The Temple and St. Thomas’s Street Works.—The oldest stoneware pottery in Bristol is that of Mr. J. and C. Price and Brothers, in St. Thomas’s Street and Temple Street, where their famous glazed stoneware is made. It was established about 1735 or 1740, and has been continued in work by three generations of the same family until the present day. The old “Salt Glaze” was used till 1842, when great improvements having been made through the long-continued and successful experiments of Mr. Powell (as named in the notice of his works), it was at that time found practicable to dip the stoneware into liquid glaze in its green state, instead of first burning and then “smearing,” as formerly practised. Messrs. Price, having adopted the new method, continued to improve their works, and built much larger kilns than usual in potteries of the kind. The superiority of “Bristol stoneware” over others became so well established, that the metropolitan makers bought their glaze from that city until very recently, and, indeed, I believe some of them do so at the present day. The stoneware goods produced by Messrs. Price are of the highest quality, and, besides the more homely and useful articles, they have succeeded in making some excellent imitations of the antique, of very fine body, faultless glaze, and elegant form. Many of these are admirable copies from the antique, and are perfect in shape and in firing. Among the goods produced by this firm are filters of a remarkably simple but excellent construction and of elegant form; feet and carriage warmers; barrels and churns; bread, cheese, and other pans, and every other kind of domestic vessel, as well as every possible size and variety of bottles, jugs, &c. They do an immense export trade for bottles for ale, stout, &c., these being found for the purpose far superior to glass. Messrs. Price also make all the other usual varieties of stoneware goods, and all are of faultless quality both in body and glaze.

Other stoneware potters besides those already named were, in former times, John Hope,[99] in Temple Street; Thomas Patience,[100] in the same district; James Alsop, first at 9, Water Lane, and afterwards at Temple Street, and others, as well as at Baptist Mills, Easton, and Westbury.

Temple Gate Pottery.—At Temple Gate a stoneware pottery has long been established, and is still successfully carried on by Messrs. William and Septimus Powell, the sons of its founder. The goods manufactured at this establishment are what are generally termed “Bristol ware” or “Improved stone,” which was invented and perfected some forty years ago by the late Mr. Powell. “Its peculiarity consists in its being coated with a glaze which is produced simultaneously with the ware itself, so that one firing only is needed.” So great was Mr. Powell’s success in his discovery, that “shortly after its introduction at the Temple Gate Pottery almost every other manufacturer of stoneware adopted it, and it has now, in a large measure, superseded the old salt-glazed ware.” The goods principally made by the present proprietors, Messrs. W. & S. Powell, are bread-pans, filters, foot-warmers, and other domestic vessels, as well as bottles and jars of every size, shape, and use. Messrs. Powell have a registered arrangement for fitting, fastening, and keeping air-tight, by means of a three-pronged, or tripod, iron clamp furnished with an elastic washer, the lids of preserve and other jars—thus doing away with the necessity of any other covering. At these works, too, vases and bottles of classic shape are occasionally made, as are also enormous jugs—one of which, capable of holding twenty-five gallons, has been exhibited by the firm.

Wilder Street Pottery.—About 1820 a pottery on a small scale was worked in Wilder Street by a family named Macken, a descendant of the owner of the old pottery at St. Ann’s, at Brislington, where flower-pots and other coarse brown ware was made. Macken afterwards went to America.

Bristol Glass.

As the manufacture of enamelled glass in Bristol is so intimately mixed up with that of pottery and china, it may be interesting to add a few words concerning it. In 1761 there appears to have been, according to Evans, “fifteen large houses employed in that manufacture.” The main source of information concerning the manufacture is gained from the books and papers of Michael Edkins, to whom I have referred in my notice of the delft-ware pottery. For the particulars gleaned from these papers I am indebted to his descendant, Mr. William Edkins. The ledger commences in May, 1761.

The glass made at Bristol appears to have been principally white, of different shades, and was made in a great variety of articles, including teapots, jugs, cream ewers, beakers, &c. The commoner varieties of decorative glass were painted in a rapid style with varnish colour, and submitted to a gentle heat, just sufficient to fix it on the surface. This, of course, soon rubbed off in use, and on the examples which are still remaining the patterns have almost disappeared.

The highest class of goods produced by Mr. Edkins was beautifully and perfectly enamelled, the colours were remarkably good, and thoroughly incorporated into the glass. Examples of this kind are very rare, but one or two specimens still remain in the family and are highly prized.

As the prices charged by Michael Edkins for painting on glass, and for enamelling, naturally become a guide to the prices he had been paid as a painter on delft-ware, and further as a guide to the prices of painting on china at that time, I append a few extracts from his ledger, which will be read with interest by collectors. For these extracts I am indebted to Mr. William Edkins, of Bristol, grandson of the painter, who has the original book in his possession. The accounts for painting and enamelling on glass extend from April, 1762, to December, 1787. The following are a few of the items:—

Salt Glaze.

It is said that the delft-ware potteries were preceded by a maker of salt-glazed stoneware—a German named Wrede or Read—and a curious story is told in connection with him and the difficulty he had in establishing his works. It appears that the people being surprised at the glaze he produced on his ware, and at the secrecy he endeavoured to preserve regarding his pottery, and noticing the dense clouds of vapour which every now and then arose from his kiln (caused, of course, by the throwing in of the salt through the fire holes when the ware had arrived at a certain degree of heat), believed that he had called in supernatural aid, and that the fumes which ascended were caused by the visits of the devil. He was “mobbed” by the people, his place injured, and he was forced to fly the town.

Brislington.

About a century ago, I am informed, there was a pottery at St. Ann’s, in this parish, conducted by a family named Macken. The older productions are described as “a drab-coloured ware with a plum-coloured glaze; the more modern were the same ware covered with a layer resembling porcelain; white, and apparently of felspar, this kind has almost invariably a rough blue pattern.” One of the Macken family had a pottery in Bristol.

A manufactory formerly existed at this place, and the ware produced may be described as very closely approaching, in general appearance and effect, the common descriptions of Turkish pottery. The patterns were produced, in coarse and rude designs, in a kind of copper or red lustre, on the plain buff clay ground. Examples are somewhat rare. The works were carried on by Richard Frank, of Bristol, and his family, but were closed in the latter part of last century. The works, which were of course but small, still stand, but are converted into cottages. “They are situated at the bottom of St. Ann’s Wood, between St. Ann’s Vale and the river, on a line about half a mile beyond Netham Dam,” and opposite to Crewshole. Some good examples of this ware, which is remarkably clumsy and coarse, but very curious, are preserved in the Bristol Museum (Fig. 804). The circular dish is fourteen inches in diameter with a small centre of nine inches. On its back is the rude monogram (Fig. 805) of Richard Frank, its maker.

Crews-Hole.

A small stoneware pottery was established here by a clever but somewhat peripatetic potter, Anthony Amatt, originally of Derby, who was one of the workmen employed by Richard Champion at the famous Bristol china works. His works were merely a wooden shed or two, and the bulk of his productions were flower-pots. He afterwards, I believe, had a small pottery at Temple Gate, which came into the hands of Mr. Powell when Mr. Amatt entered into his employ. Previous to this it is believed a small pottery for producing the same kind of ware as that of Brislington had existed at Crewshole. In 1794–5 Amatt was living at Twerton, in Somersetshire; in those years he was extensively engaged in painting on earthenware and china for Mr. Egan, of Bath, brother-in-law of the second William Duesbury, of the Derby China Works. The original bills are in my own possession. He was afterwards a stocking weaver.

Westbury.

The Sugar House Pottery at Westbury, which had been for many years carried on by George Hart, passed, on the 8th of December, 1775, into the hands of Stephen Fricker, potter and publican, who was host of the Fountain tavern in High Street, Bristol. Besides sugar bakers’ moulds, which gave the name of “Sugar-house Pottery” to the works, the usual classes of flower-pots, chimney-tops, puncheons, pitchers, and other domestic coarse brown ware articles were made.

Easton.

A small manufactory was established here for the manufacture of various articles by a process for using the magnesian limestone of the district in its body. Many very creditable and artistic articles were produced, but the whole affair proved a failure, and the works were closed. The spill case (Fig. 806) is said to have been made here.

Weston-super-Mare.

The Royal Pottery was established in 1836 by Mr. Charles Phillips as a brick and tile manufactory. In the following year glazed ware, for domestic vessels, was introduced, as was also, to a small extent, the manufacture of flower-pots, &c. In 1840 the production of glazed ware was discontinued; and, the clay of the locality being found to be admirably adapted for horticultural vessels, vases, statuary, &c., special attention was directed to them, and with such marked effect that, at the Great Exhibition of 1851, medals and certificates of merit were awarded for them. In 1870 Mr. Phillips retired from the business, which was at that time purchased from him by the present proprietor, Mr. John Matthews, by whom it has been very considerably extended. By Mr. Matthews, too, several new branches have been added to the business, and a new and better taste has been infused into the art decorations. Notably among the new introductions are rustic-work, baskets of artificial flowers, busts, vases, suspenders, &c. Flower-pots, of which from 20,000 to 30,000 are made weekly, and of all sizes, from 1¾ inches to 30 inches in diameter, are a staple production of the “Royal Pottery,” and are supplied to her Majesty’s garden at Windsor Castle, H.M. Commissioners of Works at Kew, Hampton Court, the Parks, &c., the Royal Horticultural Society, Chiswick, &c., and to most of the principal gardens in this country, as well as being exported in large quantities to New Zealand, Port Natal, and Chili. They have the reputation of being the best, most compact, and most durable of any manufacture; and, although of such enormous size, are turned with marvellous precision, and fired without running or casting. Two great, and registered, specialities] are the “Oxford Pot” with perforated rim for training pelargoniums, azaleas, roses, &c., without the aid of sticks, and the “Alpine-plant pot”—a kind of double pot so arranged that the space between the outer one and the inner one (in which, of course, the plant is set) can be filled with water or moist moss. The more notable ornamental productions of the “Royal Pottery” are figure, shell, and other fountains, of various tiers in height; life-size figures and groups of figures; statuettes and busts; reproductions of ancient statuary; eagles, lions, and other gigantic figures on artificial rocks and pedestals; flower and other brackets in considerable variety; vases and tazzas of every conceivable form, many of which, peculiar to these works, are of remarkable elegance; pedestals and garden-seats; flower-vases and flower-stands, elaborately and elegantly decorated in relief; fern-stands and flower and fern-baskets, with and without handles, charmingly decorated in relief with wicker-work, fern-leaves, and other ornamentation; cut flower-baskets and vases; crocus pots; elegant suspenders for flowers, for use in conservatories, entrance-halls, archways, &c.; orchid pots, of greatly improved form and construction; window-boxes for flowers; stump or rustic arborettes, of various sizes, for lawns, rockeries, parterres, &c., of the most striking and novel character; rockery arborettes for ferns, lychopods, &c., of various sizes, either for out or in-door use; and architectural decorations, &c. The general colour of these productions is a delicate red, which is calculated to harmonize well with surrounding foliage. The designs of the vases, &c., are remarkably good, bold, and effective; the body durable and hard; the colour pleasing, and the workmanship faultless. The greatest achievement of Art in terra-cotta which has ever been gained is the production of baskets of flowers, each individual leaf or flower modelled from nature; and vases decorated in the same manner. Those who are acquainted with the exquisite beauty of the groups of porcelain bisque flowers produced at the old Bristol and Derby works, will scarcely be prepared to believe that they are successfully vied in the coarser material by Mr. Matthews. But such is the case, and hence it is that I call attention to these new and beautiful ceramic productions. So true to nature are many of the flowers, and so delicately modelled in all their minutest details, that the most skilful botanist can scarce find a deviation from nature in leaf or flower. The basket engraved on Fig. 807 is a fair specimen of the Matthews’ reproduction of flowers; but the most exquisitely beautiful group yet produced is an example in my own possession—the chef-d’œuvre of the works. It is unsurpassed by any production in terra-cotta. These floral baskets are a speciality of the Royal Pottery, and are among the most beautiful of art productions.

The clay from which the various terra-cotta and other objects are made is the native clay of the place, and is produced in the field in which the works are situated. It is a fine plastic clay, of light colour, and admirably adapted for the various purposes to which it is being applied. The first six or eight feet in depth is this fine plastic clay, from which the vases, statuary, busts, fern-stands, flower-baskets, and other finer goods are made. Below this are several feet in depth of blue clay, from which bricks, drain-pipes, &c., are made, and which lies in a bed of peat about fifteen inches in depth. Below this peat is a considerable depth of soft clay, from which the ordinary bricks are made. Roofing and flooring tiles, and garden-edgings, are also made in large quantities. The following is an analysis of the plastic clay made for the purpose of this account.

“Before analyzing, the clay was dried at the temperature of boiling water.

“The greater part of the lime shown above exists in the raw clay as carbonate. The high character which the clay bears as regards its suitability for ‘Terra-Cotta’ work is fully borne out by the analysis. (Signed), Edward G. Tosh, F.C.S., Chemical Laboratory, Whitehaven.”

They possess the advantage of not turning green while in use.

The mark of the Royal Pottery is sometimes the Royal Arms alone, and at others the Royal Arms surmounting a tablet with the name. There are also other potteries, where coarse common ware is produced, in the same neighbourhood.

Poole, Dorset.

The Architectural Pottery Company’s works were established in 1854 by Messrs. Thomas Sanders Ball, John Ridgway (china manufacturer, of Cauldon Place, Hanley), Thomas Richard Sanders, and Frederick George Sanders. In 1857, Mr. Ridgway retired from the concern and it was carried on by the remaining partners until 1861, when Mr. Thomas Sanders Ball also retired. Since then the works have been continued by Messrs. T. R. and F. G. Sanders alone. The Company produce patent coloured and glazed bricks and mouldings, semi-perforated and pressed; patent mosaic, tessellated, encaustic, vitreous, and white, blue, and other glazed wall tiles; embossed and perforated tiles; quarries and fire-clay goods, and other articles—the clays used being Purbeck clay, Cornish china clay, and Fareham clay, while those for plain quarries are from the Canford estate.

The encaustic paving tiles are of good design, many being carefully copied from mediæval examples, while others are new and of extremely good character—some being classic and others gothic. The colours used in the encaustic tiles are very varied and, in some instances, rich; red, buff, blue, chocolate, black, white, brown, green, &c., of different shades and of harmonious combinations. A speciality of these works are the tessellated tiles, under Bale’s patent process. These are literally formed of thin tesseræ of various colours, laid on and forming a part of the quarry itself. By this means all the richness and intricacy of the geometrical designs of tessellated pavements is produced, and at small trouble in laying down. Their character, as a rule, is better than the Italian tiles produced on the same general principle. These “tessellated tiles” possess every quality for general adoption, and no doubt will, in time, become, so to speak, acclimatised to this country. In quality the Architectural Pottery Company’s decorated tiles are not so hard and compact in body as some others are, but doubtless this can be improved upon.

The marks used by the company are:—

ARCHITECTURAL
POTTERY COMPANY
POOLE DORSET
REGISTERED

ARCHITECTURAL
POTTERY CO
POOLE : DORSET

ARCHITECTURAL
POTTERY CO.
POOLE DORSET
PATENT · INLAID
MOSAIC

PATENT
ARCHITECTURAL
POTTERY . CO
POOLE · DORSET

PATENT
ARCHITECTURAL
POTTERY CO
POOLE,—DORSET
BALE’S PATENT
INLAID MOSAIC

A P · CO
POOLE
PATENT

A. P. CO.

A. P · CO
POOLE

Bourne Valley Pottery.—At this pottery, worked by Messrs. Standing and Marten, who have an establishment at Bourne Valley Wharf, Nine Elms, London, glazed stoneware sewage and sanitary pipes, on Creshes’ patent, and terra-cotta vases, figures, chimney-tops, garden edgings, and architectural enrichments are made.

Branksea Pottery.—These potteries were built by Col. Waugh for the manufacture of stoneware sanitary goods and terra-cotta, in 1855, who also established alum works here. Fire-clay goods of the usual quality of the district are made, and the sanitary pipes are of a hard and durable nature. The works have the advantage of a large bed of excellent clay close at hand.

Kinson.

The works at Kinson, near Poole (with a wharf at the Albert Embankment, Lambeth), were established in the middle of the present century, and consisted of twelve kilns with boiler, engine-house, drying-sheds, stables, offices, &c. After a few years they were closed, and so remained until 1867, when the property was purchased and came into the hands of the present “Kinson Pottery Company,” who commenced making stoneware drain-pipes. Shortly afterwards the company introduced the making of terra-cotta goods, in which they have been very successful, and fire-bricks, which they manufacture to a very considerable extent. The estate consists of about twenty-seven acres of freehold land, which is underlaid through its whole area with a thick compact bed of clay, in layers of various descriptions. It is (roughly speaking) of three qualities, about 40 feet thick, lying in nearly equal beds of each description. The quality is shown in the following copy of Herapath’s analysis, taken some years ago, for the original company:—

The clays lie in the mine as follows:—

The productions of the Kinson Pottery, in stoneware, are sanitary and drain-pipes of every description, traps, syphons, and pans, and other articles; they are highly vitrified, strong, and durable, and of excellent quality. In terra-cotta, vases, rustic seats, brackets, garden edgings, chimney-pots, architectural enrichments, and other goods are produced, as are also fire-bricks, arch and wedge bricks, &c. The quality of the terra-cotta is extremely good and durable.