment of royal blue upon porcelain, both in arbitrary designs and in landscape and figure painting. They have it so perfectly under control that the most delicate tints and the greatest depths of which the color is capable are produced at will, without the overflowing of the color on the one hand, or on the other the harshness and poverty of tone so common in works decorated in this blue.

A great deal of the Copeland jewelled ware is exceedingly beautiful. We have chosen one specimen as being exceptional, both in its design and decoration (Fig. 353), and it would certainly be difficult to lavish upon it too much praise. The base is gilt, the body is of two shades of blue, and the gracefully expanding neck pale brown dotted with brown of a darker tint. The handles consist of golden butterflies resplendent with jewels. The effect is rich, but harmonious and charming, and the piece may be regarded as one of the most favorable illustrations of what the English artists of our time can accomplish.

In approaching the Copeland parian (Figs. 354 and 355), we find ourselves among some of the finest works in that material yet given to the world. An enumeration of the artists regularly or specially engaged in this department would include many of the highest names in the profession. This branch of art has developed rapidly, partly on account of the rivalry between manufacturers, but chiefly by reason of the welcome everywhere extended to the works issued. Among the subjects chosen by the Copelands, many, possibly the greater number, are ideals--such personifications as those of Music and Poetry. It could not be expected that all these would be of equal merit, and fault may occasionally be found with attitudes and proportions; but they are, as a whole, admirably executed.

Yet another branch of art in which the Copelands have been eminently successful is represented by the perforated or reticulated ware of which the Chinese supply the types. The potting difficulties and risk in making this double surface ware are greater or less according to the intricacy and delicacy of the perforations. In the cup and saucer here given (Fig. 356) the manipulation and firing were exceptionally delicate and hazardous, far more so than in the case of the honey-comb perforation. Held up to the light, the inner surface appears to be as thin as egg-shell; and it seems a perfect marvel that, when the heat has softened the body, the upper surface does not sink down upon that below. Where plugs can be used to keep them apart, or where the perforated surface is strongly arched, or where the article can be placed upright, the danger is manifestly less than in such a piece as the saucer, with its pointed leaf-work bending downward rather than arching. It is also necessarily placed flat in the kiln. Many pieces of the same kind have been made by the Copelands.

We have already seen that Cookworthy sold his patent to Mr. R. Champion, of Bristol. It appears, however, that he retained an interest in it after Champion started his manufactory in that city until the year 1773, when he relinquished his right on payment of a royalty. The Bristol workshop was founded a few years previously, but no natural porcelain was put upon the market until that date. The fact that Champion was, in 1776, making artificial porcelain indicates that he very soon found his hard porcelain venture would not be remunerative. He was, according to one authority, associated with a company of Bristol gentlemen in his enterprise, and it appears to be certain that when he applied for the extension of his patent he did not stand alone. In 1781 or 1782 he resigned his right to a company of Staffordshire potters, and was appointed Paymaster of the Forces, under his friend Mr. Edmund Burke. He died in 1787, at Camden, South Carolina. The Bristol china is chiefly valuable by reason of its rarity. The decoration is after Continental and Chinese styles, and the paste is inferior.

The company which purchased Champion’s patent continued to make natural paste until 1810, first at Tunstall and afterward at Shelton. It was called “New Hall china.” Artificial porcelain was made until 1825.

When, in 1807, the Bramelds acquired the Swinton works, they conjoined the manufacture of Rockingham and fine pottery with porcelain of excellent quality. They endeavored to make a ware of the finest sort in both body and decoration, but fell into financial difficulties in 1826, and, although assisted by Earl Fitzwilliam, finally succumbed, as we have already seen, in 1842.

Caughley is the earliest and most important of the Shropshire porcelains. The workshop would be deserving of remembrance were it only for one reason--that it was here Mr. Thomas Turner originated, in 1780, the willow pattern. The manufacture of porcelain at Caughley was inaugurated soon after the middle of the eighteenth century. Turner took the management about 1780, although he had been interested in the works for some years previously. He effected great improvements, introduced printing, raised the quality of the ware, and engaged the most skilful decorators. He also made white ware for other decorating establishments, especially those of Worcester. The Caughley works were, in 1799, amalgamated with those of Colebrookdale.

A factory was founded at Nantgarrow in 1813, by Walker & Beely, or Billingsley, and was carried on, in conjunction with Mr. W. Young, until 1828, when it was bought by Mr. John Rose, of Colebrookdale.

The “Cambrian Pottery” of Swansea was founded in 1750, and began to make “opaque china” in 1790, and from 1814 to 1819 was making porcelain. Young and Billingsley, the Nantgarrow artists, both appear to have been employed at Swansea, by Mr. Dillwyn, who had bought the works in 1802. In 1820 they passed into the possession of Mr. Rose, of Colebrookdale.

At this place, or Coalport, as it is alternatively called, the Caughley, Nantgarrow, and Swansea factories were thus consolidated in the hands of Mr. John Rose, a pupil of Turner of Caughley, and a man of great enterprise. He took with him the best artists of the works successively absorbed, and it is here that we again meet Walker and Billingsley as superintendents. The present proprietor is Mr. W. F. Rose. The Messrs. Daniell, of London, are among the leading supporters of the factory, and have incited Mr. Rose to some of his most successful experiments in color. Of these the Dubarry rose, one of the most famous and beautiful colors of Sèvres, is probably the most important.

Billingsley worked first at Derby, then successively at Pinxton, Mansfield, Worcester, Nantgarrow, Swansea, and Coalport. He died at the last mentioned place in 1828.

The Pinxton factory here mentioned was established in 1795, by Mr. John Coke, who transferred it to Billingsley, from whom it passed to Mr. Cutts. It was closed in 1812.

Brief mention has already been made of Tunstall and Shelton. The latter place is less known in America, in connection with the working of the Champion patent, than by the names of Ridgway and Brown, Westhead, Moore & Co. (Fig. 357). Job Ridgway was a Shelton potter in the latter part of the last century, and was, in 1814, succeeded by his sons John and William, who were followed by the above firm. The porcelain of both firms is well known in this country. With Shelton, although there are or have been many other factories in England, we close our sketch of that country.

A peculiar ware from Belleek, Lough Erne, Fermanagh County, Ireland, has made its appearance in America within the past ten years, and has been received with considerable favor both here and in Canada. It is carefully and artistically wrought into ornamental pieces and services. Its chief peculiarity is an iridescent glaze of a silvery, lustrous appearance. In the specimen (Fig. 358) the pedestal is unglazed, and its dead white contrasts admirably with the lustrous flowers, base, and top. The ware is obtained from a combination of clays found in the neighborhood from which it takes its name. It is a true porcelain and very translucent, and in thin lustred pieces rivals the egg-shell of the far East. It is equally beautiful in biscuit or glazed.

Several original designs appear among the table services of this ware, which are rendered very attractive by the peculiar glaze. Exceedingly beautiful imitations of shells (Fig. 359) are made of Belleek ware, a purpose for which it is especially suited by reason of the similarity the glazed surface presents to the inside pearly lining of a shell (Fig. 360). A ware somewhat similar in appearance is made in England and France, where an artificial metallic glaze is employed to produce the _madreperla_ lustre.

The ceramics of England are of special interest to the American reader. In many of our old homes are to be found samples of English pottery and porcelain brought to this country long before Revolutionary times. Many of them are, like heirlooms, passed on from generation to generation, the remnants being all the more highly prized as they become fewer in number. A great deal of the earthen-ware and porcelain used here within the last century has come from the centres of which we have been treating. To the student of the art, also, England has an interest all its own. The workmen of England have, from the earliest times, shown that moral as well as mental capacity for coping with mechanical and scientific difficulties which marks the typical English character. Wedgwood was a remarkable instance of a man who, with materials usually considered of inferior quality for artistic embellishment, steadily aimed at producing works which should be, and actually were, the best of their kind. So it is with the Mintons and Doultons of our day. They surround themselves with the best artists they can find, and have taught England, which was still disposed to reserve its warmest admiration for works executed in the long-coveted and only recently possessed porcelain, to forget the medium in the art it conveys.