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THE ART 
 
 OF THE 
 
 OLD ENGLISH POTTER. 
 
 BY 
 
 L. M. SOLON. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH FIFTY ETCHINGS BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 X 0 n 6 0 n ; 
 
 BE M ROSE AND SONS, 23, OLD BAILEY; 
 AND DERBY. 
 
 1883. 
 
TO COLIN MINTON CAMPBELL, Esq. 
 
 TO WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO 
 
 PROMOTE THE IMPROVEMENT OF POTTERY IN ENGLAND, 
 
 THE WORLD AT LARGE WILL BEAR TESTIMONY : 
 
 IF THE AUTHOR OF THIS IMPERFECT ESSAY PRESUMES TO DEDICATE IT 
 
 TO YOU, IT IS ONLY AS 
 
 A TRIBUTE OF PERSONAL RESPECT, AND AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT, 
 HOWEVER INADEQUATE, 
 
 OF MANY FAVOURS RECEIVED AT YOUR HANDS. 
 

PREFACE. 
 
 HHEN the arduous labour of the week comes to a close, 
 kiKI Saturday, in the manufacturing towns of England, brings 
 an afternoon of relaxation welcomed by all. Twelve 
 years ago, arriving from France, having as yet made 
 but few friends, and finding little pleasure besides my 
 work at Mintons’, I enjoyed more than anyone that half-holiday, and 
 certainly made the best of it by devoting all the time I could spare 
 to pedestrian excursions, and taking an exhaustive survey of the 
 neighbourhood. Interesting as they were for me, the pleasure of these 
 random rambles would no doubt have soon palled, but just as I was 
 beginning to feel a little weary of going again and again over the 
 same ground without a purpose, an incident happened which created at 
 once an exciting motive for further perambulations. It was the 
 discovery of two earthenware pots, of a kind hitherto quite unknown 
 to me, dimly seen through dusty panes on the window sill of a 
 cottage. Having first asked leave to examine them, I was so struck 
 by their quaintness that I decided to try whether I could not become 
 their possessor. The attempt was successful, the bargain was soon 
 struck, and I proudly carried my treasures home, already considering 
 whether these could not be made the nucleus of a future collection. 
 
 Day by day I grew more interested in this strange-looking ware 
 (they were pieces of Salt-glaze), and I resolved to know more about it. 
 Henceforth I could start afresh for the country with a definite aim in 
 view; a new plan was traced, my excursions were to be devoted to 
 the finding and gathering of such specimens of old English ware 
 
 2 
 
VI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 as destructive time and greedy collectors had so far spared, and might 
 still lie hid in many an ancient homestead. Taking along with me 
 one of those sharp Staffordshire lads whose ready tongue and cool 
 assurance could gain admittance into the most inhospitable dwellings, 
 every Saturday brought about a fresh expedition, and I believe there 
 are few villages, farmhouses, or cottages within fifteen miles of Stoke- 
 on-Trent which, in the end, were left by us unexplored. The 
 
 excitement was ever on the increase; sometimes at the turning of a 
 
 lane we came upon a promising thatched house, the old dame to 
 
 whom the abode belonged often standing on the threshold, and 
 I could faintly distinguish in the shadowy room the ricketty dresser, 
 bearing an array of crocks which, in my imagination, took the 
 shape of so many marvellous and unique specimens that so far 
 
 had miraculously escaped previous searches, to be reserved for the 
 gratification of the fortunate collector who was just about to secure 
 them. What diplomacy had to be brought to bear before we could 
 obtain permission to investigate the display on the shelves! What 
 a disappointment when all happened to be vulgar and modern ; 
 but also what a tremor of expectation when at last the old crone 
 made up her mind to reach from the darkest recess of the corner 
 cupboard the family tea-pot, a modest and yet much valued heirloom, 
 in exchange for which I could offer a price so highly tempting as, in 
 almost every instance, to get the better of family feelings! She then, 
 with a sigh of regret, emptied the contents, generally consisting of a 
 few packets of seeds kept for the following year, the receipt for the 
 rent, and the half-sovereign put by for a rainy day. Remorselessly I 
 bagged my precious find, and retired more eager than ever to proceed 
 on my venture. 
 
 Thus old pot-hunting, begun merely as a recreation, waxed into a 
 real mania. The horizon of my expectations kept enlarging every day. 
 No longer satisfied with what chance might bring me, I was bent on 
 finding such rare treasures as visits to museums and the study of 
 books written on the subject had taught me to appreciate and covet, 
 and I entertained distant visions of invaluable tro^l'vailles. The huge 
 Shp-decorated dish, ornamented with the stately figures of King and 
 Queen, or rather the abstract conception of what royalty might be, the 
 proud production of one of the common potters of Staffordshire trying 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Vll 
 
 his hand at art for the first time, and which, highly prized in its day, 
 never left the dresser it was wont to adorn but on the grand festive 
 days, when it was used to bake the fat goose. The cradle of coarse 
 clay, made on the occasion of the great-grandmother’s christening day, 
 and brought on the table for the first time two hundred years before, 
 filled with filberts and walnuts. The traditional tyg, embellished with 
 an unlimited number of handles, and bearing in large letters the name 
 of the possessor. The capacious posset-pot, wherein the compound 
 liquor was brewed at Christmastide only. The lucky shoe, a wedding 
 present, the hob nails of which, made of white slip dots, formed 
 under the sole the name of the owner. The four-handled candlestick, 
 an ornamental article, preserved on the mantel-shelf, together with the 
 most curious belongings of the family, and not the less admired 
 because never used. The white and delicate Salt-glaze ware, stamped or 
 embossed all over with characteristic ornament. The highly-glazed and 
 richly-coloured Tortoiseshell pieces. The Agate-ware, formed of variegated 
 bodies, harmoniously blended. The Cream-colour, so quickly attaining a 
 perfection that has never been surpassed. All these and a host of 
 other varieties were equally exciting my admiration, for in all I could 
 unmistakably trace that freshness of feeling which is so often wanting 
 in the productions of a more refined epoch. 
 
 Steadily my collection increased in number, nor did I always keep 
 exactly within the lines I first laid down; shape and decoration were 
 no longer the only recommendation a piece should possess to interest 
 me. This one bore a date which could elucidate a doubtful point; 
 this other, on the contrary, had none, and by that fact became a 
 riddle to unravel; this was precious as being a unique specimen, 
 while the other was a replica of the well-known production of a 
 celebrated maker. In short, I was becoming a thorough collector, and 
 as such began to appreciate anything that possessed historical 
 interest; so it happened that many specimens which at the outset I 
 should have discarded as being of no artistic value, assumed great 
 importance in my eyes. 
 
 The object of my pursuits took a definite form. Neglecting the 
 study of all extraneous matter, and ignoring foreign ware and English 
 china, I strove to reach a goal which now distinctly stood before me. 
 I thought of the collection once formed at Burslem by Enoch Wood, 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 viii 
 
 and this became the model of what, although circumstances were much 
 altered, and the undertaking was becoming more and more difficult 
 every day, I had to try to emulate. His collection was the only one, 
 I believe, formed with the view of showing the progress of potting in 
 Staffordshire from the 17th century, and it was dispersed after his 
 death. However, one can form an idea of what it was from pieces 
 scattered here and there in museums. It ought never to have left the 
 Potteries. It was divided into four parts, which were sold for one 
 hundred pounds each. One went to the South Kensington Museum; 
 the others were bought by the Jermyn Street Museum, the Mechanics’ 
 Institution at Hanley, and Mr. Herbert Minton, who presented his 
 share to Stoke Museum. I must also mention that in his lifetime 
 Enoch Wood sent one hundred and twenty pieces to the King of 
 Saxony. 
 
 Brought together as they were, his specimens forcibly exemplified 
 what genuine old English art had been in its pristine days, and one 
 could have derived from them the knowledge that can hardly be 
 gathered now from the stray and rare bits which have come down to 
 us, unclassed and disregarded. It is to be lamented that the early 
 pieces, showing the skill of the first potters, but mostly made for 
 daily use, have shared the doom of all common things in daily use, 
 and are broken and destroyed. It seems as though the English 
 people, whose genius revels in an ever-renewed manifestation of power, 
 whilst hastening to produce a new manufacture, had done its best to 
 make away with all that recalled a beginning of which its present 
 glory made it somewhat ashamed. 
 
 And yet, is there anything more interesting for an inquisitive 
 mind than to trace back the progress of an art to its remotest 
 sources; to follow the wandering attempts of its infancy, timid and 
 uncertain, but charming because we are all charmed by everything that 
 is young? Nothing is there in these but what is original and 
 sincere, nothing borrowed from conventional rules misunderstood and 
 ill-applied. 
 
 The Greek artist, who by a geometrical tracery originated the 
 symbolical figure of a wave, and placed it at the bottom of a wall 
 or at the foot of a vase, was a creator and a poet; he who came 
 next, and understanding the purport of the work of his predecessor, 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IX 
 
 definitely settled the best use to which it could be put, may be 
 termed a skilful and learned man; but what can we say of the 
 reckless imitator, who, coming at a later period, employs indiscriminately 
 the most commonplace designs of the past, distributing at random 
 figures and ornaments, all dead letters to him, upon any surface, with 
 the sole view of making it gorgeous, and (to take one example out of 
 a thousand) uncoils the symbolic wave of the Greek on the border 
 of a fire-stove? Nothing of the kind is to be found on the works of 
 the potters we propose to study; and we must confess it is chiefly 
 from abhorrence of these out-of-place decorations, often the fruit of a 
 too hasty revival, that we feel attracted towards primitive works, always 
 sound, fresh, and rational. Saturated with sophisticated embellishments, 
 pursued everywhere by ornaments spread on every available space, 
 whether wanted or not, we like to rest our eyes and our mind in 
 looking sympathetically upon the simple attempts of the earliest ceramic 
 artists. 
 
 The purpose I had in view when I began to sketch some of my 
 pieces, w'as to make them known to a few far-away friends, for we all 
 like to draw others into sharing our own tastes, and it is with all of 
 us a pet weakness to discourse and convert. This explains how, by 
 slow degrees, I was led to etch the most interesting specimens of my 
 collection, and subsequently came to think of publication. 
 
 If now I venture to write a few words to accompany the etchings, 
 I must, in fairness to myself, say that my ambition never went so far 
 as to attempt a complete history of English Pottery. Others, better 
 qualified than I, have supplied this want; and owing to the assistance 
 of the elaborate and exhaustive books written on the matter, my task 
 has been made comparatively an easy one. It is only in all humility 
 
 that I venture to present a few observations, suggested by the 
 
 numerous examples which have passed through my hands, or by the 
 original documents given in extenso by the authors who have treated 
 the subject, and to which I shall always refer the reader who may 
 want to know more than he will find in this summary account. 
 
 But, as frequently happens, examples and documents, instead of settling 
 a question, raise doubtful points or present new problems for solution, 
 I will try in such cases to point out a new ground for controversy. 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 to hazard a probable supposition, leaving the question to be solved by 
 more learned and accurate investigators. 
 
 The principal object of this essay will be to relate, as far as it is 
 in my power, the efforts and trials of the first plodders in the field, 
 the unknown ones, who can have no special history of their own, but 
 who, working as a group, made the ground ready for the splendid 
 achievements of the great potters of the latter part of the tSth century. 
 
 The discoverers of the early hour are doomed to be absorbed into 
 the commanding individuality of the man who, at the appointed time, 
 arises to condense all their ideas. Setting into shape all that was still 
 rudimentary and unconnected, he appropriates to a definite use all the 
 various processes which up to his time had been little more than so 
 many experiments, and settles the practical rules with which his name 
 will be for ever associated. In this way the fame of the pioneers of 
 the art is eclipsed, their work remains anonymous, and no one cares 
 any more for the names of the forgotten ones, whose combined exertions 
 had such an important share in bringing their craft nearer to perfection. 
 Yet history, which repeats itself, often shows that as long as these 
 early and active labourers are toiling, each of them brings a fresh 
 stone to the edifice; but as soon as the great man, the practical 
 genius, makes his appearance, he seems to erect in the path an 
 insurmountable barrier; he marks the limit, and no one will ever 
 go any further. Like the fruit which completes the growth of some 
 of the eastern plants, he is the sure sign of the coming end ; after 
 the fruit has ripened, the plant slowly withers and dies. Retracing 
 the steps of the deviated tradition, to start again from the source will 
 always have a charm for the artist if, by assiduously studying the 
 works of the unknown and the forgotten precursors, he may gather 
 something for which credit may, however tardily, be given where it 
 is due. 
 
 This is why we do not intend setting before our readers any 
 specimens of a later date than the middle of the i8th century. 
 The several types it is our purpose to describe are not sufficiently 
 numerous or varied in their fabrication to require a scientific 
 classification; neither is a chronological arrangement called for, seeing 
 that they are comprised within the short period of one hundred and 
 fifty years. In the same way as they are grouped on the shelves of 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 our own collection, we ask permission to present them hereafter. 
 We shall classify them under the following headings;— 
 
 Early Pottery —A short retrospective account of the ware which 
 was produced in England before the 17th century. 
 
 The Stone-ware —Which in the South of England was one of 
 the first attempts at improvement made by the potters, in order to 
 supply the goods hitherto imported from Germany. This object was at 
 last successfully achieved by Dwight. 
 
 The Slip-decorated Ware —Or pieces made of the rough marl 
 from the coal measures, ornamented with diluted clay, poured in cursive 
 tracery on the surface, and glazed with “galena.” 
 
 The Delft-ware —Made in imitation of the Dutch importations; 
 too good an imitation perhaps, as it can hardly be distinguished from 
 the foreign productions, but which, nevertheless, cannot be overlooked, 
 because of its having been extensively manufactured in many places 
 in England. 
 
 The Sigillated or Stamped Ware —A process probably derived 
 from the German Stone-ware, but which had become thoroughly English 
 when the successors of the Elers began to employ clays of different 
 colours, glazing them with “ galena.” 
 
 The Salt-glaze —White and delicately-made Stone-ware, the most 
 English of all in its characteristics, decorated with sharp and quaint 
 embossments, or (but only at a later period) with enamels, and' even 
 with printing. 
 
 The Tortoiseshell —Rich and harmonious, with underglaze coloura¬ 
 tions, similar in effect to the works of Palissy, and of the early potters 
 of the Continent, but differing much from them by the style of the 
 shapes and decorations ; and, lastly: 
 
 The Cream-colour —Beginning with the discovery of the use of 
 flint by Astbtiry, the first step towards the white earthenware which, 
 brought by Josiah IVedgwood to the highest degree of perfection, was 
 to supersede all others. 
 
 I shall close my account at the coming of the prince of 
 English potters, to whose memory lasting monuments are not wanting— 
 exhaustive books and complete collections. Moreover, his admirable 
 works are so intimately linked to the modest productions of his 
 predecessors, that to write about them is in a manner to make an 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xii 
 
 introduction to the study of his achievements, and indirectly to pay 
 homage to his genius. 
 
 By reproducing only specimens taken from my own collection, I 
 thought I should have the advantage of presenting none but examples 
 unpublished so far, and avoiding the representation of what can be 
 seen in public museums. They have been selected out of many, 
 
 with all possible care and discrimination, to represent the different 
 classes of English pottery. For many years I have spared no trouble 
 in collecting them, and where my own exertions have failed, some 
 kind friend or other has helped me to find the particular piece that 
 
 was wanting to fill the gap. It is scarcely necessary to say that the 
 study of pieces always before one’s eyes is likely to be more thorough 
 than that of examples in public museums, and that it is easier to 
 confer with experts respecting them. Perhaps the amateur who 
 feels desirous of forming a collection of the same sort will be pleased 
 to be shown, instead of what is only to be found in the royal 
 
 palaces or inaccessible collections, a reproduction of the different types 
 which he may still hope, by perseverance, to discover and acquire. 
 
 I shall beg to be excused on these grounds for not having etched 
 any of the choicest specimens I might have borrowed from so many 
 collections, and which, nevertheless, it is my intention to describe to 
 the best of my ability - when I have occasion to refer to them, 
 
 advising the reader at the same time to study them for himself 
 to supplement the shortcomings of my disquisition. 
 
 From a visit to the collection which Mr. FI. Willett has so 
 generously lent to the town of Brighton, a great amount of information 
 can be derived; nowhere are to be seen so many striking and valuable 
 testimonies to the art of our early potters. A few collectors of taste 
 have not thought it unworthy of their pursuit to secure fine 
 representative examples of old English earthenware, and it is a piece 
 of real good fortune to be permitted to admire the choice selections 
 possessed by Lady Charlotte Schreiber, Dr. Diamond, Professor Church, 
 Mr. Soden Smith, and many others. There is also no lack of interesting 
 pieces to be seen in the public museums, though perhaps justice has 
 not altogether been done there to the productions of the British potter; 
 his little show, selected without much discrimination, and carelessly 
 arranged, stands a poor chance of looking creditable amid the gorgeous 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xiii 
 
 display of foreign faience by which it is surrounded. I must, however, 
 make an exception in favour of the Jermyn Street Museum, which, 
 with its admirable catalogue, forms of itself a complete study. 
 
 Before concluding these introductory remarks, it is my duty to 
 cordially thank those to whom I am indebted for assistance in the 
 completion of my book. I am under so many obligations, and my 
 debt of gratitude is so heavy, that I am at a loss to know whom to 
 thank most; I had better confess at once that if there is any interest 
 in what will be found hereafter, the credit is due to others. The 
 greater part of my information I have borrowed from the works of 
 such painstaking explorers in the way of ceramic history as Marryat, 
 Chaffers, Miss Meteyard, Jewitt, and many others. I need not mention 
 their books, for they are so well known. For the formation of my 
 collection, I am indebted to the generosity and unremitting exertions of 
 so many kind friends that I cannot attempt to thank them separately 
 for the possession of the fine specimens which, through their kindness, 
 have passed into my hands. 
 
 Last, but not least, I have to acknowledge thankfully the valued 
 assistance received from my old friend Basil Holmes, the painter, and 
 from Mr. J. L. Cherry, of Stafford, who both kindly undertook the 
 revision of these pages ; and although I have still to beg that 
 allowances may be made for the shortcomings of a foreigner, I feel 
 less diffident in presenting my incomplete sketch to the reader after 
 it has so much benefited by their careful emendations. 
 
 L. SOLON. 
 
 Stoke-on-Trent, 1883. 
 
 3 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 EARLY POTTERY. 
 
 Pre-Historic Urns.—Roman Occupation.—Norman Period.—Medimval 
 Ware.—Conventual Pottery.—Common Ware of the Middle 
 Ages.—German and Dutch Ware Imported.—Names of the 
 Different Vessels, and their use in the Fourteenth Century. 
 
 —Tudor and Elizabethan Ware . . . - i 
 
 Chapter II. " 
 
 STONE-WARE. 
 
 Stone-ware and its Glaze.—Importation from Germany.—Mounting 
 in Metal.—Stone-ware made in England.—Early Patents.— 
 
 John Dwight and his Discoveries.—Dwight’s Porcelain.— 
 
 The Fulham “Trouvaille."—Beer Bottles.—Francis Place’s 
 China.—Nottingham Ware.—Bear Jugs - - - ii 
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 SLIP-DECORATED WARE. 
 
 The Slip Process.—Its Antiquity.—Its Introduction into England.— 
 Localities where it was Practised.—The Staffordshire Potters. 
 
 —A Potwork in the Moorlands.—Dr. Plot’s Account.— 
 Reckoning.—Varieties of Shapes.—Names of some Slip 
 Potters.—The Lettering and other sorts of Decorations.— 
 
 A New Style of Slip Painting.—Richness of Colour.— 
 
 Metal Mounts.—Inscriptions.—Modern Slip Ware - - 25 
 
XVI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 ENGLISH DELFT. 
 
 Dutch Ware, its Body and Glaze. — Delft made in England; 
 Lambeth—Liverpool—Bristol—The Staffordshire Potteries.— 
 English Delft Dishes.—Unsuccessful Attempts to Manufacture 
 Delft in the Potteries.—Inscriptions.—English Delft only 
 made as an Imitation of Foreign Ware - - - 43 
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 THE BROTHERS ELERS AND THE STAMPED WARE. 
 
 The Brothers Elers come from Holland.—Some account of their 
 Family.—John Philip probably the potter of the two.— 
 Bradwell Wood and Dimsdale.—The Red Ware.—Metal 
 dies used to stamp the ornaments.—Black Ware.—The 
 Imitations.—Tests for identification.—The word “ Porcelain ’’ 
 applied in that time to Opaque Ware.—Introduction of 
 Salt-glazing.—Deep secrecy preserved in the Manufactory.— 
 Astbury and Twyford discover the Secrets.—The Elers leave 
 Staffordshire.—John Philip joins the Chelsea Glass Works. 
 
 —He settles in Dublin.—The Works of Astbury and other 
 imitators.—Portobello Ware - - - - - c 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 S ALT-GLAZ E. 
 
 Origin of the White Stone-ware glazed with Salt.—Salt-glaze ovens 
 in Burslem. The Glaze and its high degree of firing.— 
 Composition of the Body.—Stamped Ornaments and Brass 
 Moulds.—Mould-cutting.—Casting. —Introduction of Plaster 
 Moulds.—Extension of the Pottery Trade in Staffordshire.— 
 Astbury and the other leading Potters of the Period.— 
 Variety of Shapes and their Originality.—Different Processes 
 connected with the Salt-glaze Ware.—“ Scratched Blue.”— 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Competition with the German Ware.—Enamelled Salt-glaze. 
 —Gilding.—Reproduction of China Pieces made in Salt-glaze 
 Ware.—Tiles.—Perforated Pieces.—Localities where Salt-glaze 
 was manufactured ______ 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 EARTHENWARE: CREAM-COLOUR, AGATE-WARE, 
 TORTOISESHELL, Etc. 
 
 Antiquity of Earthenware.—Its revival by English Potters.— 
 Improvements in Earthenware following on researches for a 
 white body.—Increase of the trade of the Potteries towards 
 the beginning of the i8th Century.—Introduction of Flint 
 and Cream-colour Ware.—Tortoiseshell and Colours under 
 Glaze.—Patents.—Agate-ware.—Thomas Astbury.—Ralph Shaw. 
 —John Mitchell.—Thomas and John Wedgwood.—Thomas 
 Whieldon.—Shapes and Models.—Imitations and Piracies.— 
 Introduction into the Potteries of Blue Painting on 
 Earthenware.—Enamelling.—Foreign China-Painters working 
 in England. — Plaster Moulds and their effect. — Last 
 improvements in Cream-colour - - - - - 
 
 xvii 
 
 67 
 
 8 S 
 
INDEX 
 
 TO THE 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 
 
 PLATE PAGE 
 
 I.—Early British Urn - - - - - in 
 
 II.—Mediaeval Ware - - - - - 113 
 
 III. —Early Puzzle Jugs - - - - - 115 
 
 IV. —Stone-ware Mugs - - - - - 117 
 
 V.—Stone-ware Bear - - - - - 119 
 
 VI.—Slip Dish, Thomas Toft - - - - 121 
 
 VII.—Brown Tyg, Margret Colley - - - - 123 
 
 VIII.—Brown^and Yellow Tyg, Mary Shiffilbottom - 125 
 
 IX.—Red Tyg, John Hugh ----- 127 
 
 X.—Brown Puzzle Jug - - - - -129 
 
 XI.—Posset-pot, The best is not too good - - 131 
 
 XII.—Hexagonal Slip Dish ----- 
 
 XIII. —Slip-decorated Jug ----- 
 
 XIV. —Slip Dish, George I. - - - - - 137 
 
 XV.—Brown Tyg - - - - - - i 39 
 
 XVI.—Cradles ------- 
 
 XVII.—Red Puzzle Jug, Mug, Money Box - - - 143 
 
 XVIII.—Slip Dish, George Taylor - - - - 143 
 
 XIX.—Combed Ware - - - - - - 147 
 
XX 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PLATE 
 
 XX.—Slip Dish, 
 
 Lot’s Wife - - - - 
 
 - 
 
 149 
 
 XXL—Scratched-Ware Jug - 
 
 - 
 
 151 
 
 XXII.—English Delft Dish, William and Mary 
 
 - 
 
 IS 3 
 
 XXIII.— 
 
 The Temptation 
 
 - 
 
 iSS 
 
 XXIV.— 
 
 ,, Puzzle Jug - - - 
 
 - 
 
 157 
 
 XXV.—Elers Ware - - - " “ 
 
 - 
 
 159 
 
 XXVI.—Red Tea-pot, George II. - - - 
 
 - 
 
 161 
 
 XXVII.—Salt-glaze 
 
 Tea-pot, with Stamped Ornaments 
 
 - 
 
 163 
 
 XXVIII.— 
 
 Square Tea-pot - - - 
 
 - 
 
 165 
 
 XXIX.— 
 
 Group of Two Figures 
 
 - 
 
 167 
 
 XXX.— 
 
 House-shaped Tea-pot 
 
 - 
 
 169 
 
 XXXI.— 
 
 Four-lobed Tea-pot 
 
 
 171 
 
 XXXII.— 
 
 Camel Tea-pot and Sauce-boat 
 
 - 
 
 173 
 
 XXXIII.— 
 
 Shell Tea-pot - - - 
 
 - 
 
 175 
 
 XXXIV.— 
 
 Coffee-pot 
 
 - 
 
 177 
 
 XXXV.— 
 
 Octagonal Tea-pot - - - 
 
 - 
 
 179 
 
 XXXVI.^ 
 
 Mug, stamped “ G.R.," and Head Tea-caddy 
 
 i8i 
 
 XXXVII.— 
 
 Basket _ - - - 
 
 - 
 
 183 
 
 XXXVIII.— 
 
 Soup Tureen - - - 
 
 - 
 
 185 
 
 XXXIX.— 
 
 Mug, Midnight Coiwersation 
 
 - 
 
 187 
 
 XL.— 
 
 Scratched Blue Posset-pot 
 
 - 
 
 189 
 
 XLL— 
 
 Enarnelled Jug 
 
 - 
 
 191 
 
 XLII.—Tortoiseshell Posset-pot - - - 
 
 - 
 
 193 
 
 XLIII.—Agate-ware Tea-pot _ - - - 
 
 - 
 
 19s 
 
 XLIV.—Perforated 
 
 Tortoiseshell Tea-pot 
 
 - 
 
 197 
 
 XLV.—Black Tea-pot and Tortoiseshell Tea-pot 
 
 - 
 
 199 
 
 X L VI.—Whieldon 
 
 Jug - 
 
 i 
 
 201 
 
 XLVII.—Tortoiseshell Figure and Toby Jug - 
 
 - 
 
 203 
 
 XLVIII.—Cauliflower Ware _ _ _ _ 
 
 - 
 
 205 
 
 XLIX.—Brackets 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 207 
 
 L.—Cream-colour Tea-pot - - - - 
 
 - 
 
 209 
 

 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY BRITISH POTTERY. 
 
 Pre-Historic Urns.—Roman Occupation.—Norman Period.—Medi.*;- 
 VAL Ware.—Conventual Pottery.—Common Ware of the 
 Middle Ages.—German and Dutch Ware Imported.— 
 
 Names of the Different Vessels, and their 
 USE IN THE Fourteenth Century.—Tudor 
 AND Elizabethan Ware. 
 
 4 
 
EARLY BRITISH POTTERY. 
 
 HE opening of the barrows and grave-mounds scattered 
 over Great Britain has yielded a large crop of urns 
 I and vessels of the pre-historic period, brought to light 
 in exactly the same condition as they were in many 
 centuries ago. The same explorations have also supplied 
 a few implements of stone or bronze found associated with them. 
 These are the only vestiges that can speak to us of the industry of 
 the first tribes which inhabited the British Isles; they confirm the 
 notion that the Ceramic is as ancient as any art practised by man, but 
 they help very little to unravel the mystery of the epoch to which they 
 belong. They bear no characters or inscriptions of any sort to assist 
 the speculations of the archaeologist, while the artist finds comparatively 
 little of interest in their decoration. The shape, simple and rough, such 
 as the hand of the maker can easily produce without the aid of any 
 instrument, is incised or indented with diagonal lines, zig-zags, herring¬ 
 bones, and puncturps, or impressed horizontally by the application to the 
 wet clay of twisted thongs or coarse ropes; but whether termed cinerary 
 urns, incense cups, or drinking vessels, they appear so similar in style 
 that, owing probably to our imperfect education, it becomes a matter of 
 great difficulty to point out any essential difference, between the specimens 
 discovered in the United Kingdom, France, or Germany. Sometimes 
 made of well-beaten clay, they are only sun-dried; in other cases they 
 are partially fired. Most of them were put on the funeral pile before 
 being interred with the remains ; by this act alone they were calcined; 
 
4 
 
 EARLY BRITISH POTTERY. 
 
 often the very soil where the cremation took place has been burnt 
 to the consistency of brick. This being observed, must have led to the 
 practice of firing some of the domestic vessels; but judging from the 
 fire-cracks, and the inequality of the burning to be noticed upon almost 
 every example, it is not probable that any kilns or ovens were ever used. 
 
 At Trentham, at Stone, in Derbyshire, and all round the district 
 now called “The Potteries,” urns and vases of this class have been 
 frequently found, and the modern potter can boast of being able to 
 trace his ancestors very far back into past ages. Important collections 
 have been formed of the ware of the early Britons, such as those of 
 the late Mr. Bateman, Mr. Warne, and others. The British Museum, 
 and the Mayer Museum, at Liverpool, are very rich in curious specimens; 
 their catalogues, and the works of Dr. Birch, Mr. L. Jewitt, and others, 
 contain all the knowledge so far acquired on the subject. 
 
 Before the Roman occupation, as we learn from Strabo, the 
 Phoenicians carried on an extensive trade in earthenware with the 
 Cassiterides; so far no evidence has been adduced of the fact, yet we 
 shall here briefly state that we have a bottle of old Phoenician ware, 
 bought in Cyprus, and presented to us by C. M. Campbell, Esq. Its 
 appearance is identical with that of the barrel-shaped bottles given by 
 Mr. Jewitt (“ Cevcinitcs of Gveat Byitaui" Vol. I. p. 88 ), which present 
 the peculiar feature of the two ends terminating in the shape of a 
 woman’s breast. These bottles are said to be English, or at all events 
 to have been discovered in England. AVhether this is of any value as 
 evidence corroborative of Strabo, we cannot say with confidence, but 
 we may remark that the shape is not suggestive of British origin. 
 
 From the first century to the fourth of our era, the Romans 
 imported into the conquered countiy the most perfect processes and 
 means used in the Empire; innumerable fragments of red lustrous 
 and other wares are unearthed from every place where they settled, yet 
 they do not seem to have imparted' any of their skill to the aboriginal 
 people. Unlike the Gallo-Roman, who, by the side of his conqueror, 
 produced an original style of pottery easily distinguishable, as is attested 
 by the large collection preserved in the Museum of St. Germain, the 
 Briton did not try to emulate the foreign master and to add something 
 of his own to an industry which was not calculated to answer any 
 of his simple wants, so we can hardly trace any real British element 
 
EARLY BRITISH TOTTERY. 
 
 5 
 
 in the Anglo-Roman ware, with perhaps an exception in the case of 
 the Upchurch potteiy, which appears to show some original characteristics, 
 but there is nothing to tell whether that is due to the particular taste 
 of the first native potter who settled there, or to any external influence. 
 
 To follow the transformation of this imported art, which, after having 
 had for a long time a lingering and declining existence, at length 
 revived and developed itself into genuine English pottery, would be too 
 serious an undertaking to attempt h^re; but it may one day be made 
 evident that one or more of the little pot-works, standing at present 
 in some out-of-the-way spot, has never seen the fire of its kilns 
 extinguished since it was occupied by a Roman potter. What we know 
 for certain is, that the making of a coarse sort of ware has never been 
 discontinued in England. Vessels of burnt clay are of prime necessity 
 to all people, however low in many cases the level of civilisation; and 
 their production is so closely connected with all the arts of fire, in the 
 shape of melting pots or crucibles for smelting metals and glass, and of 
 bricks for ovens and other building purposes, that we need not depend 
 upon the finding of earthen utensils, buried in the soil at different depths 
 according to their age, to corroborate so indisputable a fact. 
 
 For us the question to be determined is. At what period did the 
 use of earthen vessels become more general among all classes ? Their 
 improvement kept pace with the amelioration in manners and customs, 
 while the plasticity of their material rendered them peculiarly fit to 
 fulfil the increasing requirements of a more refined society; but that it 
 was only late that such a use began to spread extensively may be 
 inferred from the fact of the craft remaining stationary for so long a 
 time. 
 
 Of the Norman period we know but little; the manuscripts and 
 tapestries of the epoch give some representations of the pots, basins, 
 and platters then used, but there is nothing to tell us that they were 
 made of clay. On the contrary, old documents mention most frequently 
 drinking cups made of horn, glass, metal, or ashwood; jugs of brass, 
 pewter, or leather; and wooden trenchers. Several rude green-glazed 
 pitchers discovered in Derbyshire have been described as being of Norman 
 make; the horseshoes and the buckles figured upon one of them were 
 considered sufficient to connect it with the Ferrers family, the Norman 
 Earls of Derby; but Mr. C. Gatty, in an interesting lecture given 
 
6 
 
 EARLY BRITISH POTTERY. 
 
 before the Historic Society of Lancashire upon these particular pieces 
 and many others dug out by himself on the very same spot, has forcibly 
 demonstrated that this could not possibly be the case, and he has every 
 reason to believe them to be of a more recent date. Our scanty 
 
 knowledge of this period is, then, confined to pots and fragments 
 found in excavations; and to these a certain date can with difficulty be 
 
 affixed. 
 
 Towards the middle ages fictile productions began to assume a more 
 ambitious range. The floors of churches and convents were paved with 
 tiles inlaid with clays of various colours, and whereon Gothic ornaments 
 and even subjects of figures were depicted. These tiles present a great 
 variety of processes, being coated with glazes of different colours, 
 embossed and pressed, stamped and sunk, inlaid or painted with white 
 clay. Jugs like those preserved in the Scarborough and Salisbury 
 Museums, and the one found at Lewes, are made in the shape of 
 
 mounted knights wearing the costume of the 12th century. By 
 comparing these with the knights represented on the tiles of Chertsey 
 Abbey, one might be led to suppose they also had a monastic origin. 
 Tile-makino- was evidently introduced from Italy and France, where it 
 was practised at a very early period by the monks themselves. Some 
 travelling friars brought it over, and they were very jealous of keeping 
 their professional secrets, applying them only to articles for their own 
 use, whether tiles or such domestic earthenware as was required in 
 the community. A very curious record is found in "Nichols' Decorative 
 Tiles:" in 1210, the Abbot of Beaubec, in Normandy, was sentenced to 
 “light penance” for having allowed a monk to work for persons outside 
 
 the Cistercian order. Here again we find the trade in foreign hands, 
 
 and the same difficulty besets us to know what share the local potter 
 may have had in the best productions of the mediaeval ages. 
 
 Meanwhile, the ware turned out of the common potter's oven for 
 homely uses was becoming lower and lower in quality. It consisted of 
 crocks of the commonest description, made with especial regard to 
 cheapness; friable and brittle from being underfired to save fuel, and 
 left porous and pervious. These wares were partially glazed on the 
 outside with brilliantly-hued green, yellow, or brown, to make them 
 look showy in the market place; yet we learn from the "Liber Albus" 
 that as early as 1271 it was ordered that “all earthenware should be 
 
EARLY BRITISH POTTERY. 
 
 7 
 
 well leaded." If ever the potter attempted an out-of-the-way piece 
 whereon to display some unwonted invention, it was in the same way 
 that a country baker occasionally makes a wedding cake. The con¬ 
 sequence was that all articles made of day were discredited, as being 
 vulgar and unfit for any respectable person’s use. Down to our own 
 days we have kept something of that prejudice, for he who does not 
 mind showing himself every day with a wooden pipe in his mouth 
 would not care to smoke a clay one in the street. 
 
 Only pots of one sort escaped the general contempt; these were the 
 jugs and tankards of German Stoneware, which were often expensively 
 mounted in silver. More than once are they mentioned in the wills 
 of the wealthy; but they were prized merely on account of their rarity, 
 just as the Chinese collector, spoken of by a traveller, valued an 
 English ginger-beer bottle which he had placed amongst his most 
 precious porcelain. So different were they from all that was made in 
 the country that they became an object of great curiosity. We should 
 therefore be cautious before accepting any examples described in the old 
 deeds as throwing any light upon the history of potting in England. 
 
 The names of the earthen vessels in use at the time were most 
 of them derived from the French. They are:— 
 
 Cruske, Cruskyn, Cruche —A jug. 
 
 Crock —Also a jug, often mounted in silver or pewter. 
 
 Goddet or Goddart —A mug. 
 
 Gallipot —A small cup. 
 
 Botell, Flagon —A bottle. 
 
 Costeril or Costeret —A flask to be slung over the shoulder. 
 
 Many of these, coloured with mottled glazes, are evidently of 
 French manufacture, and were no doubt brought over by travellers. 
 Others in the shape of a bottle marbled red and yellow were of 
 English make. 
 
 Jubbe ?—Spoken of by Chaucer. 
 
 Just —Holding the exact measure. 
 
 Squel, Ecuelle —A shallow basin. 
 
 Pitchers —Jugs are still called pichets in Normandy. 
 
 Most of these pieces do not bear any decoration; yet the earliest, 
 generally coated with green glaze, are heavily ornamented with embossed 
 heads or rude foliage, the last trace of Roman tradition. At Lincoln, 
 
8 
 
 EARLY BRITISH POTTERY. 
 
 small moulds of terra-cotta were found, together with fragments of the 
 fourteenth century; rude reliefs were pressed separately in these moulds 
 before being applied to the ware. Last year two curious basins, 
 ornamented all round with heads of the same style, were found at 
 Chester; they were used as hand-warmers, and are precisely similar 
 in shape to others dug up in Paris. The journals of the Antiquarian 
 societies of England are filled with accounts of discoveries of this sort. 
 We notice that articles ascribed to the middle ages are, as a rule, very 
 coarse and common. They are jugs, pipkins, piggins, patens or bowls, 
 watering pots, money boxes, children’s toys—all articles made for the 
 poor; tygs, dishes, and pieces covered with black glaze are not found 
 amongst the former, being much later in date. These show no longer 
 traces of moulding; the knobs or handles are made by hand, and 
 impressed with the thumb or pinched with two fingers where they join 
 the body. On these common things it is useless to linger, any more 
 than upon the butter pots of Burslem or the garden tiles of Newcastle- 
 under-Lyme, the latter especially not being very much above the bricks 
 of the builder. Far from being, as they have sometimes been supposed 
 to be, the beginning of a revival, we think that they must be considered 
 as the fag-ends of an art fallen into disuse. 
 
 Insufficient also are the records of the Tudor and Elizabethan 
 period. Chaffers (“ Marks and Monograms" p. 52) quotes many 
 interesting documents. From Estienne Perlin, Paris, 1558: “The 
 English drink beer not out of glass, but from earthen pots, the cover 
 and handles made of silver for the rich. The middle class mount them 
 with tin. The poorer sort use beer pots made of wood.” From 
 Harrisson, 1579: “As for drink, it is generally filled in pots of silver, 
 also in fine Venice glasses of all forms, and for want of these elsewhere 
 in pots of earth, of sundry colours and moulds, whereof many are 
 garnished with silver, or at the leastwise with pewter.” 
 
 But all the pots mounted with silver and pewter, if we may judge 
 from the numerous examples that have come down to us, were no 
 doubt of German or Dutch make. We do not know any instance of 
 an indisputably genuine English jug or tankard associated with an 
 Elizabethan garnish of metal, while there, is a large number of foreign 
 ones the setting of which, whether of pewter or silver, is stamped with 
 the English mark. 
 
EARLY BRITISH POTTERY. 
 
 9 
 
 More to the point are the following quotations, also given by 
 Chaffers:—From the books of the Drapers’ Company, 1552, describing 
 the election feast; “ There were green pots of ale and wine with ashen 
 cups before them.” From the Losely MSS. in the sixteenth century: 
 “ The gentlemen of the Temple drank out of green earthen pots made 
 from a white clay found at Farnham Park.” 
 
 We must mention, but with a caution, the two brackets preserved 
 in the British Museum. They bear amongst other devices the Tudor 
 Rose and the monogram of Queen Elizabeth, and are richly glazed 
 with green and brown. They are considered of English make, but 
 the style of ornamentation and the quality of the glaze remind one 
 more of the Nuremberg stove slabs than of anything made in England 
 at that time. One of them comes from Flampton Court, and we know 
 that the decorative tiles of that palace were imported from Germany; 
 therefore we feel somewhat doubtful whether these brackets might not 
 have had the same origin. 
 
 Nowhere do we find the name of any potter who had attained to 
 eminence, nor does any nobleman of distinction appear to have taken 
 in England, in early times, a special care for the progress of the art 
 by giving his patronage to any earthenware manufactory. 
 
 In Italy, Maestro Giorgio was everywhere acknowledged as a great 
 artist, and kept at Court equal rank with painters and noblemen. In 
 Germany, Jacqueline de Baviere made with her own hands the first 
 pieces of Stone-ware. In France, Helene, Countess of Hangest, herself 
 superintended the making of the wonderful Oiron Faience; and later 
 on, King Charles IX. and all his courtiers followed with the greatest 
 interest the labours of Palissy. Can we be surprised that the productions 
 of the old English Potter were of so little importance in comparison 
 with what was done on the Continent, when we see how much he 
 lacked encouragement ? But times were drawing near when he was 
 readily to answer the first earnest call upon his ingenuity and industry. 
 
 Towards the beginning of the 17th centuiy, England seems to 
 have awakened to a feeling of her inferiority, and we find the potter 
 everywhere busy in trying all sorts of improvements, as will be seen 
 in subsequent chapters. If the nobility did not yet require his earthen 
 vessels, the people in their millions were demanding articles appropriate 
 to newly-created wants ; the gap between nobleman and commoner was 
 5 
 
jg EARLY BRITISH POTTERY. 
 
 filling up every day in consequence of the social changes which occurred 
 in that century, so between silver plate and rough crusking some 
 gradation was steadily intervening. The man who with a little 
 competence had also acquired a craving for better utensils in his 
 household, could no longer put up with the coarse and plain ale pot 
 of his forefathers; when entertaining his gossip, he liked to see on 
 his table some curious mug which should be a topic of conversation, 
 perhaps an object of envy. With means and leisure came the desire 
 to rival or excel his neighbour’s luxuries. Colours and shapes began to 
 be diversified, puzzle jugs of various combinations offered an amusement 
 to the drinker unacquainted with the trick, and the marbled owl became 
 a subject of admiration to all. Tygs (like that in the Mayer collection, 
 dated 1612), candlesticks, and posset pots were designed and potted by 
 spirited artists in a masterly manner, that borrowed nothing from foreign 
 notions. Instead of the shallow colours hitherto employed, the ware 
 was made as white as possible with the Stone-ware body, or of the 
 deepest black with the manganese glaze; ornamentations of different 
 coloured clays were sprigged on the ground, and inscriptions added 
 a special interest to presentation pieces. From this sprang the several 
 branches of English ceramic art, which we shall now try to follow up 
 and study successively. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 STONE-WARE. 
 
 Ston'eAVare and its Glaze.—Importations from Germany.— 
 
 Mounting in Metal.—Stone-Ware made in England. — 
 Early Patents.—John Dwight and his Discover¬ 
 ies. — Dwight’s Porcelain.—The Fulham 
 " Trouvaille.”—Beer Bottles.— 
 
 Francis Place’s China.— 
 
 Nottingham Ware. — 
 
 Bear Jugs. 
 
13 
 
 STONE-WARE. 
 
 HE body of Stone-ware is composed of plastic day, to 
 which is added some sand to prevent its cracking during 
 the manipulation, and sometimes a small quantity of 
 ground biscuit-ware. Its hardness is due to the high 
 degree of firing it has to undergo, which slightly vitrifies 
 the substance all through. The glaze is a sub-silicate of soda, produced 
 by throwing common sea salt into the oven when the heat has reached 
 its climax; the fumes fixing upon the surface of the ware, and the 
 soda being decomposed, under the action of watery vapours, by the 
 silica of the paste. It is a hard, resisting ware, as its name implies, 
 but not fit to stand any sudden change of temperature; it is very liable 
 to crack or split if put upon the fire, or at the contact of boiling 
 water. So in Germany, where its manufacture originated, it was 
 confined to the making of beer jugs, tankards, or merely ornamental 
 pieces. 
 
 From the manufactories established along the Rhine many pieces 
 of Stone-ware found their way into England from the beginning 
 of the ifith century; there, mounted in precious metals, they excited 
 much admiration, and, however rough and common, seem to have 
 been treasured by their possessors. Most of them are of plain brown 
 Stone-ware, with a granulated surface, but a few are of the elaborate 
 white ware made at Siegburg. Some bear the royal arms, and for 
 this reason have been mistaken for genuine English pieces; but in 
 many instances the arms of some German town are blended with the 
 
STONE-WARE. 
 
 former, which by this fact lose all importance as an indication of 
 origin. The trade extended all over the country; even in Staffordshire 
 common stone grey pots have been exhumed, mixed with early local 
 pitchers, exactly similar to those found in the Rhenish provinces. 
 
 We believe there is hardly a town in England where there have not 
 
 been found some of these bottles with a mask on the neck that went 
 
 by the name of “ Bellarmine,” or “Greybeard.” Although some of them 
 were afterwards made at Fulham, the greater number were certainly of 
 foreign manufacture. 
 
 The importation early increased to such an extent that a certain 
 
 IVilliam Simpson petitioned Queen.^ Elizabeth, that “ he may be granted 
 
 the only licence to provide transport for the drinking stone pots made 
 
 at Cologne, which had been so far imported by one Garnet Tynes, who 
 is not one of Her Majesty’s subjects.” 
 
 The selling of these pots had become an important branch of 
 
 home trade, and as early as 1534 the Pewterers’ Company had obtained 
 power to stamp their work in the same way as the goldsmiths and 
 silversmiths stamped gold and silver plate. Early German jugs are 
 
 frequently found with the English pewter mount, stamped inside the 
 
 lid with the crowned Tudor rose. 
 
 The great objection to earthenware had been in early times the 
 
 porosity of such half-glazed pots as were then provided for common 
 
 use, and their liability to break when roughly handled; the Stone-ware 
 had neither of these defects; and here again the practical turn of the 
 
 British spirit is evinced by the readiness with which people of all 
 
 classes in England appreciated and patronised the hard, resisting ware 
 of Germany, as soon as it made its appearance in this country. The 
 merchants would never have thought of importing the gaudily-enamelled 
 faience of Italy or France, and no one among the early English potters 
 would have been tempted to imitate them but all could understand the 
 qualities of a new ware so well adapted to their requirements. So while 
 the merchants were bringing over from the banks of the Rhine large 
 supplies of Stone pots, the first efforts of the potters were directed 
 
 towards finding a home-made substitute for a foreign article so much 
 in demand. It may be that the first factories of Stone-ware were 
 carried on in England with the assistance of workmen brought over 
 from Germany; the trade between the two countries was increasing 
 
STONE-WARE. 
 
 15 
 
 every day. As German and Dutch potters were commonly coming to 
 England to buy clays and raw materials, it is probable that the 
 facilities the English soil afforded for an enterprise of the kind may 
 have struck them more than once, and induced them to settle here; 
 but at the same time several patents were granted which prove that 
 the national potter did not mean to leave the trade in foreign hands. 
 
 William Simpson, above mentioned, after having asked for the sole 
 licence to bring Stone pots into the realm, declares that “ in him 
 lieth the power of making such like pottes into some decayed town,” 
 but whether he carried that declaration into effect is not known. 
 
 In 1626, a patent was granted to Thomas Rons & Abraham 
 Cullen, of London, merchants, “ Whereas,—heretofore & at the present 
 time, this our Kingdome of England & other our dominions have been 
 served with Stone pottes. Stone jugges. Stone bottelles, out of foreing 
 parts from beyond the seas,” a patent was granted to Rous & Cullen 
 for having discovered “ the art of making Stone pottes,” &c., “ never 
 formerly used in our Kingdome of England.” 
 
 In 1636, a patent was granted to David Ramsey, Esqtiire, & 
 others, for, amongst other inventions, “ the making of Stone jugs, 
 bottelles, and which now are made by strangers in foreing parts.” 
 
 In 1671, a patent was also granted to John Dwight, “for having 
 discovered the mistery and inventions of the Cologne ware,” and also 
 “ that he designs to introduce a manufactory of the same ware into our 
 kingdom of England, where they have not hitherto been wrought or 
 made.” To this we shall hereafter more fully refer. 
 
 Mr. Jewitt (Ceramic Art of Great Britain) gives the full text 
 of these interesting patents. We cannot help being struck by the 
 way in which each ignores the previous ones, and we fear that great 
 reliance cannot be placed upon records of inventions that have left so 
 little trace. In the first case it is not difficult to detect a pretence 
 for claiming a sole licence to sell the foreign ware, for which trade a 
 monopoly had not yet been granted. We do not know what exactly 
 to think of the others, but no pieces or “ vouchers ” that could safely 
 be attributed to these men have ever been identified. As to John 
 Dwight, we see that in 1671 he claimed for himself the invention of 
 “ the mistery of the Cologne ware,” and we have more than sufficient 
 proofs that his works soon competed successfully with those of the 
 
STONE-WARE. 
 
 foreigners, and even supplanted them in the London market; in fact, 
 the Glass-Sellers’ Company contracted with the inventor to buy only 
 of "his English manufacture, and refuse the foreign.” To him must be 
 attributed the foundation of an important industry. By his unremitting 
 researches and their practical application, he not only found the means 
 of supplying in large quantities the daily wants of the people with an 
 article superior to anything that had ever been known before, but 
 besides, by the exercise of his refined taste and uncommon skill he 
 
 raised his craft to a high level ; nothing among the masterpieces of 
 
 Ceramic art of all other countries can excel the beauty of Dwight s 
 brown Stone figures, either for design, modelling, or fineness of 
 material. 
 
 We know that John Dwight established his manufactory at Fulham 
 in 1671. The exact date of his birth has not been ascertained, but 
 his biographers speak of him as having been educated at Oxford, where 
 he was an M.A. of Christ Church, and as having been secretary to two 
 bishops of Chester before he became a potter. Whether he modelled 
 and decorated his works by his own hands is not known through any 
 documents; but by calling any modeller to help him in this respect 
 
 he would have departed from the custom of the trade of the period. 
 
 As a rule, the masters then used to perform by themselves the most 
 delicate and difficult parts of their handicraft. Like so many artistic 
 innovators, he appears to have been jealous of his productions, and 
 discontented with the small profit they brought him ; at the end of his 
 career he is said to have buried all tools, models, and moulds connected 
 with figure-making, to prevent his descendants reproducing them after 
 his death. In two little books now in the possession of Mr. T. C. 
 Bailey, the present proprietor of the Fulham Works, are contained 
 many receipts and memoranda written in Dwight's hand, with dates 
 ranging from 1691 to the year 1695, and following. These are full 
 of interest, but, unfortunately, the wording is often so obscure that little 
 practical information can be derived from them; many of the terms 
 have become obsolete, and besides, some of the mixtures mentioned 
 may have reference as often to unsuccessful trials as to inventions 
 actually accomplished. 
 
 For instance, these notes do not, in our opinion, throw any light 
 upon the problematical transparent porcelain believed to have been 
 
STONE-WARE. 
 
 17 
 
 produced by Dwight on the strength of the specification of his patent. 
 If we try to summarise the more likely recipes copied out of his two 
 books, and study their various components, we find that in each case, 
 whether it be “Stone clay for Gorges,” “Transparent Porcelain or 
 China clay,” “ Light Grey clay to endure boiling water,” “ Grey Porcelain 
 by salt,” or any other, we come to the conclusion that these 
 
 compositions will merely make a good Stone-ware body. 
 
 In all cases the principal ingredients are the same; we find the 
 “ best clay" which is the plastic clay of Dorsetshire; the “ dark clay" 
 
 the same probably which is now called black clay, also coming from 
 
 Dorsetshire; the “ white sand" always used as a component of 
 
 Stone-ware; and the ‘'fine white" probably a sort of “frit" about 
 the composition of which we are left in the dark, and which is made 
 fine by being sifted through the often-mentioned Cyprus sieve. 
 
 All the above materials are mixed in numerous combinations, and 
 by altering the respective proportions of each the hardness of the paste 
 is either increased or diminished. With them a good Stone-ware of a 
 whitish or light grey colour could undoubtedly be obtained; but if we 
 look at these mixtures as having any reference to the greatest invention 
 with which Dwight has been credited by tradition, we must maintain 
 that none of them can in any way produce a china body, or any 
 other body which in the present acceptation of the word could be 
 called porcelain. 
 
 Another explanation may perhaps be given about his invention ; we 
 may labour under a misconception of what could be considered, in 
 Dwight's time, as a sufficient imitation of the Oriental porcelain to 
 deserve having the same name applied to it. It may have been 
 nothing more than the white Stone-ware, glazed with salt and highly 
 fired; it is transparent in the thinnest parts, and we may assume that 
 Salt-Glazed ware was made so thin for the special purpose of showing 
 some translucency. In Dwight’s own words, reported by T. Houghton, 
 we have a description of his china, which indicates that a Stone-ware, 
 and not a real porcelain body, was produced. Speaking about the 
 Dorsetshire clay, Dwight says, “ Tis the same earth china ware is 
 made of, and 'tis made not by lying long in the earth but in the fire.” 
 We need not insist upon the fact that porcelain, as we understand it, 
 cannot be made with Dorsetshire clay. He lays great stress upon 
 
 6 
 
j3 stone-ware. 
 
 the high temperature to which his ovens had to be brought, hoping 
 to succeed by a greater fusibility: but while making all sorts of 
 experiments the probability is that he continued to manufacture his 
 white Stone-ware, trying to make it transparent by casting it thin 
 and firing it hard. We are aware that most of his mixtures required 
 a very high temperature; there is, for instance, in one of the books, 
 a formula for a trial of a china glass (glaze) which could not be 
 melted but at an exceptional degree of heat; besides, from the material 
 with which it is composed, we do not think that this glaze could be 
 suitable for any china body, and this again affords another proof 
 that the intended china was nothing like what we should now call 
 by the name of porcelain. 
 
 We can see by the description of his successive trials how much 
 Dwight's mind was engrossed by the desire of discovering the secret 
 
 of the Oriental china; he mentions some specimens he had obtained 
 
 of a new ware, very transparent, but so fusible that no upright 
 pots but only fiat pieces could be made with it. This leads us to 
 surmise that his researches were engaged, like those of some of his 
 
 contemporaries, in the deceptive track of producing porcelain by way of 
 vitrification; he shared the common mistake of his times, and he 
 could not have succeeded any better than those who had in vain 
 
 before prosecuted their experiments in following the same delusion. 
 
 Some years ago, the attention of collectors was directed to some 
 small jugs of unknown manufacture and strange appearance. With 
 
 their globular shape and their ribbed necks, they are so much like 
 the Stone pots made at Fulham that by some they were thought to 
 be probably specimens of Dwight’s porcelain. The paste, somewhat 
 
 resembling our modern parian, is very transparent, and covered with 
 
 a good lead glaze. Mr. Willett has been fortunate enough to gather 
 together several of these very rare pieces; they are all clumsily made, 
 
 and most of them have the appearance of being mere trials; but a 
 small mug of this ware is especially interesting, as showing an imperfect 
 attempt at a coloured decoration, decidedly old English in style, a fact 
 which might weigh against the opinion of some collectors who attribute 
 to them a Chinese origin. 
 
 The handle of another small jug now in our collection has been 
 analysed by Professor Church, who found it contained nearly 5 
 
STONE-WARE. 
 
 19 
 
 cent, of soda, a quantity very unusual in any other variety of china. 
 To us it is very doubtful whether these pieces were ever made at 
 Fulham; we do not attach any importance to the shape, which was 
 imitated from German Stone-ware jugs; they may be the work of some 
 unknown English potter, or perhaps essays made on the Continent. 
 At all events, none of the recipes or materials set down in Dwight's 
 two books could be conducive to the production of a ware of that 
 sort, and the “ mistery of transparent earthenware ” still remains a 
 mystery. 
 
 The colouring oxides employed on the surface were cobalt and 
 
 manganese, the purple and blue of the gres de Flandres. The bodies 
 were often tinted in the mass; the blue Stone-ware was coloured 
 with zaffre, the brown Stone with oxide of iron or ochre, and the 
 Red Porcelain was made with Staffordshire clay, probably in imitation 
 of that of the Elers. Sometimes the bodies were blended together 
 
 so as to form a sort of grey and white marble, and then relieved by 
 
 the application of ornaments made of white clay. 
 
 Had it not been for the Fulham “trouvaille” we should still 
 
 be in the dark as to the precise characteristics of Dwight's ware. 
 Twenty-eight pieces, which had been preserved in the family, passed 
 in 1862 into the possession of Mr. Baylis, who at the time wrote an 
 account of them in the "Art Journal" Most of Dwight's different 
 fabrics are there represented, yet not a single piece of porcelain was 
 found amongst them; a few, like the white ware mug with Hogarth’s 
 “ Midnight Conversation,” the butter boat in the Chelsea style, and the 
 pickle leaves were the works of his successors. 
 
 But we are fully enlightened upon the merits of his Stone-ware 
 by the admirable half-length figure (now preserved in the South 
 Kensington Museum) of his infant daughter, Lydia Dwight, who 
 died, as related by the inscription incised at the rear, March 3, 
 
 1672; she was modelled after her death, lying on a pillow. We 
 fancy we can trace the loving care of a bereaved father in the 
 reproduction of the features and the minute perfection with which the 
 accessories, such as flowers and lace, are treated. A still more 
 
 touching memento of the beloved child exists in Mr. Willett’s 
 collection; it is her little hand cast from nature, and reproduced 
 
 in Stone-ware. Beautifully modelled also were the life-size busts of 
 
20 
 
 STONE-WARE. 
 
 Charles II., James I., and their Queens. The mythologic figures, in 
 imitation of bronze, were especially remarkable; the Jupiter of the 
 Liverpool Museum is worthy of an Italian artist of the Renaissance; 
 the others, no less interesting, are unfortunately dispersed. Included 
 in the same collection were also some fancy figures of a shepherdess, 
 a sportsman, etc., a few marbled bottles of his Agate-ware, and a 
 blue and white dish bearing the royal arms in the centre, said to 
 have been one of a set made for Charles I. 
 
 Another find was made a few years ago, when, in pulling down 
 some old buildings, the workmen came across a vaulted cellar, 
 
 containing a lot of beer bottles and fragments of jugs painted with 
 
 the blue and purple grounds generally seen on the gres de Flandres; 
 
 many were in the shape of Bellarmines or Grey-beards, having the 
 grotesque head impressed on the neck; others were nearly of the 
 same shape, but with plain neck and stamped on the body with 
 crests and badges, a crowned G, Tudor roses, letters, figures of birds 
 and animals, such as cocks and stags, and having reference probably 
 to the inns for which they were manufactured. 
 
 This makes the identification of genuine specimens very difficult, 
 for these specimens are very similar to those imported from abroad; 
 both wares are of the same colour, shape, and material, and the ' 
 
 decoration is identical, the principal portion being always the portraits 
 
 or monograms of William and Mary, Queen Anne, George I., and 
 often A.R. (Augustus, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland). 
 
 For a long time after Dwight's death his descendants continued 
 to manufacture the same sort of jugs and mugs. In cottages along 
 the banks of the Thames have been found many large tankards, 
 
 bearing the names of well-known public-houses. These tankards are 
 
 of a particular brown Stone-ware, embossed often with the “ Midnight 
 Conversation,” or other figure subjects, and always with running dogs 
 or stags; these can safely be ascribed to Fulham. The history of 
 the Fulham factory is related at length by Chaffers, and we learn 
 
 that it remained in the hands of the family until 1862. 
 
 At the Manor House at York, Francis Place was experimenting 
 upon clays towards the end of the 17th century; his trial pieces went 
 by the name of porcelain. One of them is preserved in the Jermyn 
 Street Museum; it is a small cup, neatly turned, of brown Stone-ware, 
 
STONE-WARE. 
 
 2 
 
 streaked with black in the same manner as Dwight's Agate-ware. Few 
 other authenticated specimens, if any, are in existence, and the very 
 name of Place would, no doubt, have been forgotten by this time, 
 but for a few lines written by Horace Walpole in reference to the 
 above-mentioned cup. 
 
 In the Staffordshire Potteries, about 1685, Miles and some other 
 potters are said to have made Stone-ware; the probability is that 
 they called by that name a rough sort of brown pottery smeared 
 with lead. As salt-glazing was only introduced a few years afterwards 
 by the Elers, the real article cannot have been manufactured before 
 the beginning of the next century; at that time the making of the 
 white Stone-ware, as we shall see in the chapter on Salt-Glaze, became 
 the staple trade of the country, and common utensils were produced in 
 brown ware. 
 
 The manufacture of brown Stone-ware became localised in the 
 Midland counties between Nottingham, Chesterfield, and Derby, and so 
 developed itself as almost to exclude every other common sort of 
 earthenware. Pieces made in that district are easily distinguishable 
 from those of Fulham; they affect particular shapes—loving cups, 
 small straight mugs, puzzle jugs, and dark bears; the glaze is very 
 smooth instead of being granulated, lustrous and metallic in appearance, 
 and the decoration, instead of subjects in relief, consists mainly of 
 scrolls, foliage, and flowers, scratched with a point in the wet clay 
 
 before baking. 
 
 At Nottingham, crucibles for glass-makers were made at a very 
 early period, and from this the potters were easily led to the making 
 of Stone-ware. L. Jewitt describes the earliest example known; it is 
 
 a posset pot dated 1700, made for S. Watkinson, the mayor of the 
 
 town; it has all the features that characterise a ware which for two 
 centuries has not undergone any alteration in style. The shape is 
 thrown and turned, with handles made by hand; the inscription is 
 
 in cursive characters, the flowers underneath are only incised in 
 coarse lines, and the glaze is lustred by the remetallisation of the 
 oxide of iron. Many other pieces are known, which are precisely 
 similar as to clay and glaze; the scrolls, rosettes, and the conventional 
 pink flowers are scratched with but little variation; the dates they bear 
 widely differ, ranging from the earliest times down even to our own. 
 
22 
 
 STONE-WARE. 
 
 and yet they all look as though they had been done by the same 
 hand. Besides the piece mentioned above, dated 1700, we may name 
 the following: in the Bohn collection, a jug inscribed “John Smith, 
 1712;” in the Jermyn Street Museum, a punch bowl with “Old 
 
 England for ever, 1750;" in the possession of Mr. Kidd, of 
 Nottingham, a mug very elaborately decorated with roses and thistles, 
 dated 1762; and in our own collection, a puzzle jug of 1799- 
 Neither these, nor the modern jugs and mugs, though ranging 
 together over a period of nearly two hundred years, show any 
 perceptible change either in manufacture or in decoration, and confirm 
 what we have just said on the subject. 
 
 A curious speciality of the Stone-ware potters of the Midlands 
 
 were the black bear jugs. We must confess that they look rather 
 
 grim and hideous; the body, coated with a very dark brown, is made 
 rough by a sprinkling of small shavings of clay; eyes and teeth are 
 of shining white paste; an iron chain is fastened to the collar, and 
 
 a staff is fixed between the claws. Such as they were, in that time 
 of bear-baiting they had a great sale, and were used either as tobacco 
 jars or beer jugs; the movable head in the latter case made a 
 convenient cup. 
 
 These bears were made at Nottingham, Chesterfield, and Brampton, 
 where originated the making of those ponderous jugs and mugs with 
 handles formed in the shape of a grey-hound, a pattern to which they 
 still adhere in our days, and which is not going to be given up, if 
 we may judge from the large quantity of them still turned out. 
 
 We must insist upon the difference that distinguishes the works 
 of the factories just spoken of from those coming from Fulham and 
 the South of England. No doubt the grey and brown Stone-wares 
 were first produced at the latter place, but thence the trade must 
 soon have been carried to such places as presented all the requisites 
 for this fabrication, viz. :—the proper sort of clay, and abundance of 
 coals and salt. The Midland counties afforded all these commodities, 
 and this was certainly known by all the potters of the South, and 
 may have induced some of them to go and settle in such promising 
 spots. Difficult though communication was in those days, there yet 
 must have been a regular intercourse between the potters of widely 
 separated localities. We shall take only the instance of Dwight 
 
STONE-WARE. 
 
 23 
 
 giving in his notebook the recipe for making the red teapots with 
 Staffordshire clay, in the manner of the Elers, almost at the same 
 time as the Dutchmen were producing them at Bradwell. 
 
 But in the Midland potteries the style of the Stone-ware underwent 
 a thorough change; while in London the Stone pots continued for a 
 long time to be made in imitation of foreign models, greybeards at 
 first, and subsequently globular jugs with royal monograms, it was 
 reserved to the uneducated workmen of these far-away counties to free 
 their productions from alien reminiscences, and to create shapes and 
 decorations which, plain and unpretending as they were, they could yet 
 without question call their own. 
 
 The superiority of Stone-ware over every other sort of pottery for 
 the uses of industry, either for utensils or for sanitary works, is so 
 marked that its manufacture has always been on the increase, and the 
 processes constantly improved; but little had been done to turn its 
 merits into an artistic channel since the days of Dwight, until Mr. H. 
 Doulton created the new style by which the Lambeth ware has become 
 known and admired by the amateurs of Ceramic art all the world over. 
 

CHAPTER III. 
 
 SLIP-DECORATED WARE. 
 
 The Slip Process.—Its Antiquity.—Its Introduction into England. 
 —Localities where it -was Practised.—The Staffordshire 
 Potters.—A Pot Works in the Moorlands.—Dr. Plot's 
 Account.—Reckoning.—Varieties of Shapes.—Names 
 OF some Slip Potters.—The Lettering and 
 OTHER sorts OF DECORATION.—A NeW StyLE 
 OF Slip Painting.—Richness of Colour. 
 
 —Metal Mounts.—Inscriptions.— 
 
 Modern Slip Ware. 
 
 7 
 
SLIP-DECORATED WARE. 
 
 iHIS process the old English potter, in some sort, made 
 his own by the diversity of effects he contrived to 
 create out of it. It consisted in producing a decoration 
 I on the surface of the piece by pouring through a small 
 pipe, clay diluted with water to the consistence of a 
 batter; this slip flowed in running traceries, or dropped in small 
 
 dots, boldly contrasting with the colour of the ground. The Romans 
 used it very cleverly, and many pieces are still preserved in museums, 
 testifying to the skill with which it was handled. Graceful flowery 
 
 stems are intermixed with running animals, stags and dogs, whose 
 curved limbs are all produced by the same jet of slip, freely poured 
 
 through the narrow spout of a vessel contrived to that end. 
 
 Brougniard mentions the discovery at Lezoux (France) of one of 
 these “ pipettes,” at the same place where fragments so decorated 
 
 were found. That “pipette” presented at the lower aperture holes 
 
 of different shapes, appropriated no doubt to the size of the intended 
 design. A little vessel of almost the same shape was, for the same 
 purpose, used in Staffordshire; to its spout quills of various calibre 
 were fixed; when filled with diluted clay, the air was only admitted 
 into the receptacle through a little hole pierced in the upper part; and 
 the stopping of this hole with the thumb was sufficient to check the 
 flow of the slip. Dots were in that way produced by the intermittent 
 admission of air. 
 
28 
 
 SLIP-DECORATED WARE, 
 
 What connection there is between the Roman red ware, ornamented 
 with trailings of white day, and the oldest Slip-decorated English 
 pieces, if, indeed, there is any, remains to be ascertained. Prior to 
 the middle of the 17th century, we do not find any specimens that 
 we could properly call decorated in that manner. The early tygs, 
 made in the first part of that century, the one for instance in the 
 Liverpool Museum, dated 1612, bear only applications of small pieces 
 of yellow clay, which seem to have been pressed separately in moulds 
 and stuck on. Is there any connection between the English process 
 and the one used in Switzerland and Germany? And was it through 
 Wrotham, in Kent, that it may have passed into Staffordshire? 
 
 Considering that examples made at Wrotham are somewhat earlier 
 than the dated pieces of Staffordshire, so much might be surmised; 
 but the truth is difficult to ascertain, as pieces undoubtedly 
 
 anterior to what we possess in England are very scarce on the 
 Continent. 
 
 Howbeit, at the date we speak of, we find this fabrication 
 established in many counties. In Kent, it was carried on at Sandwich, 
 where a Dutch potter is known to have settled in 1582; and also at 
 
 Wrotham, where very elaborate ware was made, including posset pots, 
 
 dishes, candlesticks, and many different sorts of fanciful jugs and 
 bottles. Although the earliest piece we know (a jug in the Maidstone 
 Museum) refers us only to 1656, many others that can be ascribed to 
 that locality seem by the style of the decoration to belong to an 
 earlier period. Owing probably to the proximity of the Metropolis, 
 the workman there shows a knowledge of the ornaments employed 
 by the artist of the Renaissance on architectural sculptures, carved 
 wood-work, and chased silver. The fleur-de-lys and the pomegranate 
 appear frequently. Stamps taken from metal works began to be 
 used for the decoration of pottery; we possess a terrine, or pie-dish, 
 upon which many subjects of figures, reclining nymphs, and 
 indescribable groups are reproduced, taken evidently from the work of 
 some facetious silversmith of the i6th century. These wmrks are 
 generally distinguishable from those we find in other districts by 
 an overcrowded ornamentation. The handles on the posset pots are 
 multiplied and covered with knobs, and all spaces between the principal 
 subjects are filled in with a diaper of rosettes or stars. A stick, the 
 
SLIP-DECORATED WARE. 
 
 29 
 
 end of which had been cut as a sort of rough seal, was used to 
 impress the desired pattern in the moist clay. 
 
 The manufacture was also carried on in Yorkshire, where, as the 
 traditionary distich has it— 
 
 "At Yearsley there was pancheons made, 
 
 By Willie Wedgwood, that young blade.” 
 
 In Cheshire, we may infer that the ware was manufactured 
 extensively, from the fact of so many slip dishes having been 
 discovered all over the county, and in North Wales. At the present 
 time, indeed, at Buckley, a few miles from Chester, they have not 
 discontinued the practice of the oldest style, and are turning out slip 
 pieces which, with a little scratching and chipping, might be mistaken 
 for the work of two hundred years ago. Tygs, of course, they are 
 no longer, but the identical shapes now do duty for flower pots. 
 
 In Derbyshire, at Tickenhall, have been found interesting fragments 
 of pottery, made of buff clay, occasionally streaked with brown Slip; 
 
 some of them, in the shape of roughly-formed heads, with head-gears 
 
 and ruffs of the Elizabethan period, seem to indicate that they belong 
 to the 16th century. The potters’ field must have occupied at the 
 time a very large area, since fragments have been found there upon 
 
 a ground extending in length over t,wo miles. Miss Lovell, of Calke 
 
 Abbey, Derby, who has directed the excavations carried out on the 
 site, has presented to the Jermyn Street Museum some curious tygs 
 and bottles of this ware, selected from the collection she has herself 
 been able to gather together. 
 
 The place is mentioned as early as 1630 by Philip Kinder, and 
 later on, in 1811, by Farey (General View of Derbyshire), as being 
 
 the centre of a very important manufacture of earthen utensils. Slip- 
 decoration followed then the impulse given in the Potteries, as is 
 
 shown by the two authenticated Tickenhall dishes now in the 
 possession of Mr. W. Bemrose. They are made of the usual buff 
 clay, coated with dark brown, and decorated with subjects of dogs, 
 
 trees, and flowers, traced in yellow Slip. Many of the Slip dishes 
 
 commonly known as Toft dishes, had probably the same origin. 
 
 But it was in Staffordshire that the Slip process was to become 
 almost a staple trade; there it may be more easily studied; there the 
 old potter has left many records that will permit us to follow his 
 
3° 
 
 SLIP-DECORATED WARE. 
 
 progress. Was he himself the originator, or did he take the hint from 
 one of those itinerant workmen who, at that period, used to begin life 
 by travelling from place to place for a few years, learning a trifle here, 
 and there imparting the small knowledge they had acquired in their 
 travels ? Who can tell ? At all events, he created a style of 
 his own, where imitation is not discernible. Himself one of the 
 people, he made the ware of the people. No patents were taken out, 
 no secrets were kept; and from one end of the Staffordshire Potteries 
 to the other all ovens soon turned out goods of the same description. 
 
 Miserable enough was the condition of the pot makers in Stafford¬ 
 shire, but the district afforded so many advantages for the production 
 of earthenware that it may be easily understood how their number 
 increased rapidly. Clays and coal could be had by merely scratching 
 the soil. The tilewright, a name given to the worker in clay, whether 
 he made tiles, butter pots, or crocks, was at no loss for his materials; 
 and so, notwithstanding the sequestered situation, he soon began 
 to improve his ware, and to find means of sending it away, first 
 over the Midland Counties, and then as far as London. 
 
 Miss Meteyard, in her life of Wedgwood, gives an interesting and 
 forcible description of a pot-works in the Moorlands in the 17th 
 century. The oven—only one—was eight feet high and six feet wide. 
 It was surrounded by a wall of broken seggars to keep the heat in, 
 and this wall, later on, became the hovel. It stood in a secluded spot, 
 sometimes at the crossing of two roads, near a little stream of water. By 
 the oven, were the thatched cottage and the open sheds, where, clustered 
 together, the different operations necessary to complete each piece were 
 performed. The thrower was in one place; the contrivance he used was of 
 the simplest description, being rather a whirler than a potter’s wheel. The 
 potter’s wheel is kept in rotation, while the hand that fashions the 
 clay into shape remains fixed ; the whirler differs from the wheel in 
 this respect, that one hand turns it at intervals, bringing successively 
 before the other hand the parts that have to be rounded. Next to 
 the thrower sat the handler, sticking on the handles and spouts; what 
 tools he used were certainly very primitive, being nothing more than a 
 bit of iron and a flattened strip of wood. In another shed were, the 
 man who traced upon the best pieces fanciful scrolls and lines of slip, 
 and he who through a coarse cloth dusted upon them the pulverised 
 
SLIP-DECORATliU WARE. 
 
 31 
 
 galena for glazing. Very often the same man performed all these 
 different tasks. Close by, the diluted clay was evaporated in the 
 sun-pan, until it became thick enough to be conveniently worked, or 
 else the moistened clay was thrown against a dry wall, where, the 
 water becoming evaporated, the lumps fell upon the ground, read)' to 
 be stored in a damp place for further use. Isolated from the rest of 
 the world the potter worked there, attended by his sons and his wife. 
 Sometimes a labourer or two completed the staff, which never seems 
 to have numbered more than eight people. When the stock was ready 
 for sale, the wife took it to the nearest fair, leading, pipe in mouth, 
 the double-panniered asses, and there either sold her goods to the 
 cratemen, or exchanged them at the town shops for such articles as 
 she wanted to take back home. 
 
 In his History of Staffordshire, published in 1686, Plot gives a 
 valuable account of the manufacture of pottery at that period. The 
 complete quotation has been given many times, so we shall only recall 
 here its principal features. 
 
 Many sorts of clays had already, as we may see, been experimented 
 upon, and their different uses settled, as well as their mixing. Four 
 different kinds were called “ throwing ” clays, and were used to form 
 the bodies of the vessels. These were the Bottle-clay and the White- 
 clay, of which the light-coloured ware was made (this was always of 
 a dull yellow colour, for, light as the clay was, the glaze gave it a deep 
 tint); the Hard Fire and Red Blending-clay, which, mixed together, 
 produced a black ware. Of more pliable nature, and used only for 
 
 decorative purposes, “ to paint with,” were the Orange, the White, and 
 the Red Slips, the last named of which turned black under the glaze. 
 All these are easily distinguishable on the works of that period. 
 
 The author goes on to tell how the clay was mixed with water 
 in a tank, cleansed from all gravel and other foreign particles, then 
 beaten with a bat, and brought on to the wheel “to be formed as the 
 workmen sees good; ” all processes which do not differ much from 
 those practised in our own time. The ware when dry was “slipped 
 
 or painted." The orange slip made the ground of the ornaments, 
 while the outlines were traced with the dark red slip, studded over 
 with small white dots. In some instances, broad stripes of red and 
 
 yellow, while still wet, were mixed together with a wire brush, which 
 
32 
 
 SLIP-DECORATED WARE. 
 
 acted like the comb used for marbling paper or graining wood. 
 Manganese appears to have been the only metallic oxide employed; 
 it was mixed with lead, and “called magmts by the workmen.” It 
 produced the motley colour. As a rule the glaze consisted of the 
 lead ore (sulphuret of lead) from the Derbyshire mines, in its native 
 state. When a higher gloss was required, lead calcined into powder 
 was dusted over the pieces. 
 
 The peculiar way of reckoning the ware ends the description. A 
 unit is said to have been represented by a dozen small pieces, and 
 that unit served as a basis of reckoning for all the rest. For 
 instance, a dish might have been worth a dozen; a very large dish 
 
 counted for two dozens; of bowls, jugs, cups, and other articles of 
 middle sizes, it required two, three, or four to make a dozen, and so 
 on for all. In that way the potter knew at once the value of the 
 contents of his oven by the number of dozens put in, while the 
 
 workman could easily calculate his wages by the number of dozens he 
 made in the week. Besides, in the event of any alteration in the 
 prices of the ware having to be made, the unit alone had to be 
 altered, and the scale was modified in all its items. So convenient 
 
 was this mode of reckoning that, strange as it may appear, it has 
 been kept up to this day in many manufactories, both in England 
 and on the Continent. 
 
 Among the Slip-decorated pieces which have come down to us, 
 
 the shapes are neither numerous nor varied. The potter keeps to a 
 
 few simple types, all geometrical in their outlines; but these he 
 
 endlessly varies by decoration, departing in that manner from the taste 
 of his predecessors, who, still under the influence of Gothic art, affected 
 to indulge in natural forms: the representation of a man, or of some 
 heraldic animal. If we find little variety in the shapes of this 
 
 particular ware, it may be accounted for by the destination of the 
 
 pieces, which were all intended for mere domestic purposes; and 
 
 even such exceptional pieces as the workman destined for a handsome 
 present, were made finer and richer by an additional display of Slip¬ 
 painting. 
 
 To mention briefly the different descriptions of earthen utensils 
 
 most in use at that time, there were: the Dish, which we still find 
 
 m large numbers, and in every variety of size and ornamentation. 
 
SLIP-DECORATED WARE. 
 
 33 
 
 The Tyg, a tall cup, the simple outline of which was enriched by an 
 unlimited number of handles, always diversified by the fancy of the 
 maker. The Piggin, often finely decorated; it is a small round 
 
 shallow vessel, provided with a long handle at one side for the 
 purpose of ladling out the liquor brewed in the tyg. The Candlestick, 
 
 found most frequently in the south of England, and often adorned, 
 
 like the tyg, with numerous handles. The Cradle; these, on the 
 contrary, are almost peculiar to the Midland counties, being seldom 
 
 found elsewhere. The J^lg, including such fanciful pieces as Bears 
 and Owls, and also the Puzzle Jugs, on which the number and 
 position of the nozzles show innumerable varieties of combinations. If we 
 add to these a few specimens of very scarce pieces, like Nests of Cups, 
 a sort of perforated stand for boiled eggs, tea-pots, and caddies, we 
 shall have exhausted the list of the shapes upon which the old 
 
 English Slip Potter displayed his ingenuity. 
 
 As through their works the names of greater men in art have 
 come down to posterity, so the few works of the old Staffordshire 
 Potters which have escaped destruction have saved from oblivion the 
 names of several of those modest artists. Why should we not call 
 them artists? In our own estimation they well deserve that name, 
 if we consider how unpropitious to their development was the low 
 
 condition in which they moved. Some excuse may be found for the 
 
 roughness of their drawing in the fact that the .taste for fine art was 
 only just beginning to dawn upon England; and it is to their credit 
 that they energetically endeavoured to raise themselves above the 
 common level. We must also take into account their insufficient 
 education, and the simple wants they had to supply. Staffordshire 
 was then far from being a wealthy county; what need was there for 
 a more refined ware? The agriculturists and small tradesmen who 
 sparsely populated the district would not readily have chosen goods 
 
 made more expensive by mere workmanship. The craving for the 
 possession of such articles of luxury had yet to be born in so 
 primitive a community. The few specimens upon which the potter 
 tried to outdo his ordinary work were those he perfected for the 
 gratification of his own pride, or as presents to some friend or patron, 
 to whom he desired to offer an uncommon sample of his skill. 
 Those belonging to that exceptional class all bear witness to that 
 
 8 
 
34 
 
 SLIP-DECORATED WARE. 
 
 feeling; they are inscribed, “The best is not too good for you." “This 
 cup I made for you and so no more. 
 
 In the list of names preserved to us, that of Thomas Toft 
 stands first. He was of an old Catholic family, which has still 
 many branches in the Potteries. One of his descendants worked for 
 fosiah lVedg%t)Ood towards the close of the last century, and had his 
 medallion made at the works at an advanced age. From about 1660, 
 Thomas Toft added to the manufacture of usual ware the making of 
 those huge platters the rims of which are ornamented with a trellis- 
 work of orange and brown slip, and the centre adorned with a 
 conventional flower, a nude figure, a lion, or an eagle. No 
 doubt he never thought of deriving his inspiration from nature, but 
 rather from such bits of heraldry, coins, or common effigies of Royal 
 personages as might have come under his notice. He worked in a 
 lane between Shelton and Newcastle-under-Lyme; one of his dishes 
 has been seen at a cottage at Hanley, bearing, besides his name 
 written in slip on the face, this inscription scratched in at the back, 
 “ Thomas Toft, Tinker's Clough. — I made it — 166. .” He was probably 
 the first to attempt such an ambitious style as the representation of 
 human figures; many admirers and plagiarists emulated him almost 
 immediately. Whatever the maker’s name may have been, most of 
 these dishes seem to have been reproductions, or at least imitations, of 
 one master. 
 
 Simeon Shaw {Chemistry of Pottery) attributes to Thomas Toft 
 the introduction of an “ aluminous shale or fire-brick clay,” a somewhat 
 obscure specification ; but the enumeration Shaw gives of the different 
 improvements by Toft's contemporaries shows that he is not much to 
 be relied upon. His information was negligently gathered, and appears 
 to be based mainly on unreliable hearsay. In any case, what we know 
 for certain shows that most of his statements stand in need of 
 corroboration. Amongst the pieces signed by Thomas Toft we shall 
 mention; A dish in the Museum of Practical Geology, the centre of 
 which has the crowned lion of the Royal arms, with the usual trellis- 
 work on the border; it is fourteen inches in diameter. One in the 
 Bateman Museum, twenty-two inches in diameter, shows a half-length 
 figure of Charles IL, holding a sceptre in each hand. In the South 
 Kensington Museum, a dish, also bearing the full name, has the rude 
 
SLIP-DECORATED WARE, 
 
 35 
 
 form of a mermaid. Mr. Hulme, of Burslem, possesses one with a 
 conventional flower. In our own collection is another, which represents 
 a Cavalier, his left hand resting on the hilt of his sword, while his 
 right is holding up a drinking glass; it is signed like all the former, 
 and has the same buff-coloured ground and orange . ornament traced 
 with a brown line punctured with white dots. We do not know 
 of his ever having signed any cups or tygs. 
 
 The name of Ralph Toft occurs on several dishes of similar make. 
 One of them, dated 1677, has a figure of a soldier holding a sword 
 in each hand, with a crowned head on a medallion right and left of 
 the principal subject. We find this crowned head very often repeated; 
 we have it on a large dish, where in an arrangement with four 
 fleurs-de-lys, it forms an ornamental rosette; again it appears on 
 another specimen in our own collection on each side of the half-length 
 figure of a queen, inscribed Ralph oft, the t having evidently been 
 omitted by mistake. In the Salford Museum a Ralph Toft dish has, 
 with the name, the date 1676. 
 
 fohn IVright, ifof, from a dish in the Wedgwood Institute, 
 Burslem. W. Rich, 1702, (Shaw). T. fohnson, l6g4, in the collection 
 of the Rev. W. Sibthorpe. 
 
 VTilliam Sans is mentioned by Chaffers as having also made 
 dishes of similar character. 
 
 William Taylor, from a dish in the Bateman Museum, with two 
 full-length figures in the costume of the time of the Stuarts, and 
 from another in our own possession. 
 
 George Taylor, with also two full-length figures. 
 
 foseph Glass, of Hanley, whose manufactory was in existence in 
 1710, and who must have produced a very fine ware of the sort, if 
 we may judge from the beautiful fragments dug up at the place only 
 a few years ago. One of his works is in the collection of the Rev, 
 T. Staniforth; it is a four-handled tyg, bearing Glass's name, and the 
 usual Slip designs in brown on a , buff ground. Mr. H. Griffiths, of 
 Brighton, has a cradle inscribed foseph Glass, and we should also 
 ascribe to him a remarkably large cradle, of the same style, inscribed 
 William Smith on one .side and Martin Smith on the other; at the 
 end a crowned effigy surmounts the date, 1700; this is in our own 
 collection. 
 
36 
 
 SLIP-DECORATED WARE. 
 
 Another cradle in our possession has the name of Ralph Simpson, 
 and the same name occurs upon a slip dish, with the figures of 
 William and Mary. Not fewer than three Simpsons figure in the 
 list of potters established at Burslem in 1710. In this list, drawn up 
 by Josiah Wedgwood, and given by Miss Meteyard, many other potters 
 of the time are recorded, but it would be very difficult to identify 
 their respective productions. 
 
 Seldom do we find any name on a piece, and if we do find one 
 it generally refers to the person to whom it was dedicated, especially 
 in the cases of tygs, cradles, jugs, etc. 
 
 We feel inclined to suppose that if Thomas Toft repeated so 
 
 many times his bold signature on his beautiful dishes, he did it with 
 the view of presenting them to his best customers and patrons, not 
 only as grateful testimonials for past favours, but also as an 
 advertisement likely to bring further orders by the admiration they 
 could not fail to excite. Thus, kept in some country dealer’s window 
 as the most conspicuous object in the display, or perhaps set on the 
 dresser of the best room of the house, they remained for long years, 
 becoming heirlooms in the family, until one day, neglected by their 
 possessors, they fell into the hands of the collector. 
 
 The broad and quaint Slip letters, acquiring a peculiar shape of 
 
 their own by the way in which they were poured on, often came in 
 as the main feature of decoration; and we know of many examples 
 where they make a graceful ornament merely by the variety of their 
 lines. Sometimes they are accompanied by huge Elizabethan flowers, very 
 conventional in their^ shape, and seldom varied in their arrangement; 
 whether brown upon yellow, or light upon the dark colour, they contrast 
 boldly with the ground, and frequently the same piece offers both 
 
 combinations. 
 
 Another process often resorted to is the blending together of red 
 and yellow Slip, in imitation of marble; it is seen on the owls, and 
 on the curious puzzle jug we have reproduced; while again, but in 
 fewer instances, the upper coat of light clay was scratched so as to 
 show the dark ground, in the same manner as the Italian Sgrafiato. 
 
 Additional portions modelled by hand were sometimes applied. In 
 the Hanley Museum is a jug, dated 1690, which has a figure of 
 
 Plenty modelled on the front; some thin strips, of clay were also laid 
 
37 
 
 
 SLIP-DECORATED WARE. 
 
 on and deeply notched with a tool ; they have a brilliant effect under 
 the glaze, and constitute another means of decoration also frequently 
 used. 
 
 But in no case do we see any moulded or stamped parts side by 
 side with the works of the oldest Slip potters of Staffordshire, as we 
 observe on the Slip pieces of southern origin. They borrowed little 
 indeed from the rest of the world ; the absence of oxide of copper 
 upon their early pieces, when we know that all over England that 
 material had been used for centuries, would tend to prove that these 
 worthies confined themselves to their own discoveries. Their pigments 
 were very limited, being confined to the white, yellow, red, and orange 
 Slips. If we occasionally notice a grey Slip on the buff ground, it is 
 due to the discolouration of the orange, through an excess of smoke 
 in the oven. 
 
 The traditional manner of employing the Slips never varied, and could 
 not lead to many improvements. The flowers and letters were freely 
 poured on the surface, without any tracing to guide the hand; nor could 
 the process lend itself to much delicacy or elaboration of treatment; yet 
 when stamping and casting began to be introduced, the Slip-decorator 
 found out a way of availing himself of some of the new-fangled methods 
 employed by the more spirited potters working contemporaneously with 
 him. Then we begin to see dishes, the intended decoration of which 
 had been incised and carved on the block upon which they were pressed; 
 thus all the outlines stand out in relief on the piece, and a space is left 
 between the two ridges, forming a receptacle to be filled in by Slips 
 of divers colours. The subjects so treated are much more complicated 
 than those on the usual Slip dishes. We give two specimens of that 
 particular process; and in Mr. Willett’s collection is a very remarkable 
 one, illustrating the popular saying, "A bird in the hand is worth two 
 in the bush." In any case the glazing remains the same; it is the 
 rich and lustrous Galena unsparingly dusted on, which, liquefied by the 
 firing, spreads upon the piece, if we may say so, like golden treacle. 
 In France the same material was used under the name of Alqidfou. 
 Though its high colouration forbids its use to any depth on any 
 light ware, it becomes unrivalled when it is intended to varnish a 
 clay already of a dark colour. Few things, indeed, can hold their 
 own by the side of a mellow-toned and richly-glazed Slip piece. We 
 
V 
 
 SLIP-DECORATED WARE. 
 
 I 
 
 remember once coming across an old Staffordshire dish exhibited in a 
 dealer's window, amidst a host of very handsome “ curios,” porcelain 
 of all sorts, Oriental silks, and chased silver and gold. The eye that 
 had rested upon the uncouth platter could hardly leave it, and was 
 attracted to it over and over again, so powerful and harmonious did 
 it look amongst all the other treasures. Need we say that we secured 
 it, and were more proud of its possession than if we had been 
 
 permitted to carry away the most costly of the objects by which it 
 was surrounded ? 
 
 It is said that in Persia the productions of the most ancient 
 potteries, even though mere fragments, are bought by their admirers at 
 high prices, to be mounted in precious metals with all the skill that the 
 modern workman can command. The same idea was carried out in 
 France in the last century to enhance the beauty of antique Chinese 
 pieces. The coarsest specimens of “Celadon” or “Rouge Flambe ” have 
 been set by “ Gouttieves" and other celebrated chasers in bronzes of 
 
 the most refined workmanship. In England also this tribute of 
 admiration has been paid by a few collectors of great taste to some of 
 
 the rough fictile gems of the past; not to speak of the time when 
 
 the first stone-ware pots used to be elaborately mounted by the 
 silversmith, we know of some instances where a similar sort of setting 
 has been successfully attempted; we regret to say that the examples 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
SLIP-DECORATED WARE. 
 
 39 
 
 introduced in their early artistic productions, architectural or ceramic, 
 
 as answering a twofold purpose, not only to be commemorative of 
 some important event, or memorable date, but also to add another 
 
 beauty to the general ornamentation. But as the level of education 
 rises in the masses, in the same proportion the letter loses its 
 
 ornamental character, and its use becomes neglected and obsolete; in 
 fact one might say that inscriptions cease to be employed as a means 
 of decoration at the precise time when everyone is able to understand 
 them. It will, we hope, interest the reader if we give here a few 
 
 of the inscriptions we have gathered from old pieces of Staffordshire 
 ware. 
 
 In our own collection:— 
 
 "the best is not too good, 1714,” 
 in brown Slip upon a two-handled and covered posset pot. 
 
 “ THE GIFT IS SMALL 
 BUT LOVE IS ALL, 1 725,” 
 scratched in clay upon a brown glazed cradle. 
 
 “ REMEMBER LOt’s WIFE, 1727,” 
 
 Upon a yellow dish decorated with brown and red Slip. And several 
 names on tygs, probably the persons to whom they were given: 
 
 “mARGRETE COLLEY, 1684.” 
 
 “JOHN HUGHES, 169O.” 
 
 “ MARY SHIFFILBOTTOM, 1705.” 
 
 In the Museum of the Somerset Archaeological Society:— 
 
 “ THREE MERRY BOYS, 1697,” 
 
 on a nest of cups; the entwined handles are pierced, and allow the 
 liquor to run from one cup to the other. 
 
 In the Norwich Museum:— 
 
 “COME BROTHER SHALL WE JOIN, 
 
 GIVE ME YOUR TWO PENCE HERE IS MINE. 
 
 WAYMAN, 1670." 
 
 on a brown j’ug decorated with Slip. 
 
 Mentioned by Mr. W. Bemrose in “ The Pottery and Porcelain of 
 Derbyshire," 
 
 “ GOD BLES THE QUEEN AND PRENCE GORGE 
 DRINK BE MERY & MARY B B 
 
 JOHN MIER MADE THIS CUP 1708.” 
 
40 
 
 SLIP-DECORATED WARE. 
 
 In the Liverpool Museum:— 
 
 “ BREAK ME NOT I PRAY IN YOUER HAST 
 FOR I TO NONE WILL GIVE DESTAST 1651.” 
 
 In the possession of Sir Ivor B. Guest (see Chaffers’ Marks and 
 Monograms):— 
 
 “ COME GOOD WOMAN DRINK OF THE BEST 
 YOU MY LADY AND ALL THE REST.” 
 upon a brown four-handled tyg. 
 
 In Mr. H. Willett's collection, Brighton:— 
 
 “ANN DRAPER THIS CUP I MADE FOR YOU & SO NO MORE.—J. W., 1707.” 
 upon a brown and yellow posset pot. 
 
 “THE RIT GENERAL CORNAL FOR THE DROWNKEN REGIMENT,” 
 on a large beer jug. 
 
 The alphabet in square compartments and the date, "May the 2g 
 Day, 1J06" on a large posset pot. 
 
 In the British Museum :— 
 
 “ REMEMBER THY END TRULY,” 
 upon a pot of questionable shape. 
 
 Specimens of what we might call “speaking pottery” are somewhat 
 limited in number, as the style is confined to presentation pieces, 
 sacredly preserved in old families. They were so difficult to obtain 
 that we do not find any in the collection of Enoch Wood, who yet 
 had shown himself so zealous in collecting all that could be interesting 
 for the history of the old Staffordshire ware; but he was probably 
 unable to secure any. 
 
 During the latter part of the last century the art of Slip was 
 superseded by more advanced processes of decoration ; however, in the 
 Liverpool Museum is a brown puzzle jug bearing a long inscription, 
 
 very neatly poured on, bearing the date 1828. At the present day, in 
 
 the market places of Norfolk, Kent, and Lancashire, we meet with 
 coarse pots and pancheons which are streaked here and there with 
 
 lines and scrolls of white Slip, made in some remote country pot 
 works. In Switzerland the tradition is still kept up, though it 
 
 has lost many of its ancient characteristics, and the peasant’s ware 
 
 continues to be made pleasant and gaudy by the use of different 
 coloured clays poured on the ground in the same manner as of old. 
 
 In Italy, also, a ware of the same sort is extensively fabricated. 
 
SLIP-DECORATED WARE. 
 
 41 
 
 and it requires a very skilful hand to dash on at one stroke, with the 
 liquid Slip, the conventional flowers and animals that suit the taste of 
 the people. A Milan manufacturer having engaged for that special 
 work a pastry cook, who was extremely clever at embellishing his 
 cakes with designs in syrups and currants, has found his talents so 
 successful when thus directed to pot painting, and his work meet with 
 such a demand, that he realises more profit out of the extemporised 
 artist than he would out of half-a-dozen china painters. 
 
 May we be excused if we show ourselves a little partial to the 
 
 Slip process, considering that it is closely connected with “ Pate sur 
 Pate" a process that we have practised ourselves for more than 
 twenty-five years, and which is also painting in Slip upon the unbaked 
 surface ? 
 
 We shall conclude by mentioning another sort of Slip-ware also 
 
 made now-a-days, the sham “ old Slip,” of which we have to confess 
 the possession of several pieces, bought at a high figure for genuine 
 specimens. We wish our experience to be of some use to other 
 
 collectors, and hope our readers may be spared the disappointment 
 of finding that a piece bought in a lonely cottage from a respectable¬ 
 looking old woman, turns out to be nothing but an impudent 
 
 forgery! “Forewarned, forearmed.” 
 
45 
 
 ENGLISH DELFT. 
 
 BIROM Holland, where factories of the white ware coated 
 with stanniferous enamel had been in existence from an 
 early date, the process was brought into England 
 aboi^t the middle of the 17th century. It was the 
 
 nearest approach to the Oriental porcelain, which was 
 so much admired, and so difficult to obtain. The Dutch, who 
 imported it from the West Indies, endeavoured to transform into 
 a plausible substitute the common white faience they were then making, 
 and by decorating it in blue with subjects copied from Chinese pieces, 
 to realise, if not the unobtainable transparence, at least all the outward 
 looks of the Eastern China. They succeeded in producing such a 
 dose imitation that some of the blue and white Delft dishes might, 
 
 at a distance, deceive the eye of even a connoisseur. 
 
 The body is of a yellowish or red colour, very friable and porous; 
 carbonate of lime enters largely into its composition. The glaze, a 
 
 thick and opaque enamel, is a mixture of oxides of lead and tin. Its 
 manufacture differed from all other early ware in this respect, that it 
 had to be fired twice; once to harden the biscuit, so as to allow of 
 its being dipped in the liquid glaze, the porosity of the body absorbing 
 the water while the enamel remained on the surface; and then a 
 second time to vitrify the glaze. 
 
 The earliest dated pieces considered to be English Delft, that is 
 to say, potted in England, were probably made with clay from Holland, 
 as we may infer from the fact of their substance being very porous. 
 
46 
 
 ENGLISH DELFT. 
 
 and easy to cut into with a knife; from its effervescing with nitric 
 acid, and at a high temperature melting into a coarse glass. The 
 native clays, however, were soon brought into use, and then we find the 
 ware has been highly fired, and can hardly be scratched with a sharp 
 blade. It is of some importance to remark that the list of all the 
 British clays drawn up by Mr. Maw, and published in the catalogue 
 of the Jermyn Street Museum, does not contain any calcareous clay 
 like that which constitutes the principal element of the foreign 
 stanniferous faience. However, the ware was made in England with 
 the local materials, only the biscuit being dense instead of spongy 
 does not when dipped retain a sufficiently thick coating of enamel, and 
 its red colour shows through, giving to the ware that rosy tint so 
 often observed by collectors; crazing is always seen on the surface 
 through want of affinity between body and glaze. Dutch pieces, on 
 the contrary, are as a rule free from this defect. The English potter 
 was so well aware of this shortcoming that the early dishes were 
 coated only on the front side, the back being glazed with the usual 
 lead glaze, and sometimes mottled with ordinary tortoiseshell colours. 
 Whenever the style of painting, which otherwise is the safest guide for 
 identification, appears doubtful, . this should be sufficient to indicate the 
 origin of a piece. Dutch dishes may be found similar in design, but 
 they are invariably enamelled on both sides; as to the few dishes of 
 Italian make which possess the same peculiarity of being glazed with 
 lead on the back, their decoration is so characteristic that in their case 
 a mistake is almost impossible. 
 
 This white and painted earthenware was made in or near London, 
 towards 1668, as appears from the record of a lawsuit instituted by one 
 Edjmmd Warner against the Custom House authorities, who had seized 
 one of the parcels of potters’ clay which he used to import from 
 Holland. The trial took place in 1693, and five London potters gave 
 evidence as to the clay being of the kind they had constantly bought 
 from the said Warner for above 25 years. (Catalogue of the Museum 
 of Practical Geology, p. 300. Appendix.) 
 
 At the date of 1676 a patent was taken out by John Arien Von 
 Hamme, for the sole practise of “ the art of making tiles, porcelain, 
 and other earthenware, after the way practised in Holland, which has 
 not been practised in this our kingdom.” It would be difficult to 
 
ENGLISH DELFT. 
 
 47 
 
 reconcile this pretension with the fact that many pieces bearing an 
 unmistakably English stamp are found inscribed with a much earlier 
 date. Thus a Delft-ware mug in the Jermyn Street Museum is 
 dated 1631, and inscribed “ tVilliam & Elisabeth Burges;" another in 
 Mr. Willett’s possession is painted with the name of "John Leman, 
 1634I' One may assume that towards the same period English-made 
 tiles were extensively in use for interior decoration. Bottles of Delft- 
 ware were commonly used to keep foreign wines in; they were all 
 dated in blue pencilling to record the year in which the wine had 
 been bottled. We find them with “Sack, 1649," “Claret, 1648,” 
 
 “ Whit, 1648,” &c. One of a larger size, in the Norwich Museum, 
 has the Grocers’ Arms, the monogram date, 1649. 
 
 None has been found to be dated later than 1659, 
 
 Sets of three or four cups, with their handles entwined (an 
 essentially English shape), were made in Delft as well as in Slip- 
 ware. A mug in the South Kensington Museum is inscribed "Ann 
 Chapman, 1649.” Many pieces bear the arms of the City Companies. 
 Mr. A. Franks has one with the arms of the Bakers’ Company, 1657, 
 and another with the Leathersellers’, 1660. In the Bohn collection was 
 a quaint-shaped cup, with the portrait of Charles II., and the motto, 
 “ Be merry and wise, 1660." A cup in Professor Church’s collection 
 had “ God save the King, i662l' inscribed under a crown. We 
 possess a cup, with twisted handle, with the monogram disposed 
 in the English manner, the top letter standing for the surname, 
 and the other two for the Christian name of the husband and wife, 
 
 and the date, 1667; also a caudle pot with three letters and 1687. 
 
 Drug pots, inscribed in English with the name of their contents, 
 and pill-slabs, may also be ascribed to Lambeth. The production of 
 English Delft became very important in that locality, for it is said 
 
 that at one time twenty factories were occupied in making it. Though 
 it never became general in England, the manufacture was established 
 
 in some of the seaports which had a regular trade with Holland. At 
 Liverpool it was for a time the “principal trade of the town,” 
 according to the Holt & Gregson MSS., quoted by Mr. Charles T. 
 Gatty, from whom we borrow the following extracts;—“To stone 
 building (1660) there succeeded brick and slate building in Liverpool. 
 
 To brick making succeeded the clay potteries. To them Delft-ware. 
 
48 
 
 ENGLISH DELFT. 
 
 To the Delft-ware succeeded the whole flint or Queen-ware in 1760, 
 by Wedgwood. The Delft-ware every merchant of note in Liverpool 
 was concerned in early in the i8th century.” The progression in the 
 different branches of the trade is plainly described, yet in this 
 case also pieces authenticated by tradition carry us back to a still 
 earlier period. A Delft mug in the Liverpool Museum, attributed to 
 Liverpool manufacture, is inscribed "John Williamson, 164$-" If we 
 can implicitly trust its evidence, the ware had been manufactured long 
 before the period referred to by the writer. 
 
 In 1716 the English Delft had already been brought near to 
 perfection, as we can see by the large plaque preserved in the Mayer 
 Museum; it is painted in blue, with a view of Great Crosby, the 
 landscape being plentifully diversified with ships, houses, figures, and 
 animals of all sorts. In the old church at Crosby may also be seen 
 a plaque of the same ware, with the arms of the Merchant Taylors' 
 Company, and the date, 1722. At that time the ware was already 
 exported in large quantities, and numberless examples have been 
 preserved to us dating far down in the i8th century. Among these 
 may be mentioned tiles for fire places, with blue landscapes and figure 
 subjects; puzzle jugs of elegant shape, thinly potted and brightly 
 glazed, with doggrel verses painted all round; and especially large punch 
 bowls, decorated with a ship in full sail and a border of Chinese 
 flowers. On these the blue painting is so cleverly e,xecuted that they 
 vie with any piece made in Holland, and the artists had nothing 
 more to learn from their masters. Shaw and Pennington were very 
 celebrated for their punch bowls between 1750 and 1780. The Mayer 
 
 "Museum has one 175 inches in diameter. Another of the same style 
 in the Jermyn Street Museum is 2oi inches in diameter. In the 
 
 Mechanics’ Institution at Hanley, another bowl, also 20^ inches in 
 diameter, is rendered particularly interesting" by the label accompanying 
 it, which has been written by the painter himself: ''John Robinson, 
 a Jot painter , served his time at Pennington's, in Shaw's Brow", and 
 there painted this punch bowl." They are all of them masterpieces 
 of the craft. 
 
 At Vauxhall and Mortlake, Delft-ware potteries were carried on, 
 
 but no specimens have been so far identified as coming from these 
 
 places. 
 
ENGLISH DELFT. 
 
 49 
 
 At Bristol, English Delft was extensively manufactured from the 
 beginning of the i8th century, but the potters of that city never 
 attained to the degree of perfection which the art reached at Liverpool. 
 The glaze is far from being so bright, and some of the colours are 
 dull, and lack the gloss usually noticed in the fine stanniferous enamel. 
 
 A plate painted in blue, dated 1703, and a high-heeled shoe, dated 
 1722, are referred to Bristol manufacture. Tiles for house decoration 
 were painted, so as to form, when put together, a large panel. Thus 
 the Jermyn Street Museum has a set made at Richard Franks', 1738 
 —1750, upon which is painted a view of Redcliff Church. Mr. Fry 
 has two sets of nine tiles each, with the picture of a cat and a dog, 
 and Mr. Willett a copy of Hogarth’s “ March to Finchley,” on a panel 
 composed of seventy-two tiles. 
 
 Thomas Heath introduced Delft-ware into Staffordshire. Shaw 
 
 tells us how he contrived a new' mixture of clays from the coal 
 
 measures. He describes a dish made by this potter, “ which was one 
 
 of a set manufactured as specimens of that new kind of ware.” 
 Though the author mistakes the white enamel for a dip of white 
 clay, the description is so accurate, that there can be no doubt as to 
 the piece being English Delft. “ The upper surface is tolerably even; 
 but the under surface is spotted with minute holes, and exhibits the 
 coarse material of the body.” The same peculiarity is to be noticed 
 
 upon the back of nearly all the dishes coming from Holland; the 
 
 cause is, that while the inside of the dish is formed upon a mould, 
 with a bat of clay carefully smoothed on the surface, the outside has 
 to be cut and turned, thereby exposing all the small holes that may ^ 
 exist in the bulk of the clay; and as the glaze does not penetrate 
 them, after the firing these perforations remain and are increased in 
 size. This was considered such a drawback by the Staffordshire potters 
 that, as we have already observed, they did not attempt to enamel the 
 backs of their dishes, but merely glazed them with lead. In that manner 
 are made those huge dishes representing Adam and Eve under the tree 
 of knowledge, King William and Queen Mary, Queen Anne, George I., 
 and many celebrated personages of the time. The style of painting is 
 not very commendable; the figures are rudely drawn, and heavily 
 patched with blue; sometimes there is a random staining of copper 
 green or a few dashes of yellow, and clouds and trees are daubed on 
 
 10 
 
5 ° 
 
 ENGLISH DELFT. 
 
 with a rag or a sponge soaked in blue. It seems as though the painter, 
 whose unattractive task was only to follow a foreign model, did not 
 care whether he pleased himself or anybody else. The rims are marked 
 all round with heavy strokes of the brush, in a way that recalls the 
 indentations practised on the edges of the Slip dishes. 
 
 This new kind of ware was no doubt very successful, and its 
 production was stimulated by the serious competition the Dutch carried 
 on against the English potters, even upon their own grounds. The 
 dishes representing William and Mary were first made at Lambeth, 
 before being imitated in Staffordshire, William III. seems to have 
 fostered by all the means in his power the introduction into England 
 of the faience of his own country. He was wont to make presents 
 
 of his portrait painted on large dishes; and it was at the suggestion 
 
 of his ambassador at the Hague, that A. Von Hamme came over to 
 establish a factory in London. In an old family at Dartmouth is still 
 preserved one of these dishes, which the king himself gave to one of 
 the ancestors, then mayor of the town, in acknowledgment of services 
 rendered when he landed as Prince of Orange. 
 
 Delft-ware became so fashionable that the English potters had to 
 
 apply that name to such substitutes as they could contrive to manufacture. 
 The ware has disappeared a long time ago, but the name has been 
 preserved to this day, and all common crockery is still called Delf in 
 many country places. Lane-Delf became the name of the place where 
 stood the several potworks manufacturing it, but not before the end 
 of the 17th century, as it is not marked on the map drawn by Dr. Plot. 
 It was situated between Lane End and Fenton, and at the present 
 
 time forms part of the last-named town. 
 
 Earnest efforts were made to naturalise the stanniferous enamel in 
 the Potteries, but with little success, the result being very unsatisfactory. 
 The glaze is poor and crazes badly; the colours do not approach the 
 liveliness of continental faience; besides cobalt and manganese, mostly 
 used, we see only copper green and antimony yellow sparingly employed, 
 and without any brilliancy. ’ The process was hardly diversified in its 
 effects. We possess two jugs coated with a stanniferous blue, decorated 
 with white enamel, much in the style of the Nevers’ faience, and a 
 teapot which has the same opaque ground, combined with transparent 
 enamels, and fired in the Salt-glaze oven; but specimens of these kinds 
 are seldom met with. 
 
ENGLISH DELFT. 
 
 51 
 
 Not only was the ware ill adapted to domestic requirements, but 
 the tin so largely used in its manufacture was so expensive a material 
 that the potters had to tax their ingenuity until they could supply a 
 somewhat similar article more easily and cheaply manufactured. The 
 white dip, invented by Astbury, was resorted to, and might have been 
 successful in it’s application but for the imperfections of the lead glaze, 
 which tinted it deeply with yellow. Nevertheless the regular earthenware 
 was found so much superior in quality, that in the Potteries the 
 attempts to imitate the foreign Delft were soon abandoned, while 
 dipped or cream-colour ware, painted in blue, continued to go by the 
 name of Delf. The “dip" process, that is to say, the coating of a 
 coarse clay with a fine white one, was still in use at the beginning of 
 the present century; many of the best blue printed dinner services, 
 with Chinese patterns, are made in that way; the breaking of a piece 
 exhibits a coarse body covered with a thin layer of white slip. 
 
 Upon the pieces of Lambeth, Liverpool, and Bristol manufacture 
 inscriptions occur frequently, and although they lack the “ naive 
 simplicity of the slip ones, many of them are well worth being 
 recorded. They take the form of short mottoes on the earliest pieces:— 
 “ MAY IT BE WELL USED.” 
 
 “ BE MERRY AND WISE.” 
 
 On shaving dishes :— 
 
 “YOUR QUARTER IS DUE.” 
 
 On a small caudle pot, as a wish:— 
 
 “ BOY.” 
 
 Later on we find allusions to political events:— 
 
 “ PARLIAMENT BOWL FREE WITHOUT EXCISE, I 73 ^j ^od 
 “GOD GRANT UNITY, 1746.” 
 
 Upon six dessert plates, each having one line of a verse, we 
 read :— 
 
 1. “WHAT IS A MERRY MAN?” 
 
 2 . “ LET HIM DO WHAT HE CAN,” 
 
 3. “TO ENTERTAIN HIS GUESTS” 
 
 4. “WITH WINE AND MERRY JESTS,” 
 
 5. “ BUT IF HIS WIFE DO FROWN,” 
 
 6. “ALL MERRIMENT GOES DOWN—1738.” 
 
52 
 
 ENGLISH DELFT. 
 
 On a bowl in the Geological Museum :•— 
 
 " JOHN UDY OF LUXILLIAN 
 HIS TIN WAS SO FINE 
 IT GLIDERD THIS PUNCH BOWL 
 AND MADE IT TO SHINE, &C., &C.—I73I.’' 
 
 " ONE BOWL MORE AND THEN.” 
 
 Doggrel verses, all to the same purport, are very varied on the 
 puzzle jugs :— 
 
 “ HERE GENTLEMEN COME TRY YOUR SKILL 
 i’l HOULD a WAGER IF YOU WILL 
 THAT YOU don’t DRINK THIS LIQUOR ALL 
 WITHOUT YOU SPILL OR LET SOME FALL.” 
 
 “ FROM MOTHER EARTH I TOOK MY BIRTH 
 
 THEN FORMD A JUG BY MAN 
 
 AND NOW STAND HERE, FILED WITH GOOD CHEER 
 
 TASTE OF ME IF YOU CAN.” 
 
 “ II' THIS BE YE FIRST THAT YOU HAVE SEEN 
 i’ll LAY THE WEAGER WHICH YOU PLEASE TO PAY 
 THAT YOU don’t DRINK THIS LIQUOR ALL 
 WITHOUT YOU SPILL OR LET SOME FALL.” 
 
 “within THIS CAN THERE IS GOOD LIQUOR 
 ’tIS fit FOR PARSON OR FOR VICAR 
 BUT HOW TO DRINK AND NOT TO SPILL 
 WILL TRY THE UTMOST OF YOUR SKILL.” 
 
 This is an example of friendly inscriptions on presentation pieces:— 
 
 “JOSEPH SWADELL. 
 
 WHEN THIS YOU SEE REMEMBER ME 
 AND BEAR ME IN YOUR MIND 
 
 LET ALL THE WORLD SAY WHAT THEY WILL 
 SPEAK OF ME AS YOU FIND.— 1774 .” 
 
 We might multiply quotations, but the above will suffice to show 
 that the Delft potter was very prolific in his poetical lucubrations. 
 
 So many counterfeits of foreign ware were made in England as 
 to compel us to acknowledge that, as a rule, English potters were in 
 many instances not over scrupulous as to the way in which they tried 
 
ENGLISH DELFT. 
 
 53 
 
 to palm off their productions as something different from what they 
 
 really were. Thus Stone-ware and faience were at first styled Porcelain; 
 
 at the same time that English ware was made to imitate foreign, the 
 latter was sold as home-made. It is also well known that no sooner 
 did some ingenious potter originate a new process or style, and 
 endeavoured to protect it by affixing his mark, than these marks were 
 pirated in a shameless manner. Were it not that English Delft had 
 its halcyon days which cannot be ignored, this chapter ought never 
 to have been written for a book whose special purpose is to point 
 out what was original in the early Ceramic Art of England. In 
 some cases, out of a mere imitation a particular style may develop 
 itself; by degrees it frees itself from leading strings, and then runs 
 freely on a new course; but it was not so with the tin-glazed ware 
 
 of British manufacture; never was it raised to a very high level, 
 nor did it even attempt to leave the track of a spiritless imitation. 
 The best Liverpool pieces are nothing after all but copies of the 
 Dutch faience, and would be indistinguishable from their models but 
 for the English inscriptions and a certain clumsiness of execution. 
 Those who manufactured them have left their names in many 
 documents of the time, but by no means the impress of individual 
 genius upon their works; nor did they bequeath the least discovery 
 
 or improvement for which any credit can be given to them. 
 

CHAl’TER V. 
 
 THE BROTHERS ELERS AND 
 THE STAMPED WARE. 
 
 The Brothers Elers come from Holland.—Some Account of 
 THEIR Family.—John Philip probably the Potter of the two. 
 
 —Bradwell Wood and Dimsdale.—The Red Ware.—Metal 
 Dies used to Stamp the Ornaments.—Black Ware.— 
 
 The Imitations.—Tests for Identification.—The 
 WORD Porcelain applied in that time to Opaque 
 Ware.—Introduction of Salt Glazing.—Deep 
 Secrecy Preserved in the Manufactory.— 
 
 Astbury and Twyford discover the 
 Secrets.—The Elers leave Stafford¬ 
 shire.—John Philip joins the Chelsea 
 Glass-Works. — He Settles in 
 Dublin.—The Works of Astbury 
 AND other Imitators.—Porto- 
 bello Ware. 
 
57 
 
 THE ELERS. 
 
 HAT the Moors of Spain effected for the improvement 
 of the potter’s art in Italy, and what subsequently the 
 Italians did in France (as it has now been ascertained), 
 for the introduction of a new kind of pottery, which 
 was to develop itself there into so many varieties, the 
 Brothers Elers did for the advancement of earthenware in Staffordshire. 
 The uneducated butter-pot makers and tilewrights were just beginning 
 to feel the first stirrings of an ambition to improve their coarse 
 
 productions, when the Elers came among them, bringing new ways 
 and new tools, and above all, a taste for beauty and refinement, 
 a feeling hitherto unknown in the district, but which was to give an 
 impetus to the latent desire for perfection, without impairing the native 
 originality. 
 
 From Holland the Brothers Elers seem to have followed the fortunes 
 of the Prince of Orange, and to have come in his train to England 
 
 in 1688. They were of a noble family of Saxony. Mr. Jewitt (Life 
 
 of Josiah Wedgwood) gives their complete genealogy, but it will be 
 sufficient for our purpose to relate that their father had been Ambassador 
 to several courts of Europe, and that during his term of office as 
 
 Burgomaster of Amsterdam, he is said to have harboured in his house 
 the royal exile, Henrietta Maria. His two sons, our potters, were 
 John Philip and David; the Elector of Mentz and Queen Christina 
 stood godfather and godmother to the former. 
 
 11 
 
58 
 
 THE ELERS. 
 
 The date of their arrival in Staffordshire is somewhat uncertain; 
 nor is it known whether William III. continued to extend his 
 patronage to them beyond granting a pension of ;^300 to their sister. 
 David set up as a merchant in London. Was it in the course of his 
 business transactions that he became acquainted with the peculiar 
 advantages offered by Staffordshire for the establishment of a potting 
 manufactory, and that the brothers decided to settle on the spot ? 
 Or, rather, was it that on coming to England they at once sought 
 the acquaintance of Dwight, then the leading man of the trade, and 
 himself of Dutch extraction, and in this matter did they act on his 
 advice ? Dwight, during his stay in Chester, had experimented upon 
 all the clays of the neighbourhood, and no one more likely than he 
 could have directed their attention to the remote spot on which 
 they ultimately settled. In 1698 they had already been long at work. 
 Dr. Martin Lister speaks about the red-ware made “ by the two Dutchmen 
 brothers who wrought in Staffordshire, and were not long since at 
 Hammersmith.” From this we may infer that they were occasionally 
 together in London; but it is probable that while David was selling 
 the ware at his shop in the “ Poultry,” John Philip was manufacturing 
 it at Bradwell Wood. Indeed when his son, Paul Elers, writes to 
 Wedgwood in 1777 about his father, he seems to claim for him alone 
 the honour of having been the first potter in England, directing that 
 under his portrait should be engraved Johannes Philipus Elers, 
 Plastices Britannicce hwentor" (Miss Meteyard, “Life of Wedgwood"). 
 
 Bradwell Wood is at the present day as lonely a spot as it was 
 in the time of the Elers. It lies some distance from the road leading 
 from Wolstanton to Burslem, and a farm-house is the only building 
 on the place. Dimsdale, where the Elers stored and sold their 
 productions, is about a mile distant. It is a timbered building of the 
 Elizabethan period, half manor, half farm-house. It has a small 
 pool of water in front, and clumps of old trees encircle it. In the 
 interior a very dilapidated wainscoted room is all that remains of 
 what may have been in the past a noble building; and in that case, 
 if they did really inhabit the hall, the aristocratic potters found there 
 a home befitting their station. At this moment, when the newly- 
 discovered telephone is used so extensively, it is curious to recall the 
 story that the two places had been connected together for convenience 
 
THE ELERS. 
 
 59 
 
 sake by a speaking tube made of clay pipes, through which a 
 
 conversation could be carried on. 
 
 There, ready to hand, was to be procured the red clay they 
 wanted for their best work, the ware which at that time went by the 
 name of red porcelain, and was to be the first step towards the 
 imitation of Oriental hard pottery, “ for which,” says Shaw, “ they 
 mixed one part of the Bradwell red clay and four parts of the Hill 
 Top clay." Numbers of hands already trained to the common 
 
 drudgery of potting were also available on the spot. No doubt this 
 was of great assistance to the new comers, and yet we shall see 
 further on how much they distrusted such helpers as they were 
 obliged to employ. 
 
 The Elers red-ware is a dense and semi-vitrified body, which 
 chemically differs only from porcelain by its lack of translucency. 
 Professor Church gives its hardness as about 5 on the mineralogical 
 scale, and its density as ranging between 2-3 and 2-41. The fineness 
 of the paste is due to the careful levigating and sifting of the 
 natural clay, and its hardness to the high degree of firing to which 
 
 it was submitted. The colour of the body is of a lighter tint than 
 
 that of the red-ware made by other makers, and the pieces are 
 especially remarkable for the neat and skilful way in which they were 
 turned on the lathe. Very peculiar is their style of ornamentation. 
 Simple though it is, it can be said to have little resemblance to 
 anything done before. It was derived from the recollection of some 
 Japanese or Chinese pieces, imitated, but not actually copied, and so it 
 became a style of its own. Rigorous reproduction was certainly not 
 the aim the Elers had in view when they produced their red teapots, 
 which had nothing Oriental in them but their outward look, for they 
 did not use any of the means which would have conduced to a close 
 imitation, not even the pressing and moulding which were always 
 employed by the Chinese for those pieces which are regarded as 
 having been their models. The raised designs that slightly decorate 
 the smooth ground were obtained by means of small metal dies sunk 
 in the shape of a flower or a leaf. On the surface, delicately lined 
 over and finished on the wheel, a little lump of wet clay was applied 
 and stamped in the same way as the impression of a seal is taken 
 upon wax. The excess of clay round the outlines was then carefully 
 
scraped off with a tool, and the flowers and leaves were connected 
 
 together with stems made by hand, so that with the same tools the 
 
 pattern might be greatly varied. The impressions sometimes represent 
 small flgures bearing a strong German character in their design. 
 Thus we have: the four quarters of the globe; a lady holding a' 
 flower, or a huntsman with his gun; but most frequently the 
 
 ornamentation consists of rosettes, scrolls, or “ entrelacs,” quite typical 
 in their arrangement. The handles and spouts are plain, and were 
 
 made by hand. The articles made by the Elers were very simple, 
 and, so far as we know, restricted to tea-ware. We never came across 
 a single piece of red-ware which was merely ornamental, and which 
 could at the same time with certainty be ascribed to them. 
 
 Though stamping on clay had been commonly used centuries 
 
 before, on the Samian ware for instance, which was also made of fine 
 red clay, well turned and impressed with seals, on the German gres 
 Stone-ware, and even upon some early English pieces; yet the Elers 
 way of using the tools was very different, and the effect does not 
 
 recall to the mind any of the above-mentioned potteries. In the 
 Hanley Museum are still preserved a few of these dies, and also 
 some brass moulds in use at the same period for making spoons and 
 other small pieces. 
 
 A black body made from a mixture of “ red clay and oxide of 
 
 iron,” and probably manganese, is said to have been manufactured by 
 the Elers, imitated by their successors, and perfected by JVedgwood 
 in his black basalt. Of this we have not seen any authentic 
 specimens, but in the aforesaid museum are two teapots of a dead 
 
 black clay, stamped with seals, and showing the characteristic hawthorn 
 flowers, or vine leaves. They were presented by Enoch Wood, who 
 knew them to be the work of Twyford (one of their imitators), as the 
 label attached to the pieces and written by his own hand testifies. 
 Genuine pieces of Elers ware are now exceedingly scarce; but imitations 
 are veiy numerous, and these are constantly mistaken for real specimens. 
 They continued to be made long after the brothers had left the country. 
 Thus, Shaw mentions the indenture, date 1750, of one J. Fletcher, who 
 was apprenticed to J. Taylor, “ to handle and stick legs to the red 
 porcelain. The identification becomes sometimes difficult when we have to 
 deal with some of these jugs or teapots, which, bearing the same branch 
 
THE ELERS. 
 
 6l 
 
 of Chinese blossoms, were later on manufactured in so many places; but 
 we give the following as the results of our observations:—First, seldom, 
 if ever, did the Elers produce anything of large dimensions; the 
 most authentic pieces are of a very small size. Next, the decoration 
 is confined principally to lines and bands sharply turned on the lathe, 
 and accompanied with a few flowers or small scrolls stamped in relief 
 with the seal. Lastly, in no case do they show any part that has 
 been pressed in a mould. Spouts and handles modelled into ornamental 
 shapes, such as are to be seen on many pieces which otherwise possess 
 all the peculiarities of the Elers ware, are always a sign that these 
 are the works of one of their successors. As to the pseudo-Chinese 
 marks, these are to be found on the imitations as well as upon 
 the originals, and cannot in any way be relied upon as guides to 
 identification. 
 
 In Germany, a few years later, Bottcher was making what he also 
 called Red Porcelain. The outward likeness between the two productions 
 is probably fortuitous; at all events there can be no confusion between 
 them, as the German red pieces are pressed, the ornaments being 
 obtained by moulding instead of stamping. As to the name of Red 
 Porcelain being applied to both, it should be remembered that at that 
 time all Oriental ware, whatever its kind or colour, was called 
 porcelain, and these varieties did not purport to be imitations of the 
 translucent ware which we now call porcelain, but only of the fine red 
 pottery imported from China and Japan. Furthermore, we hear of 
 Dwight describing his “ grbs ” Stone-ware as “ grey porcelain,” and 
 porcelain is also the name given by Place to his mottled-ware. 
 
 The etymology of the word cannot be said to have been very 
 satisfactorily traced, and numerous and far-fetched are the speculations 
 about it. Not the least curious is that of Dr. Johnson, generally so 
 cautious in his assertions, who gives it as coming from the French 
 “ Pour cent ans,” because it was a common belief that the materials 
 for making it had previously to be buried for a hundred years. Another 
 strange derivation is the one from the name of King Porcena; tradition 
 says that in his endeavours to avoid being poisoned, he discovered a 
 kind of cup which would not hold poison without breaking. It is well 
 known that for a long time all vessels coming from the East were 
 popularly credited in Europe with the same astonishing property, hence 
 
62 
 
 THE ELERS. 
 
 the name of Porcena’s ware or Porcellena ! What we know is, that the 
 word was used in a general way before being restricted to translucent 
 ware. 
 
 Some doubts have been raised about the introduction of Salt- 
 glaze into Staffordshire, and as to the making of the white and thin 
 Stone-ware so peculiar to old English, Pottery. Tales have been 
 circulated which attribute to a local man the invention of glazing with 
 salt. They say that an earthen pot filled with salt water was left on 
 a kitchen fire, and that the brine boiled over the sides of the pot, 
 which when cold was found to be glazed by the vapours. Palmer 
 of Bagnall, we are further told, saw it and availed himself of the 
 discovery. It is not possible to discuss serionsly the probability of 
 such an incident having ever occurred, for the silicate can only be 
 produced in a closed oven heated to a very high temperature, so that 
 story has to be set aside, to take its place amongst the many 
 
 fanciful tales which abound in Ceramic lore. In the dialogue given 
 by Ward in his “History of Stoke-upoti-Trent" we see that the 
 
 question of the Elers having been the first to make Salt-glaze was 
 a common topic of conversation on the ale benches. Much has been 
 done, we are sorry to say, with a view of depriving the foreigners 
 of what credit they were entitled to for laying down the rudiments of 
 a new art which was to be the starting point of all the pottery 
 manufacturers of the country. Now that we are able to look back 
 impartially on this controversy, we can safely conclude that they were 
 not only the creators of that special process, but also that they must 
 at once have brought it to perfection. 
 
 In favour of the contrary opinion, Shaw {^‘History of the 
 
 Staffordshire Potteries’’^ brings forward many arguments, but they are 
 far from conclusive. He contends that for a long time previous the 
 Staffordshire potters ought to have been acquainted with Salt-glazing, 
 from the knowledge they had of what Dr. Plot calls kelp, and 
 
 describes as being the “ ‘ Fucus Maritimus,’ which in the Isle of 
 
 Thanet is burned to ashes, put into vessels, and carried over to 
 Holland, with which they glaze all their earthenware.” Here Shaw 
 
 falls into a rather ludicrous mistake for a chemist. The ashes he 
 
 mentions are the alkalis used in the composition of stanniferous 
 
 enamel, and not at all the salt employed for the glazing of Stone- 
 
THE ELERS. 
 
 63 
 
 ware by evaporation. He also states that he heard from the oven 
 builders who pulled down the last of the ovens left by the Elers, 
 that it was a common biscuit oven, having nothing of the appliances 
 necessary to fire Salt-glaze. We need hardly say that this was 
 probably the one in which they fired their red-ware; the others, 
 erected for different purposes, were, no doubt, demolished a long time 
 before, becoming useless when glazing with salt was completely 
 abandoned. 
 
 Had any systematic digging been carried out on the Elers' ground, 
 the fragments discovered would at once have settled the question. 
 Unfortunately nothing has so far been brought to light excepting a 
 few bits of their red-ware. But an undisputed fact remains, which goes 
 far towards proving that they glazed with salt, and that the practice 
 was quite an unprecedented one in the country. Aitkins ("History of 
 Manehester") relates that the Burslem potters assembled, eight in 
 number, round the Elers' new ovens, to protest against the volumes of 
 smoke they emitted. What other sort of firing could have so created 
 smoke as to frighten the natives, who by this time were certainly 
 used to the smoke of their own ovens ? Salt-glazing, which was at a 
 later date to darken the streets of Burslem in such a way as to 
 render them all but impassable, could alone have so taken them by 
 surprise. Mr. Gatty quotes from Josiah Wedgwoods papers a note 
 written by his own hand in 1765, containing the particulars supplied 
 to him by a workman named Steel, aged 84, who could remember 
 the Dutchmen at work at Bradwell, and who joined those who ran to 
 the spot, amazed at this unusual mode of firing. 
 
 Steel also states that the Salt-glaze ware was first made by the 
 Dutchmen. This should by itself be a sufficient proof. We may add 
 that if Salt-glazing had been discovered and practised by Palmer in 
 1680, Dr. Plot, who wrote in 1686, and goes into such minute 
 particulars, would not have failed to mention it. 
 
 It is to be regretted that we have so few documents to help us 
 when we endeavour to ascertain the truth about the potters of that 
 time, but a deep mystery surrounded their researches and their labour. 
 Bottcher, while experimenting upon his new bodies, was actually kept 
 a prisoner in the fortress of Koenigstein, by the Elector of Saxony. 
 The Elers seem to have worked in the most profound seclusion, 
 
THE ELERS. 
 
 64 
 
 taking every precaution to prevent anyone from prying into their 
 secrets, and being very particular about the sort of people they 
 employed as assistants. Only those who looked dull of understanding 
 were admitted on to the premises; to be an idiot was a recommen¬ 
 dation for anyone engaged to turn the wheel while the master was 
 throwing the ware, or to manipulate the clay which had previously been 
 mixed in secrecy. The goods when finished were brought by night 
 from Bradwell to Dimsdale, and only at the latter place were customers 
 allowed to enter. 
 
 As might have been expected, so many precautions were certain to 
 excite curiosity. Idiots were not wanting when asked for. Two shrewd 
 men took the trouble to personate the character, and through that 
 artifice Astbury and Twyford succeeded in witnessing all the 
 manipulations, and mastering most of the secrets. Their conduct, 
 if the tale of the abject deception they kept up for more than two 
 years is true, is not much to their credit, but it is fair to say 
 that Astbury afterwards atoned for his duplicity, and redeemed his 
 reputation. He did more than profit by knowledge so dishonourably 
 acquired, for it is to him we owe the great discovery of the value 
 of flint in the earthenware body. 
 
 In 1710 the Elers are said to have left Staffordshire, and one 
 may well wonder why they ever came into such a place. j^liens 
 among a strange people, who had perhaps never seen a foreigner in 
 their lives, making a secret of all their doings, while everybody in 
 the trade was working in the light of day; selling their teapots in 
 London at a guinea a-piece, while the entire production of other 
 potters hardly averaged four pounds a week; and, above all, retaining 
 probably their refined and aristocratic manners amongst a people who 
 had so far advanced but little beyond their primitive roughness; 
 jealousy was rife around them, and life for them must have been 
 anything but pleasant. They had indeed nothing to do but go; and 
 away they went, leaving behind them as at once a pattern and a 
 reproach, their works—a sure guide towards that perfection to which 
 their successors endeavoured to attain. 
 
 John Philip Elers gave up his business in reduced circumstances, 
 and on his arrival in London became connected with the glass 
 manufactory established in Chelsea in 1676, by Venetians, under the 
 
THE ELERS. 
 
 65 
 
 auspices of the Duke of Buckingham. So says Shaw (" Chemistry of 
 Pottery ’’); no other document has ever corroborated the assertion, but 
 in our collection is an Elers teapot, which is decorated all over with 
 scrolls of white and coloured enamels similar to those which might 
 have been used in a glass manufactory. 
 
 We have always spoken of the brothers jointly in all we have 
 
 said concerning their life and their works, so adhering to tradition, 
 
 though we believe John Philip alone was the potter. At the end 
 
 of their career we find them separated. Again we lose sight of 
 
 David, but learn from the particulars given to Josiah Wedgwood by 
 Edgeworth, that John Philip went to Dublin, where, with the assistance 
 of Lady Barrington, he set up a glass and china shop, and became 
 very prosperous in business. (Miss Meteyard’s “Life of Wedgwood.'') 
 
 After their departure, the new ways of potting they had introduced, 
 though kept up in the main, underwent some transformations. Making 
 a compromise between the old style and the new, Astbury continued 
 to apply ornaments on the red clay, ornaments impressed with small 
 metal seals, but he used white clay to contrast them with the ground, 
 and glazed them over with galena. 
 
 At Shelton, where stood his manufactory, many fragments were 
 discovered a few years ago. They are all pieces of tea and coffee 
 ware, made of the fine red clay, richly glazed and ornamented with 
 white embossments; among the ornaments are the royal arms, the 
 fleur-de-lys, and birds and flowers, somewhat different in design from 
 the Elers' seals, and far from equalling in finish the perfection of the 
 red porcelain; but neatness of execution seems to have given way to 
 a desire for brightness of colour. Various coloured grounds are 
 chosen to set out the relief; upon the shining black clay run white 
 branches of vine; little yellow cocks stand out on the shining red. 
 The red clay is applied in the shape of hawthorn blossoms upon the 
 yellow or buff body, the most elaborate and finely stamped specimens 
 being of a saffron yellow ground, covered with scrolls and leaves of 
 great delicacy. Sometimes we have a would-be Chinese figure; the 
 whole enlivened by touches of flowing and transparent colour, such 
 as are used on the tortoiseshell-ware. The handles and knobs are in 
 all cases of the same clay as the ornaments, and were still made by 
 hand. 
 
 12 
 
66 
 
 THE ELERS. 
 
 For a long time afterwards stamping was used to complete the ware 
 turned on the wheel, whether it be white Salt-glaze, or earthenware 
 coloured and glazed with lead. Red porcelain was still made, but how 
 different in quality! We possess a huge red teapot profusely decorated 
 with branches and rosettes done by the old process; it has been silver- 
 mounted, which shows that some value was set upon it, yet it is so 
 coarse in execution that it could not stand comparison with any of 
 
 the earlier pieces. We have also an identical replica of the small 
 
 red teapot, preserved at Etruria, as the first piece made by Wedgwood 
 
 during his apprenticeship; but the raised blossoms spread upon it are 
 made in the German way, that is to say, moulded separately and 
 stuck on the surface, and we greatly doubt its being of English origin. 
 
 Pottery took advantage of all the great events of the time. A 
 
 new sort of ware was made to spread the news of a victory, or to 
 commemorate its glory. In 1727 Astbury created the Portobello ware, 
 which had a great run after the expedition of— 
 
 "Admiral Vernon, that brave fellow (who) 
 
 With six ships took Porto-bello.” 
 
 Dies were sunk in the shape of ships, and whole flotillas were stamped 
 in white on the red tea-ware. In the British Museum is a very fine 
 bowl so decorated. On other pieces the full-length figure of the hero 
 is represented, and also a conventional view of the fortifications. Mr. 
 H. Willet has two different Salt-glaze teapots made in honour of 
 the admiral. 
 
 Of Astbury and his discoveries a good deal more will be said 
 hereafter. We have only spoken of him here in connection with the 
 stamped-ware, and as being the worthiest successor of the Elers. 
 Trained by the foreigners, as it were, he altered and improved their 
 fabric into one of genuine English character in all its particulars— 
 manufacture as well as design. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SAL T-G LAZE. 
 
 Origin of the White Stone-Ware glazed with Salt.—Salt-Glaze 
 Ovens in Burslem.—The Glaze and its high degree of Firing. 
 —Composition of the Body.—Stamped Ornaments and Brass 
 Moulds.—Mould Cutting.—Casting.—Introduction of Plaster 
 Moulds.—Extension of the Pottery Trade in Staffordshire. 
 
 —Astbury and the other leading Potters of the Period. 
 
 —Variety of Shapes and their Originality.—Different 
 processes connected with the Salt-Glaze Ware.— 
 Scratched Blue.—Competition with the German 
 Ware.—Enamelled Salt-Glaze.—Gilding.— Re¬ 
 production OF China pieces made in Salt- 
 Glaze Ware.—Tiles.-—Perforated Pieces. 
 
 —Localities where Salt-Glaze was 
 Manufactured. 
 
69 
 
 SALT-GLAZE. 
 
 WHITE Earthen vessel, daintily formed, delicately 
 embossed with graceful arabesques or flowers, and 
 ' which, shows under a pellucid glaze brightening but 
 ^ not hiding the sharpness of the most minute details, a 
 semi-transparence in the thinnest parts of the substance. 
 Does not the description read as if some sort of Porcelain was 
 \ intended ? and yet we only applied it in our own mind to English 
 Salt-glaze, the new ware which was once opposed in England to the 
 heavily-made and darkly-coloured earthenware, the brown stone or the 
 clumsy Delft, the only fictile j)roductions of the period. With this 
 discovery the potters thought for a time that they could compete with 
 importations from the East; at least that they were on the verge of 
 solving the mystery of the Chinese porcelain, the wonder of all 
 European countries, a mystery so difficult to penetrate that for some 
 time it was coupled with the secret of the philosopher s stone. Distant 
 as it was from a perfect imitation, yet its success was immense, and 
 its use suddenly spread all over the kingdom. 
 
 In the chapter on Stone-ware, a ware also glazed with salt, we 
 have described the chemical action of the silica of the paste upon 
 the vapours of the soda contained in the common salt, and how by 
 this means the glaze is formed upon the ware. We have also said 
 that any clay refractory enough to stand a sufficiently high temperature 
 can from ordinary earthenware be transformed into stone-ware, that is 
 to say, may show a commencement of vitrification all through the 
 
70 
 
 SALT-GLAZE. 
 
 texture of the body; a still higher degree of, heat could even fuse it 
 into a glass; but in this case the fusion is uncontrollable, and no 
 transparent ware could safely be made out of it. This was one of 
 Dwight's difficulties in his searches after Porcelain. Even in the 
 Potteries, when the composition of the paste had been settled after 
 protracted experiments, too much fire caused the ware to melt. We 
 have seen many examples of cast-away saggers with all the pieces 
 they contained sticking to each other and sunk at the bottom in a 
 shapeless mass. 
 
 The glaze offers this peculiarity, that it does not run and spread 
 like other glazes, but remains in the state of minute drops or 
 
 granulations; its surface can be compared to leather or orange peel. 
 These particles are more or less conspicuous according to the conditions 
 of the firing. Sometimes when red lead was added to the salt the 
 fluidity of the mixture makes them hardly perceptible. Often the gloss 
 is unequally distributed over the pieces; although the saggers in 
 which they were enclosed for protection were pierced with large holes, 
 the vapours of soda did not reach every place in the same proportion, 
 so occasionally one side may be quite dry while the other is highly 
 glazed. 
 
 At an early date white-ware glazed with salt was made in 
 
 Germany, and thence carried to England. We cannot doubt that 
 Dwight made at Fulham a kind of white Stone-ware glazed with salt, 
 but the lack of any authenticated specimens leaves us in the dark as 
 to its exact properties. Such as it stands now preserved in many 
 diversified examples in the cabinets of the collectors, the thin 
 “ Salt-glaze,” as we shall henceforth call the English white Stone-ware, 
 was, we believe, created in the district where it was so extensively 
 manufactured, viz., the Staffordshire Potteries. 
 
 We have already stated upon what grounds the introduction of 
 the process may be attributed to John PhiliJ Elevs; at all events 
 it was only a few years after he had settled down at Bradwell, and 
 astonished the inhabitants with his unwonted way of firing, that 
 Salt-glaze ovens were erected all over the town of Burslem. It is 
 reported that so many factories were at work at that time, that on 
 Saturday mornings, when the fires were at their highest and drawing 
 towards the end, the smoke emitted was so dense that the passer-by 
 
SALT-GLAZE. 
 
 71 
 
 had to grope his way, as in the midst of the thickest London fog, 
 amongst fumes “ not unlike the smoke of Mount Vesuvius." On the 
 scaffolds that surrounded the oven, several men stood opposite the 
 apertures of each of the flues, shovelling the salt into the fire, 
 and every time they fed the fiery mouths the flames, driving 
 away for a moment the murky smoke, revealed to view the men 
 wrapped in clothes soaked with water, and their faces protected with 
 wet sheets. 
 
 No marks, no dates, come to elucidate the problem of when and 
 by whom the first pieces were made. Here again we are reduced to 
 speculation. Contradictory statements are in existence; we can dismiss 
 some of them on account of their improbability, acknowledging at the 
 same time that something might be learnt from them if we could only 
 understand their real purport, instead of continuing to be misled by 
 the inappropriate terms in which they are worded. 
 
 When the attention of collectors was first drawn to these curious 
 and undescribed pieces, they were erroneously called “ Elizabethan Ware.” 
 We have now made it clear that the mistake arose out of a jug of 
 that manufacture being preserved in Shakespear’s House, at Stratford, 
 and having been known for a long time by the name of “ Shakespear’s 
 Jug.” 
 
 We cannot, knowing the conditions of temperature required for 
 Salt-glazing, place any reliance upon the tradition which attributes its 
 discovery to Palmer, of Bagnall, in 1680. The tale, as reported by 
 several authors, says that a servant had left on the fire a pot full of 
 salt-water, and the brine overboiling, covered the outside of the pot with 
 a bright glaze; a surprising fact which the potter immediately turned 
 to account, and put into practice in his factory. It is an utter 
 impossibility, and therefore this long-credited story may be regarded as 
 disposed of. 
 
 If it is not true that the Elers introduced Salt-glazing into 
 Staffordshire, we at all events have proof that this manufacture did not 
 prevail in the Potteries very early in the i8th century. From the 
 perusal of the list of the Burslem potters between 1710 and 1715, we 
 see there were only six ovens in that town turning out Stone-ware, 
 and even then no special mention is made of its being glazed with 
 salt; not one potter was making it in Hanley. 
 
72 
 
 SALT-GLAZE. 
 
 It is probable that about that time the Staffordshire potters, by 
 mixing the whitish clay found at Shelton with the fine sand of Baddeley 
 Edge, or else the cane marl with the grit from Mow Cop, began to 
 make a fire-resisting body which could stand the required temperature. 
 To these materials was also added, before the discovery of flint, the 
 white clay employed by the pipemakers, and with which were made 
 the first experiments for a white ware. Pipes had been manufactured 
 at Newcastle-under-Lyme, as well as in many other places, years 
 before Dr. Plot visited the Potteries; he describes how Charles Riggs, 
 of Newcastle, made them of three different sorts of clays, the best of 
 which was found between Shelton and Hanley Green. Many of these 
 pipes, impressed with the initials of the maker, have been from time 
 to time dug out in quantities ; and as they are quite white and well 
 
 fired, surprise might be felt that the same material had not been 
 
 turned into good account for the making of pots. The reason is that 
 the lead ore then used for glazing did not allow of any white ware 
 being made, as it turned the whitest biscuit to a dingy yellow tint, 
 but as soon as the colourless glaze obtained with salt was discovered, 
 pipe-clay became the basis of many new compounds. 
 
 In the Potteries, no materials were employed at first but those 
 
 procured on the spot; with the marl, the clays from the coal 
 
 measures, and the sand also found in the locality, they made the 
 
 “ buff” ware; for white ware they had the pipe-clay and the grit 
 excavated from the Mow Cop strata; the requisite salt was obtained 
 from the neighbouring mines of Cheshire; thus it could fairly be 
 called a genuine Staffordshire ware. We shall hereafter show how its 
 shapes and decorations may also set up an unquestionable claim to 
 originality. 
 
 We feel inclined to suppose that a “ buff ” body was first 
 
 attempted with the same clay as that used for common stone pots, 
 
 and that the white pipe-clay was then confined to such small raised 
 
 ornaments as were sparingly applied on the surface; the ware did 
 not become quite white until it had passed through many successive 
 improvements all aiming in that direction. The earliest kind was of 
 a greenish tint, and was called “ Crouch-ware.” That term, which has 
 puzzled more than one, comes from the name of the white Derbyshire 
 clay; long before being used for Salt-glaze it had been employed at 
 
SALT-GLAZE. 
 
 73 
 
 Nottingham to make crucibles and glass pots, and under the name of 
 "Crouch clay” it figures in several old documents. 
 
 Most of the early pieces bear such a striking resemblance to the 
 red porcelain of the Elers, in potting as well as in ornamentation, 
 
 that it is difficult not to ascribe the same origin to both wares. 
 
 The Crouch-ware is of a dense paste; if not quite so hard as the 
 red porcelain, it is because the ferric oxide contained in the latter 
 
 increases its vitreousness. The shapes, neatly formed, are equally well 
 finished on the lathe; and a pressed part is never added to them, 
 excepting perhaps occasional feet or claws supporting some of the 
 teapots, impressed in the “pitcher” mould of one single piece called 
 a “thumb mould.” 
 
 In his MS. notes, Josiah Wedgwood relates that the Elers 
 introduced moulds of plaster of Paris; we cannot trust this assertion, 
 as it is not corroborated by any known example; on the contrary, 
 from all that has come under our notice, and other collateral proofs, 
 we can deduce the fact that they did not employ any moulds, either 
 of plaster or terra cotta; they stamped on and did not press separately 
 the applied ornaments, differing in this particular from Dwight, who 
 worked by the latter process. We find in his notes mention of a 
 
 "grey clay to be ‘ spriged' with white;” the term is still used 
 
 in our days, and means to stick on the surface the relief taken out 
 of a mould. We shall insist upon the point that in the Elers' ware 
 all the ornaments are stamped on the piece itself with small metal 
 seals, as can be ascertained by the impression of the die, the square 
 ground of which is seen sunk in the clay round the raised subjects. 
 Made in this way, we have many remarkable pieces of buff colour, 
 relieved by rosettes and entwined lines of white clay, not unlike in 
 design the typographic ornaments of the period ; the forms are finely 
 turned and finished, and seldom show any defect, but the applied 
 parts have cracked in many places, as though the difficulty of making 
 the two clays agree together had not yet been completely mastered. 
 Enoch Wood's collection was especially rich in specimens of this ware, 
 now so difficult to obtain, and that fact tends to prove that it was 
 made in the Potteries. Pieces of the same description are also found 
 having a wash of white clay in the inside, or even made entirely of 
 the white body; these may safely be attributed to the successors of 
 
 13 
 
74 
 
 SALT-GLAZE. 
 
 the Elers, who continued to work in their style long after the 
 Dutchmen had left the country. 
 
 As the new ware was especially admired on account of its 
 
 thinness and delicacy, all efforts were made to insure these qualities; 
 
 spoons, sauce boats, and small trays were manufactured as light as 
 wafers, by means of copper or lead moulds, which acted like our 
 goffering irons, impressing them at one blow on the outer and inner 
 
 surfaces. The notion of such moulds was no doubt derived from 
 
 the usual brass seals; they have now become very scarce, yet some 
 of them are preserved in the Geological Museum and in the Hanley 
 
 Institute. 
 
 Pieces of larger dimensions were cast in “ pitcher ” or terra-cotta 
 
 moulds. Here we shall describe the peculiar process by which models 
 
 and moulds were made; instead of modelling the form in relief as 
 we should now-a-days, it was hollowed out of several pieces of native 
 gypsum, which formed the different sections of the intended mould; 
 
 after they had been graven and sunk with complicated patterns of 
 flowers and scrolls, a proof was taken, and, being fired in the oven, 
 it became what was called the “block;” upon this block an unlimited 
 number of clay moulds could be made, all of which preserved the 
 
 sharpness of the original work. 
 
 By examining the style of embossments of the Salt-glaze ware, we 
 perceive at once how well the decoration is contrived to allow of its 
 being conveniently carved in the hollow shell of the mould; each section 
 has a separate subject, and the seams existing between the sections, 
 which are the great trouble of the potter who would try to conceal 
 
 them, have been made use of in the composition as partition lines which 
 
 divide it into panels. The subjects were always selected with the view 
 of affording the greatest facility of execution. For instance, the 
 
 “ mould cutters,” as they were called, found the “ pecten ” shell, with 
 
 its many ribs, especially appropriate to their style of carving, so 
 
 they brought it to bear in an endless variety of combinations, and 
 
 with it are associated such small foliage and lines as can be conveniently 
 engraved in the mould with a single stroke of the gouge. It 
 
 has been advanced that the earliest models were taken from silver 
 plate pieces. The fact is patent with respect to some of the china 
 made at Bow, Chelsea, and Worcester, but does not apply to Salt-glaze 
 
SALT-GLAZE. 
 
 75 
 
 ware. This had a style of its own, which in no way recalls the 
 “repoussd” or chased work of the silversmiths. 
 
 In the “ pitcher ” moulds the ware was not pressed, but cast; the 
 process of casting consisted in filling the mould with diluted clay or slip, 
 then pouring it out, leaving a thin coat of clay on the surface; as 
 soon as it began to dry the operation was repeated, and each time the 
 coating increased in thickness. When the required strength had been 
 obtained the whole was placed before the fire, and by desiccation the 
 mould separated from the piece; it was then ready to be garnished with 
 the handles, spouts, or claws, which had been separately cast in the 
 same way. The pieces made in “ terra cotta ” or brass moulds are the 
 most ancient, and are far superior in sharpness of detail and style of 
 execution to the comparatively modern ones cast in plaster moulds. 
 These latter were easily deteriorated, and as they were still used 
 after having been quite worn out, very poor stuff was produced as soon 
 as they superseded the “pitcher” moulds. It was not until 1750 that 
 Ralph Daniel, of Burslem, brought back from a porcelain manufactory 
 in France the first mould in plaster of Paris; the innovation was 
 adopted at once by the other potters of the town, and it afforded 
 great facilities for quickness of production, .but often at the expense 
 of neatness and quality. At the same date “ pressing,” that is to say, 
 moulding with a thick lump of clay, began to be substituted for 
 casting, and the daintily embossed pieces soon disappeared altogether. 
 
 But to' return to the introduction of Salt-glaze into the Potteries, 
 and the influence it had upon the general trade of the country, we 
 must once more call to mind the fact that pottery in that district had 
 so far been only a modest craft, by which the master could in his 
 single thatched hovel average only a produce of the value of four or 
 five pounds a week, out of which all expenses had to be paid. About 
 eight men were employed at each place; and the best workman who 
 could throw, turn, and handle, had to divide his time, and work for 
 two or three factories in the same week. 
 
 The introduction of the new white ware was to turn this small 
 trade into a large industry. The one oven of each potter had to be 
 increased in size to answer the demand, and soon, to the astonishment 
 of the inhabitants of Shelton, R. & J. Baddeley erected four ovens 
 in a row behind their manufactory. Instead of being limited to the 
 
76 
 
 SALT-GLAZE. 
 
 consumption of the adjoining counties, the ware began to be carried 
 away to all parts of' England. Business connections were established 
 with distant towns. Carriers were sent off with a load of goods, to 
 sell them and take further orders; but the way of trading was still 
 very primitive. “ When they came home,” says Shaw, “ after having 
 disposed of their stock, they simply emptied the money bag of its 
 contents, without rendering any account of their transactions.” 
 
 Notwithstanding the cheapness of labour at the time, the care 
 bestow'ed upon these delicate little pieces made them rather expensive 
 in comparison with the common earthen pots, and we think that 
 Salt-glaze remained for a long time the highest class of ware, and was 
 paid for accordingly. Though the size of the ovens had been enlarged, 
 and the weekly production greatly increased, little of it was kept for 
 home use, but the ware was sent away to be sold everywhere to 
 well-to-do people. In my experience of old pot hunting in Staffordshire, 
 I have hardly found any Salt-glaze pieces in the cottages; all I have 
 gathered together, though mostly manufactured in the Potteries, came 
 from other counties. I may, however, say that they stood more 
 chances of being destroyed than any other ware, being so fragile, and 
 liable to break in hot water, 
 
 Astbiiry and Twyford took the lead in the manufacture of 
 Salt-glaze, the former employing the Bideford pipe-clay and the Devon 
 and Dorset clays, which from the ports whence they were obtained 
 were called Chester clays. They therefore departed from the custom 
 of using local materials only. Astbury washed with these clays the inner 
 surfaces of his buff Stone-ware, and made also a white stone body 
 which he still further improved by making ground flint the principal 
 ingredient of it. 
 
 Thomas Billing, in 1722, took out a patent “for making the most 
 refined earthenware, of a nature and composition not only transparent, 
 but so perfect in its kind as, contrary to the nature of all other 
 earthenwares, to resist almost any degree of heat.” The specification 
 of transparency here indicates a sort of Salt-glaze, while the inventor 
 was trying to overcome the objection put forth against its general use, 
 by boasting, like many others, of having found the means of remedying 
 that imperfection, 
 
 Ralph Shaw, of Burslem, took out a patent, in 1732, for a 
 
SALT-GLAZE. 
 
 77 
 
 chocolate ware, which was white inside and glazed with salt. We 
 shall have occasion to refer to him more fully in the next chapter. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Wedgwood was the principal potter of Burslem at 
 that time, making various kinds of ware besides Salt-glaze. To him, 
 in 1731, was apprenticed Aaron Wood, who attained to the greatest 
 reputation as block cutter and mould maker,' and enjoyed the privilege 
 of working in a room by himself, locked up by his employer. He 
 was to work for no one else but his present master, and the master 
 in his turn promises that he will “employe him in, but himself only.” 
 Some of the moulds made by A. Wood have been preserved, and bear 
 his name scratched in the paste; one of them is in the South 
 Kensington Museum. 
 
 Thomas & John Wedgwood established themselves at Burslem as 
 makers of white Stone-ware before 1740, and by experimenting on the 
 liability to crack of various clays, introduced many improvements in its 
 manufacture. Their enterprising spirit was generally censured, and 
 considered little short of extravagance. They erected a spacious 
 manufactory covered with tiles, while all the others were still covered 
 with thatch, and they had three ovens built on their premises. 
 
 The brothers Baddeley, who at the same time had four ovens 
 erected in a row behind their workshops, made elegant white Stone-ware, 
 including fruit baskets, and bread or sweet trays, cast in moulds, and 
 e.xhibiting ornaments on both sides. 
 
 Aaron Wood and William Littler made the first blue Salt-glaze, 
 which was said to resemble the finest "lapis lazuli." 
 
 Many other names might be added to this list, but the above are 
 sufficient to show how the potters tried to rival each other, and bring 
 out some improvement in their specialities. Unfortunately, however varied 
 and distinct are the specimens, very few of them can safely be 
 attributed to any of these makers in particular, so little care has been 
 taken to preserve the traditions by which not long ago many might 
 have been identified. 
 
 The imagination of the Staffordshire “ block cutters ” was very 
 fertile in quaint deviees; for instance, in the case of simple tea-pots 
 they seem to have exhausted every conceivable shape. We have tea-pots 
 that are globular, elliptic, octagonal, square, and oblong; others that 
 are formed like two or more shells ; and others again that are heart- 
 
SALT-GLAZE. 
 
 78 
 
 shaped and called for this reason "lovers’ tea-pots." All sorts of 
 animals or figures are used; a squirrel, or a bird, a bear with its cub, 
 and a Bacchus astride his cask. This last was probably made by or 
 for Thomas Bacchus, a potter, who married Astbury's widow. We 
 know not fewer than five different shapes of camel tea-pots, and still 
 more in the shape of a house, nearly all these being represented in 
 our collection. Sometimes the artist gives vent to his fancy, and 
 
 models by hand a little group, which was not to be reproduced. Such 
 is the interesting example in Mr. Willett’s collection of a lady seated 
 in the church pew with her two grown up sons by her side. We 
 
 have also a quaint figure of a queen, probably Queen Anne, dating 
 from the same period. Children’s toys were also made, such as birds 
 with whistles in their tails, or flowers on a stand. M. A. Franks 
 has an exquisite toy tea service. Purely ornamental pieces also began 
 to be manufactured, such as spill vases, flower-pots, and hanging 
 brackets, but in no case do they exhibit any attempt to imitate a 
 
 foreign model. They are, on the contrary, striking instances of what 
 can be done with an art which, born on the soil, there gradually 
 
 develops itself without any extraneous assistance. 
 
 A collection formed with the view to illustrate all the different 
 
 kinds of Salt-glaze ware, would in itself comprise innumerable varieties 
 of pieces and processes, so diversified were the transformations the 
 fabric was made to undergo; from the massive jar, impervious and 
 indestructible, the material of which could not be surpassed for the 
 
 uses to which it was put, to dainty little cups, the prettiness of 
 which rivals porcelain. Long before salt-glazing had made its 
 appearance in England, “ Grfis ’’ Stone-ware had been manufactured in 
 Germany, and brought to a high degree of excellence. There the 
 
 theme had its origin, but the English potter added to it endless 
 
 variations. He was the first who attempted to impart to his Stone-ware 
 
 a lightness of substance and a gloss of surface which could render it 
 fit for all sorts of decorations. Setting aside the brown pieces made 
 in imitation of German ones, of which we have spoken in a previous 
 
 chapter, we shall try to briefly describe the varieties which would 
 
 constitute a complete collection of Salt-glaze. These are: 
 
 Ornaments of white clay, stamped with seals, on a buff or white 
 body, in the style of the Elers. 
 
SALT-GLA2E. 
 
 79 
 
 Flowers or foliage “ sprigged ” on to the piece, that is to say, 
 made in a separate mould and stuck on with slip, the stems which 
 join them together being made by hand with a strip of clay. 
 
 Thin pieces covered with embossments made in copper or “ pitcher ” 
 moulds, in all sorts of picturesque forms, body of greyish or dull 
 yellow colour, glaze dry. 
 
 Engine-turned pieces in great variety. 
 
 Mixtures of coloured bodies in the style of the Agate-ware. 
 
 Combinations of the common red clay with a coating of white 
 Stone-ware, the scratching of the upper coat showing the dark clay 
 underneath in the same way as the Italian Sgrafiato. 
 
 Pieces made in plaster moulds, white body, thicker in substance 
 and less sharp in execution. 
 
 Perforated dishes and basket ware. 
 
 Pressed tiles, with landscapes in relief. 
 
 The processes for surface decoration are also very numerous. 
 
 Some of the early embossed pieces are spotted with patches of 
 cobalt blue. Upon others the ornaments are scratched with a point 
 and the lines filled in with powdered zaffre. 
 
 Light blue Stone-ware paste used for applied ornament or for 
 the ground in the same manner as blue jasper. 
 
 Decoration with dots of red slip or lines of manganese. 
 
 Deep cuttings in the body with a blade, diamond shape, or diagonal 
 lines as upon some German pieces. 
 
 Shavings of clay strewn on the surface so as to form rough bands 
 alternating with smooth ones, or all over the pieces as in the bears. 
 
 Blue Salt-glaze, the whole piece covered with a blue ground under 
 the glaze. 
 
 Tin-glaze combined with the Salt-glaze, either for the ground or 
 painted on in opaque decoration. 
 
 Enamelling in all sorts of styles. 
 
 Size gilding or varnish painting. 
 
 Printing in red or black, etc. 
 
 Some of the above processes deserve special attention. The 
 “scratched blue” for instance enjoyed a successful run. The ware is 
 as neatly potted as it is barbarously decorated. After having been 
 turned it passed into the hands of women called “ flowerers,” who with 
 
 i 
 
8o 
 
 SALT-GLAZE. 
 
 a point scratched in the wet clay a cursive pattern, and with a flock 
 of cotton wool dusted powdered zaffre in the hollow lines. They never 
 attained to a veiy high proficiency, nor does any potter seem to have 
 ever taken care to supply them with good patterns. Jugs and mugs of 
 this ware were in great demand for public houses, and unlike other 
 specimens of Salt-glaze, they often bear dates and inscriptions, many of 
 them referring to elections and other public events. The gift of a 
 mug was one form of bribery. One of them, preserved in the British 
 Museum, has : “ Sir William a plumper.” Another, in Lady Charlotte 
 Schreiber’s collection, is inscribed with four verses in honour of the 
 King of Prussia, 1758. In our own collection a circular pocket flask 
 is dated 1766. All the pieces that have come under our notice relate 
 to the same period. 
 
 Earlier than these, and still more clumsy in decoration, are the 
 jugs and mugs, made evidently in competition with the German 
 “ Grds ” Stone-ware, which have a medallion, or simply the crowned 
 monograms of George I. and George II. They are ribbed on the top 
 and bottom, and all round heavy leaves are incised and stained over 
 with a rag dipped in liquid blue. These are sometimes attributed to 
 Fulham, but fragments have often been found in the Potteries, a fact 
 which tends to prove that these jugs were made there. 
 
 About 1750, Salt-glaze, which so far had been decorated with only 
 random touches of blue or brown, was thought fit to receive enamel 
 decoration, with the intention of thereby rivalling the costly china made 
 at Chelsea and Worcester. As the manufacturers of these last-named 
 places chiefly aimed at reproducing the patterns of Eastern Porcelain, 
 so did the first enamellers in Staffordshire, and it is not to be 
 wondered at if painting on Salt-glaze did not keep in the track of 
 originality opened by the first “ block cutters.” Besides, the earliest 
 pieces were not, and could not be, painted by local artists, as no 
 hands had yet been trained to that style of decoration. Two painters 
 came from Holland and settled in Hot Lane, near Burslem. They 
 used to buy white Stone-ware from the potters and enamel it in 
 great secrecy, painting it with flowers and figures in a pseudo-Chinese 
 manner. For a long time the manufacturers were dependent on 
 decorators wholly unconnected with their pot works. Private persons 
 came from Liverpool, Bristol, and Worcester, for the purpose of buying 
 
SALT-GLAZE. 
 
 8l 
 
 Salt-glaze ware to decorate it on the spot. This practice was all the 
 easier as only a small muffle was required for enamel painting. 
 
 Very soon the number of artists so employed in the Potteries 
 became considerable, but improvements were not quickly effected in a 
 locality so remote as the Potteries was at that time. The potters 
 could not seek any help or derive any hints from any other collateral 
 branch of the trade. In large towns, where stained glass windows 
 
 were painted, and where goldsmiths covered their work with bright 
 enamels, they might have been earlier made acquainted with recipes of 
 colours and enamels which would have met their special wants. It 
 was indeed in this way that the first china painters proceeded on the 
 Continent, but such assistance was not available in Staffordshire, so the 
 potters had to wait once more until foreign assistance came to the 
 rescue. 
 
 Daniel, of Cobridge, was the first local potter who practised 
 
 enamelling in his factory, and his example was soon followed by others. 
 This was the highest improvement that could be applied to the ware. It 
 perfected and completed its manufacture. It achieved at once a great 
 success, principally because it became in that way a fairly good substitute 
 for the painted china so much in fashion, but which, on account of its 
 exorbitant price, was only to be indulged in by the wealthiest class. 
 Either the embossments were followed by . the painter, and relieved 
 with colours, or patterns were traced across them in a free and 
 
 off-hand manner. Chinese decorations were often imitated; sometimes 
 
 engravings were copied, or the artist let his imagination run freely upon 
 figure subjects, in costumes of the period. We possess a tea canister 
 
 painted with garden scenes, each comprising several personages and an 
 elaborate landscape; in front is a delicately worked ornament, something 
 like a book plate, surrounding the words “Fine Bohea Tea;” the 
 whole is beautifully executed. A coffee pot, also in our own 
 
 collection, is painted with flowers in the Chelsea style, probably by 
 some one who had come over from that manufactory. Many are the 
 pieces which have the portrait of the King of Prussia, the favourite 
 
 hero of the time. On a curious crabstock handle teapot, of which 
 
 many copies are still in existence, his profile is enamelled in proper 
 colour, while the whole ground is dotted over with small black strokes 
 to represent ermine. We have several specimens of various coloured 
 H 
 
 \ 
 
82 
 
 SALT-GLAZE. 
 
 grounds-red, maroon, blue, and green; small white medallions are 
 reserved, upon which are painted landscapes or bouquets of flowers, 
 somewhat in the Worcester style. By the additional process of size 
 gilding, these pieces are made to look very handsome, and there is 
 little excuse left for their aristocratic models to give themselves airs of 
 superiority. The enamels on all these pieces shine with the brightest 
 hues ; the turquoise blue especially would bear comparison with the best 
 soft china colour, and they stand out all the better by the contrast 
 they offer to the dull grey tint of the body. In many cases so much 
 skill and finish have been bestowed on the painting, that we cannot 
 
 help thinking it would attract much greater admiration if it had only 
 been executed upon a finer material. At any rate the decoration 
 seldom lacks the style and character so often missing from costly 
 examples of English china. For this reason the artist cannot but look 
 with partiality upon the best pieces of enamelled Salt-glaze, and praise 
 their decorative effect. 
 
 The traces of half-obliterated gilding remaining on some pieces 
 
 show that gold was often introduced in the decoration, but the potters 
 did not yet know how to burn it in. We learn from Wedgwoods 
 
 letters that in 1765 he himself was still busy trying to overcome the 
 difficulty. Leaf gold, secured with size or varnish, was employed, and 
 burnishing was not practised in the Potteries until some years later, 
 
 when some workmen brought the process over from the Derby 
 
 manufactory. 
 
 We have said that the use of plaster moulds took away many 
 
 of the artistic features of the early Salt-glaze. The facility with 
 which casts of metal or china pieces could be taken, led to the 
 reproduction of many admired models, and the ware, which had kept 
 its originality for such a long time, was debased into mere copies. 
 
 So we find the “ bee jug,” of Bow, made of white Stone-ware, and 
 salt cellars with shells and sea-weeds, similar to those of Plymouth. 
 In Mr. Willett’s collection is a group of several figures, imitating 
 
 white porcelain so perfectly that it might deceive any one at a first 
 glance. Wedgwoods jasper was also imitated. Dr. Walker, of 
 Liverpool, has two medallions on a blue ground, with applied portraits 
 of Josiah Wedgwood and his wife, after the picture by Stubbs. These 
 medallions at one time were very commonly found in the Potteries. As 
 
SALT-GLAZE. 
 
 83 
 
 Delft tiles made at Liverpool or abroad were extensively used for fire¬ 
 places or decorative purposes, tiles in stamped Salt-glaze were 
 manufactured to compete with them. We possess a set of these 
 which came from Whieldon's own house. They were probably made 
 by him, as the same patterns are also found decorated with his usual 
 “tortoiseshell” process. They represent landscapes and animals, and 
 the moulds used were carved after the old fashion. 
 
 The perforated china plates and dishes brought over from Dresden 
 gave rise to a new style of dessert services, perforated on the rim, and 
 embossed all over with basket work and various ornaments. They 
 were not copies, but distant imitations; and a certain pattern cut in 
 the mould by Aaron Wood is now in every collection. An enormous 
 quantity must have been produced, for even in our days it would not 
 be difficult to bring together entire services of it. In the same manner 
 open-work fruit baskets of a fragile character, cruet stands, and puzzle 
 jugs were made. We have a charming sweet box, formed of a double 
 shell; the outer one, thin as an ordinary sheet of cardboard, is perforated 
 with numerous holes which show the inner box in the same way as 
 certain Chinese puzzles. 
 
 The manufacture of Salt-glaze was not confined to Staffordshire. 
 At Jackfield it was made early in the i8th century, although, probably, 
 only in imitation of the ware made in the adjoining county, and 
 towards 1763, Simpson manufactured pipe-clay ware glazed with salt for 
 the American market. 
 
 At Leeds, white and enamelled Salt-glaze preceded the manufacture 
 of cream-coloured earthenware. 
 
 At Liverpool, quantities of “ wasters ” have been found on the site 
 of Shaw's manufactory, and many stamped pieces bear the liver, the 
 bird which is the crest of the town. The rare printed plates may 
 also have been made there. 
 
 At Swansea, according to Chaffers, a very thin Salt-glaze ware, 
 roughly but effectively decorated with bright enamels, was made about 
 1780, and some of the specimens are marked “ Cambrian Pottery. 
 It was probably made at many other places, of which no records 
 remain. 
 
 In our time the wafer-like white stone-ware glazed with salt has 
 gone the way of the heavy Delft; they both had their day, and then 
 
 / 
 
ceased to be. A small manufactory of the former lingered at Burslem 
 until 1823. 
 
 More, perhaps, than any other English ware, the Salt-glaze excites 
 the interest we feel for any artistic production which speaks to us of 
 bygone times, obsolete taste, and vanished customs ; in short, it does 
 look old; older, indeed, than many pieces that can boast of a much 
 more ancient pedigree. Independently of their proper merits, an old 
 painting darkened and mellowed by years, an oxidized bronze a 
 weather-beaten building, or a time-worn statue, possesses an attractive 
 charm that age alone has imparted. A feeling of the same sort, a 
 mingled sensation of liking and curiosity, first attracted us towards the 
 strange-looking specimens of early Salt-glaze ware. Their soft creamy 
 tint recalls that of old ivory, and the glossy surfaces of both offer 
 resemblances; the designs, simple and “ naif ” as they are, may be 
 compared for their conventionality to those which adorn the pages of 
 Gothic MSS. If we add to this, that most of these embossed and 
 wafer-like pieces have come out from the firing twisted and crooked, 
 and so are very different from anything else the eye generally rests 
 upon, we shall see at once how difficult it would be by a mere 
 process of comparison with other artistic objects to ascribe any definite 
 age to them. One can easily understand how “Elizabethan ware” was 
 
 thought to be at first a suitable name, when little or nothing was 
 
 known of the Staffordshire Potteries and of the potters who, for more 
 than a century, had spread their productions all over England. 
 
 Few things are left for the amateur of the future, even for him 
 of the present day who cannot command an unlimited supply of 
 money , all has been collected, classified, and priced, all excepting the 
 wmrks of the old English Potter; many are still about, to be picked 
 p at a small price for the gratification of the few who, like ourselves, 
 
 delight in studying and admiring them. It is not too late to begin 
 
 to form collections, and we hope that one day we shall see these 
 p imitive productions valued and appreciated as they deserve to be. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 EARTHENWARE. 
 
 CREAM-COLOUR, AGATE WARE, TORTOISESHELL, Etc. 
 
 Antiquity of Earthenware.—Its Revival by English Potters.— 
 Improvements in Earthenware following on the Researches 
 FOR A White Body.—Increase in the Trade of the Potteries 
 TOWARDS THE BEGINNING OF THE i8tH CenTURY.—INTRODUCTION 
 OF Flint and Cream-Colour Ware.—Tortoiseshell and 
 Colours under Glaze.—Patents.—Agate Ware.—Thomas 
 Astbury.—Ralph Shaw.—John Mitchell.—Thomas and 
 John Wedgwood.—Thomas Whieldon.—Shapes and 
 Models.—Imitations and Piracies.—Introduction 
 into the Potteries of Blue Painting on 
 Earthenware.—Enamelling.—Foreign China 
 Painters working in England.—Plaster 
 Moulds and their effect.—Last 
 Improvements in Cream-Colour. 
 
 
87 
 
 EARTHENWARE. 
 
 !HE history of the best English earthenware glazed with 
 lead is so intimately linked with the records of the 
 common pieces of the earliest time, the one being so 
 necessarily the outgrowth of the other, that it is difficult 
 to fix the date when the fabric entered on the course 
 
 of improvements by which it gradually came to assert itself as the 
 cheapest, the neatest, and the most suitable ware that could be 
 contrived to supply our ordinary wants, until it superseded all the 
 more complicated processes which previously had had their turn of 
 fashion and success. A little more care in the potting and in the 
 way of applying the glaze, and the vessels of the middle ages might 
 have rivalled most of the cream-colour pieces made in the i8th 
 century. The common marl of the country, mixed with pipe-clay and 
 a little sand, constituted a plastic body which could be worked easily 
 and quickly, and also fired safely; as to glazing, the lead ore or 
 “galena” demanded but little preparation, and the colours were all 
 obtained with the oxides of such well-known metals as were in after 
 times thought sufficient for the production of a much higher class of 
 ware; so the groundwork the potter had to improve upon was simple 
 and sound. With these commonplace materials, marvels of the fictile 
 art had occasionally been accomplished, for they were as remarkable 
 for the beauty and purity of their shapes as the harmony of their 
 colours. Nevertheless, earthenware potting remained stationary for a 
 long time, as we have seen, and there was no demand for it. The 
 
88 
 
 EARTHENWARE. 
 
 lower classes were satisfied with the wooden utensils or coarse clay 
 pans that answered their daily requirements; and for show, even well- 
 to-do people preferred to anything else the tin dishes that most resembled 
 the silver plate which adorned the dresser of the titled and the 
 
 wealthy. On the Continent the first trials for a refined earthenware 
 were master strokes, and should have led to an important manufacture, 
 yet these attempts do not seem to have been followed up. What 
 
 could excel, for instance, the style and cleverness of workmanship of 
 the faience d’Oiron, precious gems formed of the commonest clay ? 
 
 But nothing came of it; it was only made to gratify the fancy of a 
 highly-gifted noblewoman, endowed with a keen sense of beauty and a 
 craving for perfection. As soon as the inspiring spirit ceased to direct 
 the efforts of her assistants, their art declined and passed away 
 
 altogether. In Bauvaisie, at about the same period, the country people 
 were for a time not short of ornamental and artistic pottery; the 
 earthenware potters of Lachapelle des Pots were modelling all sorts of 
 quaint pieces, curiously contrived in shape, and elaborately embossed; but 
 their work differed completely from the ware made at Oiron. This 
 
 latter owes its chief beauty to grace of form, and to an arrangement 
 
 by which the cream-colour ground is minutely damascened with coloured 
 clays. In the case of the ware of Lachapelle des Pots, on the other 
 hand, the ground is all covered with rich glazes, exhausting the gamut 
 of powerful harmonies that can be obtained with metallic oxides. The 
 
 unknown potters of Bauvaisie were the forerunners of Palissy, who 
 
 shortly afterwards showed what could be still achieved by means of 
 the ordinary clay stained with coloured glazes; his indomitable energy 
 and his refined taste raised his art to so high a level, that it became 
 a hopeless task for his successors to attempt to maintain the heavy 
 inheritance which Palissy bequeathed to them. The advent of the 
 opaque glaze faience, which had the advantage of being white and 
 showing brighter colours, threw the works of all these great potters 
 into the shade; their teachings were forgotten, and earthenware ran 
 once more the risk of being relegated to the limbo of materials 
 unworthy of receiving any artistic treatment. 
 
 Upon the old English potters devolved the honour of reviving 
 the obsolete manufacture, and thus they became unconsciously the 
 true successors of Helene of Hangest and Palissy; but where the 
 
EARTHENWARE. 
 
 great artists had only found scope for displaying their unapproachable 
 individuality, the plodding, ingenious, and practical potters of England, 
 working as a body, succeeded in creating, by gradual transformations, 
 a ware so superior to all others that the potting trade of all the 
 world benefited by their exertions. 
 
 Along with the red or brown clay the greyish marl was, as of yore, 
 used in its native state. Both were glazed with “ galena ” or lead 
 ore, by the primitive process of dusting it over the pieces through a 
 bag of coarse cloth. Light-coloured ware was then largely made 
 concurrently with all other kinds, but no preference seems to have 
 been given to it, at first, over the dark red or black vessels that were 
 commonly used; and yet its dull yellowish tint was capable of being 
 vividly coloured, and was better intended to show the modelling of 
 the surface. Little heed was taken of those qualities. It was chiefly 
 employed as a coating for darker clays, for slip painting, or for applied 
 ornamentation; few, if any, pieces were made of plain yellow clay, 
 unless something exceptional was intended; and there was nothing to 
 indicate the important part it was destined to play in the ceramics of 
 the future. When researches for a white ware, glazed with salt, were 
 being actively prosecuted in the pot works of Staffordshire, many 
 combinations of clays had to be experimented upon, and the common 
 earthenware was materially advanced by the experience acquired through 
 the trials made with a view to obtain quite a different body. The 
 production of white Stone-ware required a good deal more care and 
 delicacy than had hitherto been bestowed upon ordinary potting, and 
 yellow clay glazed with lead followed in the track of the newly-invented 
 and more refined ware. Both being manufactured at the same place 
 and by the same men, they kept abreast in the course of successive 
 improvements; the same mould was used whether the piece was to be 
 made of white Stone-ware and fired at a high temperature in the 
 Salt-glaze oven, or of common clay to be coloured, glazed with lead, 
 and submitted to a lower degree of heat; in one case to commend 
 itself by the neatness of shape and details, in the other made attractive 
 by its deep harmony of colours profusely flowing over the surface. It 
 IS the old contention of drawing and colour striving for precedence. We 
 may be allowed to remark here that richness of hue seems to have 
 been the natural bent of English taste. In its early and most genuine 
 
 IS 
 
90 
 
 EARTHENWARE. 
 
 productions it affects a decided tendency towards bright and showy 
 colours. It is only when the fact is denounced by some cold-blooded 
 reformer that people seem to rush unanimously to the opposite extreme, 
 discarding what they best liked. Ashamed one day of their natural 
 feelings of admiration, they allow themselves to be talked into accepting 
 anything that may be palmed off upon them as models, and so the 
 conventionality and stiffness of a so-called high style may be substituted 
 for the charms of a genuine and unsophisticated art. In Pottery as 
 
 in painting, the English artist begins by showing himself a true 
 colourist, and yet the lively and harmonious earthenware of the outset 
 had to make room for the dull and formal cream colour and monochrome 
 ware of the end of the i8th century. We may well ask what had 
 
 become of the promise contained in the powerful productions of the 
 tortoiseshell period; misplaced self-criticism and a too severe repression 
 
 of innate propensities more than once waylaid English art and turned 
 it from its natural channel. 
 
 During the whole course of the 17 th century, many different 
 
 processes were in embryo amongst the potters of Staffordshire, but 
 production was limited, and little progress was being made, when 
 suddenly a rage for improvement sets in, and within a few years 
 
 pervades the whole district. Everyone is at work bringing his small 
 
 stone to the monument. Some are sedulously engaged mixing and. 
 trying all clays and minerals that can be procured at home; others, 
 
 more enterprising, take the unwonted step of travelling long distances 
 in quest of fresh materials and suggestive models. With an astounding 
 rapidity changes follow upon changes, pottery is applied to all sorts 
 of fresh uses, ovens are built all over the district, and a flourishing 
 trade is established for exportation as well as home consumption. 
 Notwithstanding the rapid increase of population in the surrounding 
 country, farmers find themselves short of hands; crops can hardly be 
 gathered in, and tradesmen in towns cannot any longer obtain apprentices. 
 All men and women go to the pot works, where there is never a 
 sufficient supply of labour, and where wages soon grow to be 
 uncommonly high for skilful workmen. 
 
 The numerous patents granted at that time in connection 
 
 with earthenware are a sign of the prevalent excitement and the 
 general desire for novelties. We shall give further on a few 
 
EARTHENWARE. 
 
 91 
 
 of their specifications, though little can be made of their obscure 
 phraseology. They have only a secondary interest for us, when we 
 remember that important discoveries which caused a revolution in 
 the trade were never patented at all. The most interesting and effectual 
 innovations bore upon the two principal desiderata of the potters of 
 the day; namely, obtaining a perfectly white body, which, being easily 
 formed into shape, should not crack in the firing, and a colourless 
 fluid glaze. Up to that time, as we have seen, the lightest ware was 
 of a dull, smoky tint, still darkened by the thick coating of sulphuret 
 of lead, either dusted over the piece or unevenly applied with a hair 
 pencil. These two wants were supplied by Astbtiry's introduction of 
 flint bodies, and at an interval of thirty years, by E. Booth's method 
 of dipping the ware into an improved glaze kept in suspension in 
 water. 
 
 As soon as Astbury had fixed the exact proportion of flint that 
 was to enter into its composition, the earthenware body may be said to 
 have been invented and settled. We shall not question the veracity of 
 the oft-told tale, relating how he was delayed in one of his journeys 
 to London, to have the injured eye of his horse attended to by a 
 farrier, who, taking a black flint stone, calcined it in the fire, then 
 crushing it into a fine powder, blew the dust into the horse’s eye; 
 how the potter was struck with the whiteness of the material, and 
 caused a wagon load of flint stones to be brought to Shelton, where 
 he successfully combined the calcined powder with his ordinary clays. 
 
 The story which, by-the-by, is by some attributed to a Mr. Heath, 
 of Shelton, may be true, or may rank amongst other doubtful 
 anecdotes. Notwithstanding the knowledge we possess of pounded flint 
 having been employed by Dwight in the composition of some of his 
 bodies, and the probability that Dwight was not the first to use it, 
 since he does not set up any claims to the discovery, it remains an 
 undisputed fact that to Astbtiry alone was due the credit, if not of 
 having found out quite a new material, at all events of having 
 determined in what proportions it was to be added to the compound 
 body which no one had made before him, and which remained for 
 ever after, in spite of small modifications, about the same as he had 
 left it, under whatever name his “cream colour” may have been 
 subsequently disguised. 
 
92 
 
 EARTHENWARE. 
 
 At first the attention of inventors was chiefly directed towards 
 
 perfecting clays and glazes, and improving their manipulation; all had 
 to be found out, and before they thought of endowing the ware with 
 artistic qualities, they strove to secure a safe ground to work upon; 
 
 this is the reason why we may now admire unreservedly their most 
 
 unpretentious early pieces, the fruit of these first experiments and 
 
 researches, observing how the clays are well ground and levigated; 
 what perfection is at once reached in the turning and moulding of a 
 simple teapot; how the lid fits well each piece; how sharp are the 
 
 lines and true the shape. A good make is the main consideration, 
 
 and even for decoration design comes only second to the process 
 
 employed. 
 
 The most strenuous efforts of the Staffordshire potters were directed, 
 as we have already said, towards the production of a white ware, for 
 which there was a great demand; the flint bodies, either cream-colour 
 glazed with lead or Salt-glazed stoneware, steadily acquired more 
 whiteness by successive improvements; but at the same time the 
 
 potters made a labour of love of experimenting upon their coloured 
 clays and glazes, the continuation of the works of their fathers, an 
 inheritance they jealously kept and enlarged day by day. There was 
 no sign of their giving up making the dry red-ware, finely stamped 
 with seals, or the highly glazed pieces of dark yellow or bright red 
 clay relieved with coloured applications. Many continued to show 
 their partiality for the shining black tea-ware, which made such a 
 contrast with the spotless table-cloth, while others preferred the 
 fanciful and ever-varied pieces brilliant with the harmonious hues of 
 various coloured glazes. 
 
 Under the name of “clouded” or “mottled,” earthenware, coloured 
 with metallic oxides, had been for a long time before produced; this 
 doubtless led to the imitation of tortoiseshell, so effectively carried out by 
 means of manganese spotted with a sponge over the dry clay; simple 
 as this process was, the aptitude of certain workmen realised with it 
 some astonishing results, obtained by the well-contrasted shades of the 
 opaque and the transparent parts. The success was immense, and 
 the ware was so extensively made that the name of “ tortoiseshell ” 
 extended to everything that was mottled under glaze with varied 
 colours; we shall also keep to the same word with regard to pieces 
 
EARTHENWARE. 
 
 93 
 
 of this class whenever we may have to refer to them. Copper green, 
 antimony, ochre yellow, manganese, and sometimes a touch of zaffre, 
 
 were the only oxides used, and the colours blended in a remarkable 
 
 manner, underneath a thick and smooth glaze; this was partly owing 
 
 to their being fired in the same oven alternately with Salt-glaze, the 
 brickwork and saggers being so much soaked with melted salt, that 
 
 the vapours of soda pervaded all the atmosphere during the firing, 
 
 acting upon the colours as a flowing agent. This method may 
 
 probably account for Shaw having mistaken the old cream-colour 
 
 for white stone-ware, and for his speaking of it as having been 
 
 indiscriminately glazed with salt or with lead ore. 
 
 In 1724, Robert Redrich and Thomas Jones took out a patent for 
 “staining, veining, spotting, clouding, damascening, or otherwise imitating 
 the various kinds of marble, porphyry, and other rich stones, tortoise¬ 
 shell, etc., on wood, stone, or earthenware.” As they also say that 
 
 the process could be applied to wood or stone, it was necessarily a 
 
 surface one, and may be regarded as a derivation from that used for 
 marbling papers; as to its application to pottery it offered little novelty, 
 
 for the imitation of tortoiseshell and the combed ware had been known 
 
 a long time before. 
 
 But this leads us to speak of the “Agate-ware" which Dr. 
 Tho}nas Wedgwood, son of Thomas Wedgwood, of the Overhouse 
 Works, at Burslem, is said to have made in great perfection; on 
 the site of his manufactory, when digging the foundations of the new 
 market, many fragments were disinterred. Agate-ware was a complicated 
 process; the marbling, instead of being produced on the surface, went 
 through the body. It was thus practised:—Thin laminae of yellow and 
 red clay were laid alternately upon each other until they formed a thick 
 mass; from that mass thin slices were transversely cut with a wire, 
 making thin bats which showed the veining produced by the superimposed 
 layers of clays; these were then used to press the piece, the neatest 
 side being placed against the mould. The bat required careful handling, 
 as a pressure sideways in the wedging in or a too rough pressing in the 
 mould destroyed the fineness in the marbling. Nothing more delicate 
 could be formed from clay, especially when it is finished off with a 
 clouding of bluish glaze, which makes it look like a precious 
 stone. Only pieces of a smooth shape were made of Agate-ware, 
 
94 
 
 EARTHENWARE. 
 
 and they had to be finished on the lathe or polished by hand before 
 firing. 
 
 Another patent was granted in 1729 io-Samuel Bell for a new 
 method of making a red marble Stone-ware to imitate ruby. Of this 
 we are not able to give any account, unless it referred to a variety 
 of ■ bright red and yellow Agate-ware, a specimen of which is in our 
 collection, and is the only one of the sort we ever came across. 
 
 Agate-ware, that is to say, a marbling going through the whole 
 substance, was never made to the same extent as marbling on the 
 surface. On the latter, Josiak Wedgwood made some of his favourite 
 experiments, and he imitated very successfully and effectively all sorts 
 of Agates and hard stones by running, mixing, and spotting various 
 coloured slips upon the cream colour. Nearly all the potters of his day 
 followed his lead, and produced many surface mixtures which still went 
 by the name of Agate, although the objects on which it was used 
 would be more properly described by the name of “marbled” ware. 
 
 Reverting to the history of the improvements brought about in the 
 making of earthenware and cream-colour, we think we could not do 
 better than recall the names of some of the most ingenious potters of 
 Staffordshire, and mention the share which each had in the collective 
 movement. Two names stand out conspicuously in the numerous list: 
 Aslbttry, who by the introduction of flint may rightly claim to have 
 created a new ware; and Whieldon, who, a few years later, brought it 
 to so high a degree of perfection, by the care he bestowed upon its 
 manufacture, and the taste he displayed in the selection of his models, 
 that Josiak Wedgwood found little to improve in the cream-colour 
 of his day, when he transformed it into his celebrated “ Queen’s ware.” 
 
 Had Astbury ever thought, like Palissy, of writing his “memoirs,” 
 we should have had a book which would not have yielded in romantic 
 interest even to the autobiography of the French potter. The business 
 of a pot-maker was then a very precarious one. No man who was 
 ambitious of making a fortune would have embraced that trade; the 
 highest position a workman could hope to reach was that of 
 owner of a single oven, turning out weekly a limited quantity of 
 goods to be sold for a paltry profit, to the cratemen, or at the 
 neighbouring fair. Jolm Astbury, although very young, was established 
 in a small way like his fellow-workers, and he seems to have been alive 
 
EARTHENWARE. 
 
 95 
 
 to the unsatisfactory state of the manufacture of his time; so, when the 
 Elers had settled near Burslem, he could not help contrasting their 
 delicate productions with the rough and common pottery which had up 
 to that time been made around him. Leaving his unattractive business, 
 he made up his mind to worm out their secrets, and thus enlarge his 
 scanty and insufficient knowledge. What hardship he had to go through 
 in order to get admittance into the premises without exciting suspicion 
 has been often related. For two years, it is said, he feigned idiocy in 
 its most abject state, until at last, considering that he had acquired 
 all that could be mastered from his employers’ processes, he threw off 
 the disguise and set to work earnestly on his own account in quite a 
 
 new style, with all sorts of fresh methods. The morals of the time 
 
 admitted to a certain extent of such questionable proceedings, especially 
 when dealing with hated foreigners. In our day such conduct would 
 perhaps be differently regarded, 'and yet there is more than one 
 redeeming point in the case of Astbury. We must acknowledge that 
 he did not confine himself to reproducing exactly the same things he 
 had seen made by the Elers. He originated more than one style of 
 his own by mixing up the new notions with the old ones. The red 
 body of his masters became in his hands a red glazed ware. The 
 
 expensive piece was altered into a nearly similar one, which, by its 
 cheapness, met the wants of the million. New articles, such as 
 tea and coffee ware, dessert plates, and similar pieces, which had 
 
 been only exceptionally made before his time, were manufactured by 
 him in large quantities. New clays and fresh materials were unceasingly 
 experimented upon, until a new body was at last established. Thus he 
 tried the white clay employed by the pipe-makers; but before being 
 able to produce a good ware from it, he used it at first as a wash 
 inside the vessels, which, though made of red clay in the bulk, 
 were on the inside coated with a lining of light yellow. But what 
 entitles him to the gratitude of his contemporaries and successors is 
 the fact that he, who had taken so much pains to get at the secrets 
 of the Dutch potters, does not appear to have made a mystery of all 
 that it cost him so much to acquire. He worked, after all, for the 
 public at large. Owing to his sole exertions the whole district made 
 rapid progress, and all the craft was benefited whenever he achieved some 
 fresh discovery. Modest and painstaking he surely was, to judge from 
 
96 
 
 EARTHENWARE. 
 
 the manner in which he conducted his pot work. It is even said that 
 he did not like to give free play to his inventive genius for fear 
 
 of upsetting the uses and customs of his fellow-potters, and thereby 
 
 come to be looked upon as a revolutionary character. There is no 
 
 doubt, also, about his having been an enterprising man of business. 
 
 He was one of the first who travelled to increase his connection; and 
 at a time when, on account of the bad state of the roads, travelling 
 was attempted by but few, he began his business tours and used to 
 periodically make a journey to London and the large towns of the 
 
 Midlands. 
 
 We have seen that towards 1720 he made his name famous by 
 the introduction of pounded flint into common earthenware; that he 
 would not or could not keep the discovery to himself, but that it 
 
 soon spread all over the Potteries, is shown by the patent Benson 
 
 took out, in 1726, for a new method of grinding flint-stone ; heretofore, 
 
 iron mortars had been used, and the dust produced by the pounding 
 was most injurious to the health of the workmen. Benson conceived 
 
 the idea of grinding it under water. Astbary was not long in 
 
 realising the importance of the invention, and flint was ground in that 
 way for the first time in a mill erected at his own expense at a 
 place called the Ivy House, near Hanley. He died at Shelton, in 
 
 1743, being then 65 years of age, at the same place where he had 
 
 started as a potter in such humble circumstances, being then a 
 
 rich and highly-considered man. The site of his factory, which stood 
 near the church, was excavated a few years ago, and many fragments 
 were found by which the identification of his productions was greatly 
 facilitated. He left three sons; one of them, Thomas Asthiry, 
 
 commenced business at Lane Delph in 1725; he still further improved 
 upon the new ware invented by his father, and it was he who gave 
 it the name of “cream-colour.” 
 
 Of Twyford, who also played the part of an idiot to penetrate 
 
 into the Elers' works, little is known; by some he is said to have 
 
 worked conjointly with Astbury, by others to have had a factory of 
 his own in the same town. 
 
 Of Dr. Thomas IVedgwood, and of his making a much improved 
 ware as early as 1731, we have already spoken; he was considered the 
 best potter of the district. 
 
EARTHENWARE. 
 
 97 
 
 Ralph Shaw, of Burslem, had his short days of celebrity; in 1733 
 he patented a so-called invention for making a chocolate ware coated 
 with white, the upper coat being scratched in with lines and flowers. 
 One of these pieces, now become very rare, may be seen amongst the 
 interesting specimens given by Mr. Kidd, of Nottingham, to the museum 
 of that town. The specification of his patent was so worded that Shaw 
 thought for a time it would give him the right of prosecuting most 
 of the potters of the district for infringements. The case created great 
 excitement when it came on for trial at Stafford; but he was not able 
 to substantiate his claims to any exclusive rights, the same white wash 
 having been used long before by Astbtiry, and he was non-suited. In 
 his disappointment and humiliation he left the country, and emigrated to 
 France with his family; there he settled and carried on his trade. It 
 would be interesting to investigate whether it is to him that is due the 
 first manufacture of the French “Terre de pipe,” and other imitations of 
 English ware. But to his name is attached a really valuable and 
 practical improvement, the introduction of the “slip kiln.” Previously 
 the diluted clay had to be evaporated in the open air in large tanks 
 called “ sun pans.” Not only was the evaporation slowly effected, but 
 the slip was liable to be spoiled with dust. Shaw kept it under cover 
 in long troughs, under which ran a row of flues heated from a stove 
 outside; this expeditious process was so well appreciated that it was at 
 once adopted at all the factories. He also found a way of firing a 
 larger quantity of pieces in his ovens, by placing them inside each 
 other, ingeniously parting and propping them by bits of stoneware, so 
 that they could not stick together, an invention which Iqd to the 
 
 stilts and cockspurs of to-day. His contentious spirit may have 
 checked for a time the course of improvements pursued by othep 
 potters, and at last it obliged him to leave a country where he might 
 otherwise have attained to wealth and consideration. Part of his 
 
 family returned to Burslem in 1750, but he himself remained abroad, 
 
 and nothing is known as to the date or place of his death. 
 
 In 1736, John Mitchell made the same description of ware, and 
 was one of those prosecuted by Shaw for infringement of his patent. 
 Great attention was beginning to be paid at this time to the beauty 
 of shapes and models, so Mitchell secured at a comparatively high 
 price the services of Aaron JVood, the best block-cutter of the time, 
 
 16 
 
EARTHENWARE. 
 
 98 
 
 in order that he might be able to compete with Dr. Thomas Wedgwood, 
 then at the head of the trade. 
 
 In 1740, Thomas and John Wedgwood, one a skilful fireman and 
 the other a lead-glaze potter, established themselves at Burslem. The 
 first few years of their partnership are said to have brought them a 
 succession of losses and disappointments. This caused them to make 
 a series of protracted experiments, with the especial view of ascertaining 
 the causes of the many accidents which stood in the way of perfect 
 production, viz., the liability of some clays to crack more than others. 
 They succeeded in fixing a definite scale of their respective qualities, 
 and arranged them according to their order of merit, under the name 
 of “ cracking claysthey also proved that some of the waters then 
 indiscriminately used were unfit for potting purposes, and that many 
 accidents were attributable to carelessness on this point. All these 
 studies and many more were very beneficial to the trade in general; 
 and consequently, when their struggles were over, and all their 
 difficulties had been surmounted, potting underwent a great change. 
 Systematic rules were henceforth adhered to, by which risks were 
 lessened, and, as a matter of course, profits largely increased. Their 
 cream-colour was considered excellent, and they exported it to foreign 
 parts in hitherto unprecedented quantities. 
 
 Thotnas Whieldon commenced business prior to 1740 at Fenton 
 Low, in a small thatched pot works which was destined gradually to 
 expand into one of the most important manufactories of the time. 
 His business was at first of a very modest sort. Carrying his samples 
 in a bundle strapped to his back, he used to walk from one town 
 to another canvassing for orders. He made small fancy articles for 
 hardware men, snuff-boxes that were mounted in metal at Birmingham, 
 and Agate-ware knife-hafts for the Sheffield cutlers. To these he 
 soon added the manufacture of table and tea-ware, mostly tortoiseshell, 
 for which he acquired such a reputation that all the numerous specimens 
 of his style, although made by a crowd of imitators, have since been 
 known under the name of Whieldon ware. 
 
 As his connection increased, he built, in 1749, large additions to 
 his works. Mr. L. Jewitt (Life of Josiah Wedgwood) gives some 
 interesting extracts from his account books, and several invoices which 
 show us the sort of ware Whieldon commonly made. While other 
 
EARTHENWARE. 
 
 99 
 
 potters were pursuing a course which would have ruined the trade by 
 underselling each other, and turning out a ware so coarse and clumsy 
 that, notwithstanding its cheapness, it was on the eve of being abandoned 
 by the public, Whieldon alone resisted this backward movement. 
 Besides continuing the best traditions of his predecessors, and using 
 the same processes in a perfected way, he brought out many ingenious 
 novelties both in shapes and materials. He was assisted by the best 
 model makers, and with great discrimination he selected his apprentices 
 from amongst the most intelligent youths of the district. They profited 
 so much by his tuition that nearly all of them were eminently 
 successful in after life. Josiah Spode, Robert Garner, J. Barker, and 
 W. Greatbatch all made a name, for themselves in the Potteries. 
 Josiah Wedgwood was then twenty-four years of age. ' He had just 
 terminated his first partnership with Harrison, of Stoke, and it is 
 to the credit of Whieldon that he was able to discern and appreciate 
 the abilities of the young potter, and that he secured him as a partner 
 for five years. 
 
 It would be very interesting to discover the share Wedgwood had 
 in the production of Whieldon's most refined pieces. He was already 
 expert in all the branches of the trade, including throwing, modelling, 
 and the compositions of bodies and glazes. He spent much of his 
 time in the first years of his partnership in making trials and preparing 
 blocks and moulds, and it is not improbable that some of those delicate 
 pickle trays, scalloped plates, perforated tea-pots of tortoiseshell or 
 Agate-ware, now so highly prized, are the work of his own hands. 
 More will be known about his doings at Whieldoiis; documents of 
 that period are not wanting, and many fresh ones may one day 
 turn up and throw more light on the subject. We know already 
 that it was he who compounded the bright green glaze, so much 
 admired that it was the cause of many successful patterns, all designed 
 to show it off to advantage. The cauliflower, pine-apple, and melon 
 ware derived their charming effect from the green glaze contrasting with 
 the cream-colour; while embossed pieces were mottled with green and 
 yellow, others were covered all over with the green ground. But the 
 tint of earthenware had in their hands become so white and pure, that 
 the partners were proud of showing its quality, and frequently 
 abstained from hiding it under the then fashionable coloured glazes. 
 
lOO 
 
 EARTHENWARE. 
 
 They also made another kind of ware, in which the plain colour of 
 the clay was reserved for the ground, while parts only of the reliefs 
 were slightly touched up with a dash of brown, yellow, or green- 
 sometimes a faint cloud of grey was thrown over the handles and 
 spouts. These latter specimens are perhaps the most charming of all 
 and mark the approaching end of the underglaze decoration, to which 
 plain earthenware was soon to be preferred. When the partnership with 
 J'Vedgwood came to an end, tradition, which represents IVhieldon as a 
 very prudent and cautious man, says that he was not sorry to part 
 from his young associate, of whose daring and enterprising spirit he 
 was rather afraid. Not wishing to embark in any other new-fangled 
 enterprises, but being satisfied with making money as he had always 
 done, they parted, some say even before the term of the partnership 
 agreement had expired. We can hardly credit these statements when 
 we see with what untiring energy IVhieldon had so far endeavoured 
 to advance his art, and steadily kept at the head of his contemporaries. 
 By him the foreign trade was largely increased, and from his time 
 Staffordshire ware was sent all over the world. Many of his pieces 
 are still found in distant parts. Our friend, Dr. I. Lyons, of 
 Hartford, U.S., has been able to form a collection of tortoiseshell, 
 cauliflower, and other varieties of the time, with specimens picked up 
 in the cottages of Connecticut. Near the place where once stood his 
 thatched pot works, IVhieldon built for himself a large and elegant 
 house, which is still standing, and where he died in 1798, at a very 
 advanced age. 
 
 No sooner had the manipulative and other processes reached the 
 point at which it was difficult, if not impossible, to further improve 
 upon them, than the potter turned his attention to a selection of the 
 models best calculated to bring out all their qualities. The tortoiseshell- 
 ware, with its variety of colours, lent itself to all sorts of combinations, 
 and a special treatment was required for the modelling of the pieces, 
 intended to be so decorated. The old potter was generally his own 
 modeller; and none was better qualified than the practical man to 
 contrive a design adapted to the means at his disposal. He cared 
 little for imitating the works of other people or other countries, but 
 consulting only his own taste, and profiting by the efforts of his 
 fellow-workers, his style was rational and genuine, being, above 
 
EARTHENWARE. 
 
 lOI 
 
 all, appropriate to the ways and means by which it was to be 
 produced. 
 
 While Whieldon was carrying out the latest improvements in 
 eaithenware, a decided tendency towards fancy shapes and the picturesque 
 in ornamentation began to show itself even in the most ordinary 
 pieces. A tea-pot assumed the look of an attractive and dainty little 
 toy, and we-hear of the gallants of London offering to their lady-loves 
 pretty tea-pots of Staffordshire ware. The hackneyed ornaments which 
 had been handed down from father to son were discarded by the 
 rising generation, and new ideas as well as new men came to the 
 front. Leaves and fruits were the inexhaustible stock from which the 
 artist drew at first most of his inspirations. A pickle tray was formed 
 with a common leaf, delicately marked with all its veining, and glazed 
 with its natural colour; while in the centre a few buds and flowers 
 were symmetrically disposed for the purpose of securing a variety of 
 tints. A fruit the pine-apple for instance—was transformed into a jug 
 or a cup; the upper part, with its lozenge-shaped imbrications, received 
 the yellow glaze they knew so well how to make rich and bright, 
 while their dark green glaze seemed especially intended to reproduce the 
 vivid colour of the pointed leaves ornamentally arranged underneath. 
 The same notions, applied to the reproduction of a melon resting on 
 its leaf, inaugurated another style of ware. Treated in various ways, 
 the pieces upon which this fruit was introduced all went by the name 
 of melon-ware, and so were styled also the generality of pieces mottled 
 green and yellow. From the imitation of common fruits and vegetables 
 the potters derived their most successful patterns. 
 
 Cauliflower-ware was manufactured in enormous quantities, and in 
 many sizes and shapes. Its novelty and originality remain striking 
 even to our day. The potters took a just pride in the perfection of 
 their cream-colour body and their green glaze. Nothing simpler could 
 have been devised to bring out their quality and contrast them together. 
 How well the one comes in to represent the flowers with their smooth 
 embossments and their thousands of minute dots, and the other to cover 
 with a mellow and powerful colour the net-work of sunk and raised 
 lines that veins the curled leaves! The execution is as simple and 
 forcible as the idea. It has just the amount of conventional treatment 
 that a work of art demands to become a “Type.” There are many 
 
102 
 
 EARTHENWARE. 
 
 more pretentious pieces which have fewer claims to be spoken of in 
 the same way. 
 
 Fancy, cramped a little by the requirements of table-ware, found 
 an unlimited scope for its display in the merely ornamental articles 
 that were already in demand; quaintly modelled by local artists, and 
 made pleasant with the brightest hues of underglaze colour, all sorts 
 of household and toy pieces were made; strange birds, curious animals, 
 hippopotami and elephants, hanging vases bearing a large sunflower, 
 which would have delighted the modern aesthete, flower vases for the 
 decoration of the mantel-piece, even small figures, soldiers, workmen of 
 different trades,. and busts or medallions of the king and queen, and 
 of the worthies of the day. We must also mention the wares made 
 in imitation of Chinese porcelain; although they purport to be decorated 
 with apple blossoms and mandarins, they are rather original fancies 
 derived from a curious style imperfectly remembered, than the actual 
 copy of any particular piece. Upon them all the English hand is 
 easily traceable. Some are perforated and cut out all over the surface, 
 exhibiting an unusual amount of ingenuity and skill, and must once 
 have been considered marvels of workmanship. 
 
 Of all these, many identical replicas are still to be met with; it 
 is to be borne in mind that as yet painting, which can indefinitely 
 
 vary the aspect of the same piece, had not come to the potter’s 
 
 assistance; moulded shapes and raised decorations were alone resorted 
 to, and the effect could merely be diversified by the stains of the 
 mottled glazes. 
 
 It is somewhat provoking, when we know most of the names of 
 the tortoiseshell potters, to be unable to ascribe accurately to any of 
 them the different specimens that we value and admire; no marks 
 ever appear to help us, and none ever thought of following the 
 practice of Toft by signing their best works. Artistic property was 
 in no way protected, perhaps not even acknowledged; as soon as a 
 model enjoyed a run of success, it was at once taken up by a crowd 
 
 of imitators. Whieldon used to bury his imperfect pieces, lest they 
 
 should be picked up and copied, but it was an ineffectual precaution 
 after all, and his happiest novelties soon fell a prey to the plagiarist. 
 Pirating other’s ideas and shapes was considered almost legitimate; we 
 know that later on many manufacturers thrived upon designs borrowed 
 
EARTHENWARE. 
 
 103 
 
 from Wedgwoods productions; the poor struggling potter who could 
 not keep a modeller depended for his forms upon the unasked 
 assistance of his wealthier brethren, in the same manner as a 
 workman who in our days sets up in a small way of business on 
 his own account, asks a neighbour for the loan of his blocks to make 
 moulds from. 
 
 We can only distinguish the early pieces from those made long 
 afterwards in the old moulds, by their being cast instead of pressed, 
 and thereby being much thinner in the substance. Impressed in terra¬ 
 cotta moulds, the ornaments are neater and sharper, the thick glaze is 
 of a deeper tint, and the colours run more freely. Some are stamped 
 with seals like the “ Salt-glaze,” and partly made by hand ; all of 
 them are “ potted ” with a skill and care often wanting in more 
 modern productions. 
 
 Painting on cream-colour, which was soon to be so generally 
 practised, was only introduced when the body had been made white 
 enough to resemble china more closely. This whitening was obtained 
 by the mixing of a small quantity of zaffre with the glaze; and this 
 innovation, continued to our time, was due to Aaron Wedgwood 
 and William Littler, who were also the first to glaze their ware by 
 immersion. Certain portions of the glaze, the clay which composed 
 the body of the pottery, and a small quantity of zaffre were mixed 
 with water; in this liquid the vessels, when dry, were dipped, and 
 absorbing the water, received a thick coating of the ground materials 
 in suspension. 
 
 Shortly after this, Enoch Booth began the practice of firing his 
 ware before dipping it; we accept this on the testimony of Shaw, 
 noticing at the same time that firing in biscuit was practised by all 
 the makers of Delft-ware. 
 
 Towards 1750, R. and T. Baddeley, of Shelton, made the first 
 attempts at blue painting under the glaze, and the process was adopted 
 by all the other potters. 
 
 Enamelling on cream-colour was successfully carried on at the 
 same period by Mrs. Warbnrton, who is credited with having, in 
 1751, made the last improvement in earthenware bodies; she acquired 
 a great celebrity for her painting, and until 1769 she enamelled for 
 Josiah Wedgwood. 
 
104 
 
 EARTHENWARE. 
 
 Another enamel painter was IVarner Edwards, of Hanley; he 
 not only worked himself, but supplied the trade with colours of his 
 
 own making. ^ He died in 1753. 
 
 When painting came into fashion, few trained hands could be 
 obtained in the Potteries; many were sent for from Holland, where 
 
 there was a superabundance of clever men ; this may in some measure 
 account for the small degree of originality noticeable on the painted 
 
 pieces, when compared with those modelled and embossed according 
 to the traditional style of the old English potter; here we may 
 incidentally remark that England was not the only country which 
 
 borrowed her ceramic painters from abroad. In the records of the old 
 Saint Lucas Guild, the Academy of Delft, to which the best faience 
 decorators were affiliated, most of the names inscribed as members, as 
 far back as 1645, are those of foreigners who had come from France 
 and Italy. 
 
 From this time pottery will lower itself into becoming the humble 
 retainer of aristocratic porcelain; the body will try to ape the whiteness 
 of its prototype, if not its transparency; blue painting will adopt the 
 Worcester style, and enamel decoration will emulate the works of Bow 
 and Chelsea, and thus become a second-hand imitation of Oriental 
 china. The lead-glaze and the smooth surface of the cream-colour were 
 perfectly adapted to kiln painting, and this sort of decoration was at 
 first fairly used, but as it could only by its cheapness compete with 
 the china it was intended to replace, nothing of importance was ever 
 attempted. A bright iron red was often used alone or relieved with 
 a few touches of varied colours; Dutch landscapes or grotesque scenes 
 were sometimes freely sketched, and groups of flowers were painted with 
 bright enamels in a conventional manner. However, as pieces of this 
 sort generally belong to the second half of the i8th century, they 
 hardly come within our scope, and we shall not linger on the subject; 
 let it suffice to say that the style of painting was gradually 
 simplified, and the transition can easily be traced from the over¬ 
 decorated pieces to the plain earthenware, merely edged with a brown 
 or blue line, that was soon to come into fashion. 
 
 Meanwhile, the tortoiseshell-ware continued to be made, but the 
 best efforts were brought to bear upon the new bodies, and it was 
 losing some of its primitive character; the peculiar carving of blocks 
 
EARTHENWARE. 
 
 105 
 
 and “pitcher” moulds and the engraving of ornament sunk in the 
 hollow were given up as being too slow and expensive, when the 
 introduction of plaster of Paris gave facilities for casting moulds at a 
 trifling cost upon any model whatsoever, whether it be a piece of 
 metal, china, or wood carving, little regard being paid to its fitness 
 for reproduction in clay. Though the advantageous properties of 
 plaster, its capability of taking an impression, and its porous 
 texture which so rapidly absorbs the water, had been known for a 
 long time previously in the Potteries, it was utilized but at a 
 comparatively late period. A cream-colour tea-pot in the Liverpool 
 Museum, with an embossed barley pattern, has an inscription scratched 
 on the bottom, stating that this was the first tea-pot ever pressed, 
 dated and signed “ J. Hollingshead, 175...” The simple and well-adapted 
 types created in the locality gave way to more ambitious models 
 ordered from sculptors in London, who had never before thought of 
 applying their talent to this new purpose. Tea-pots and jugs began to 
 assume rustic and ultra-picturesque decorations, and to depart widely 
 from geometrical and rational shapes. 
 
 We do not mean to say that fine and interesting pieces are not 
 to be found amongst those resulting from this transformation of the 
 Potter’s style of modelling. The old man with short legs and ample 
 waistcoat, whose cocked hat has been turned into use for a spout—the 
 figure which constitutes the traditional Toby jug—evinces a quaint 
 spirit of originality. Some groups were admirably modelled, and with 
 a genuine sense of humour. The Sexton and the Parson going home 
 arm in arm after a late supper; the Vicar asleep in his pulpit, while 
 from underneath Moses vainly endeavours to prompt him with the next 
 sentence of his sermon; the Voyez jug, with the huntsman and the 
 milkmaid, of which Dr. Diamond has an example coloured with the 
 most harmonious combinations of tortoiseshell glazes—these, and many 
 others of the same kind, though of a date that brings them near to 
 our own time, were still done with the old cream-colour, and stained 
 with the softly-mottled colours used by Whieldon. All these are very 
 different from the clumsy comicalities, made afterwards with white 
 ware coloured on the surface, which are known by the name of 
 Staffordshire figures. 
 
 17 
 
io6 
 
 EARTHENWARE. 
 
 In our judgment, an absolute line of demarcation separates the 
 productions of an art which kept steadfastly advancing in an original 
 path, free from the intrusions of foreign notions, from those of a more 
 complex style, the fruit of studies often incomplete or ill-understood 
 
 and which admits of an admixture of totally irrelevant elements 
 
 When, for instance, we are pleased with the best pieces of English 
 
 salt-glaze or tortoiseshell, we never think of comparing them with any 
 pieces belonging to another nation; they stand apart, and are to be 
 taken as they are; they may at least be considered as the highest 
 expression of a genuine taste, the development of which we can trace 
 from its most uncouth and inexperienced early attempts. We feel a 
 sense of disappointment and even of annoyance when we detect signs 
 of a natural feeling having been perverted by extraneous teaching. 
 Acanthus leaves are ill at ease on a Staffordshire tea-pot, and we are 
 disheartened when we recognise upon the features of an otherwise 
 coarse and vulgar figure a faint likeness to the Greek nose and the 
 eye of Apollo. In one case we have a standard steadily advancing, 
 
 in the other we have a descent savouring slightly of caricature. 
 
 But we are overstepping the bounds of our subject. It is not our 
 purpose to follow the transformations of the Potter’s art after the middle 
 of the 18th century, the close of the epoch to which our investigations 
 are limited. We must now briefly say that since that time earthenware 
 pottery has thrived and flourished under the hands of innumerable skilful 
 manufacturers, and rapidly become the staple trade of all the English 
 pottery-producing centres, from which it has spread to many places on 
 the Continent, and even to the United States. A list of all those 
 who had a hand in its improvement would be endless, as also would 
 an enumeration of the places where it has been manufactured since 
 
 1750- 
 
 The limits we have thus imposed upon ourselves put beyond our 
 range the admirable works of the greatest potter of England, Josiah 
 Wedgwood. Of his innumerable achievements it would be unbecoming 
 to speak in an inadequate manner, and his life must be read in the 
 exhaustive books which have been devoted to his memory. For the 
 same reason are we precluded from speaking of the earthenware of 
 Liverpool, where almost all descriptions of Pottery were manufactured; 
 of the cream-colour of Leeds, which equalled, if it did not surpass, the 
 
EARTHENWARE. 
 
 107 
 
 finest ware previously made at any other place ; and of a host of Potters 
 established all over the kingdom, whose names are mentioned and 
 productions described in the works written on the subject. Many 
 interesting discoveries must be passed over. We should like to relate 
 how the transfer of a black print to the surface of a glazed piece gave 
 rise to a new mode of decoration; how, shortly afterwards, under-glaze 
 printing superseded painting in blue, and a bright and complicated 
 pattern being thus obtainable at a small cost, a revolution was 
 accomplished in the decoration of earthenware; but, however enticing 
 the subject, we cannot attempt to treat of it here. 
 
 Our account has come to an end; the old English Potter, with his 
 quaint ways, is replaced by the educated manufacturer with eclectic 
 taste, but he owes much to the intelligence and energy with which 
 his modest forerunners prepared the way for the excellence now 
 attained to. If this imperfect essay help to bring to light their 
 merits and originality, and if it be accepted as a small tribute to 
 the memory of these neglected workmen and artists, who in their 
 secluded pot works were once exerting their ingenuity, and who 
 bequeathed to us the fruits of their labours, the writer’s most earnest 
 hopes will have been realised, and his little effort will not have been 
 made in vain. 
 


111 
 
 PLATE I. 
 
 EARLY BRITISH URN. 
 
 Height 5J Inches. 
 
 HE researches of antiquaries have brought to light a 
 large quantity of the earthen utensils used by the 
 Early Britons; urns and pitchers have been discovered 
 in most of the grave mounds and hut circles that have 
 been excavated all over the kingdom; but beyond the 
 statement that they belong to a very remote antiquity, no precise 
 information is to be found as to the date of their production; they 
 have up to this time been classed under the convenient heading of 
 “ Pre-historic Pottery.” They are the work of the native tribes of the 
 British Isles; we know that they were made long before the Roman 
 occupation, but we may also surmise that the tradition was kept up 
 after the conquest by Caesar; so, there may be a great difference 
 between the ages of similar specimens. The clay with which they 
 were formed, sometimes coarse and mixed with pebbles, but in other 
 instances more finely prepared, has been taken as affording a possible 
 though doubtful clue to their respective ages. Sun-dried or imperfectly 
 fired, they present a strange likeness to the primitive pottery of many 
 distant countries, and in some cases they recall the vessels kneaded 
 and shaped by women amongst the savages of the new world. 
 
 In the barrows of Great Britain votive vases are found associated 
 with human remains, whether cremation had or had not been resorted 
 to; they vary somewhat in detail, according to localities, but they 
 show everywhere, whatever their size may be, a similarity of 
 shape and decoration, the ornament consisting of incised lines and 
 punctures. The more usual form is that of an urn with expanded 
 mouth, not turned but rounded by hand, and occasionally finished off with 
 
I 12 
 
 PLATE I. 
 
 small handles or loops for the purpose of suspension. The work does 
 not exhibit traces of any tool but a sharpened bone or a rough nail. 
 From their probable uses they have been arranged into four classes:— 
 Cinerary urns, drinking cups, food vessels, and incense cups. The 
 bones and ashes found in the first-named leave no doubt as to 
 their employment; the three other classes have perhaps been named 
 somewhat on speculation. Much knowledge is to be gathered about 
 Celtic pottery by the study of the works of Bateman, Sir John 
 Lubbock, Dr. Birch, and others. 
 
 We give one specimen of the ware to represent the ordinary style 
 of its decoration. By its shape it could be classified with the cinerary 
 urns, but it was found at Meigle in a stone cist by the side of a 
 skeleton; cremation had not been practised, and the vase is of hard 
 clay, sun-dried but not fired. It was formerly in the collection of Dr. 
 Barnard Davis. 
 
II3 
 
 PLATE II. 
 
 M EDI^VAL WARE. 
 
 E give in this plate a selection of some of the more 
 
 characteristic shapes of Early English ware. Most of 
 
 these specimens have been dug out in London or in 
 the Potteries district, at a depth varying from six 
 
 feet to twelve feet, and may be considered as genuine 
 representatives of the productions of the time. Chaffers, in his 
 interesting work upon mediaeval earthenware vessels, explains how 
 hopelessly one would endeavour to appropriate these homely utensils 
 to any particular era between the 7th and 15th centuries, a period to 
 
 which they may be said to belong by their particular forms. We 
 
 shall follow his example by classifying together such pieces as were 
 
 made before the series of improvements commenced in England towards 
 
 the middle of the i6th century. All those represented here are 
 
 roughly thrown, the handles are all made by hand, and the spouts 
 
 pinched into form with the fingers; the feet exhibit in many cases 
 
 a sort of fluting, produced by pressure of the thumb, a peculiarity 
 
 which, by-the-bye, is likewise noticed upon Early German pieces. 
 
 A. An early jug of yellow clay found in Farringdon Street. The 
 
 top part is covered with a dull green glaze. Having been made on 
 the whirler and not thrown on the wheel, it is hardly round in shape. 
 The ware not having been protected by saggers, stuck in the firing 
 
 to the next piece, and the place has been tinted with the green glaze 
 with which the latter was covered, a fact which led to the supposition 
 that all blemishes were covered with a spot of glaze. 
 
 B. Found in Lombard Street. A pot of red clay partially glazed 
 with lead. The inside presents the peculiarity of being washed over 
 with light yellowish clay, and the handle is thumb-marked in a 
 conspicuous manner. 
 
 18 
 
PLATE n. 
 
 II4 
 
 C. A small drinking cup of buff clay coated inside with green 
 glaze. In shape and material it bears a striking likeness to some 
 old Roman pieces. 
 
 D. An ale mug of grey Stone-ware, with the curled work on the 
 foot. It was found in London, but strangely enough we possess a 
 similar piece dug up in the Potteries. 
 
 E. A tyg with two handles placed on the same side, probably 
 one of the earliest Staffordshire tygs, made of red brick clay, and 
 covered over with dark brown glaze. 
 
 F. A jug of Norman shape, as figured in the MSS. of the period; 
 light grey Stone-ware highly fired, and sounding like metal, very 
 superior in make to the potteiy of after times. The foot has the 
 usual curl produced by the thumb, and the lower part of the body is 
 also thumb-marked in the same manner as some old Roman ware. 
 Although all the above pieces were found in London, it still remains 
 a matter of doubt whether they were made by local potters, or 
 by some of the foreign workmen who settled early in England, and 
 there produced articles similar to those made on the Continent, or 
 whether they are merely importations from Germany. 
 
 G and H are two varieties of brown jugs found in the Potteries. 
 On the second example the two handles are placed on opposite sides. 
 
till' Jiii.Jirii'iiiiii' 
 
“5 
 
 PLATE III. 
 
 EARLY PUZZLE JUGS. 
 
 Height 7J Inches. 
 
 HE Puzzle Jug became in course of time essentially 
 English in shape; but from many examples preserved 
 in Continental Museums we are led to doubt whether 
 
 it originated in England. Some puzzle jugs are made 
 of Palissy ware, and others of the green-glazed ware 
 of Nuremberg. The Puzzle afforded matter for a joke amongst 
 
 drinkers. A hollow rim furnished with spouts communicates with a 
 pipe, which, passing through the handle, goes down to the bottom of 
 the jug. The liquor can be sucked out from one of the spouts, by 
 taking the precaution of stopping with the thumb the little air hole 
 pierced under the handle. The trick was considered a good one for a 
 very long time, since Puzzle Jugs continued to be manufactured for 
 more than two centuries. The first on the plate is dated 1571, one 
 of the earliest dates recorded upon any English piece, though it by 
 no means follows that others were not made before that time. The 
 
 figures are not laid on in slip, but raised in clay. It was formerly 
 in Mr. Bohn’s collection. The other one, which belonged to Mr. 
 
 Peter Norton, is slightly different in shape, and notched about with a 
 square tool. This way of enhancing the effect of colours upon a flat 
 surface was subsequently employed upon the green-glazed ware of the 
 end of the i8th century. Both jugs are covered with the same dull 
 green glaze used by the Romans, and found on the earliest mediaeval 
 pieces. This glaze was probably handed down from the Romans to their 
 successors, and its use was never discontinued. 
 
II7 
 
 PLATE IV. 
 
 STONE-WARE MUGS. 
 
 Height g Inches. 
 
 |ROM the resemblance they bear to many identified 
 pieces, we should not hesitate in ascribing these mugs 
 to Fulham. The first is of the brown granulated 
 
 Stone-ware peculiar to the specimens found along the 
 banks of the Thames, inscribed with the names of 
 well-known public houses, or of private persons living in the 
 
 neighbourhood. This one was formerly in the collection of the Rev. 
 
 W. Sibthorpe. Its decoration is not, perhaps, highly artistic, but it 
 
 is clearly a speaking pottery, and without the aid of any inscription, 
 he for whom the mug was intended would readily understand what 
 
 the potter had to say. The sportsman, who has had a hot day of it 
 
 over the moors with his dogs and gun, comes to rest on the inn's 
 bench, and after having quaffed a bumper of the cooling beer, may 
 like to have the incidents of the day brought back to his mind. 
 Here they are on his tankard in a graphic form : the sun that made 
 
 his march so laborious; the scattered trees, under the scanty shade of 
 
 which he enjoyed a short halt; the flying game; the dogs so like his 
 own, that he could call them each by his name; he himself, portrayed 
 on horseback, holding in his hand that whip, the importance of which 
 IS expressed by its exaggerated size; and last, though not least, for 
 fear he should be so ungrateful as to forget the hospitable roof under 
 which he is so pleasantly welcomed, the very inn where he enjoys 
 himself so thoroughly, and where it is hoped he will often return to 
 rest himself again. Sometimes a memorable sporting event is recorded 
 in an inscription incised in the clay. Thus we have seen the following 
 
Il8 PLATE IV. 
 
 lines on a mug of similar character: “On Bansted down a hare Was 
 found which led (us) a smoking round. Abraham Hamman, Sussex, 
 1725.” The other mug is made of grey ware, partially coloured with 
 brown. The decoration carries also with it a special meaning. In the 
 centre, supported by two beef-eaters, is a medallion of Queen Anne, 
 but the portrait was not sufficiently life-like to permit of dispensing 
 with an inscription, and so we read: “ Drink to the pious memory of 
 good Queen Anne, 1729." As the date is ig years posterior to the 
 death of the Queen, we may conjecture that the mug was made for 
 an old servant proud of his loyalty to his late sovereign; the potter 
 knew that nothing could please him more than a gift bearing such 
 an inscription. One can realise the feeling of the old toper, when, 
 drinking a convivial draught out of his favourite mug, he could take 
 the opportunity to discourse with his friends about his past services, 
 and what they remembered of the good old times. The pack of dogs 
 is in this instance again running at the bottom; there is hardly a 
 piece of Stone-ware where they are not seen, even on those made in 
 our days. 
 
119 
 
 PLATE V. 
 
 STONE-WARE BEAR. 
 
 Height 12 Inches. 
 
 E all remember the Bradwardine Bear in Walter Scott’s 
 Antiquary; it was a vessel peculiar in shape to the 
 old English Squire as the glass or silver boot was to 
 the German Landgrave. Was not the good Briton 
 
 readier for a laugh and a joke when he had emptied 
 
 the comical head of the bear, whose uncouth body contained the 
 foaming beer, than when his drink was poured out for him from a 
 common-place jug of stiff and classical shape, at the sight of which 
 he felt bound to assume a dignified and formal countenance ? This 
 one is grim and shaggy enough to put his children to flight, and no 
 doubt its former owner often revelled in its appearance on the table. 
 Its black rough coat is made of minute shavings of clay, and its 
 eyes and claws of shining white paste. Nottingham was once 
 celebrated for jugs of this sort; and at Congleton, in Cheshire, 
 nicknamed the Bear’s Town, on account of the partiality of its 
 inhabitants for bear-baiting, they were in great demand. The potters 
 
 of Staffordshire used to send a great number there, made of white 
 
 Stone-ware decorated with brown slip, or of common Earthenware. 
 
 One made in the beginning of this century represented a Russian 
 bear crushing between its paws a diminutive Bonaparte. 
 

liMM-itiiiMiLS' 
 
I 2 I 
 
 PLATE VI. 
 
 SLIP DISH. 
 
 Diameter i 6 ^ Inches. 
 
 OTHING is known about Thotnas Toft beyond what 
 we have related in another place. The huge platters 
 
 he signed are so numerous that the generic name of 
 Toft dishes has been accepted for all the Slip-decorated 
 ones made in his time. This represents a gentleman 
 in the costume of Charles II.’s reign, in the act of drinking a toast; 
 he has the plumed hat of the cavalier, but no sword. The outline is 
 
 traced with brown slip punctuated with white dots; the interspaces are 
 
 filled in with orange colour; three flowers, a distant reminiscence of 
 fleurs-de-lys, and a sort of uncouth garland complete the subject; on 
 the broad rim, brown and orange slips have been trailed to form a 
 close trellis work. The body of the dish is of coarse marl, washed 
 
 on the inside with a coat of fine yellow clay; it is highly fired, very 
 heavy and resistant. The w’hole is very effective, and if we consider 
 the decoration only as a means of bringing out the contrast of colours, 
 we may pass over the oddity of its execution. We ' have heard critics 
 dismiss such pieces in a few words, to the effect that they are no 
 better than the barbarous works of New Zealanders; but why this 
 should not be taken as a compliment instead of condemnation we fail 
 to perceive. We do not in any way despise the carvings of the 
 clubs and canoe heads of the savage; they exhibit a real understanding 
 of what can make them rich and beautiful, and display a fanciful 
 combination of lines and proportions that owes nothing to servile 
 imitation. The archaic creations of the early Etruscans and Greeks 
 contain in their roughness all the germs of what was one day to be 
 
 19 
 
the art of Praxiteles and Phidias, and this none the less for their 
 being in some respects akin to the works of some Polynesian savages. 
 Shall we pass an irrevocable sentence upon the old Slip Potter on 
 account of his imperfections? At least hjs trials forcibly tell us about 
 obsolete tastes and forgotten customs; they make us acquainted with 
 the state of artistic education in his times, pottery in all ages 
 reflecting the condition of every other branch of art; we see how 
 meritorious these old workmen were in following up unremittingly 
 emendations and improvements, and how a genuine and even refined 
 style was to be the result of their primitive and uncouth labours. 
 

123 
 
 PLATE VII. 
 
 BROWN TYG. 
 
 Height 6| Inches. 
 
 N mdefinite number of handles applied to a large cup of 
 coarse clay distinguishes the Tyg from other vessels of 
 early times. Drinking cups furnished in that manner 
 were manufactured at Wrotham, and in several other 
 places in England, but the term Tyg does not seem 
 to have been used out of the Staffordshire Potteries district. It 
 
 is probably a corruption in the local dialect from the Roman word 
 
 Tegula, a tile, a word which in Italian has become Tegola, in 
 
 Spanish Teja, in old German Tieghel, in French Tuile, etc. 
 
 Bosworth, in his “ Anglo-Saxon Dictionaiy,” gives the name Tigel, a 
 tile, a brick, anything made of clay, a pot, a vessel. Posset and 
 
 other compound drinks were brewed in the Tyg at social gatherings. 
 It stood in the middle of the table, and each guest helped himself to 
 
 its contents; in its use it was not unlike the Greek crater, a capacious 
 
 vase containing a mixed beverage, out of which a slave filled the cups 
 all round ; but as slaves did not wait at old English convivial 
 
 meetings, the common cup was provided all round with convenient 
 
 handles, in order that each guest could draw it to himself. Cups or 
 glasses were dispensed with, every one drinking from the pot. A 
 
 curious passage in William of Malmesbury says, “ Formerly the vessels 
 were regularly divided for to prevent quarrels. King Edgard 
 commanded the drinking vessels to be made with knobs in the 
 
 inside at certain distance from each other, and. decreted that no 
 
 person, under a certain penalty, should either himself drink or compel 
 another to drink at one draught more than from one of these knobs 
 to the other.” 
 
124 
 
 PLATE 
 
 VII. 
 
 The handles and other applied parts were made by hand with 
 twisted and crumpled bits of clay, much in the same fashion as those 
 on the old British glass found in the barrows; there is the same 
 disposition and the same treatment. A Tyg bears a striking likeness 
 to an Anglo-Saxon drinking cup. 
 
 A strange and no doubt fortuitous analogy is also to be traced 
 with many ancient Spanish glass cups, which are shaped and decorated 
 exactly in the same manner. 
 
 The Tyg reproduced in this plate is of the common red clay, 
 coated with manganese, which under the name of “ niagmis" was 
 beginning to be employed for making a deeper black than the one 
 previously obtained with oxide of iron. It is inscribed in yellow slip, 
 “ Margret Colley, 1684.” Not a dot of slip appears on the piece 
 besides the inscription ; all the interest lies in the four double handles, 
 and the notched strips of clay, which, without taking away any of 
 the simplicity of the shape, are sufficient to make of it an unusual 
 work fit for presentation. Like nearly all primitive productions it has 
 a grand character as to form and the glaze shines brilliantly on the 
 sharp edges of the hand-work. It was found in an old cottage in 
 Stoke, and had been preserved up to this time in the same family, 
 together with sundry other pieces of old ware. In this case there is 
 no doubt about the inscribed name having reference to the person for 
 whom the piece was intended, and not to the maker. 
 
I 25 
 
 PLATE VIII. 
 
 T Y G. 
 
 Height 7 Inches. 
 
 BROWN and yellow Tyg of the late period. The 
 
 handles have no longer the same importance as 
 on the early specimens. This is one of the most 
 forcible examples illustrating the process of Slip- 
 decoration. Like all similar productions of the time, 
 it is made of coarse grey marl, washed over in the inside and 
 on the top part with a coat of fine yellow clay; the bottom is 
 
 covered with a mixture of red clay and manganese; upon these 
 grounds the same slips have been used, dark upon light and light 
 
 upon dark, to trace the decoration. The Tyg has four handles, and is 
 inscribed '‘Mary Shiffilbottom, lyoy." The potter who spelt in this 
 way the old name of Shufflebottom was certainly not a scholar, but 
 considering the state of education at that time, we may be astonished 
 that the posset pot maker of Staffordshire could even write at all. 
 We may notice that most of the inscribed drinking cups were 
 presented to ladies. We should not dare to hazard the supposition 
 
 that this was on account of a well-known partiality of the fair sex 
 for hot liquors; let us rather say that these Tygs w'ere more an object 
 of adornment for the shelves of the housewife than for utility, and 
 were only taken down on very special occasions. That is perhaps 
 why so many have been preserved to us, which otherwise would have 
 disappeared like pieces in common use, now become so scarce; handed 
 down from father to son as a sort of heirloom, they have thus 
 escaped destruction. This specimen presents great similarities to the 
 Myers cup of the Liverpool Museum, and to some pieces in Mr. 
 Willett’s collection, all of which seem to be the work of the same hand. 
 It was found not long since in the Potteries. 
 
 
127 
 
 PLATE IX. 
 
 T YG. 
 
 Height 9 Inches. 
 
 gBSBiBw jr HT.S Tyg differs in many particulars from those made in 
 Staffordshire. “ It is of a bright red colour, and the 
 yellow slip with which it is decorated is stamped over 
 with stars and rosettes, by means of a stick cut on its 
 flat end into a geometrical pattern; besides, the light 
 clay is in places coloured with copper green. These characteristics are 
 seldom, if ever, found on the old Burslem pieces. The shape is also 
 more complicated; from the lid and the six handles project an 
 unusual number of knobs; a pipe passes through one of the 
 
 handles, and communicates inside with a hole pierced at the bottom 
 
 of the pot, in such a manner that the liquor can be sucked out 
 
 through a little hole on the top. At Wrotham, in Kent, pieces of 
 the same red clay, and bearing a decoration of an identical character, 
 were extensively made at the time; so we feel inclined to ascribe this 
 one to that . manufacture. The ware made there was of a highly 
 
 ornamental sort, and was often inscribed with the name of the place, 
 but little is known about the potters who worked there. Chaffers gives 
 Jull as the name of one of them, and the site of his manufactory 
 is known to have belonged to the author of “John Evelyn’s Diary.” 
 Antiquaries have as yet taken little trouble to gather documents 
 
 concerning the productions of Wrotham, as has been done for the 
 Staffordshire Potteries. It may be accounted for in this way, that 
 the facts connected with a manufacture which was to disappear 
 completely after so promising a start are less interesting to historians 
 than those which refer to a district where the same industry slowly 
 
128 
 
 PLATE IX. 
 
 advanced year by year through a course of improvements until it had 
 reached its present high state of excellence. 
 
 This, piece is inscribed "John Htigh” probably the name of the 
 possessor, and is dated 1690; it was formerly in the collection of the 
 Rev. W. Sibthorp, of Nottingham; when that collection was dispersed, 
 it passed into our hands for a modest sum. We take this occasion 
 to express our astonishment at the little competition there is amongst 
 English collectors for the possession of rare and curious specimens made 
 in their own country. The highest prices we know of are those realised 
 at the Bernal sale for the two wonderful Tygs now in the British 
 Museum, j[J> and £\o respectively. The figures are modest enough 
 when compared with the money given for Continental faience. 
 
129 
 
 PLATE X. 
 
 BROWN PUZZLE JUG. 
 
 Height 7J Inches. 
 
 IS shows one of the many varieties of Puzzle Jugs, 
 Here seven nozzles have been set upright on the rim, 
 six having to be stopped with the fingers before any 
 liquor can be sucked out from the seventh. The body 
 is of a peculiar dark brown, sprinkled with minute 
 yellow specks, probably dust of sagger clay, which makes it look like 
 aventurine. Coarse as to shape, it is exceedingly rich in colour; the 
 glaze is of the usual thick and treacly sort. It was formerly in Mr. 
 Lucas’ collection. We have, unfortunately, no voucher for its date, but 
 we think it belongs to the latter part of the 17th century. There 
 
 has always been in England a marked partiality for black ware; and 
 
 although it was manufactured in many places on the Continent, nowhere 
 does it seem to have so well suited the public taste as in this country. 
 From the first trials made by the Eleys in the dry bodies, and the 
 
 black glazed Tygs of Staffordshire, the ware was constantly made and 
 
 improved upon, until it became the black basalt of Josiah Wedgwood, 
 and since his time the manufacture has never been discontinued. 
 
 Another shape of Puzzle Jug is shown in the background. It is 
 of a light brown colour, and offers nothing particular beyond its 
 
 unusual flat form. On the other side is a large brown mug, which 
 
 has a thick coating of white clay scratched in with horizontal and 
 
 transverse lines by the same process for which Shaw, of Burslem, 
 
 took out a patent in 1735: but whether it is a piece of his make or 
 not we are unable to say. 
 
 20 
 
I3I 
 
 PLATE XI. 
 
 POSSET POT. 
 
 Height 9J Inches. 
 
 lYGS disappeared completely when the use of earthenware 
 became more general, and mugs or other vessels were 
 manufactured in bulk for the table. The intercourse, 
 created by the increase of trade, between the people of 
 ' Staffordshire and those of the neighbouring counties 
 drove the local custom away. Loving cups, that is, large cups having 
 
 one handle on each side, were still made in tortoiseshell or salt-glaze 
 ware, and upon them the workman displayed his greatest skill; but as 
 early as the beginning of the i8th century he abandoned the numberless 
 combinations of handles which he had been so proud of setting round 
 his favourite pieces. The custom of every guest drinking an honoured 
 toast out of the same cup did not pass away altogether, but the 
 
 vessel was no longer made in a style recalling that especial purpose. 
 As we may see by this Posset Pot, the traditional form was altered 
 into one resembling the Delft caudle pots, made at Lambeth, or 
 imported from Holland. It is covered with a lid, and a spout has 
 been placed on each side by which the liquor can be poured out into 
 the drinking mugs. The clay used, the making of the piece, and the 
 style of decoration, are precisely like those of the Tygs, but it is no 
 longer the genuine old vessel of Staffordshire, and if it w'ere not for 
 the inscription all character would be lost. “ The best is not too good" 
 is written round the top in the usual black slip letters, studded over 
 with yellow dots, and underneath are two initials, “ H. L.,” and the 
 
 date “1714.” We are in doubt as to the true meaning of the motto. 
 
 Was it that, even at that date, the delicate and refined Elers ware 
 w'as still so little known that this Posset Pot, with its rough decoration 
 of slip, was considered as one of the best possible works in clay, or 
 did it only allude to the quality of the mixtures brewed in it? For 
 those who take an interest in the vicissitudes of such curiosities we 
 shall add that it was discovered in a cottage, where it was used to 
 keep flowers in on the window sill. 
 
133 
 
 PLATE XII. 
 
 HEXAGONAL SLIP DISH. 
 
 Diameter 13;^ Inches. 
 
 |HIS is a somewhat puzzling piece. The hexagonal shape 
 is as much out of the ordinary way as the ornamentation 
 traced upon it. The pomegranate, the well-formed 
 fleur-de-lys, and the shield in the centre, are so seldom 
 seen on ware of this sort that we cannot ascribe it to 
 any particular place. It was found in Wales, but this gives us no 
 clue, for to our knowledge three more specimens of the same dish 
 have been found in far distant localities. We may surmise it was 
 made in the South of England by some potter who used to visit the 
 capital, where what he saw suggested to him the design of his plates, 
 evidently borrowed from some foreign model. The raised outlines have 
 again been obtained with a graven mould, and the intervals filled in 
 with Slip. It bears the monogram " J. S.," probably the maker’s. 
 
TuSnn 
 
135 
 
 PLATE XIII. 
 
 SLIP JUG. 
 
 Height 9 Inche.s. 
 
 jUGS decorated with slip are seldom met with; not that 
 they were rarely made, but probably because, being of a 
 more handy shape than a Tyg or an ornamental dish, 
 they shared the fate of all crockery in common use, and 
 were soon destroyed. The one represented on this plate 
 was no doubt a presentation piece; it is an imitation of T. Toffs 
 style, if not a work of his own hand. The clay and slips are the same 
 as those of the dishes, and the brown outline was dotted over with 
 the customary white specks; on each side a bird, perhaps meant 
 for a peacock, is perched upon a branch, and the monogram “A. S.,” 
 with the date, “ 1704,” is inscribed on the neck. Not much value 
 seems ever to have been put upon such jugs, or the mugs that are 
 sometimes found; they were never, as was the custom in the South of 
 England, mounted with pewter, or mentioned in any document. 
 However carefully finished a special piece, it was always considered 
 as one of the common productions of the place. A fine brown 
 
 jug in the Hanley Museum, dated 1690, is not only decorated 
 
 with slip, but also with applied parts modelled by hand, a curious 
 figure of Plenty on the front, and notched strips of clay on the sides, 
 recalling the decorations of the Tygs. 
 
137 
 
 PLATE XIV. 
 
 SLIP DISH. 
 
 Diameter 14 Inches. 
 
 j'^^i.i^^OYALTY is again the subject of this dish. A portrait 
 ^ George I. or George II., occupies the 
 
 B centre, and is surrounded with a deer and two birds, 
 
 emblematic of hunting, one of the Royal prerogatives. 
 The materials are the same as those of the early 
 dishes, but the off-hand execution of their slip traceries has given 
 place to a process which provides against any mistakes being made in 
 the pouring out , of the colour through a quill. There is no more 
 improvisation of the design ; on the mould upon which the bat of 
 clay was formed into a platter, the outlines of the figures were deeply 
 sunk, to be reproduced in relief on the piece; and to avoid harshness 
 they were transversely cut with minute strokes, making facets which 
 caught and reflected the light. On such a form many similar pieces 
 could be pressed, while the work of the decorator consisted merely 
 in painting the two coloured slips in the cavities prepared to receive 
 them, a process which, by the bye, has some analogy to enamelling on 
 copper. The head is no longer traced with the conventional scroll 
 that stands for the features of T. Toffs kings, but is evidently 
 copied from some good portrait or engraving. This is certainly a 
 step in advance, but the picture adds little to the merit of the work, 
 which consists in the richness of the glaze and the deep tone of the 
 various slips. These pieces are rarely to be met with. Whenever 
 
 we come across some of them amongst other kinds of ware, they 
 catch the eye and claim attention by the striking and unusual scale of 
 harmony of colour; we should advise those who have not yet noticed 
 it to try the experiment. They look old and strange enough by the 
 side of the more customary contents of the collections, like specimens 
 of an art quite fresh and unknown, and will hold their own for 
 effectiveness wherever they may stand. The notches impressed on the 
 edges answered a double purpose; they are ornamental, and were 
 intended to prevent the dish, which was fired face downwards, from 
 sticking to the bat upon which it rested. 
 
 21 
 
39 
 
 PLATE XV. 
 
 " TYG. 
 
 Height 9 Inches. 
 
 QUAINT shape, evidently derived from some drinking 
 glass of the period. It is one of the most curious 
 
 amongst the great variety to be found in the shape of 
 Tygs. The earliest ones were provided with only two 
 handles placed closely together, so that two friends 
 
 sitting on the same bench had each one side to drink from. Tygs 
 were first of all straight and narrow, and the decoration consisted of 
 applied pieces of light-coloured clay, stamped in separate moulds; 
 
 subsequently they became shorter and more open at the mouth, and 
 slip poured on the surface in fine traceries was alone used. 
 
 The number of handles was sometimes eight or even more, and 
 each was double or triple; the shape sometimes concealed a curious 
 contrivance like a whistle or a puzzle. The substance of this specimen 
 is very coarse, and the trailings of slip are more clumsy than usual. 
 It may probably have been made at Beckley. My friend. Dr. 
 Thomas, of Llandudno, who presented it to me, found it near 
 
 Chester, Two others nearly identical were also found in Cheshire; 
 one of them is now in the Liverpool Museum; neither has any date 
 
 or inscription. 
 
'Jtiililn 
 
141 
 
 PLATE XVI. 
 
 CRADLES. 
 
 Length io Inche.s. 
 
 n OTTERY is not only associated with the material 
 necessities of man, but also with his feelings and 
 affections, and has from the most ancient times been 
 used to commemorate some momentous event in his 
 career. An early British urn speaks to us of death 
 and mysterious burial rites; a cradle of brown clay recalls the 
 christening festivities in families of the Midland counties in the 17th 
 century. The potter has always taken a pleasure in putting his best 
 work into presents for his friends. In France, on the morning that 
 followed the wedding, an ectielle, or nicely decorated covered bowl 
 with two handles, was always offered by the guests to the married 
 couple. In England, on the occasion of the birth of a first child, a 
 cradle made of clay or more precious material was presented to the 
 parents; the custom has not died out altogether, for on a similar 
 occurrence such a testimonial is presented by subscription to a man 
 holding a public office. Sometimes the present took the form of an 
 inscribed mug; but earthenware mugs and clay cradles are now out 
 of fashion. By the number still to be found in Staffordshire, where 
 these cradles were made, either of Slip-decorated ware, Salt-glaze, or 
 Cream-colour, we may infer that presents of this sort were a tradition 
 peculiar to the district. They were worked up in the plainest fashion; 
 no moulds or models were required, and any workman could make 
 them. Some flattened bats joined together sufficed for the shape, and 
 knobs, rolled in the hands, were stuck at every corner by way 
 of decoration. Some of them were afterwards ornamented with an 
 inscription or a pattern of coloured slip. The first one given on this 
 plate is coated over with red clay rudely incised and covered with 
 manganese glaze; it is inscribed, “ Latron IVhevecors, 
 is small but Love is all!' The other, of a ware similar to the Toft 
 dishes, has the name of “ Ralph Simpson!' These are of a small 
 size, but we possess several others of very large dimensions. 
 
143 
 
 PLATE XVII. 
 
 RED PUZZLE JUG. 
 
 Height 12 Inches. 
 
 pKE the red Tyg, this piece cannot be attributed to 
 
 Staffordshire, but must have been made either at 
 
 Wrotham or at some other place in the South of 
 England. It is a very strange shape—a ring with a 
 tall neck and a high foot. The Owl Jugs in Mr. 
 
 Willett’s collection are made precisely in the same manner; on the 
 bright red ground, yellow and red slips have been run together so as 
 to form a marbling; the plain parts are incised with lines, but there 
 is neither date nor inscription. 
 
 On the background are sketched a brown mug, with a lion deeply 
 cut into the brown, coating, showing the yellow clay of the body, and 
 
 a money-box decorated with slip; on such money-boxes the old potter 
 
 liked to display his humorous fancy. Upon this one a simple allegory 
 is carried out by the representation of a hen and her chickens; the 
 mother and the little ones, arrayed all round, are figured by twisted 
 bits of clay, not much above the artistic manipulations of a pastry-cook; 
 sometimes the piece is more complicated, and has several boxes set 
 upon each other, each having a different sized hole at the bottom, to 
 admit only of a certain coin dropping into each compartment. 
 
 I 
 
H5 
 
 PLATE XVIII. 
 
 SLIP DISH—GEORGE TAYLOR. 
 
 Diameter i6 | Inches. 
 
 PIECE of handiwork showing an individual taste, or a 
 certain amount of skill, is always exceptionally valued 
 comparison with what has been done to a pattern. 
 Hence it was that the old Slip dishes generally bore 
 the name of the maker, who was proud to affix his 
 signature to those unwonted proofs of his talent. Whether complete 
 or imperfect, these works were equally admired by the possessor, who 
 no doubt had never seen them surpassed ; and as many are perforated for 
 suspension, we may suppose they were kept as desirable ornaments, and 
 not intended to be put to any practical use. When in course of time the 
 process of casting and moulding permitted the reproduction of the same 
 piece by the score, the potter did not think it worth while to sign 
 them any longer; it was only as a safeguard against imposition, 
 and as a necessity of the trade, that, many years later, Josiah Wedgwood 
 thought of marking with his name the productions of his manufactory. 
 
 The subject represented on the Slip dishes were generally such as 
 appealed to the imagination. Sometimes the decoration consisted of 
 marvellous and hyperbolical flowers or monstrous animals, though more 
 frequently preference was given to the figures of the King and his 
 Queen, personages who in the minds of the simple inhabitants of the 
 outlandish districts were looked upon as almost supernatural. In the 
 same manner as the Italian artist exerted his fancy in designing the 
 mythological god, the angels, or the saints, the potter of Staffordshire 
 tried to represent royalty, of whom he formed a conception quite as 
 confused and conventional. It would certainly be difficult to be less 
 realistic than George Taylor, who signed this dish, has been in the 
 treatment of his royal group. He has evidently endeavoured to emulate 
 Thomas Toft ; the decoration is, however, still more primitive, and it 
 is clear that Taylor's loyalty was above his capacity as a draughtsman. 
 His name is not mentioned amongst the potters of either Burslem or 
 Hanley. 
 
 22 
 
147 
 
 PLATE XIX. 
 
 COMBED-WARE DISH. 
 
 Diameter 8i Inches. 
 
 Y this process most of the ware of the early Staffordshire 
 potter was decorated; it was oniy in very especial 
 circumstances that a piece was enriched with figures or 
 flowers of trailed slip. While the ground was still in 
 the wet state, lines of brown slip were poured upon 
 
 the yellow clay, and then with a many-pointed tool, made of wire or 
 leather, like those used by the wood grainer, they were combed down 
 to imitate the veining of marble, and so an unlimited variety of effects 
 was easily obtainable. An excavation seldom takes place at Hanley or 
 Burslem without bringing to the surface heaps of fragments of this 
 
 ware, but complete pieces are getting very scarce, and are, indeed, 
 
 almost unobtainable; nearly all specimens now preserved by collectors 
 have been dug out of the ground. Half a century ago ware of this 
 
 kind was still commonly used by poor people, but it has now 
 
 completely disappeared. 
 
 Upon the dish reproduced on this plate the comb has been first 
 drawn downwards, and then in the opposite way, in such a manner as 
 . to make the indentations run into each other. On the small pipkin the 
 marbling is performed all in the same direction, but it is varied by 
 
 the handling of the comb. This is a pottery process quite peculiar to 
 England. The transparency of the brown veining imparts to the 
 
 coarsest piece a delicacy of detail and a deepness of tone which recalls 
 
 a finely-streaked marble. This ware was the precursor of countless 
 
 imitations of Agate and other hard stones; later on, four or five slips 
 of different colours were poured on simultaneously, and were run in 
 
 fanciful scrolls without being mixed with each other. In England, the 
 
 surface marbling was brought to the highest degree of excellence; 
 
 though different descriptions of mixed clays were also manufactured 
 on the Continent, they never reached the same perfection. 
 
149 
 
 PLATE XX. 
 
 SLIP DISH. 
 
 Diameter 14 Inches. 
 
 OU are welcome to laugh at this grotesque performance 
 
 of the jolly and funny old potter; the dish was never 
 intended for aught but to induce a gentle merriment. 
 Do not forget that the maker never anticipated that he 
 was working for you or me, the sensitive and squeamish 
 children of a refined century, and that he might one day have to 
 
 undergo our criticism. The noble and solemn Greek interred his vases 
 in stately tombs, foreseeing that in after ages they would come out, 
 proclaiming the elevation of his thoughts and the splendour of his art. 
 The rough workman of Staffordshire did his work on the spur of the 
 moment; it was a morning’s joke, destined to be forgotten by the 
 
 evening. This may be one of the sarcastic presents customarily 
 
 sent on St. Valentine’s day. A neighbour’s wife, or perhaps his own, 
 had shown herself somewhat liable to the white sin of curiosity or 
 
 interference, and to her the anonymous potter sends this cutting 
 
 allegory. In the dish are depicted Lot’s wife, two angels blowing 
 trumpets, and the pillar of salt; and for fear that the intention should 
 not be forcibly enough expressed, an inscription is added, "Remember 
 Lot's Wife',' with the date, “ 1727,” to show that it was intended to 
 
 relate to some particular occurrence. Scriptural jokes were freely 
 
 indulged in between the period of the Reformation and the appearance 
 of Methodism, which altered so much the manners of the people in 
 the Potteries district. 
 
 The outlines of the subject have been graved on the pitcher form 
 upon which the dish has been potted with the usual yellow clay, the 
 cavities enclosed by the raised lines being afterwards filled in with 
 black and red slip. 
 
151 
 
 PLATE XXI. 
 
 SCRATCHED-WARE JUG. 
 
 Height 8^ Inches. 
 
 LTHOUGH the shape of this jug recalls the early ones, 
 it is of a rather modern date, to judge from the 
 doggerel verse scratched upon it; it is made of 
 common brick clay, coated with yellow slip; the 
 
 coating was scraped off with a tool so as to form a 
 decoration—the sun on the front, a bird and flowers on one side, 
 and on the other the following inscription:—■ 
 
 “ COME FILL ME FULL WITH LIQUOR SWEET 
 FOR THAT IS GOOD WHEN FRIENDS DO MEET 
 BUT PRAY TAKE CARE DON’t LET ME FALL 
 LEAST YOU LIST YOUR LIQUOR JUG AND ALL.— 
 
 CATHERINE DAVIES AGED 8 YEARS." 
 
 The date has been obliterated by the person herself for whom 
 
 the jug was made; when she became old she did not like to have 
 
 her age so recorded, and therefore ground the figures off, so, at least, 
 
 we were told by her grandchildren. 
 
 A jug decorated by the same process, in Mr. Willett’s collection, 
 is dated 1708. 
 
153 
 
 PLATE XXII. 
 
 ENGLISH DELFT DISH. 
 
 Diameter 13 Inches. 
 
 HERE is plenty of evidence that after William of 
 Orange ascended the throne he endeavoured to foster 
 in England the making of the ware of his own country; 
 he patronised the Lambeth potters, and blue and 
 
 white Delft tiles were soon largely employed for fire¬ 
 
 places, shop windows, and wall decoration; at his suggestion a number 
 of dishes were painted with the portraits of himself and the Queen, 
 and these being lavishly distributed all over the country, spread his 
 popularity. These dishes may have been made in every factory in 
 
 England, judging from the unequal quality of their workmanship; some 
 bear mere barbarous outlines of the king’s features; others, on the 
 contrary, are decorated with equestrian figures, cleverly drawn, or 
 
 elaborate representations of the royal couple. The one we have selected 
 for reproduction is, we think, unquestionably the work of an English, 
 hand; we cannot speak very highly of its style of decoration; the 
 trees are daubed on with a sponge, and the colours are not over 
 
 bright, but it has a look of genuineness about it which does not 
 allow of the supposition that it was painted in Holland ; it also 
 
 presents the peculiarity, never occurring on Dutch pieces, of a back 
 
 glazed with lead, instead of the stanniferous enamel that covers the 
 
 inside. But whether made at Lambeth or at some other place where 
 
 Delft ware was manufactured, we are unable to say; no marks have 
 
 so far been found upon any of these dishes to help us to their 
 
 identification. 
 
 The four small vases, with entwined handles, seen in front of the 
 
 I 
 
 dish, are similar in shape to some pieces made of coarse clay decorated 
 with Slip. The piece is called “a nest of cups/’ and may be considered 
 as a form peculiar to the English potter. It has the thin pinkish glaze 
 and the hard body of the sack bottles, and was probably made at the 
 
 same time and at the same place, that is to say, many years before 
 
 the William and Mary dishes. J 
 
155 
 
 PLATE XXIII. 
 
 ENGLISH DELFT. DISH. 
 
 Diameter 13 Inches. 
 
 E may well ask ourselves the puzzling question—What 
 has become of the immense quantity of English Delft 
 ware turned out at the twenty manufactories that at 
 one time were working at Lambeth, and at the 
 
 numerous pot works of Liverpool and Bristol, where 
 for years it remained the staple trade of the town ? In our days, it is 
 with the greatest difficulty that we can pick up a few stray specimens 
 of British make amongst the crowd of common pieces sent over by 
 
 the Dutch exporters. In many cases we can only trust to the style 
 
 of painting, and this is not always a safe guide, because many of 
 
 those that bear a foreign design may have been made in England. 
 
 Little doubt need be entertained about this particular dish having 
 been painted in England; in no way does it recall any of the continental 
 ware by its very peculiar glaze, drawing, or colour; the inside is 
 coated with a thin greenish enamel, and the back, glazed with lead, is 
 tinted with tortoiseshell colours. The drawing in brown and blue of 
 the group and accessory trees and foliage is most primitive, and, 
 although executed with great care, does not show a hand long trained 
 to this sort of painting; it looks like a piece on which a common 
 workman has tried to surpass himself. 
 
 Eve’s temptation was a subject frequently reproduced on dishes of 
 this ware, but many are still more clumsily treated, with a mere 
 outline and a good deal of sponge work; they are occasionally found 
 in cottages along with similar dishes painted with the portraits of 
 
 William and Mary, Queen Anne, the Duke of Marlborough, and other 
 celebrated personages. This is about the only scriptural subject which 
 was ever a favourite with the English potter, and it is restricted to 
 the decoration of Delft ware. It was probably at first an imitation 
 
 of some foreign dish that found its way into one of the leading 
 
 manufactories, and thence was copied over and over again. 
 
 The specimen given on this plate was formerly in Professor A. 
 
 Church’s collection. 
 
 
157 
 
 PLATE XXIV. 
 
 ENGLISH DELFT PUZZLE JUG. 
 
 Height 8 Inches. 
 
 ,T Liverpool the manufacture of Delft ware was so 
 successfully carried on, that for body and glaze it 
 could fairly compare with any of the continental faience. 
 This puzzle jug is a good though not uncommon 
 example of the Liverpool productions; several others 
 in our collection, exactly similar to this in every other respect, are 
 painted with English verses, and so more obviously show their origin; 
 but here we must remark a particular stiffness in the style of decoration, 
 which, notwithstanding the evident imitation of a Dutch pattern, is very 
 characteristic, and may help to the identification of pieces of a less 
 special shape. The glaze is very brilliant and white, the blue pure 
 in colour, and the clay, probably imported from Holland, friable, and 
 slightly fired. A certain awkwardness in the handling of the brush is 
 often to be noticed on the painted English Delft pieces; at the same 
 time we must bear in mind that upon some authenticated specimens 
 of the Liverpool factories, for instance on Penningtmis large punch 
 bowls, the painters showed themselves on a level with their foreign 
 rivals. 
 
 The making of Delft ware never interfered in England with the 
 development of local productions, which continued to be made with 
 native materials. Seldom do we find English Delft in pieces of general 
 use in the country; for example, few, if any, tea-pots, mugs, or 
 common Jugs are to be met with. It was limited rather to fancy 
 articles, such as decorative tiles, vases, and dessert plates; most of it 
 was no doubt exported to the colonies, and the small quantity that 
 remained was spread all over the country, and is now, with few 
 exceptions, mistaken for Dutch ware. 
 

159 
 
 PLATE XXV. 
 
 ELERS WARE. 
 
 Height 4 Inches. 
 
 NDUSTRIAL art is constantly influenced by circumstances 
 which create fresh wants. French faience owes its 
 improvements to the ruinous war with Holland; the 
 nobility had to sell their family plate to eke out the 
 failing resources of the king. The potters of Rouen 
 and other places supplied a new kind of earthenware, which, although 
 moderate in price, was not unworthy of having a place upon the table 
 or dresser. When tea was introduced into England, its use at once 
 became so general that cups and teapots could not be imported from 
 China in sufificient quantities; and this new want spreading among 
 all classes of society, a powerful impulse was given to the production 
 of a more delicate and refined sort of ware than that which had been 
 manufactured before for common purposes. The Elers having settled 
 in the country at that time, found scope for their art in the imitation 
 of the dainty little vessels then thought indispensable for brewing the 
 costly beverage, and their red tea-pots and cups found a ready market, 
 at very high prices. We here give two specimens of the red porcelain 
 they made in Staffordshire, years before Bottcher acquired great celebrity 
 for making the same sort of ware in Germany; it is always unglazed, 
 but the texture is so dense that it can, like the German pieces, be cut 
 and polished on the lapidary’s wheel like any hard stone; we have 
 made the experiment ourselves, and it has been attended with success. 
 The etching will show how simple the decoration always was; a 
 branch of tea leaves stamped on the tea-pot, and a conventional flower 
 on the cream jug, were deemed a sufficient ornament ; all the merit of 
 these pieces lies in the perfection with which they are thrown and 
 
i6o 
 
 PLATE XXV. 
 
 turned, and the finish of the lines of the moulding. Very different 
 from the imitations, these are very thin and sharply made, and we 
 have no hesitation in giving them as genuine examples; a few 
 authenticated bits bearing the same characteristics are preserved in the 
 local museums, mostly toy pieces of diminutive size, sparingly decorated, 
 but no fragments have ever to our knowledge been dug out to 
 enlighten us either upon this red ware or upon any other ware 
 the Elers may have manufactured. Tradition has it that they 
 carried away and buried all their imperfect pieces in a distant 
 place. In an expedition to the site of their works which we made in 
 company with Mr. T. Hulme, of Burslem, we found the excavation 
 where they obtained their red clay, but all the diggings we attempted 
 for “vouchers” were completely fruitless, and the oldest people engaged 
 upon the place told us that they did not remember any fragments of 
 pottery having ever been turned out. It is then only by the delicacy 
 of their make that we can, for the present, identify the genuine Elers 
 pieces. It has been thought that they were sometimes stamped with a 
 Chinese-looking mark, but the imitations are also marked in the same 
 way. 
 
i6i 
 
 PLATE XXVI. i 
 
 “G. R.” RED TEA-POT. 
 
 Height s Inches. 
 
 IKE all imitations, this tea-pot comes short of the qualities 
 of the model. The materials are those employed by 
 the Elers, and the decoration is stamped with seals in 
 the regular way; it is cleverly turned, and the lid fits 
 to a nicety, but the clay has not been so finely sifted, 
 and the impression lacks the wonted neatness; the side figures show a 
 decided German style; this might lead to the supposition that they 
 were made with old seals borrowed from the foreigners, but in the 
 centre is an allegorical subject, which by the two letters “G R" 
 impressed on the top we may take as representing the marriage of 
 George II.; and there can be no mistake as to the actual date of the 
 piece, besides, the spout and handle are pressed from moulds used for 
 cauliflower tea-pots, and, as we have already remarked, a pressed part 
 is never to be found in the Elers ware. 
 
 Most of the red pieces that are now mistaken for their work are, 
 like this one, very much later than the early red porcelain of the 
 Dutchmen. A quantity of fragments of engine-turned red ware were 
 dug out from the Bell Works at Burslem, where Josiah IVedgTuood 
 had his first manufactory, but the body is very inferior in quality. 
 
 24 
 

 
1 63 
 
 PLATE XXVII. 
 
 SALT-GLAZE TEA-POT, 
 
 WITH STAMPED ORNAMENTS. 
 
 Height 6 Inches. 
 
 ASSUMING that the Elers made the white or drab Salt- 
 glaze ware in the Staffordshire Potteries, they must 
 have produced pieces similar to this one, so much 
 
 alike are the ornaments stamped on the turned body 
 and those they used for their red ware. But here 
 
 again we see that the style of decoration is hardly a safe rule to go by, 
 as imitations were afterwards made presenting the same character. In this 
 example the handle and spout are of the crab-stock pattern, and were 
 cast in a mould; the piece is of a large size and completely white, 
 and all this being considered, we cannot safely attribute it to the 
 Dutchmen. The attribution is less doubtful when we deal with 
 
 specimens which have the identical ornaments made of white pipe-clay 
 applied upon the drab body; some of them are washed inside with 
 white, and might be for this reason the work of Astbury, the 
 immediate successor of the Elers. Vine leaves or rosettes are also 
 found on buff pieces as on the early red tea-pots; but the same 
 
 ornamentation occurs upon cream-colour ware certainly more modern in 
 date, so the puzzle is most perplexing, and only m special cases can 
 it be solved by even an experienced eye. 
 

 i 
 
 i 
 
 ; 
 
 f 
 
 ; 
 
 i 
 
 
i6s 
 
 PLATE XXVIII. 
 
 SALT-GLAZE SQUARE TEA-POT. 
 
 Height sh Inches. 
 
 HE cutting of moulds from a solid mass of gypsum, a 
 method practised for the early pieces of Salt-glaze, must 
 have induced the block cutter to contrive many of his 
 models in a square shape, so much easier was it for 
 him to sink his ornamentation upon flat parts than in 
 the curved surface presented by the hollow fractions of a cylinder. 
 House-shaped tea-pots and other articles were conceived on this principle. 
 In this particular instance four square bats have been sufficient for the 
 construction of the piece j horizontal mouldings cut of a proper size form 
 the foot and the top; the mould has been engraved with a Chinese 
 key running along the principal lines, and the ever-recurring shell. 
 The spout has again the serpent, the arm, and the head of the 
 house-shaped tea-pot, and both may have been the work of the same 
 hand. Before the firing, zaffre was rubbed into the cavities by the 
 process employed for the scratched blue ware; but the piece being of 
 the wafer sort, and the details very sharp, we think it somewhat 
 anterior to the regular scratched blue. Cobalt and zaffre had been but 
 recently introduced in the Potteries, probably in consequence of the 
 trials of Delft ware made by T. Heath, of Lane Delph, in 1710. 
 Early pieces of Staffordshire ware do not exhibit a trace of its use, 
 and it is not comprised amongst the metallic oxides that were 
 employed to decorate the Tortoiseshell. It was sparingly applied on 
 the Salt-glaze in the shape of dust long before Cream-colour was 
 painted in blue. Several tea-pots of the same type are in existence; 
 Mr. A. Frank has one upon which the raised pattern has the delicacy 
 of the work of a silversmith. 
 
 

67 
 
 PLATE XXIX. 
 
 SALT-GLAZE GROUP. 
 
 Height 5 Inches. 
 
 T is surprising to find such a piece as this, evidently the 
 fruit of a whimsical imagination, to which no special 
 purpose can be attributed, made at a time when 
 
 modelling was confined to the raised ornaments which 
 
 were sparingly used to complete smoothly-turned shapes, 
 and when fancy could only exercise itself on the commonest articles of 
 daily use. We may ask ourselves whether this dignified lady and 
 gentleman, attired in their Sunday clothes, and resting upon their 
 
 homely settle, are the portraits of “the Squire and his wife,” or merely 
 the fanciful creation of the maker’s inventive mind? If the latter, the 
 choice of the subject may be said to be quite on a level with its 
 
 primitive execution, and the style of modelling had to undergo a great 
 
 and rapid change before the modellers of the Potteries could produce 
 
 the varied, ingenious, and clever figures which were made a few years 
 afterwards. 
 
 We can see by the awkwardness of this group that it was not a 
 common practice at that time to turn out a work of this kind; the 
 costumes of the figures refer it to the period of Slip dishes, and 
 it suggests to us the idea of Thomas Toft trying his hand at 
 
 sculpture. The piece is entirely made by hand, with the white stone 
 
 body of Staffordshire, but it has the peculiarity of being partially 
 coloured with patches of brown^ made with the oxide of iron used for 
 the brown ware of Nottingham, a combination seldom if ever before 
 met with. This fact throws a doubt upon its origin, but we have no 
 hesitation in saying that it is one of the earliest examples of Salt- 
 glaze. 
 

 
169 
 
 PLATE XXX. 
 
 SALT-GLAZE HOUSE TEA-POT. 
 
 Height 5 Inches. 
 
 ARGE numbers of Salt-glaze tea-pots were made in the 
 shape of a house, sometimes having the royal arms 
 over the door, and a sentry on each side, but more 
 frequently reproducing some private dwelling. 
 
 Considering how proud a man is when he builds 
 a house of his own, and how every allusion to the subject pleasantly 
 tickles his vanity, may not such a piece have been thought an 
 appropriate present to offer to a friend on such an occasion ? What 
 gives weight to our supposition with regard to these numerous tea-pots 
 is, that they are never made to represent a curious building, or an 
 ambitious palace, but the square and common-place home of a well-to- 
 do Englishman. 
 
 Without asserting that every Staffordshire tea-pot was intended to 
 convey a special meaning, we must admit, from many examples, that 
 people in olden times were often prompted to Srnbody their thoughts 
 in a tangible shape—what they could not write they expressed in a 
 graphic form. Lovers offered to each other a symbolical tea-pot in the 
 shape of a heart; for the man of politics there was the tea-pot 
 commemorating a successful election, or a great victory like the taking 
 of Portobello by Admiral Vernon; and we are not at all sure that 
 the Bacchus tea-pot was not a sarcastic present to an habitual 
 drunkard, forestalling in this forcible way the teachings of “teetotalism. 
 
 The spout of the specimen here produced presents a mysterious 
 riddle; it is formed by a stretched hand holding a serpent; on the 
 lower part grins a curious head. The meaning of this, if indeed it 
 has any, we cannot fathom, and will not try to explain. 
 
 25 
 
‘71 
 
 PLATE XXXI, 
 
 FOUR-LOBED TEA-POT. 
 
 Height 4J Inches. 
 
 E could not imagine a more dainty little piece; it was 
 well adapted to its probable use, and made a charming 
 present to a lady. The fact of its coming from an 
 outlandish district rather enhanced its value and interest 
 
 in the eyes of the fair Londoner. A replica of the 
 
 same model in our collection is enamelled with a subject in colour, 
 and is a complete representation of English ceramic art at its best. 
 We also possess a smaller four-lobed tea-pot, but of a straight shape, 
 resting on three delicate claws, and embossed with the usual group 
 of shells, oak leaves, and acorns; parts are stained with blue, and the 
 
 details are very sharply cut. Is it a toy, a gimcrack, or a tea-pot ? 
 
 It is rather difficult to decide. 
 
 \ 
 
173 
 
 PLATE XXXII. 
 
 CAMEL TEA-POT. SAUCE BOAT. 
 
 Height s Inches. 
 
 Height 3 Inches. 
 
 JEW shapes were required to set forth in all its originality 
 the new Salt-glaze ware, which was from the first 
 
 manufactured with materials so different from those 
 
 which had been used before; public taste had already 
 got tired of globular shapes turned on the wheel, and 
 having a uniform profile, either left plain or insufficiently diversified 
 by applications of meagre flowers or leaves. The secret of the 
 manufacture of white ware could not long be kept amongst a few, 
 
 but soon became public property, and the competing potters had to 
 exercise their wits in bringing out striking novelties, endeavouring in 
 that way to outdo each other. The imagination of modellers on their 
 mettle gave vent to all sorts of inventions, verging sometimes on 
 extravagance; and the process of casting lately introduced permitted them 
 to execute their most complicated conceptions. There was no natural 
 
 object, no impracticable representation of animal or figure that was 
 not thought fit to be turned into a tea-pot. A camel, for instance, 
 could not at first sight be considered a very promising subject for 
 that purpose. Perhaps on this account it was often preferred, and 
 the difficulties surmounted in different ways. The one shown on 
 
 this plate represents a camel of a rather naturalistic shape, but others 
 combine, in a highly conventional style, the ribs of the shell pattern with 
 the general outlines of the kneeling animal. Squirrels, bears, cats, 
 and other animals were also adapted, and were in all cases made 
 ornamental with scrolls or flowers embossed all over, thus avoiding 
 the ludicrous effect always evinced by a too realistic production. 
 
'74 
 
 PLATE XXXII. 
 
 Underneath is a small sauce-boat resting on three claws; this is 
 
 of an earlier period. It is one of those pieces which, by their shape 
 and their overcrowded decoration, have led to the supposition that 
 sometimes discarded moulds from some silversmith’s manufactory were 
 used for the making of Salt-glaze ware; but a cursory examination 
 will suffice to show that the subjects were carved in the style of the 
 
 block-cutter, and do not resemble the chasing of plate; they present 
 
 only the outward likeness that the works of the same epoch and 
 country bear to each other. This specimen is decorated with a 
 
 lion, an eagle, and the nondescript bird which is often taken to be 
 
 the liver of the Liverpool arms, combined with foliage and flowers. 
 It is as delicate in its make as a silver piece, and small patches of 
 
 blue paste have been interspersed at random amongst the raised- 
 
 ornamentation. Later on blue paste was used to apply neat blue 
 relief upon the white ground. 
 
 Sauce-boats, tea ware, and pickle trays were the first productions 
 of the improving Potteries, and very especial care was bestowed upon 
 them, to wit, the remarkable piece belonging to Professor A. Church, 
 upon which the Seven Champions of Christendom are elaborately 
 
 represented. Table ware was only attempted much later on; even at 
 the Worcester China Manufactory they avoided in the first years 
 making anything of large size; and some contemporaries expressed 
 their astonishment at the want of enterprise of the English China 
 makers, who had not so far tried to compete with the plates and 
 dishes imported from the East, the only ones that could then be 
 procured for dinner services. 
 
PLATE XXXIII. 
 
 SALT-GLAZE S H E L L^ T E A-POT. 
 
 Height 5 I^■CH£S. 
 
 HIS piece is one of the most strikingly typical examples of 
 the mould-cutter’s art, and plainly illustrates the peculiar 
 style of an ornamentation sunk and engraved, and how 
 it differs from modelled relief. The oval shape was 
 first chosen, as being more convenient to be worked 
 out in two pieces, instead of three, which the making of a circular 
 form would necessitate. No foot or separate neck has been added to 
 the simple, purse-like profile, these would have created a difficulty in 
 the casting; but to take away its plainness and make it pleasing and 
 handsome, the form was carved in the hollow with all the devices that 
 could be easily produced with the burin. The pecten shell was peculiarly 
 adapted for this sort of work; we can see how each rib was readily 
 formed by one single stroke of the tool, and how in the same way 
 the flowers and snakes that appear on the piece could easily be made. 
 The mould-cutter frequently availed himself of the fitness of the ribbed 
 shell for his requirements, and there are indeed very few specimens 
 of early Salt-glaze ware upon which it does not play the most important 
 part in the decoration. 
 

177 
 
 PLATE XXXIV. 
 
 SALT-GLAZE COFFEE-POT. 
 
 Height Inches. 
 
 AST very thin in Stone-ware Slip, the top and 
 bottom having been afterwards turned on the lathe, 
 
 so as to remove any superfluous substance and 
 
 shape the moulding, this piece is of surprising 
 
 lightness. More than ever the familiar pecten shell 
 
 has been brought into requisition; a number of them of various 
 
 forms and dimensions were disposed somewhat in the same way as 
 
 the conventional honeysuckle is arranged in Greek ornament. The 
 mould had to be combined in three parts, and each was treated as an 
 
 independent panel, separated from the next by the seam, which remained 
 
 apparent, and thus some advantage was derived from one of the 
 necessities of fabrication. In our time, the line marked by the junction 
 of the mould would have been considered as very objectionable, and all 
 possible means would have been taken to conceal it under an 
 
 ineffectual combination of details. The pot rests on three claws, 
 resembling those seen on the silver pieces of that time, and the 
 
 handle is made by hand with a flat strip of clay, bent to suit 
 
 the shape, and pinched with the fingers at the lower part. Although 
 
 the earliest models with corhpartments may all be similar in design, 
 
 we have always noticed that each compartment was carved separately, with 
 slight variations of lines; never were they obtained by an impression 
 
 of the first one; this last device, on the contrary, was always 
 practised as soon as plaster moulds were brought into use. 
 
 26 
 
179 
 
 PLATE XXXV. 
 
 OCTAGONAL SALT-GLAZE TEA-POT. 
 
 Height 4i- Inches. 
 
 HEN a piece was intended to be produced by casting, 
 the model was seldom made of a round shape; for 
 
 these latter, turning, with application of stamped ornament, 
 was generally preferred; for a cast piece, pentagonal and 
 lobed shapes were combined, and the seams of the 
 mould were, as we have already remarked, used to divide the sections 
 from each other by raised lines. In this instance eight panels were 
 necessary to complete the tea-pot, and the seams have been contrived 
 so as to form vertical mouldings carefully connected with the 
 
 corresponding horizontal lines. 
 
 We cannot discover any connection between the complicated subjects 
 carved round this specimen; and the etching need not be supplemented 
 by any description beyond saying that, from the style of panelling, the 
 mixture of mythological figures, fables. Renaissance animals, and the 
 arms of France, seen on both sides, we fancy they must have been 
 
 borrowed from some carved oak chest of French origin. Delicate cups 
 
 and saucers, and octagonal jugs, belonging to the same set, but having 
 a great variety of figures and ornaments, are sometimes found; of this 
 sort is also the celebrated Shakespeare jug. 
 
 Amongst the blocks lately added to our collection is one of those 
 from which these same tea-pots were made. It came from Enoch Wood’s 
 Museum, and was kindly presented to us by Messrs, Minton; it is of 
 hard yellow Stone-ware, and is not glazed with salt, as we generally 
 find them. Upon such blocks moulds were pressed in clay, and after 
 having been fired they were practically indestructible; sometimes the 
 
i8o 
 
 PLATE XXXV. 
 
 clay was only dried. An old workman of Hanley was, a few years 
 ago, still casting very neat pieces in moulds of dry clay, by what he 
 called the old process. 
 
 Many of the old routine ways have long continued in the Potteries, 
 and have outlived the new-fangled fashions which successively give 
 way to one another; consequently from the mere make of a 
 particular specimen, to fix the period to which it belongs is often a matter 
 of guess-work, and in the absence of a date never goes beyond mere 
 probability. We possess an earthenware cream jug, also in eight 
 compartments, with embossed subjects. The mould was constructed on 
 the old system, and the piece, thinly cast and not pressed, has all the 
 characteristics of an early specimen; the little figures, very numerous and 
 varied, are as sharp in detail and quaint in design as on the finest 
 models of Salt-glaze, and the whole is touched up with tortoiseshell colours. 
 Two initials, “ H. R.,” are scratched under the bottom, and the top 
 has the name of “John Lticas ” painted in blue. This shows the jug 
 to be a presentation piece, and we may take it to be the work of an 
 old workman, who was pleased to revive for once the best fashions of 
 his younger days; otherwise, were we to consider it a regular production 
 of the period, when finding it, to our amazement, dated as late as 
 1790, nothing would remain for the collector but to declare his utter 
 incapability to distinguish such ware from what was manufactured in 
 the beginning of the same century. 
 
i8i 
 
 PLATE XXXVL 
 
 G. R.” SALT-GLAZE MUG, 
 
 Height 6 Inches. 
 
 HEAD TEA-CADDY. 
 
 1 HOUGH evidently made with the view of competing with 
 the Stone-ware imported from Germany, this mug is 
 thinner and whiter than the pieces it strove to emulate; 
 it is likewise incised with deep lines, coloured over with 
 dark blue, and has a raised medallion of the king 
 stuck on the central part. The imitation is by no means a servile 
 one; the body is the same as that used for the ordinary Salt-glaze 
 pieces, and does not resemble the Flemish grey stone-ware, of which 
 many examples, also stamped with the monogram “ G. R.,” remain for 
 comparison; the decoration is clumsy, being even below the awkward 
 scrawling seen on the English scratched blue, the colour having been 
 only coarsely spread with a rag soaked in cobalt. Usually these pieces 
 are attributed to Fulham, but we know that a much better imitation 
 of the foreign article was produced there, and fragments dug up in 
 the Staffordshire Potteries warrant our supposing that they were 
 manufactured in that locality. 
 
 Jugs, mugs, and jars are frequently met with, and they are all 
 cleverly thrown, turned, and handled. They were, no doubt, commonly 
 made for the use of public-houses, and bear the royal effigy, with the 
 monogram “ G. R.,” which stood then as a guarantee of their being 
 
 of the legal capacity. We think they must be referred to the reign 
 
 of George II. or George III. A small jug in the Liverpool Museum, 
 identical in body and shape with the piece represented in this plate, 
 is said to have been made by J. Malkin, in 1690; but little reliance 
 can be placed on a family tradition which no other facts come to 
 corroborate. 
 
 We give on the same plate a curious tea-caddy of cream-colour 
 
 earthenware, of which more will be said when we describe the head 
 
 tea-pot belonging to the same set. 
 
i83 
 
 PLATE XXXVII. 
 
 SALT-GLAZE BASKET. 
 
 Length 13 Inches. 
 
 Y slow degrees the middle class became used to more 
 refinement in the service of the table. From Germany 
 the finest samples of Continental porcelain were daily 
 brought over, amongst them dessert plates and dishes 
 elegantly perforated. For the modest admirer who could 
 not afford the expense of such costly luxuries, fruit baskets and plates, 
 
 cut out with an equal delicacy, were manufactured in Salt-glaze ware, 
 
 and being comparatively cheap, met with a ready sale. Some vyere 
 made like real baskets, others with open fancy work, the intricacy of 
 the design dispensing with any addition of painting or gilding. The 
 
 one we give on this plate shows the peculiarity that, while the 
 ornamentation of the outside is obtained by the casting of the piece 
 in a plaster mould, the inside is stamped over with groups of flowers 
 impressed by means of brass seals, thus uniting the early process with 
 the new one, and showing the superiority of the earlier for neatness 
 of execution. Most delicate perforations were also practised upon 
 
 thinly-turned pieces with iron tools, cutting out the hole at once in 
 the required shape; so by “ punching,” as it was called, the top of 
 a jug or the rim of a plate could, with very little trouble, be made 
 to look marvellously worked. Some of the smallest pieces of basket 
 work were pressed in brass moulds, but the use of these was restricted 
 to the making of minute articles, which could be stamped at one blow, 
 such as spoons, pickle leaves, or diminutive gadrooned cups, in this 
 case the embossments show on both sides of the piece, one being the 
 counterpart of the other. Baskets were also made in tortoiseshell, but 
 more especially in cream-coloured ware, and at a later period became 
 a very important item amongst the productions of the English potter. 
 


i8s 
 
 PLATE XXXVIII. 
 
 SALT-GLAZE SOUP TUREEN. 
 
 Length ii Inches. 
 
 REPLICA of the soup tureen here represented is now 
 in the Jermyn Street Museum; it bears the date, 1763, 
 and the initials “ J. B.” scratched in the clay at the 
 bottom. These two letters might stand for the name 
 of John Baddeley, who was at that time one of the 
 best potters of Staffordshire, and was making ware of precisely the 
 same description; we cannot say positively that it may be considered 
 as his mark, but in support of such a supposition, we can identify the 
 pattern as being the work of Aaron Wood, the modeller he employed, 
 and who has signed with his name more than one block belonging to 
 the same set. It is the same basket-work (diaper of dots and 
 
 conventional leaves) which was so often repeated upon all sorts of 
 table ware. It is a late piece, and although the ornaments have been 
 
 sunk in the mould after the old style, it is thick and coarsely cast; the 
 moulding is no longer finished on the lathe, and the ornaments have 
 lost their sharpness. It is by no means an uncommon specimen ; we 
 have ourselves seen many similar ones, but in all these the knobs 
 and claws were very different; this might be explained by the fact 
 
 that pieces of this kind were produced by more than one maker. 
 
 That soup tureens were so extensively made is not easily 
 
 reconcilable with the notion that soup appeared on the table of 
 
 very few Englishmen of the time, and would show that Salt-glaze 
 
 was intended for the upper classes. The names under which they are 
 designated in the old accounts is the French word “ terrine, an 
 
 earthen basin, which subsequently was altered into tureen. Pickle 
 
 trays are also described from the French as hors-dmmre. 
 
 27 
 

187 
 
 PLATE XXXIX. 
 
 MIDNIGHT CONVERSATION- 
 SALT-GLAZE MUG. 
 
 Height 7 Inches. 
 
 OW deceptive a style of ornamentation may prove if by 
 it alone we try to determine the age of a piece of 
 
 earthenware! Looking at the profusion of uncouth birds, 
 reptiles, and quadrupeds spread all over the sides of this 
 mug, and the stiff border of nondescript flowers arranged 
 on its base, we could not help surmising that it was a work inspired 
 by the illumination of some mediaeval MS., and contemporaneous 
 with the old missals; yet, in the centre has been reproduced a 
 comparatively modern picture by Hogarth; its title, “ Midnight 
 
 Conversation," has been engraved underneath, to prevent any doubt 
 in that respect. The modeller was at no pains to modify his 
 Gothic manner when engaged in imitating the principal features of 
 
 the well-known composition; it is a free and easy adaptation, and all 
 
 the personages, notwithstanding their periwigs and tobacco pipes, have 
 
 a decidedly Byzantine appearance. Could such primitive-looking images 
 have been perpetrated in London after 1750, the date of the publication 
 of Hogarth’s engraving, where artists lived surrounded by the best 
 works of the time ? 
 
 A mug precisely similar to this, now in Lady Charlotte Schreiber’s 
 possession, was found amongst the pieces discovered in the cellars of 
 the old Fulham works, and consequently has been attributed to that 
 manufacture. Many reasons would induce us to suppose that it was 
 not made there, but in the Potteries. The ware is exactly like the 
 
i88 
 
 PLATE XXXIX. 
 
 Salt-glaze ware of Staffordshire. In the Stoke Museum may be seen 
 a large cream-colour punch bowl, decorated over the glaze with the 
 same “ Midnight Conversation,” still an adaptation of the original, but 
 painted in black and red in a less barbarous manner. Taking for 
 granted that it is the work of a local artist, we can infer from it 
 that the subject was then a favourite one. But the most striking 
 evidence in support of our supposition is the presence on the piece of four 
 coats of arms, three of them belonging to Staffordshire families— Hales, 
 Baronet, Leveson-Gower, Vane, and Bertie. Another Salt-glaze mug 
 of the same size and shape, but with a totally different decoration, had 
 the portrait of George II., inscribed "God save the King and my 
 Master," surrounded with the same escutcheons as above, with two 
 more in addition, also connected with Staffordshire— Whorewood and 
 Granville. 
 
 This was not the only piece found at Fulham which had no 
 connection with the productions of John Dwight. Like the Salt-glaze 
 sauce-boat and others, it had been bought as a model, probably at the 
 time when Mr. White, having married Margaret Dwight, re-established 
 the factory after the former owners had become bankrupts in 1747. 
 Copies of the subject are found upon pieces of the regular Fulham 
 stone-ware, dating from the end of the i8th century. 
 
 We know of more than one copy of the same mug. Such a 
 handsome piece of ware must always have been considered a great 
 curiosity, and had a better chance of being carefully preserved than an 
 ordinary mug or tea-pot. The Liverpool Museum has one of great 
 beauty, and the one here reproduced comes from the Hamilton Palace 
 collection. 
 
189 
 
 PLATE XL. 
 
 SCRATCHED BLUE POSSET POT. 
 
 Height 9^ Inches. 
 
 !HE skilful turning of this piece is inconsistent with a 
 very early date of manufacture, but, as a contrast, the 
 decoration is so barbarous that many would not hesitate 
 to refer it to the remotest infancy of art. When an 
 ' article had to be finished off with “ scratched blue,” it 
 was, as soon as the turner had done with it, handed to the “flowerer,” 
 a woman or an apprentice, who, with an iron point, scratched in the 
 clay a few scrolls and flowers of her own imagining, without any 
 guidance from a pattern. Powdered zaffre or smalt, that is to say a sort 
 of glass coloured with cobalt, that for cheapness sake the potters used 
 for a long time in preference to the expensive oxide, was dabbed into 
 the incised lines with a flock of cotton wool. Fancy pieces were 
 
 principally decorated, ■ such as posset pots, or loving cups, puzzle jugs, 
 
 spirit flasks, or presentation mugs. We assisted in the unearthing, in 
 some excavations at Hanley, of an enormous heap of diminutive cups 
 without handles, and saucers as thin as egg-shell china, all broken 
 to fragments, and which had been thrown away as imperfect; from 
 
 this we may see that the makers of scratched blue had great difficulties 
 
 to contend with. 
 
 The white Salt-glaze pieces which came out of the mould covered 
 with embossments, and were produced by the hundred, left the casting 
 shop completely finished, and no particular handiwork distinguished one 
 from the other. The scratched blue, on the contrary, had to receive 
 a fancy decoration, which could in each instance be made different, 
 and often, as a matter of course, the workman supplemented his 
 design with inscriptions of names and dates. Thus it happens that. 
 
190 
 
 PLATE XL. 
 
 while the white pieces are seldom, if ever, inscribed, the blue ones are 
 generally so, and many examples are dated from 1750 to 1780. 
 
 IVedgwood, it is said, began by making this sort of ware during 
 his first partnership with Harrison, of Stoke. We can imagine what 
 must have been his dismay when, after he had caused a piece to be 
 thrown and turned with the greatest care and precision, he saw it 
 thus scrawled over by inexperienced hands. Was it from this that 
 during his whole career he decidedly preferred the repeated reproduction 
 of a work modelled under his own eyes by select sculptors to any 
 painting that could be freely executed upon a plain surface? 
 
igi 
 
 PLATE XLI. 
 
 ENAMELLED SALT-GLAZE JUG. 
 
 Height 8 i Inches. 
 
 ^DMIRABLY potted and turned, as delicately pencilled as 
 any costly piece of English china, the brilliancy of 
 the enamels contrasting charmingly with the subdued 
 white tint of its ground, this jug is one of the best 
 
 representatives of enamelled Salt-glaze ware. The 
 decoration of a pseudo-Chinese character recalls the art of the Dutch 
 painters, who, after having studied the porcelain of China, rather than 
 copy any special design, let their fancy run loose upon subjects of 
 
 their own imagination. We have seen, and possess ourselves, many 
 
 nice specimens of the same ware, but none that come up to this 
 
 standard. It was probably the work of two clever Dutchmen who 
 settled at Hot Lane, near Burslem, and there, buying white pieces 
 from the local potters, inaugurated a new style of painting, soon 
 imitated all over the district, and which was applied not only to 
 Salt-glaze but also to cream-coloured earthenware. 
 

193 
 
 PLATE XLI I. 
 
 tortoiseshell posset pot. 
 
 Height Inches. 
 
 ■ Y this time foreign wines and handsome light cups had 
 replaced, in the improved household, the homely ale and 
 the heavy posset pot. The fastidiousness of the 
 educated man, which would have been shocked by the 
 coarse tyg of dark clay, could be adequately gratified 
 by so nicely-made a piece of bright earthenware; by its elegance 
 of shape and delicacy of relief work, it served creditably in lieu of the 
 china or silver bowl, luxuries possessed by only a very few. 
 
 All round the cup a climbing vine spreads its branches and 
 tendrils; to the stems, made by hand, leaves and bunches of grapes have 
 been stuck at intervals; if any meaning is attached to this decoration, 
 we may suppose that the time-honoured beer and spice mixture was 
 not to be brewed in this vessel. Manganese and copper green, applied 
 in unequal patches, have softly run down with the flowing glaze, and 
 form a subdued harmony with the cream-colour of the ground. As 
 we have already remarked, tortoiseshell ware was not peculiar to one 
 maker, but was produced with more or less ability in every pot works 
 
 in Staffordshire. 
 
 Contrary to the practice on the Continent, where each manufacturer- 
 limited himself to a speciality, the English potter had always a great 
 variety of bodies and glazes to work with at one and the same time. 
 Along the Rhine is found the Grfes Stone-ware, and in Holland the 
 white faience with a stanniferous glaze; each factory of Italy kept to 
 a special style of decoration, almost sufficient for identification, and a 
 great difference distinguishes one French ware from another. If we 
 take such potters as Astbury, Whieldon, and their contemporaries, we 
 find that within their small premises all sorts of ware were concurrently 
 manufactured—red or black body, either dry or glazed > 
 ware glazed with salt or with lead ; cream-colour, plain, and coloure 
 with tortoiseshell enamels; even, in a few instances, Delft-jre with 
 blue painting; and when we come to the study of Josiah 
 works, we are amazed at the endless variety of bodies he was 
 continually busy in creating and improving. 
 
 28 
 
 '1 
 
195 
 
 PLATE XLIII. 
 
 AGATE-WARE TEA-POT. 
 
 Height 6 Inches. 
 
 I'HIS tea-pot, of which replicas are often met with, is 
 one of the nicest pieces of Agate-ware that ever 
 
 came under our notice. We have aiready described 
 how the body was prepared by laying upon each 
 
 other thin alternate layers of white and red clay; 
 a sufficient mass being thus obtained, it was vertically cut through 
 with a wire into thin bats, and these were formed into shape by 
 careful pressing in a mould. When dry, they were finished and 
 
 polished on the lathe, and either glazed in their natural colours, red 
 and yellow, or different shades of brown and red, or else stained with 
 a blue glaze, which imparted to the mixture the fine greyish hue of 
 agate. Pieces of a small size alone, such as tea ware, pickle trays, 
 
 sauce boats, and snuff boxes, were made of these mixed bodies. 
 Seldom do they show any embossment; round pieces got a better 
 
 surface by turning, and our example is an exception to the general 
 rule. Its shape is ribbed in imitation of the shell tea-pots then 
 commonly made in Salt-glaze, but without any of their intricate 
 details; a flat slice of marbled clay could not have been forced into 
 
 narrow cavities without losing its fine veining through the requisite 
 
 manipulation, consequently the original shape has been rounded, 
 softened, and smoothed, to facilitate the pressing. It is worth 
 noticing that these Agate-ware pieces are certainly anterior in date 
 
 to the supposed introduction of the process of pressing in the 
 
 Staffordshire Potteries. We may hazard the supposition that casting 
 and throwing were preferred as a rule, and that pressing was confined 
 to a limited use long before it became generally employed at the time 
 fixed by tradition. 
 
 
196 
 
 PLATE XLin. 
 
 The knife hafts so extensively manufactured by Dr. Thomas 
 JVedgwood and Whieldon for the cutlers of Sheffield are precisely 
 similar in body and glaze to this specimen, and we may refer it to 
 one of these two potters, probably the latter, considering its perfection. 
 The innovation introduced in the making of Agate-ware, by which it 
 differs from the mixed clays employed a very long time before, is the 
 transverse cutting through of the mass with a wire, which gave a 
 fineness and continuity to the lines' of the marbling unobtainable by 
 the ordinary mode of blending the clays, and the pressing in a mould 
 instead of throwing on the wheel, by which the veining was disturbed. 
 At Fulham, Dwight produced a sort of Agate-ware, with grey and 
 white Stone-ware; and many common pieces of the same period are 
 streaked with light and dark clays. Early in Staffordshire different 
 coloured clays were also blended together in a rough way, so as to 
 imitate marble; in that manner large slabs were made, some destined 
 to be inserted in the walls of houses, relating the name of the owner 
 and the year of construction; others with inscriptions scratched in, or 
 laid on with slip, were set up over graves; some of these are still 
 to be seen in the churchyards of the Potteries. 
 
 In Italy and in France, as well as in Germany, mixed bodies 
 were frequently employed; it is interesting, for instance, to compare 
 the English Agate-ware with what was done, nearly in the same style, 
 in the factories of Apt, in Provence, towards the end of the i8th 
 century. 
 

197 
 
 PLATE XLI V. 
 
 PERFORATED TORTOISESHELL 
 TEA-POT. 
 
 Height 6 Inches. 
 
 HIELDON, like his predecessors, looked upon Chinese 
 ware as the best model a potter could emulate; but 
 
 instead of being content with a mere imitation of the 
 commonest productions of the East in the simple way 
 
 that had so far been followed, he endeavoured to 
 
 reproduce those which looked most complicated. This tea-pot, which 
 can be attributed to him, is evidently copied from or suggested by 
 
 an Oriental piece. It is made in a double shell, the outer one being 
 perforated according to a design of leaves and apple blossoms disposed 
 for that purpose; this cutting out covers the shape with a sort of 
 lace-work, very light in appearance, and the peculiar tints of English 
 
 tortoiseshell-ware impart to the whole a look of originality which- 
 makes one forget that the piece was an imitation. Perforated tea-pots 
 of the same description are also found in a dry red body. The effect 
 produced by that outward piercing is at once so charming and 
 surprising to one who does not comprehend how it can be executed, 
 that we have seen the process revived many times at different places, 
 and always given out as a fresh invention. 
 

199 
 
 PLATE XLV. 
 
 BLACK TEA-POT. 
 TORTOISESHELL TEA-POT. 
 
 Height 3^ Inches. 
 
 COMPROMISE was soon established between the 
 common pieces of dark clay glazed with galena, and 
 the more refined ware of dry red colour, finely turned 
 
 and neatly stamped, which, in the hands of the Elers, 
 
 had for a time defied comparison with any other 
 manufacture. Small pieces began to be made with the materials 
 previously used for large tygs; they were turned on the lathe, and 
 adorned with applications of variously-coloured clays. Astbury was 
 probably the first who glazed the red body of the Dutchmen, and 
 
 relieved it with ornaments of white clay. It is interesting to follow 
 
 the efforts of the early potter, who, unable to diversify his productions 
 by painting or hand decoration, had to contrive all sorts of combinations 
 of clays to give them a little variety. On this little tea-pot white 
 leaves have been stamped on the background ; very different in effect 
 are those which in our collection belong to the same period; they 
 present all possible arrangements of buff, dark yellow, red, brown, and 
 white, being sometimes finished off with a few touches of underglaze 
 colours. The reliefs are often stamped in white on a black ground ; 
 in this case they were decorated with size gilding, or gold-leaf fixed 
 with a hard varnish. It was only towards the end of the i8th 
 century that the burning in of the gold was known in the Potteries. 
 Imperfect as this mode of gilding may have been, yet it had 
 one quality, it was transparent and mellow in colour, and looked 
 
200 
 
 PLATE XLV. 
 
 certainly more like the Oriental gold than the burnished metal employed 
 later on upon china; on most pieces it has now disappeared, and 
 this one has only kept a few traces of it. 
 
 The regular imitation of tortoiseshell was practised upon cream- 
 colour pieces, generally sprigged on with reliefs of rosettes, or branches 
 and flowers. Manganese and a small sponge to apply it in irregular 
 spots were the only requisites. The fire causing the spots of oxide 
 to run into each other sufficed to give to this simple process an 
 appearance of finish, and to imitate the delicate gradation of tints 
 noticeable on the genuine material. 
 
 ( 
 
 I 
 
201 
 
 PLATE XLVI. 
 
 WHIELDON JUG, 
 
 Height 7J Inches. 
 
 Y a piece of rare good fortune we have been able to 
 identify this Jug as IVhieldon's own manufacture. The 
 pedigree is a very humble one, but the piece has its 
 credentials. It was made in i 757 Lir one Ralph 
 Hammersley, who was, we are sorry to say, not a 
 man of great mark, but merely IVhieldon’s milkman ! Anything better 
 made than this jug cannot be imagined; it is as thin and true as if 
 it were made of metal, and the raised decoration, all applied by hand, 
 is artistically arranged. The flowers are tinted with grey, yellow, and 
 green glazes; the monogram and date are painted with red clay, a 
 combination of processes not uncommonly seen on the works of this 
 potter. 
 
 f 
 
 Tortoiseshell pieces are very varied in effects; either the whole 
 surface is hidden under dark and powerful colours, manganese and 
 dark grey predominating, or, as in the present instance, the light yellow 
 clay is. left to appear eveiywhere, and only the reliefs are touched up 
 with cloudy and transparent tints; these latter are generally of the 
 best make and of a late period. 
 
 The method of applying or “sprigging” the reliefs pressed in 
 separate moulds of highly-fired clay is one of the great characteristics 
 of English pottery. It continued to be practised after the plaster 
 moulds had come into use, and iVedgwood adhered to it for his 
 Jasper ware; in no other way could he have obtained the unrivalled 
 sharpness of his raised figures and ornamentation. 
 
 29 
 
203 
 
 PLATE XLVI I. 
 
 TORTOISESHELL EIGURE. 
 
 Height 13^ Inches. 
 
 TOBY JUG. 
 
 Height 9^ Inches. 
 
 ■ URING the early Salt-glaze and tortoiseshell period 
 figures were rarely attempted; their modelling is but 
 one degree higher than Thomas Toft's painting in slip; 
 nevertheless a bit of old pitcher may please us by its 
 unpretentious oddity, and we cannot think of lamenting 
 the absence of classical learning; it makes up in “naivete” for what 
 it lacks in correctness. Such pieces could not have become articles of 
 regular trade, clumsily made up, as they were, of separate parts, 
 some of them pressed in moulds, while the others were made 
 by hand. The huntsman sketched on this plate was in that manner 
 
 constructed piecemeal; the hat, gun, and plinth were modelled with 
 
 various clays, while the rest, which is in the common earthenware 
 body, was pressed, each limb separately, the whole being finally stuck 
 together and coloured over with manganese. tVhieldon had a speciality 
 for little figures of variegated colours; a very characteristic one was a 
 little horseman, the figure made of cream-colour, richly painted with 
 green, yellow, and brown, and the horse of black clay, with white 
 trappings. It was only when plaster moulds allowed of more 
 
 complicated subjects being produced that greater care was bestowed 
 
 upon the modelling of figures; some, like the one belonging to Mr. 
 Soden Smith, were copied after Watteau or other celebrated artists. 
 
204 
 
 PLATE XLVII. 
 
 But although continuing to be decorated by the old tortoiseshell 
 method, they must certainly be considered as more modern than those 
 made in pieces with light and dark clays. 
 
 The next piece is one of the numerous varieties of Toby Jugs or 
 Toby Fill-pots, as they are sometimes called. It is a descendant of 
 the old “greybeard;” little by little the mask that grins on the 
 neck of the ancient beer-bottel was transformed into the more genial 
 face of a toper, and the body of the jug itself cut out in the shape 
 of a stout old man. This one is made of several coloured clays, 
 and for this reason may be of early date; but many, and these 
 are of recent date, are found painted under or over the glaze. These 
 jugs have been constantly manufactured up to our own day. 
 
205 
 
 PLATE XLVI I I. 
 
 CAULIFLOWER WARE. 
 
 Height io Inches. 
 
 FRENCH author says that he who creates a new 
 proverb does more for humanity than they who write 
 exhaustive books; in the same way, a man who 
 invents a new type might be said to do more towards 
 improving the art of his time than another who achieves 
 a skilful and elaborate work. This, we think, holds good with respect 
 to the industrial artist who chances to hit upon an idea so well 
 calculated to please that its success will afford employment to a large 
 number of his fellows. How many workmen in the Potteries were 
 kept employed in reproducing the first cauliflower pieces, the happy 
 thought of some unknown block cutter! Considering the means at the 
 potter’s disposal, it would hardly have been possible to show them to 
 better advantage; cream-colour and green glaze are specially adapted to 
 transforming into a ceramic work of art this common vegetable. The 
 idea was turned to all sorts of purposes, and for a time all the makers 
 manufactured cauliflower ware with ever-increasing success. From this 
 was derived a series of different fruit wares—pine-apple, melons, etc., 
 which in turn stimulated the public taste for novelty, and by their 
 large sale had no doubt an important share in the extension of trade 
 that took place at that time. They are all pressed in terra-cotta 
 moulds, which preserve to the end the fineness of the details, and 
 the brightness of their colour would strengthen the supposition that it 
 was with the view of improving such pieces that Wedgwood compounded 
 his celebrated green glaze when he was in partnership with Whieldon. 
 
 

W^-7 
 
 
 % 
 
 
• f 
 
 207 
 
 PLATE XLIX. 
 
 BRACKETS. 
 
 Height 8J Inches. 
 
 3ITTLE can be said about these brackets; the maker is 
 unknown, and their fabric is similar to that of the 
 pieces already described. They are of the dark tortoise¬ 
 shell sort; the ornamental part of the first being thickly 
 covered with deep brown and green glazes; the head is 
 left the colour of the clay, and the eyeballs are painted with red slip, 
 in the usual fashion. The ground of the other is of a lighter grey, 
 and the bird of a bright yellow. Hanging spill vases, like mantel-piece 
 ornaments, mark the period when a more refined class of ware came 
 to be in demand. The same models are often found in Salt-glaze 
 ware, and of several sizes. 
 
 
209 
 
 PLATE L. 
 
 HEAD TEA-POT. 
 
 Height 6 Inches. 
 
 ^^^^^^SVIDENTLY cut by a working potter, and not modelled 
 K WMSA B by an educated artist, this quaint tea-pot is remarkable 
 for a feeling of originality, not at all lessened because 
 the maker may have been actuated by the idea of 
 emulating some antique vessel once seen and almost 
 forgotten. The head, perhaps a local portrait, has the English periwig; 
 the peculiar notching of the eyebrows and the character of the 
 ornamentation exclude the supposition of it being a copy, but, as is 
 the case with the Greek sculptures, an unconscious simplification in 
 the rendering of natural forms changes into a work of high art that 
 which, in a more realistic period, would only be vulgarity and 
 grotesque fancy; it is in this respect nearer to the works of the 
 ancients than many other pieces which can boast of being more 
 faithful reproductions. It is one of a set of three^ pieces, made of 
 coarse cream ware, and coloured with tortoiseshell glazes. A tea-caddy, 
 also a portrait, has been reproduced on another plate. 
 
 Not long after this, many mugs and two-handled cups were made 
 in the shape of heads, a Satyr, a Bacchus, or sometimes a worthy 
 personage, with the name stamped on the rim; but few exhibit 
 such a conventionality of treatment; and this, in our estimation, renders 
 this set particularly interesting. 
 
211 
 
 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 ART OF THE OLD ENGLISH POTTER.” 
 
 JAPAN PAPER COPIES. 
 
 C. Minton Campbell, Esq., Woodseat, near Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. 
 Mons. Charles E. Haviland, 29, Rue de Villiers, Paris. 
 
 H. Coghill, Esq., The Brampton, Newcastle, Staffordshire. 
 
 Prof. A. H. Church, Shelsley, Kew, Surrey. 
 
 The Rev. Father H. Swale, Spencer Street, Chesterfield. 
 
 E. C. Moore, Esq., New York. 
 
 Mr. James Bain, i, Haymarket, London. 
 
 Crosby Lockwood & Co., 7, Stationers’ Hall Ct., London. 
 Putnam’s (G. P.) Sons, New York, U.S.A. 
 
 Hamilton, Adams & Co., 32, Paternoster Row, London. 
 
 DUTCH HAND-MADE PAPER COPIES. 
 
 Potts, Arthur, Esq., Hoole Hall, Chester (/arge faper\ 
 
 Aitchison, G., Esq., A.R.A., 150, Harley Street, London. 
 Arnoux, Leon, Esq., Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. 
 
 Asher & Co., Messrs., 13, Bedford Street, Strand, London. 
 Bodeley, Edwin, Esq., Burslem, 'Staffordshire 
 
212 
 
 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 Bain, Mr. James, i, Haymarket, London. 
 
 Bemrose & Sons, 23, Old Bailey, London (20 copies). 
 
 Bevan, R, A., Esq., Horsegate, Cuckfield, Sussex. 
 
 Binns, R. W., Esq., F.S.A., Royal Porcelain Works, Worcester. 
 
 Bouton, Mr, J. W., 706, Broadway, New York, U.S.A. (25 copies). 
 Brough, W. S., Esq., Leek, Staffordshire. 
 
 Brunt, E., Esq., Havelock Plate, Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent. 
 
 Bumpus, Mr. John, 350, O.xford Street, London (2 copies). 
 
 Bumpus, Mr, Edward, Holborn Bars, London (2 copies). 
 
 Caldwell, J. Albert, Esq., Philadelphia, U.S.A. 
 
 Campbell, John, Esq., Stoke-on-Trent. 
 
 Carter. J., Brunswick Terrace, Stafford. 
 
 Cornish, J., & Sons, Messrs., 297, High Holborn, London. 
 
 Cornish Bros., 37, New Street, Birmingham. 
 
 Cornish, Mr. J. E., 33, Piccadilly, Manchester (2 copies). 
 
 Cornish, Mr. J. E., 16, St. Ann’s Square, Manchester (2 copies). 
 
 Craig, Dr. J., Shelton House, Hanley. 
 
 Crosby Lockwood & Co., 7, Stationers’ Hall Ct., London (13 copies). 
 Davenport, George, Esq., 8, Market Street, Leek. 
 
 Day, Mr. T. J., 53, Market Street, Manchester (2 copies). 
 
 Doulton, Henry, Esq., Lambeth, London. 
 
 Edge, J. Wilcox, Esq., Burslem, Staffordshire. 
 
 Edge, Malkin & Co., Messrs., Burslem. 
 
 Edinburgh Science and Art Museum—Professor Archer. 
 
 Edkins, William, Esq., 12, Charlotte Street, Brandon Hill, Bristol. 
 
 Edkins, W., Esq., Bristol. 
 
 Franks, Aug. W., Esq., F.R.S., British Museum, London. 
 
 Gatty, Miss Horatia K., 71, Warwick Road, Earl’s Court, London. 
 
 Gibson, Harris, Esq., 75, Renshaw Street, Liverpool. 
 
 Glosson, Mrs. Annie J., 722, Asylum Avenue, Hartford, Conn., U.S.A. 
 Goode, W. T., Esq., 19, South Audley Street, Grosvenor Square, London 
 (2 copies). 
 
 Gray, Mr. Henry, Antiquarian and Topographical Bookseller, 25, Cathedral 
 Yard, Manchester (2 copies). 
 
 Guildhall Library, The, London. 
 
 Hache, Mons. Alfred, Vierzon (Cher), France. 
 
 Hamilton, Adams & Co., 32, Paternoster Row, London (60 copies). 
 
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS., 
 
 213 
 
 Hammersley, G., Esq., Stoke-on-Trent. 
 
 Hayward, Mr. Thomas, 35, Oxford Street, St. Peters, Manchester 
 (3 copies). 
 
 Herter, Christian, Esq., New York, U.S.A. 
 
 Hewitt, Mr. Edwin, 16, King Street, Hanley (3 copies). 
 
 Hollins, H. Plant, Esq., Brunswick Street, Hanley. 
 
 Hulme, Thos., Esq., Mayor of Burslem, Woodleigh, Porthill, Burslem. 
 Jones, George, Esq., Milford, near Stafford. 
 
 Jullien, Mons. Emile, St. Leonard (Ht. Vienne), France. 
 
 Lane, Rev. Ernald, Leigh Rectory, Stoke-on-Trent. 
 
 Leger, Mons. Armand, 46, Havelock Street, Stoke-on-Trent. 
 
 Leroy, Mons. D., 8, Richmond Terrace, Stoke-on-Trent. 
 
 Lippincott, J. B., & Company, Philadelphia, Penn., U.S.A. 
 
 Lyon, Dr. W. Irving, Hartford, Conn., U.S.A. 
 
 Main, Mr. David M., 18, Exchange Square, Glasgow (5 copies). 
 
 Mayer, Joseph, Esq., F.S.A., Pennant House, Bebing.ton, Cheshire. 
 
 Meakin, James, Esq., Darlaston Hall, Stoke-on-Trent. 
 
 Minton, Thomas W., Esq., Fenton Manor, Stoke-on-Trent. 
 
 Minton, Herbert, Esq., Heartshill, Stoke-on-Trent. 
 
 Mortlock, John, Esq., Oxford Street and Orchard Street, London. 
 
 Moody, A. Rowley, 159, Howard Place, Hanley. 
 
 O’Byrn, J., Esq., Architect, 2, Percy Buildings, Eberle Street, Liverpool. 
 Palmer & Howe, Messrs., 73, Princess Street, Manchester (2 copies). 
 Phillips, W. P., Esq., 175, Oxford Street, London. 
 
 Phillips, G., Esq., 175, Oxford Street, London. 
 
 Putnam’s (G. P.) Sons, New York, U.S.A. 
 
 Quaritch, Mr. Bernard, 15, Piccadilly, London (8 copies). 
 
 Rathbone, Benson, Esq., Oakwood, Aigburth, Liverpool. 
 
 Rathbone, Philip H., Esq., Greenbank Cottage, Liverpool. 
 
 Richard, Mons. Aug., Society Ceramique Richard, Milan, Italy. 
 
 Ridgway, John, Esq., Endon, Stoke-on-Trent. 
 
 Rimell, Jas., & Son, Messrs., 91, Oxford Street, London (2 copiei). 
 Robinson, H., Esq., Minton Works, Stoke-on-Trent. 
 
 Rousseau, Mons. E., 41, Rue Coquilliere, Paris. 
 
 Rudler, F. W., Esq., Curator, Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, 
 London. 
 
 Salt, John, Esq., 50, Charles Street, Hanley, Staffordshire. 
 
214 
 
 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 Scribner & Welford, Messrs., New York, U.S.A. (2 copies). 
 
 Sevres, La Manuf. Nationale de Porcelaine de, France. 
 
 Schreiber, Lady Charlotte, Langham House, ii, Portland Place, London. 
 Science and Art Department, South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London 
 (2 copies). 
 
 Shaw, Anthony, Esq., Bank House, Congleton, Cheshire. 
 
 Sotheran, Henry, & Co., 36, Piccadilly, London (2 copies). 
 
 Sotheran, Henry, & Co., 49, Cross Street, Manchester (3 copies). 
 Stevens, Mr. B. F., 4, Trafalgar Square, London. 
 
 Stoke-on-Trent Free Library—Presented by C. M. Campbell, Esq., Mayor. 
 Staniforth, Rev. Thomas, Storrs, Windermere, Westmoreland. 
 
 Sutton, Francis, Esq., Revell Grange, Sheffield. 
 
 Sutton, Mr. R. H., 130, Portland Street, Manchester (3 copies). 
 
 Terry, Stephen, Esq., Hartford, Conn., U.S.A. 
 
 Thomas, Dr. H., Llandudno. 
 
 Tiffany, C. L., Esq., New York, U.S.A. 
 
 Tiffany & Co., New York, U.S.A. 
 
 Tubbs, Brook, & Chrystal, Messrs., ii, Market Street, Manchester. 
 Twyford, T. W., Esq., Hanley, Staffordshire. 
 
 Vernon, The Right Hon. Lord, Sudbury Hall, Derby. 
 
 Walker, H. Shadford, Esq., 88, Rodney Street, Liverpool. 
 
 Wardle, Thos., Esq., F.S.A., St. Edward Street, Leek, Staffordshire. 
 Wardleworth, Mr. T. R., i8a. Brown Street, Manchester. 
 
 Wass, Charles Wentworth, Esq., 7, Kilburn Villas, Norwood. 
 
 Watkinson Reference Library, Hartford, Conn., U.S.A., by G. Trumbull, 
 Esq. 
 
 Wedgwood, Clement, Esq., Barlaston Lea, Stoke-on-Trent. 
 
 Winstroop, T. L., Esq., St. George’s Lodge, Ryde, Isle of Wight. 
 Willett, Henry, Esq., Arnold House, Brighton (2 copies). 
 
 Woodall, W., Esq., M.P., Bleak House, Burslem, Staffordshire. 
 
 Woodward, A., Esq., 15, Market Street, Hanley. 
 
 Yonides, Const., Esq., 8, Holland Villas Road, Kensington, London.