“Greens, Clarke, & Co., Don Pottery, near Doncaster, Make, Sell, and Export Wholesale all the various kinds of Earthenware, viz., Cream-colour, Brown, Blue, and Green Shell, Nankin Blue, Printed, Painted, and Enamelled, Egyptian Black, Brown, China, &c., &c. Also Services executed in Borders, Landscapes, Coats of Arms, &c., and ornamented with Gold or Silver.”
Of the ordinary fine earthenware made soon after the opening of the works, some specimens, whose actual date can be satisfactorily ascertained, have come under my notice, and show to what perfection in body and glaze, in manipulation, and in decoration, the manufacture had already arrived. The most remarkable of these early specimens is a jug, commonly called the “Jumper Jug,” which is of great rarity. On either side of the larger jugs is the figure of a very uncouth, coarse, and slovenly-looking man, in red coat, pink waistcoat, striped green and white under-waistcoat, orange-neckerchief, orange breeches, above which his shirt is seen, top boots, and spurs. In his hand he holds his hat, orange, with red ribands, on which is a card bearing the words “Milton for ever.” Beneath the spout, on a scroll, is the following curious verse:—
This man, who was known all the country round as “Orange Jumper,” was a very eccentric character, and a great mover in the political “stirs” of his county. He was a horse-breaker at Wentworth, and many extraordinary stories are remembered in connection with him. One of these, as connected with the story of this jug, is worth repeating. In the great Yorkshire election of 1807—the most costly and the most strongly contested election on record—when the candidates who were so mercilessly pitted against each other were Lord Milton, Wilberforce, and Lascelles, “Orange Jumper” was employed to carry dispatches regularly backwards and forwards from York to Wentworth House, the seat of Earl Fitzwilliam, the father of Lord Milton, who eventually won the election, and was returned as the colleague of Wilberforce. Orange was the Fitzwilliam colour, and blue that of Lascelles (son of the Earl of Harewood), his opponent; and on one occasion “Jumper” was seen entering York decked out as usual in orange, but riding on an ass gaily decorated with bright blue ribands. On being jeered at for this apparent inconsistency in wearing both colours, he replied that he wore the right colour, orange, and that his ass was only like other asses, for they were all donkeys that wore blue! The election was gained by the party he espoused, and in commemoration these jugs,[125] with his portrait and verse, were made. They are marked
Don. Pottery.
pencilled in red on the bottom.
An engraved pattern-book was issued by the firm, in the same style, and of the same size, as that of Hartley, Greens, & Co., of the Leeds Pottery. A careful comparison of the two books reveals the fact, that whereas in the latest edition of that of Leeds 269 patterns are engraved, in that of the Don Pottery 292 are given. It also reveals the important fact that many of the Don patterns are identical with those of Leeds, the engraver of the former having evidently traced from those of the latter (Leeds) in preparing his plates. Many of the remaining patterns are slightly altered from Leeds, while others do not appear in the book of those works at all. In this pattern-book Figs. 1 to 8 are covered tureens; 10 to 12 are leaves; 13 to 18, covered vegetable dishes; 19 to 23, sauce tureens with covers, stands, and ladles; 24, a two-handled drinking cup; 26 to 30, butter-boats; 31 to 49, dishes and plates, &c.; 50 to 69, fruit bowls, side dishes, &c.; 70 to 76, perforated, open-work, and embossed baskets and stands, some of which have covers, and are precisely of the same kind as those of the Leeds works; 77, a perforated chestnut tureen, like that of the Leeds works; 78, also perforated and embossed; 79 to 83, perforated dishes and plates; 84 to 91, covered sugar bowls, &c.; 92 to 96, spoons and strainers; 97 to 110, bowls, &c.; 111 is a melon bowl of the same kind as those made at Leeds; 113 to 116 are egg cups and stands; 118 to 130, cruets, &c.; 131, an asparagus holder, like the Leeds; 139 to 145, mugs and jugs; 146, a toast rack; 147, an invalid’s feeding cup; 148 to 159, dishes, tureens, &c.; 160 and 161, vegetable trays in compartments; 163 to 176, ice pails and domestic vessels; 177 to 183, ink stands; 184, 185, flower-pots; 186 to 202, toilet services and shaving basins; 201 is a scaphium; 206 is a quintal flower horn; 207, a pastile-burner; and then come candlesticks, egg-cups, flower-vases, flower-stands, vases, crosses with cup for holy water, &c. Another series of plates, the figures numbered from 1 to 54 and from A to K, are devoted to tea equipages, consisting of a remarkable and very striking variety of teapots, coffee-pots, milk jugs, sugar bowls, cake trays, tea canisters, basins or bowls, tea, coffee, and chocolate cups and saucers, &c., &c. On each plate throughout the series the name “Don Pottery” is engraved in a scroll.
Figs. 881 to 883.
Open-work baskets, tureens, &c., twig baskets, in which the “withies” were of precisely the same form as those of Leeds and Wedgwood, &c., perforated plates, dishes, tureens, spoons, ladles, and other articles, ice-pails, salt-cellars, flower-vases, cruets and stands, inkstands, seals, bird fountains, smelling-bottles, and, indeed, every variety of articles, as well as services of all descriptions, and ornamental vases of several designs, were made in these wares, and such as were adapted for the colour were made in green glazed ware. Of teapots, many patterns, with raised groups, trophies, &c., and others for loose metal “kettle-handles” are also engraved.
In the cream-coloured ware, and also in the fine white earthenware, excellent dessert and other services were made, and were painted with flowers, &c., with a truth to nature which has seldom been equalled. In my own collection are also some remarkable plates of small size of fine earthenware. In these the underside of the plate is left white, while the whole of the rest is tinted of a deep buff. The edge, and a line on the inner side of the rim, is black, and in the centre of each plate is a landscape, which has all the beauty and effect of a well-executed Indian ink drawing.
About 1810–12, china of an excellent quality was, to a very small extent indeed, made at the Don Pottery, and examples of this are of extreme rarity. In Mr. Manning’s possession is a coffee mug of excellent body, and of remarkably good soft glaze, well painted with Chinese subjects, which is marked “Don Pottery” in very small letters, pencilled in red. This interesting specimen is the only marked one which has come under my notice. Two other specimens of this very rare china ware, which are equally curious and interesting with the one just spoken of, are here engraved. One is a jug which will hold rather more than a pint, and has a curious story attached to it. The china body of which it was made was mixed by Godfrey Speight and Ward Booth, both of whom were originally from Staffordshire; the latter, it is said, was brought from that county “with a whole regiment of hands” to work at the new Don Pottery, of which he became the manager. The jug was painted by his son, Taylor Booth, who was brought up with Enoch Wood, of Burslem, and afterwards was at the old Derby China Works, and given to Speight, from whose aged son’s hands it passed into my own. It is beautifully painted with groups of flowers on either side, and a sprig of jasmine beneath the spout, and has a broad gold line round the top. The curious part of the story connected with this jug is, that in the body of which it is composed, by one of those strange and unaccountable freaks to which potters as well as other people are liable, are two of the fingers of a noted malefactor, Spencer Broughton, who was gibbeted on Attercliffe Common at the close of the last century. It appears that a party of the Don and Swinton potters, who had been to Sheffield for a carousal, and had stayed there till the small hours of the morning, were, when not sober, returning over the moor, when, on passing the gibbet on which the gaunt skeleton of the malefactor still hung, as it had for years, in chains, one of them, saying, “Let’s ha’ a rap at him,” picked up a stone and threw it, knocking off the bones of two of the fingers. These were picked up, and carefully carried home as trophies of the exploit; and some time afterwards, when trials in the manufacture of china were being made, they were brought out, calcined, and mixed with some of the body. Of this body a seal was made, “with a gibbet on it,” and the jug (Fig. 882) just described. This story I had from the lips of one of the party of potters, a man then fast nearing “fourscore years and ten” in age. The horrible and brutal taste displayed by the potters has, it must be admitted, its use in authenticating the example, and in giving it, at all events, an approximate date.
The other example is a comport (Fig. 881) of remarkably fine body and excellent glaze, and has a plant of the tiger-lily exquisitely painted of natural size, occupying the whole of its inside.
In fine cane-coloured ware, tea-services, jugs, &c., were made, and were ornamented with figures, borders, and other designs in relief. Of this kind of ware the accompanying engraving of a sugar-box will serve as an example. It is ornamented with figures, trophies, &c., in relief in black and is marked “Green’s Don Pottery.”
In green glazed ware flower-vases of large size, root-pots, dessert and other services; in red ware, scent jars of bold and good design, large-sized mignonette vases, and many other articles; and in “Egyptian black,” teapots, cream-ewers, jugs, &c., were made.
The “brown china” spoken of in the list of goods was the “Rockingham Ware,” which was attempted to be made at the Don Pottery, and is still made of the common marketable quality.
A considerable trade was carried on with Russia, with France and Belgium, and with South America, to which markets the greater part of the goods produced were consigned.
At the “Don Pottery” at the present day, Messrs. Barker produce all the usual varieties of the commoner classes of earthenware to a large extent; the works giving employment to between two and three hundred hands. In toilet services many excellent patterns are produced, both enamelled, gilt, and lustred. They also produce dinner, tea, dessert, and other services, as well as all the usual varieties of goods for home and foreign consumption, including in “Egyptian black,” teapots, cream-ewers, &c., Rockingham ware, and “cane,” or yellow ware.
Some of the painted patterns recently introduced are of good design, and their pressed jugs are of superior shape.
The marks adopted by these works have been but few, and these only very occasionally used. They are, so far as I have been able to ascertain, as follows:—“Don Pottery” pencilled in red on the bottom of the vessel, or “DON POTTERY” impressed on the bottom of the pieces.
GREEN
DON POTTERY
also impressed.
Fig. 884.
Fig. 885.
The first of these (Fig. 884) was impressed, the second (Fig. 885) was printed and transferred on the ware. It was the first mark used by Samuel Barker, and was adopted by him on purchasing the Don Pottery on its discontinuance by the Greens.
Fig. 886.
Fig. 887.
The first of these marks (Fig. 886), also in transfer printing, an eagle displayed rising from out a ducal coronet, was adopted by the firm when it became Samuel Barker and Son, at which time the old mark was discontinued. The eagle displayed is not now used, the firm having adopted the old mark of the demi-lion rampant holding in his paws the pennon, and enclosed within a garter, beneath which are the initials of the firm, “S. B. & S.” (Fig. 887) On the ribbon of the garter is usually given the name of the pottery, as for instance YORK.
Denaby.
The Denaby Pottery was established for the manufacture of fire-bricks, &c., but was, about 1864, taken by Mr. John Wardle (from Messrs. Alcocks, of Burslem), who was shortly afterwards joined in partnership by Mr. Charles W. Wilkinson, the business being carried on under the style of “Wilkinson and Wardle.” The works were situated near the railway, from which they had a siding direct into the premises. The goods produced were the general ordinary classes of printed earthenware, pearl body, cream ware, &c., which were of good ordinary quality. In these all the more popular and favourite patterns were produced, and all the copper plates being new, were sharp and fresh in appearance. Dinner, tea, coffee, toilet and other services were produced, as well as jugs and other articles, some of which are of really good and effective design. Yellow, or cane-coloured ware, was also made, as well as tiles for external decorative purposes. These were made from clay found at Conisborough, where branch works were established. The mark adopted by the firm, for what reason it is difficult to divine, unless it be that the wares were intended to pass for Staffordshire make, was the Staffordshire knot, with the words “Wilkinson and Wardle, Denaby Potteries.” These works, after an existence of a few years only, were closed in 1869 or 1870, and the buildings converted into bone and glue works.
Kilnhurst.
At Kilnhurst, a place which one would naturally say took its name from pot-works, is a manufactory of earthenware, known as the “Kilnhurst Old Pottery.” This was established about the middle of last century, soon after the Act for the navigation of the river Don was obtained. It was erected on the estate of the Shore family. It was held at the beginning of this century by a potter named Hawley, who had also a pottery at Rawmarsh. From him it passed into the hands of George Green (one of the family of the Greens at Leeds), by whom, on the 25th of April, 1832, they were purchased by Messrs. Brameld & Co. (subject to Mr. Shore, the owner, accepting them as tenants), at a valuation, Mr. Green to retain all the manufactured goods, copper plates, moulds, &c., and to reduce as much as convenient the stock of raw materials. In 1839 it came into the hands of Messrs. Twigg Brothers. It is now carried on by the surviving partner, Mr. John Twigg, who produces the usual varieties of earthenware, and has made some unsuccessful trials in china.
Wath-upon-Dearne.
The “Newhill Pottery” was established, about 1822, by Mr. Joseph Twigg, who up to that time had the management of the Swinton Old Pottery, by whom, in partnership with his sons John, Benjamin, and Joseph Twigg, it was carried on until about 1866, when it passed into the hands of Messrs. Binney and Matthews, who were shortly afterwards succeeded by Messrs. Dibb and Coulter. In April, 1872, the works were purchased by Messrs. Bedford and Richmond, the present proprietors. The goods produced are the ordinary useful classes of earthenware, both for home consumption and for export. In these all the usual services and articles of every-day use are made, both in white, in printed (in which some good patterns are employed), sponged and coloured varieties, and they are produced of the usual qualities.
Wakefield.
A pottery existed on Wakefield Moor in the latter part of the seventeenth century, where vessels were made from clay found on the spot. This clay Houghton, in 1693, calls “The potters’ pale yellow clay of Wakefield Moor.”
Potovens.
The village of Potovens lies about two miles from Wakefield, and, as its name implies, takes its origin from some old potteries established at this place. Ralph Thoresby in his Diary (1702) says, under date of March 16th, “From Wakefield then by Allerthorpe (Alverthorpe) and Silkhouse to the Pott-Ovens (Little London, in the dialect of the poor people), where I stayed a little to observe not only the manner of their forming their earthenware—which brought to mind the words of the prophet, ‘As clay in the hands of the potter, so are we in the Lord’s’—but to observe the manner of building the furnaces, their size and materials, which are small, and upon the surface of the ground, confirming me in my former apprehensions that those remains at Hawcaster-rigg (Philosoph. Trans. No. 222) are really the ruins of a Roman pottery.” These works were carried on, about the time, or in the time, when Thoresby wrote, by one Caleb Glover. In his will, dated 29th of January, 1728, recorded in the Rolls Office, February 6th, 1729, this Caleb Glover “of Pott-Ovens, pott-maker,” bequeaths to his wife all his chattels excepting his “working tools and oven house,” and to his son Daniel Glover he leaves all his “working tools belonging to the trade of a pot-maker, and the pot oven.” He was succeeded at his death, in 1728–9, by this son Daniel Glover, who continued the works. No manufactory of the kind now exists at this place, and the name of the village itself is somewhat ambiguous, for it is occasionally known as Wrenthorp.
Yearsley.
The earliest, and, indeed, only potters of whom anything is known at this place, are members of the Wedgwood family, as recounted in my “Life of Josiah Wedgwood” (p. 583), where these works were first brought into notice. One branch of the Wedgwoods of Staffordshire settled at Yearsley, in the Yorkshire Wolds, at an early date, and commenced pot-making, which was carried on successfully for some generations. In 1682 John Wedgwood, of Yearsley, was “buried in woollen,” as were also in 1692 William Wedgwood, and in 1690 Isabell, who was wife of one of these. John, the son of this John Wedgwood, who died in 1707, was, I have reason to believe, the John Wedgwood whose name appears on the puzzle jug here engraved, with the date 1691. It is in the Museum of Practical Geology, in the Catalogue of which museum is an engraving of the opposite side from Fig. 888. It is of brown ware body, coated with green lead glaze, and has, round the body, the name “John Wedg Wood 1691. incised in writing letters.
Fig. 888.
The ware made by the Yorkshire Wedgwoods was the common hard brown ware, made from the clays of the district, and consisted, of course, mainly of pitchers, pancheons, porringers, and other vessels of homely kind. From researches I have made, I have succeeded in tracing out, with tolerable accuracy, a pedigree, of the Yorkshire Wedgwoods for seven or eight generations, ranging from the middle of the seventeenth century down to the present time, when their descendants are still living in the district, not as potters, but in other equally useful walks of life.
So well known were the Wedgwoods of this district, that one member of the family has been immortalised in song, thus:—
For this interesting fragment of a Yorkshire ballad I am indebted
MM
to my late friend the Rev. Robert Pulleine, Rector of Kirkby Wiske.
“Pancheons” are thick coarse earthenware pans, made of various sizes, and used for setting away milk in, and for washing purposes. They are made in several localities, and besides being sold by earthenware dealers, are hawked about the country by men who make their living in no other way.
Several fragments of brown pottery have at one time or other been dug up at Yearsley, and, among the rest, a brown earthenware oven, green glaze, semicircular, open at top, with a hollowed ledge round the inner side about half way, and a flat bottom, having two handles at the sides, and between them a crinkled ornament, bearing some letters and the date 1712.
Wortley.
The works at Wortley, near Leeds, were established in 1795 by Mr. John Cliff, father of the present Mr. Joseph Cliff, the head of the now firm of “Joseph Cliff and Son,” for the manufacture of fire-bricks, for which the clay of the locality was considered highly valuable. In 1820 the manufacture of clay retorts was commenced and continued very largely until 1830, when it gradually died out, but was revived about 1850 and has continued to the present day one of the most successful branches of the trade—the retorts being considered to be both better and cheaper than those in iron. About 1847 the manufacture of drain-pipes was added, and these were, and still are, made at the rate of several miles per week; blast-furnace lumps being also largely made, and, owing to their excellent quality, extensively used. In 1866, terra-cotta was added to the other productions of this firm and is still carried on. About the same time white and coloured glazed bricks were made, and now form one of the staple trades of the works, as do plumbago crucibles, the manufacture of which was introduced in 1869.
The goods principally produced by Mr. Cliff are, in terra-cotta, vases, tazzas, and pedestals; figures and brackets; capitals, trusses, keystones, terminals, and other architectural enrichments; flower-boxes, baskets, and suspenders; chimney-shafts, and many other articles, some of which are characterized by extreme chasteness of design and by excellence of finish. In stoneware, tubes, pipes, and sanitary goods of every description; troughs, mangers, and sinks; enamelled retorts for gas, and chemical goods, &c. Fire and other bricks and tiles are also very extensively made, as are garden edgings, fire-backs, for which a patent has been obtained by the firm. Messrs. Cliff and Son were awarded a medal in 1862, and at the Paris Exhibition of 1867.
Healey.
A mediæval pottery existed here, in the parish of Masham, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Its site was on the spot where Healey church now stands, the ground bearing the name of “Potters Field.” When the church was erected in 1848 considerable quantities of “wasters” and fragments of pottery were dug up by the workmen.
Colsterdale.
A pottery of a similar character existed at this place on a spot called “Potter’s Pit.” Here many vessels have been found, as well as the clay pits which had been worked for their manufacture. The place was, according to some old maps, a very ancient enclosure from the moor.[126]
END OF VOL. I.
PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] For articles upon this subject see the “Reliquary, Quarterly Archæological Journal and Review,” vol. ii.; Bateman’s “Ten Years’ Diggings;” Jewitt’s “Grave-Mounds and their Contents;” Sir John Lubbock’s “Pre-historic Times,” &c.
[2] Lib. III. c. 5, § ii.
[3] Warne’s “Celtic Tumuli of Dorset.”
[4] From Borlase’s “Nænia Cornubiæ”—a recently published and most excellent work on the early antiquities of Cornwall; it contains a vast amount of valuable information upon discoveries of Celtic pottery in that county, and enables me, through the courtesy of its author, to present these remarkable looped examples to my readers. This work is a valuable addition to archæological literature.
[5] Wright.
[6] “The Durobriva of Antoninus Identified and Illustrated.” 1828.
[7] Vol. i. p. 1.
[8] Vol. iv. p. 80, and vol. vi. p. 179.
[9] In the furnace of one kiln was a layer of wood ashes from four to five inches thick. The kiln, in a very perfect state, was covered in again undisturbed.
[10] “Collectanea Antiqua.”
[11] Artis.
[12] Sloane MSS., 958, fol. 105.
[13] “Illustrations of Roman London,” p. 79, and “Collectanea Antiqua,” vol. vi. p. 173.
[14] Conyers had previously described the red, lustrous (Samian) ware, and also the vessels termed Castor ware, with figures of animals and foliage, but which he did not find in the kilns.
[15] Stone ware, the kind imported from Cologne, was commonly called Cullen. In 1626, too, Abraham Cullen took a patent for the making of these stone pots. It is this kind of ware to which Conyers refers.
[16] Wright.
[17] “The New Forest, its History and Scenery,” by John R. Wise (Smith, Elder, & Co.), p. 214.
[18] “Archæologia,” xxxv. 91.
[19] Vol. ii. p. 36.
[20] Vol. v. p. 159, and vol. vi. pp. 52 to 67.
[21] This curious and unique potter’s mould is in my own possession.
[22] For a further account of this ware see p. 51.
[23] “Col. Ant.,” vol. v. p. 193.
[24] Journal of the British Archæological Association, vol. vi. p. 64.
[25] These three engravings are reproduced from Messrs. Buckman and Newmarch’s “Ancient Remains of Cirencester,” an admirable and truly useful work, to which I refer my readers for much information.
[26] It was also a common practice to place a tile as the covering of a cinerary urn.
[27] This is extremely interesting, as illustrating the custom of funeral garlands, which still obtains in some parts of our country.
[28] These glasses were made rounded or pointed at the bottom; thus they must have been filled while held, and could not without spilling have been set down till emptied. From these the name of “tumblers” takes its origin. For a drinking-cup and wine-pitcher, see our cut, Fig. 225, and for two of these “tumblers,” see Figs. 228 and 231.
[29] See notice of pot-works at King’s Newton on a later page.
[30] For an account of the pottery here discovered see the “Reliquary, Quarterly Archæological Journal and Review,” vol. ii. p. 216.
[31] Marryatt.
[32] See p. 79, ante.
[33] Arch. Journ., vol. iv. p. 29.
[34] Edwards.
[35] Vol. iii. p. 63.
[36] Page 182.
[37] Lansdowne MSS., 108, fol. 60.
[38] Probably written about ten years before printed.
[39] Page 98, ante.
[40] Not 1693, as stated by Chaffers, who has evidently not understood that the date given by Houghton is “old style.”
[41] Aubrey, in his “MS. Natural History of Wiltshire,” had also, a few years previously, thus spoken: “In Vemknoll, adjoining the lands of Easton Pierse, neer the brooke and in it, I bored clay as blew as ultra marine, and incomparably fine, without anything of sand, &c., which perhaps might be proper for Mr. Dwight for his making of porcilaine. It is also in other place, hereabout, but ’tis rare.”
[42] I perceive that Mr. Chaffers, in the 1870 edition of his work, says: “the discovery of the two patents granted to John Dwight ... now published for the first time, in treating on this matter,” &c.; but here he is in error. In 1863 Mr. Woodcraft printed abridgments of these very patents, and to these abridgments Mr. Chaffers is indebted for the knowledge he possessed of them. In 1864 I, too, gave notices of these patents, four years before the date of his publication.
[43] November.
[44] This is evidently the material for the white-brown and white gorges to be made of, which were to be decorated with incised lines.
[45] November.
[46] Guineas.
[47] Those entries which I thus indicate are all crossed out in the MS. Evidently they have been crossed out as the money was withdrawn.
[48] October, 1862.
[49] This collection afterwards passed into the hands of Mr. C. W. Reynolds, and has since been dispersed by auction.
[50] See page 90.
[51] Page 98.
[52] See “Stamford.”
[53] See under “Blackfriars Road.”
[54] It would seem from this that General Conway and Mrs. Dimer had figures, &c., probably their own modelling, fired privately.
[55] See “Runcorn.”
[56] This plan is in possession of my friend, Mr. T. Hughes, F.S.A.
[57] No. 829, folio 21.
[58] In 1757 the following notice appeared: “The Publick is hereby acquainted that the Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory has been very much retarded by the sickness of Mr. Spremont; nevertheless several curious things have been finished, and are now exposed to sale at the warehouse in Piccadilly, with the lowest price, for ready money, fixed on each particular. All warranted true enamel.”
[59] The horse was used for turning the flint and clay mills.
[60] Mr. Lygo was London agent and salesman to Mr. Duesbury.
[61] These are mentioned by Walpole as twelve earthen plates in blue and white delft, painted with the twelve signs of the Zodiac by Sir John Thornhill, in August, 1711, bought at Mrs. Hogarth’s sale. They were bought for seven guineas, and are said to have been of Dutch make, and then painted by Thornhill.
[62] I know of one service of flowered cups and saucers where the whole of the saucers have the raised anchor, and the cups bear the usual anchor drawn in red.
[63] Or Barnett.
[64] Or Parker.
[65] Mr. Rhodes was the Clerk.
[66] For an account of this, see Kentish Town.
[67] Sir Patrick Blake, Bart., of Langham, co. Suffolk.
[68] Sir James Lake, Bart., of Edmonton, who died in 1807, married, in 1764, Joyce, daughter of this Mr. John Crowther; she died in 1834.
[69] This is an error; it was at Cornhill.
[70] This is very doubtful.
[71] See Chelsea.
[72] The portrait here engraved is copied from an engraving by Daniell, after a drawing by George Dance, R.A.
[73] Chambers’s “Biographical Illustrations of Worcestershire.”
[74] At Pirna.
[75] The battle of Prague.
[76] The battle with Ct. Daun, 18th of June.
[77] The battle of M. Lehwald, with the R.
[78] The battle with the Prince Soubise, November 5.
[79] Chambers’s “Biographical History.”
[80] The Battersea works were carried on, it is said, by Alderman Jansen, who failed in 1756, and soon afterwards the Worcester printing began.
[81] Mr. Binns, in his “Century of Potting in the City of Worcester,” 8vo., 1865, says—“We may here state that the copper plate from which not only this Chinese porcelain was painted, but some of the finest specimens in our cabinet, was discovered by Mr. Jewitt at Coalport.”
[82] For full details of all the changes which have taken place, and for an immense fund of information on every point connected with the works, the reader is referred to Mr. Binns’s “Century of Potting in Worcestershire.”
[83] It may not be out of place to allude to the Prince Consort’s unqualified approval and appreciation of these enamels. In 1854, Mr. Binns obtained permission to exhibit specimens of his new invention to his royal highness, whose commendations were most emphatically and unhesitatingly expressed, and he at once purchased all the examples which had been shown him, saying they were the best things he had seen. Her Majesty subsequently ordered some specimens of this work, which was all on dark blue ground; and latterly an order for a magnificent dessert service, in the same style of work, on a turquoise ground, has been ordered by her Majesty. The Worcester works owe much to the pure taste of his late Royal Highness the Prince Consort.
[84] Pages 270 and 271.
[85] “A few Words on ‘Fairy Pipes,’” Reliquary, vol. iii., pp. 72 to 84.
[86] Pipes of three feet long and more, with barrel bowls, are still imported in small quantities.
[87] “They are called “Fairy Pipes” in this neighbourhood, and the small bowls with broken stem have been occasionally found on my estate at St. James’s.”—H. S.
[88] “Maund” is the Devonshire name for basket, or hamper. In Plymouth it is not unusual to hear of a “maund o’ cloam,” which is only “a basket of pots”—cloam being the Devonshire word for crockery ware.
[89] Mr. Owen has shown that previous to December, 1765, china had been attempted to be made in Bristol. In November of that year, Champion wrote, in reference to some clay from Carolina, “I sent part to Holdship, as you desired, and gave part to a new work just established.... This new work is from a clay and stone discovered in Cornwall, which answers the description of the Chinese,” &c.; and on December 15th, “I have had your clay tried at the works here, which is now given up, as they could not burn the ware clean.” Probably either Cookworthy was connected with these short-lived works, or they were carried on under license from him.
[90] This allusion to the time occupied in the journey from Bristol to Plymouth is very interesting. It was then, it seems, a hundred years ago, a two days’ journey by the “machine” (which was, of course, the coach). Cookworthy intended to set out, it seems, on the Tuesday morning, and hoped to reach Plymouth by the machine some time on the Thursday. On my last journey, in fact while making these notes, I left Bristol at eight o’clock, and arrived at Plymouth at ten minutes after twelve, the journey occupying only four hours and ten minutes! What a contrast between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries this simple fact presents.
[91] “Two Centuries of Ceramic Art in Bristol,” by Hugh Owen, F.S.A.
[92] See the account of the Plymouth china works, p. 329.
[93] This Act I first printed in extenso in the Art-Journal, for 1863, page 214.
[94] This specification of Cookworthy’s I have given in extenso in my history of the “Plymouth China Works,” Art-Journal, September, 1863, and on page 329, ante, of this volume.
[95] My notice of the Bristol china works in the Art-Journal for 1863 was the first occasion in which these “Reasons” were reprinted, in connection with the porcelain works of this kingdom.
[96] This would have formed a straight line, and is omitted in the figure.
[97] Felix Farley’s Journal.
[98] Felix Farley’s Journal.
[99] John Hope was apprenticed to Richard Frank, and became a stoneware potter in Temple Street.
[100] Thomas Patience, “victualler and potter,” kept the Cross Keys, Temple Street, the “potters’ house of call.”—(Sketchley’s Directory.)
[101] Enamel.
[102] For this extract I am indebted to the librarian, Mr. J. P. Briscoe.
[103] Vol. xiii. p. 161.
[104] Reliquary, Archæological Journal and Review, vol. xv. p. 207.
[105] The whole of the dated examples which I have described (with the exception of this last, which I now make known for the first time) and those of 1765 and 1782, I fully described in the Art-Journal for 1863, and they have served, unacknowledged, as the foundation upon which Chaffers and every other later writer have built up their notices of Lowestoft.
[106] It is worthy of note that Mr. Chaffers, speaking upon this, says (p. 619): “There is such a peculiarity in the form and quality of the Lowestoft porcelain, that we are surprised any one at all conversant with or accustomed to see collections of china could ever mistake it for Oriental;” and yet a few pages later on he says (p. 636), “a punch-bowl representing similar harvest scenes is in the collection of the Author, which has been in his (Mr. Chaffers’) family for nearly a century, painted evidently by the same artist; former possessors supposing it to be of Oriental manufacture.” How is it that, being in his own family for nearly a century, and he being assuredly “conversant with and accustomed to see collections of china,” Mr. Chaffers did not previously find out that it was Lowestoft, but should have allowed his family always to suppose it to be Oriental?
The same writer relies in great measure on a statement made by Mr. Abel Bly, in 1865, that “No Oriental porcelain ever came into it to be decorated.” The statement is as follows:—“From my Father working at the Factory I was in the habit of going daily to the premises, and can most positively affirm that no manufactured articles were brought there to be painted; but that every article painted in the Factory had been previously made there. I remember that the ware produced in the Factory was deemed far superior to anything to be obtained in the country.”
The statement is almost too ridiculous to notice, and how any careful writer could give credence to it is somewhat mysterious. Abel Bly begins his statement (which evidently was drawn up for him to sign) by saying, “I ... am now in the 84th year of my age.... My father’s name was Abel Bly, who was employed in various departments in the china factory at Lowestoft. He died when I was eleven years of age.” It will be seen that he says that, from his father working at the factory, he was in the habit of going there daily, and so can “positively affirm” as above, and yet his father died when he was only a little boy eleven years old! and he was only four years old when hard paste porcelain, according to Chaffers, began to be made there. I think one can judge pretty well what amount of weight can be attached to a statement made seventy-three years afterwards, of the internal and commercial arrangements of a manufactory where, till he was only eleven years old, a boy was in the habit of going daily, probably with his father’s dinner! The statement is just as ludicrous as the next, where he says, “I remember that the ware produced at the factory was deemed far superior to anything to be obtained in the country.” Where was the Chelsea? the Bow? the Derby? the Bristol? the Plymouth? and a host of others?
[107] A copy of this most interesting pattern-book—from which, however, three plates are missing—is in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London, which has the English list, 1786; German, 1783; and French, 1785. I have also copies bearing the date 1794, and others undated.
[108] In the Pattern Book of 1783 the plates represent the various articles as follows:—
Nos. 1 to 4 are covered terrines; 5 to 8 are sauce terrines with spoons and stands; 9 and 10 are the same articles with fast stands; 11 to 13 are a pickle leaf, a sea shell, and an escallop shell; 14 to 17 are sauce-boats; 18 to 21 are oval dishes; 22 to 25, table plates; 26 to 29, covered, or ragout dishes; 30 to 34, sallads; 35, a turtle dish; 36 to 39, compotiers; 40 to 46, pierced dessert dishes, with open-work rims; 47 and 48, fish drainers; 49 to 54, salts, with covers; 55 to 57, egg-cups; 58 and 59, pierced double salts; 60 and 61, jugs; 62 and 63, salts; 64 to 67, mugs covered and uncovered; 68, melon terrine and spoon; 69, round terrine and stand; 70 and 71, covered bowls; 72 and 73, covered dessert, pierced covers, and bowls, &c.; 74 to 79, butter-tubs and stands; 80 to 82, single castors; 83 to 85, mustards; 86 and 87, strawberry dishes and stands; 88, platt menage; 89, water-bottle and basin; 90, ice cellar; 91 and 92, bakers; 93 and 94, ice-pails; 95, glass tray; 96 and 97, double and single pails; 98, hot-water dish; 99, asparagus shell; 100, escallop’d nappy; 101, salad; 102 and 103, large furnished castors; 104, oil and vinegar stand; 105 and 106, grand platts menage; 107 to 115, various candlesticks, some highly ornamental; 116, vase candlestick; 117, composite candlestick; 118, flat candlestick; 119 and 120, ewers and basins; 121 and 122, scaphia; 123 and 124, “spitting pots;” 125 and 126, shaving basin; 127 to 130, spoons and ladles; 131, pierced fish trowel; 132 to 136, fruit-baskets and stands of elegant basket, twig and open work; 137, pierced chesnut basket and stand; 138, ornamented jar, or pot pourri; 139, a cockle pot, or potpourri; 140, caper jar, or pot pourri; 141, covered flower cup; 142, a quintal flower-horn; 143 and 144, sweetmeat cups; 145, confectionery basket and stand; 146, a pot pourri, whose top inverts to form a candlestick; 147, inkstand; 148, a wafer-box; 149, a fountain inkstand; 150, a sand-box or pounce-box; 151, inkstand; 152, a cross with holy water cup. Tea ware: Nos. 1 to 4, teapots; 5 to 8, coffee-pots; 9 to 11, tea-cannisters; 12 and 13, milk pots with covers; 14 and 15, slop-bowls; 16 and 17, milk ewers; 18, tea or coffee-tray, with open-work border; 19 to 24, sugar-basins with covers; 25 to 32, cups and saucers of various kinds.
[109] Henry Ackroyd died in 1788. In a letter from John Green, of the Leeds Pottery, to his partner, John Brameld, at the Swinton Pottery, dated “Leeds Pottery, 15 April, 1788,” the following curious allusion is made to him:—“Our worthy friend Ackroyd is dead, and I doubt not but is alive again. It was a pleasant reflection to me, being one of the pall-bearers, to think I was bearing the Cover over a dead Carkess whose soul I had not the least doubt was in heaven. He left this world with as great Composer and Confidance in his future state as was posable for a man to do; and I sincerely wish that you and me may be as well prepared as friend Ad for a future state.”
[110] A letter of John Green’s in June, 1788, says, “Letters are to be directed to me at Flint Mill Grange, near Wetherby.”
[111] The Act of Parliament for the formation of this line of railway was passed in January, 1758, and it is therein stated that Charles Brandling, the owner of the collieries, had made agreements with the owners of the lands through which it was intended to pass, “to pay yearly rent or other considerations” for the privilege. The Leeds pot works must, therefore, have been established some length of time previous to the year 1758. It may be interesting to add that by this act Mr. Brandling bound himself for a term of sixty years to bring from his collieries at Middleton, to a repository at “Casson Close, near the Great Bridge at Leeds,” “20,000 dozens, or 240,000 corfs of coals,” each corf containing in weight about 210 lbs., and in measure 7,680 cubical inches, and there sell the same to the public at the price of 4¾d. a corf. As the town increased in size, and its manufactures spread, fresh acts of parliament were applied for and obtained in 1779, 1793 (two), and 1803, by which last the quantity of coal undertaken to be supplied was increased to 1,920 corfs per day, and the price raised to 8d. per corf.
[112] In the same year (1825), to add to the perplexities of the proprietors, there appears to have been a strike among the potters. The following “Appeal” was printed for the men by Mr. Baines, who afterwards became one of our statesmen:—
“An Appeal to the Public from the Journeymen Potters of Leeds and its Neighbourhood.
“It is with painful feelings that we are under the necessity of laying before a discerning public the following brief statement of Facts relative to those differences now existing between us and our Employers.
“At a time like the present, it is very strange that our Employers should attempt an unparalleled Reduction of our Wages, amounting from 20 to 30 per cent. upon the prices we have received, when those prices were barely sufficient to support a Man and his Family, and at the same time raise the price of his goods to the Public at least 50 per cent.
“We feel confident the above Statement of Facts will at once convince every thinking individual that our conduct in standing out to oppose such uncalled-for proceedings is just and right. We should have exposed ourselves to the censure of every reasonable Man, and all who have alive in their bosom a spark of honest indignation, had we tamely submitted to the fiat of our Employers, and not have made every effort in our power to preserve that which is every man’s natural right—a fair remuneration for his labour.
“We respectfully solicit the aid of a generous Public, to enable us to withstand the unjust proceedings of those who have driven us to this alternative, by their unceasing endeavours to reduce us to a state of misery and degradation from which we hope to be preserved by your kind assistance, and enabled to withstand those encroachments which would inevitably plunge ourselves, our families, and our successors into inevitable ruin.—Dec. 13, 1825.”
[113] Jewitt’s “Life of Wedgwood.” London: Virtue Brothers, p. 177, et seq.
[114] Letter from Josiah Wedgwood, M.P.
[115] Vessels of this construction, of early Japanese make, are in existence.
[116] These teapots were of high and somewhat peculiar form, like what are now usually sold as coffee pots, and were universally known as “Rockingham Teapots.” This high form was said to be the reason of the tea being produced of a better quality than in the ordinary shaped ones.
[117] Mr. Allen, of Lowestoft, at one time was in the habit of purchasing white wares from the Rockingham Works, which he painted and burnt in an enamel kiln, erected at the back of his shop.
[118] The following is a copy of the agreement in my own possession:—
“Memorandum of Agreement the 28th of February, 1838.
“Brameld & Co. agree to buy from Mr. Wm. Dale, of Shelton, his interest in a certain invention he has now in the Patent Office in London for the manufacture of China, Ironstone China or Earthenware Pillars, Columns or Rails, &c., for Bed-Posts, Window-Heads, &c., &c., and for obtaining the Patent-right of which he has entered a Caveat and taken other preliminary steps.
“B. & Co. agree to employ the said Wm. Dale in the manufacture of and superintendance of the completion of the articles to be manufactured by them under the Patent, and also in the general management of the China Clay department at the Rockingham Works for seven years, to be computed from the 1st of , this year—at the yearly salary of Eighty Pounds.
“The whole expences incurr’d from this time in obtaining the proper security of the Patent to be borne and paid by Brameld & Co. at their sole cost and risk.
“The said Wm. Dale to have no extra allowance above his salary as fixed above, for the first year of his servitude. But for the second, and each and every of the succeeding years of the term the allowance or premium of Fifty Pounds, as a compensation for giving up his interest in the Patent, making in the six years terminating this agreement a total of Three Hundred Pounds. But it is understood and provided that if the amount of sales of the articles made under this patent does not, in any of the said six last years of this agreement, amount to Five Hundred Pounds or upwards, at wholesale or trade prices, nett money, then, in such case, the premium or compensation for the Patent-right shall be reduced exactly in the same degree or proportion as the sales may fall short of the amount of Five Hundred Pounds in any or all the said six years of this agreement.
“For the considerations agreed as above to be given by Brameld & Co. to the said Wm. Dale, it is fully and clearly understood that he shall give up to them the whole of his designs, models, and moulds of every sort connected with the execution of the articles to be produced under the Patent.
“It is also further agreed between the parties to this contract, that if it shall turn out that the said Wm. Dale cannot from any cause whatever substantiate his claim to, and fully secure an available and efficient Patent so that the advantages to be expected from it shall fail of being obtained, then, in such case, this Agreement, in every part, shall be considered to be annulled, and to cease and determine.”
The specification, of which I possess a copy, was enrolled on the 10th of September, 1838, and is accompanied by illustrative drawings.
[119] I possess two original copper plates engraved with views of these works in their best days.
[120] Conisborough Castle is in the neighbourhood of these works, being only four or five miles distant from Swinton. It is one of the finest Norman keeps in existence.
[121] This truly exquisite plate, which is a perfect chef-d’œuvre of ceramic art-decoration, was designed by Mr. Thomas Brameld, after the death of King William IV., and submitted to her present Majesty, Mr. Brameld proposing to substitute it for the plates made for his late Majesty. The Queen, however, did not give her consent to the alteration. The cost of the substitution would, it is stated, have been £1,700.
[122] Services were also made for the King of Hanover, the King of the Belgians, the Dukes of Sussex, Cambridge, &c., for the Duke of Sutherland, and for many others of the nobility.
[123] Butterflies were more frequently introduced into the decorations at these works than at any others, and were beautifully painted from nature. They were also introduced as “knobs” to muffineers, sauce tureens, &c., and were for that, and other decorative purposes, charmingly modelled.
[124] Of Mr. Bromley, and his connection with these and the Whittington Works, some notice will be found under Whittington.
[125] On the quart jugs the figure appeared on one side, and the verse on the other.
[126] Fisher’s “History of Masham,” p. 68.
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors
have been corrected silently.
2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the original.
3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been
retained as in the original.
4.Where appropriate, the original spelling has been retained.
5. New partial original cover art included with this eBook is granted to
the public domain.