York.

“Place’s Ware.”—Francis Place, who may be looked upon as one of the pioneers of modern pottery, commenced the manufacture of what, at the time, was considered “equal to true china ware,” about 1665. But little, however, is known either of the manufactory, or of the ware he produced. Francis Place was, according to Walpole, a younger son of Mr. Rowland Place, of Dimsdale, in the county of Durham, and was placed as clerk to an attorney in London until 1665. Walpole’s notice of him runs thus:

Thoresby, in his “Ducatus Leodiensis” (1714), mentions Place and his wares several times. The principal notice, when speaking of the vein of white clay in the hundred of Wortley, is as follows:—

From the examples at present in existence—and there are only two or three known—it appears that the ware was simply a tolerably fine kind of earthenware, of a greyish colour streaked with black and brown; and this is the way in which Horace Walpole describes his specimen: “I have a coffee cup of his ware; it is of grey earth, with streaks of black, and not superior to common earthenware.” This example was sold at the Strawberry Hill sale, and passed into the hands of Mr. Franks, who generously presented it to the Museum of Practical Geology. It is a cup about 2½ inches in height, and 2⅛ inches in diameter at the top. It is of thin glazed greyish ware, streaked with black and brown, and has a narrow rib, or raised band, running round it at about two-thirds of its height from the top. An old pasteboard label attached to the handle of this cup bears the words “Mr. Francis Place’s china,” probably in the handwriting of Horace Walpole.

Examples are also in the hands of some of the descendants of Mr. Place. They are of precisely the same character as the one just described. In the same hands is “a small portrait of Place, by himself, in which he has introduced one of his cups, the original of which his descendant possesses, and which is traditionally said to be one which he considered to be his masterpiece.” Mr. Place, in 1712, visited Thoresby, and in 1728 he died, leaving a widow and an only child, a daughter, married to Wadham Wyndham, Esq.

York China Manufactory.—In 1838 Mr. Haigh Hirstwood, formerly of the Rockingham china works, established a china manufactory in York, and by the succeeding spring had so far progressed that the following paragraph appeared in one of the York papers:—

The works were established in Lowther Street, Groves, and were continued until about 1850, when the concern was wound up. Mr. Haigh Hirstwood was born at Royd’s Hall, near Huddersfield, in 1778; and learnt the art of china making and decorating under the Bramelds at the Rockingham works, as did also afterwards his sons and son-in-law. He continued at the Rockingham works upwards of forty years, leaving them only towards their close, when he removed to York and commenced business as a china dealer. In 1839, as I have stated, he erected kilns, &c., at York, and commenced business in the decorating and finishing departments, buying his china in the white from Sampson Bridgwood & Co. of Longton, and from others. In this business he was assisted by his son-in-law, Mr. William Leyland also from the Rockingham works, who became his managing partner. Disagreements having arisen, however, the business was broken up, Mr. Hirstwood remaining in York, where he died in 1854, and Mr. Leyland removing to London, when he took to painting and decorating lamps, where he died in 1853, leaving a widow (who soon afterwards died) and a family of two sons and four daughters, who are now of Lawrence, near Boston, Massachusetts, North America. Mr. Leyland was a clever painter, gilder, and enameller, and understood well all the practical details of the potter’s art. Mr. Hirstwood was a clever painter of flowers, &c., and was considered the best fly painter at the Rockingham works. In 1826 he copied, for use in the decoration of the Rockingham china, upwards of five hundred insects at Wentworth House, which had been arranged by Lady Milton, the daughter-in-law of Earl Fitzwilliam. He and his sons Joseph and William (who were brought up at the Rockingham works) were engaged upon the chef-d’œuvres of that manufactory, the services for King William IV. and for the Duchess of Cumberland. He was succeeded in his business in Coney Street by his son, Mr. William Hirstwood, father of the present proprietor, but the manufactory has been entirely discontinued since 1850. No mark was used.

The goods principally produced were dinner, tea, dessert, and other services, vases, figures, &c. The style of decoration was, as is natural to expect, closely assimilated to that of Rockingham china; indeed, so closely as in some instances scarcely to be distinguished from them. Some of the flowers are beautifully painted, as are also the butterflies and other natural objects, and the gilding is remarkably good. The figures are usually of good character.

Layerthorpe Pottery.

This manufactory of coarse ware—flower-pots, chimney pipes, bowls, socket pipes, &c.—was established in 1846 by its present proprietor, Mr. John Webster, who produces considerable quantities of ware.

Osmotherley.

A pottery, discontinued many years back, existed at this place. Its productions were the ordinary brown ware, in which jugs, mugs, pitchers, tobacco-boxes, &c., were produced.

Hull.

There can be no doubt but that common earthenware was made at Hull, if not earlier, at all events in the middle of the seventeenth century; but no record of such works has at present been brought to light. In June, 1875, however, some property at Sculcoates, formerly an outskirt of Hull, was brought to the hammer by Mr. Charles Johnson. It was in extent about one-third of an acre, and has always been known by the name “Pot House Yard.” Inquiries have resulted in ascertaining that this pottery at Sculcoates had not been worked in the memory of those living, but that there were pottery works there. There are still remaining three cottages fronting into the ground, of a date certainly a hundred and fifty years back, but more probably two hundred years. Part of the site has been occupied in recent years by Messrs. Stewart and Gregson, oil refiners, who have now become the purchasers of the whole of the property. Very early in the eighteenth century pipe-making was carried on here; and Gent, in his curious history, published in 1735, records, among the epitaphs in the churchyard, one to “Thomas Cook, Pipe-maker, who died the 7th of February, 1720, aged 64.” The first distinct information I have been able to gather regarding pot works at this place is that in 1802 (eighteen years earlier than the first date given by Chaffers), by a deed, dated August 10 in that year, Thomas English, of Hull, merchant, sold a plot of land on what is called the Humber Bank, in a part of what was then the outskirts of the town, and known as “Myton.” The piece of land consisted of 3,718 square yards, and was conveyed to James Smith and Jeremiah Smith, both of Hull, potters; Job Ridgway, of Shelton, Staffordshire, potter; and Josiah Hipwood, of Hull, blockmaker. That part of the town has for fifty years, to the writer’s knowledge, been known as the “Pottery,” a name doubtless derived from these works. The deed of partnership between these parties was dated 23rd November, 1802.

From the fact of two of the parties, James Smith and Jeremiah Smith, being described as “of Hull, potters,” while Job Ridgway was of “Shelton, Staffordshire, potter,” the probability is that the Smiths were already in business there as pot-makers, and that Ridgway joined them for the purpose of increasing and improving their manufacture. The partnership, however, was but of short duration, for in 1804 Mr. Ridgway, being desirous of retiring, agreed to sell to the remaining partners all his fourth part of the lands, works, stock-in-trade, debts, &c., for the sum of £1,000. Hipwood left the concern in the same year, when a Mr. James Rose became a partner with the Smiths. In 1806 the proprietors assigned all their interest in the works to Messrs. Job and George Ridgway, who carried them on for some years. In 1826 they were succeeded by Mr. William Bell, who became the proprietor in that year, by deed of conveyance from the brothers Ridgway. By Mr. Bell the manufactory was very much extended, and the operations were carried on on a large scale, chiefly for export, the principal part of the trade being with Hamburg, where his brother, Mr. Edward Bell, was in business, and a large German and Dutch trade was done through his means. The works were closed in 1841, when the plant and stock were disposed of by auction, as here shown:—

At this sale Mr. Charles Johnson, of Hull, to whom I am indebted for much of this information, acted as auctioneer for Mr. Stamp, and I am informed by him that the copper-plates, the stock of which weighed about three hundredweight, and amongst which were some of the “Willow pattern,” “were sold to a pottery works at or near Rotherham,” which I presume to be either the Swinton or the Don works.

The wares produced were cream-coloured ware, green-glazed ware, the ordinary white ware, and blue printed wares; and in them the usual classes of useful goods, consisting of services of various kinds and miscellaneous articles, were made. One notable dinner-service was made to commemorate an exploit in connection with the noted pirate Paul Jones, and was, it would appear, made for the owner, or family of the owner of the “Crow Isle.” Only one plate of this service is now known to be in existence, and this is preserved at the Hull Museum, to which it was presented by the late Mr. Charles Hassell, grandson to the late Francis Hall, Esq., of Hull, who was owner of the “Crow Isle,” Baltic trader. In the centre is represented the “Crow Isle” successfully beating off Paul Jones on its homeward voyage when off the Yorkshire coast in 1779. Another example of the Belle Vue pottery is a butter-pot in form of a cow, with movable lid, in yellow ware. Mr. Johnson has also in his possession a portion of a remarkably fine green-glazed dessert service, of very artistic design, in embossed leaves, with basket-work centres to the plates, which was bought at the Hull works from Mr. Bell in 1838. It is marked with the impressed mark (Fig. 845).

The mark is the one here engraved. It is two bells, surrounded by the words “Belle Vue Pottery, Hull;” but sometimes the bells alone appear, without the lettering. In the possession of the late Mr. Bagshawe were some of the later accounts of these works, from which a good idea of the extent to which the operations were carried on may be gleaned. For instance, in 1837, four years before the close of the works, the expenses were as under:—

The works have been entirely discontinued since 1841, and the site included in the extensive engineering works of Messrs. C. D. Holmes & Co.

In 1804, Mr. William Clowes (also from the Staffordshire pottery district), one of the founders of Primitive Methodism, worked at the Hull pottery. Mr. Clowes was born at Burslem in 1780; he “came from Nottingham to Hull to establish a missionary centre, on the 15th of January, 1819;” the day after his arrival “he informs us that he visited the Pottery by the Humber Bankside, where he had worked as a potter fifteen years before, but he found the working of the pottery had been discontinued;” i.e., I presume it was then in a transition state before being transferred to Mr. Bell by the brothers Ridgway.

Stepney Lane.—At the present time a small pottery for the manufacture of the common brown ware pancheons, flower-pots, &c., is still carried on by the successors of Mr. Mayfield, of the Stepney Paper Mills, Hull.

Leeds.

There is no doubt that pottery has been made at Leeds, or in its immediate neighbourhood, from the earliest times of our British history. Celtic and Romano-British relics have, from time to time, been found in the neighbourhood, which were, without doubt, made at the place; and the village of Potters Newton evidently takes its name from a colony of potters having settled there in early times. That it was so in days of yore is evidenced by the fact of the name appearing in deeds of the thirteenth century. In later times coarse brown earthenware was made in Leeds, as were also tobacco-pipes in the reign of Charles II. These were made from clays found at Wortley—the same bed of clay which was worked for the old Leeds pottery, and is still used for making yellow ware and saggars at the present day. The manufacture of tobacco-pipes at Leeds was established in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and was carried on somewhat extensively for several years. Ralph Thoresby, in his “Ducatus Leodiensis,” published in 1714, in his account of Wortley Hundred says: “Here is a good vein of fine clay, that will retain its whiteness after it is burnt (when others turn red), and therefore used for the making of tobacco-pipes, a manufacture but lately begun at Leeds.” Probably to the existence of this bed of fine clay is to be attributed the establishment of the pot works at Leeds, to which I am now about to direct attention.

Of the date of the first establishment of the Leeds pot works nothing definite is known. It is, however, certain that they were in existence about the middle of last century, and that they were then producing wares of no ordinary degree of excellence. Before this time a kind of delft-ware was made, and I have seen some very creditable copies of Oriental patterns, with salt glaze, also produced at these works. Delft-ware, however, was only made to a small extent, and was soon succeeded by the manufacture of that fine cream-coloured earthenware which made the works so famous, and enabled them in that particular branch to compete successfully with Wedgwood and other makers. As early as 1770 considerable progress had been made in the ornamental productions, and I have seen dated examples of open and embossed basket-work ware of a few years later (1777 and 1779), which are as fine as anything produced at the time.

The first proprietors of whom there appears to be any record were two brothers named Green, in 1760; and it is believed their earliest productions were in black ware, in which the firm afterwards excelled. It was then carried on by Humble, Green, & Co. “Mr. Wilson has found the draft of an agreement, dated November 11, 1775, whereby ‘Joshua Green, of Middleton, gent., John Green, of Hunslet, potter, with divers others, under the firm of Humble, Green & Co.,’ agree with Messrs. Hutchinson and Evers to erect and maintain in repair at their mill a water-wheel, with all necessary machinery for grinding flints. For thirteen years the wheel was to be used exclusively by the Greens, who were to supply burnt flints and to pay 10s. for every 100 pecks of well ground and levigated flints, the workmen’s wages being first deducted.” In 1783 the firm was Hartley, Greens, & Company, and they had so far advanced in their work, and were so firmly established and well known by that year as to justify them in issuing a book of “designs” of some of the articles they were then producing. A copy of this rare volume, in my own possession, contains all three of the lists—English, French, and German. The English title is “Designs of sundry Articles of Queen’s, or Cream-colour’d Earthen-Ware, manufactured by Hartley, Greens, & Co., at Leeds-Pottery: with A Great Variety of other Articles. The same Enamel’d, Printed or Ornamented with Gold to any Pattern; also with Coats of Arms, Cyphers, Landscapes, &c., &c. Leeds, 1783.” The list and title-page occupy eight pages, as do also each of the two others—translated into German and French—which accompany it, and which bear the following titles:—“Abrisse von verschiedenen Artickeln vom Königinnen oder gelben Stein-Gute, welches Hartley, Greens, & Comp. In ihrer Fabrick in Leeds verfertigen; Nebst vielen andern Artickeln; Auch dieselben gemahlt, gedruckt oder mit Gold gezieret zu jedem Muster, ebenfalls mit Wapen, eingegrabene Namen, Landschaften, &c., &c., &c. Leeds, 1783.” “Desseins de divers Articles de Poteries de la Reine en Couleur de Creme, Fabriqués à la Poterie de Hartley, Greens, & Co. à Leeds: Avec une Quantité d’autres Articles; Les mêmes émaillés, imprimés ou ornés d’Or à chaque Patron, aussi avec des Armes, des Chiffres, des Paisages, &c. &c. Leeds, 1783.”[107] This catalogue, with some variations, continued to be issued till a much later period. A copy presented by myself in 1865 to the Jermyn Street Museum supplies the plates missing in the former copy. It has no title-page, but is printed on paper bearing a water-mark of 1814. The words “Leeds Pottery” are engraved on each plate of the book. The plates, forty-four in number, are very effectively engraved on copper, and exhibit a wonderful, and certainly exquisite, variety of designs for almost all articles in use, both plain, ornamented, perforated, and basket-work, including services, vases, candlesticks, flower-stands, inkstands, baskets, spoons, &c., &c.[108]

The partners at this time (1783–4) composing the firm of Hartley, Greens, & Co. were William Hartley, Joshua Green, John Green, Henry Ackroyd,[109] John Barwick, Samuel Wainwright, Thomas Wainwright, George Hanson, and Saville Green. The business was, it appears, divided into six shares, of which William Hartley, Joshua and John Green, and Henry Ackroyd, had each one; John Barwick and the two Wainwrights half of one each; and George Hanson and Saville Green a quarter share each, the latter acting as “bookkeeper” to the firm. The proprietors were extremely systematic and particular in their mode of keeping accounts and in their dealings with each other. They held regular meetings, and appointed independent and disinterested persons as valuers in each department; for instance, one to value the stock of finished goods in the ware rooms, another the unfinished ware, another the copper plates, another the buildings, others the moulds and models, the windmill, the horses, the waggons and carts, the raw materials, the woodwork, and every imaginable thing. The reports of these various valuers, whose names and awards for many years I have carefully examined, were submitted to a meeting of the partners, when a balance was struck, to which the names of each one were attached.

In 1785, and again in 1786, fresh editions of the catalogue and book of plates were issued, without change either in the number of articles enumerated or in their variety or form. The works at this time had been considerably increased in size, and the wares made were exported in large quantities to Germany, Holland, France, Spain, and Russia. So great had the concern become five years later (1791), that the yearly balance then struck amounted to over £51,500; and it is worth recording that in that year the value of the copper-plates from which the transfer printing was effected was £204, while at the present time they represent about £1,000. These copper-plates consisted of teapot borders, landscapes, Nankin borders, and others. The general stock in this year (1791) was valued at about £6,000, and the windmill at about £1,200. The house of the partners, entered as “Hartley, Green, & Co.’s House,” was at Thorpe Arch, near Tadcaster and Wetherby.[110] At Thorpe Arch, too, were the grinding mills. These mills were ten miles from the works at Leeds, and a team of four horses was kept constantly at work carrying the ground flint and stone. They, with the men who worked them, stayed six days, going and coming, between the two places, and then six at Thorpe Arch, alternately. The raw material was taken from Leeds to the mills at Thorpe Arch, when the horses who had brought it worked the mill to grind it, and returned with it, when prepared, to Leeds for use. This continued until 1814, when the windmill on the Leeds premises, which had been used as a corn mill, was converted into a flint mill, and an engine, made by the builders of the first successful locomotive, Fenton, Murray, & Co., put up. This mill is still used for the same purpose.

In 1794 another edition of the catalogue and pattern-book was issued. It was precisely the same in contents as the previous editions, both in the plates and letter-press; and contained the catalogue, or list, in English, French, and German. Fresh designs appear to have been continually added, and, the connections of the company increasing, a translation of the catalogue into the Spanish language was in a few years issued. This interesting work, of which a copy is in the possession of Mr. E. Hailstone, F.S.A., and which also contains the English catalogue, without date, bears the following title:—“Dibuxos de varios Renglones de Loza Inglesa de Regna, de Color de Crema, Fabricados en la Manufactura y Lozeria Hartley, Greens, y Comp^a. en Leeds: en este mismo ramo fabriam de dicha loza, hay piezas esmaltadas, impresas y adornadas con oro; como tambien hermoseadas con escudos, armas, cifras, payses, &c. &c. Leeds.” Instead of 152 general articles, as enumerated in the previous editions, 221 appear in this; and instead of 32 in tea-ware, 48 appear. In 1814, too, another edition was issued, a copy of which is in my own possession; it contains 71 plates of patterns, exhibiting 221 general articles, and 48 patterns of tea, coffee, and chocolate services. In this edition the whole of the plates, both those from the other copies and those newly engraved, have the words “Leeds Pottery” engraved upon them.

In the middle of the last century an important event in connection with the Leeds pottery took place. This was the establishment of the tramway from the collieries of Mr. Charles Brandling, at Middleton, to the town of Leeds. This tramway passed through the Leeds pot works, to the proprietors of which a nominal rental of £7 a year was paid, and to whom, as a further consideration for the right of passage, an advantage in the price of coals was allowed.[111] While speaking of the formation of this early line, it is interesting to note that upon it was set to work the first locomotive commercially successful on any railway. Mr. John Blenkinsop, who was manager of the Middleton Collieries, took out a patent, in 1811, for a locomotive steam engine, and placed his designs for execution in the hands of Messrs. Fenton, Murray & Co., at that time eminent engineers of Leeds. This was the first locomotive engine in which two cylinders were employed, and in that respect was a great improvement upon those of Trevithick and others. The cylinders were placed vertically, and were immersed for more than half their length in the steam space of the boiler. The progress was effected by a cog wheel working into a rack on the side of one of the rails. Mr. Blenkinsop’s engine began running on the railway extending from the Middleton Collieries to the town of Leeds, a distance of about three miles and a half, on the 12th of August, 1812, two years before George Stephenson started his first locomotive. Mr. Blenkinsop was for many years principal agent to the Brandling family, and his invention was, as is seen, first brought to bear in bringing coals from those pits to Leeds—a matter of immense importance to the town and its manufactures.

In 1796, as named in Hutchins’ “History of Dorset,” much of the Poole clay in that county was sent “to Selby for the use of the Leeds potteries.”

In the year 1800 two fresh partners, Ebenezer Green and E. Parsons, had joined the concern, the firm at this time consisting of William Hartley, Joshua Green, John Green, Ebenezer Green, E. Parsons, Mrs. Ackroyd and her daughter Mary (widow and daughter of Henry Ackroyd, deceased), John Barwick, Thomas Wainwright, George Hanson, Saville Green, and Samuel Wainwright. On the death of Mr. Hartley the business was carried on—still under the title of Hartley, Greens & Co.—by the remaining partners; and a Mr. Ruperti, a Russian, became, I believe, a partner in the firm. The trade at this time was, as I have already stated, principally with Russia, and with Norway, Spain and Portugal, and hence, I presume, Mr. Ruperti’s connection with it. The agent in Russia at one time was Mr. Barwick, and afterwards his nephew, Mr. Jubb. Other changes in the proprietary followed in succession, one of which was that a minister, the Rev. W. Parsons, married Miss Ackroyd, and thus became a partner; and for a time the style of the firm was changed from “Hartley, Greens, & Co.,” to “Greens, Hartley, & Co.” These repeated changes, and the unpleasantness and disputes that arose in consequence appear to have been detrimental to the concern, which was ultimately thrown into Chancery, and a large portion of the stock sold off. Some idea of the extent of the business done about this time may be formed from the fact, which I have gathered from a personal reference to the accounts, that the annual sales amounted, in round numbers, to about £30,000; that about £8,000 was paid in wages, and more than £2,000 for coals, even with the decided advantage of reduction in price by the arrangement spoken of.

In 1825, by an advantageous arrangement effected through the good offices of his friend Mr. Hardy, the then Recorder of Leeds, I am informed, the affair was got out of Chancery, and passed, by purchase, into the hands of Mr. Samuel Wainwright, one of the partners. The concern was at this time, I believe, carried on in the name of “Samuel Wainwright and Company,” and was conducted with great spirit. Mr. Wainwright engaged as his confidential cashier Stephen Chappell, who up to that time was employed as a bookkeeper in one of the Leeds cloth manufactories.[112] At Wainwright’s death (of cholera) in 1832, the trustees carried on the business under the style of the “Leeds Pottery Company,” and employed Stephen Chappell as their sole manager. This arrangement continued until the year 1840, when the trustees transferred the whole concern to Chappell, who took it at his own valuation. Shortly after this time his brother James became a partner in the concern, the firm then consisting simply of “Stephen and James Chappell,” who continued the works until 1847, when they became bankrupt. The pottery was then carried on for about three years, for the benefit of the creditors, by the assignees, under the management of Mr. Richard Britton, who had for some time held a confidential position with Mr. Chappell. In 1850 the concern passed, by purchase, into the hands of Mr. Samuel Warburton and this same Mr. Richard Britton, and was by them carried on under the style of “Warburton and Britton,” until 1863, when, on the death of Mr. Warburton, Mr. Richard Britton became sole proprietor of the works. On July 1st, 1872, he was joined in partnership by his two eldest sons, John Broadbent Britton and Alfred Britton, the firm at the present time being “Richard Britton & Sons.”

The Leeds Pot Works are situated in Jack Lane, and occupy an area of considerably more than seven acres of ground, and at the present time give employment to about two hundred and fifty persons. The premises are intersected for a considerable portion of their length by the Brandling’s Railway, and are also crossed in a cutting by the main line of the Midland Railway. The works are very extensive, and, with but some trifling alterations, now stand as they did in the time of Hartley, Greens, & Co. Closely adjoining them is the Leathley Lane Pottery.

The wares manufactured at different periods at these interesting works consist of the coarse brown earthenwares, made on its first establishment; delft-ware, produced only in small quantities, and for a short period; hard and highly vitrified stone ware, with a strong salt glaze; cream-coloured, or Queen’s ware; Egyptian black ware; Rockingham ware; white earthenware; yellow ware, &c., &c. The great speciality of the works was the perforated “Queen’s or cream-coloured earthenware,” for which they became universally famed, and successfully competed with Wedgwood. It is this kind of ware which among collectors has acquired the name of “Leeds Ware.” To this it will be necessary to direct careful attention, and to point out both the peculiarities of pattern and of ornamentation which they exhibit.

In colour the old Leeds ware—i.e., the cream-coloured earthenware—is of a particularly clear rich tint, usually rather deeper in tone than Wedgwood’s Queen’s ware, and of a slightly yellowish cast. The body is particularly fine and hard, and the glaze of extremely good quality. This glaze was produced with arsenic, and its use was so deleterious to the workmen, that they usually became hopelessly crippled after four or five years’ exposure to its effects. It is not now used.

The perforated pieces, as well as those of open basket-work, exhibit an unusual degree of skill and an elaborateness of design that is quite unequalled. The example (Fig. 848), is a chestnut basket and stand, of the finest and most elaborate description. In form it is faultless, as it is also in moulding, and there is considerable elegance in the general outline. The upper part of the cover, and the lower portion of the bowl are fluted, and the handles, which are double twisted, terminate in flowers and foliage. Both bowl and cover are elaborately perforated; and here it may be well to note, for the information of collectors, that the perforations of this description were produced by punches, by which the soft clay was pierced by hand. I name this more particularly because I have heard an opinion expressed, by those not conversant with the matter, that this description of open-work was produced in the mould. The fact of each of the perforations being produced separately by the hands of the workman, adds materially to the interest attached to the piece, and to its value. It may also be remarked that the wholesale price of this piece (eleven inches in diameter), the pattern for which was probably produced about 1782–83, was, in 1794, 8s. 6d.—a price which collectors at the present time would gladly triple and even quadruple.

Fig. 849 is an oval butter-tub and stand, of peculiarly elegant design, belonging to Mr. Manning. It is well covered with embossed work, and has both cover and stand very nicely perforated, the perforations being produced in the same manner as the one just described, by punches. The handles are ribbed and double twisted, with foliated terminations. The next illustration shows one of the “pierced fruit baskets” for which these works were very famous, and I have chosen it because it shows the combination of the pierced work with painting. These, and the asparagus shell (Fig. 850), engraved to show how the peculiar art of these works was applied to the simplest things, will be sufficient to illustrate this variety of pottery.

The next variety is that of twig baskets, of which Fig. 852 is a good and characteristic example. In these pieces, which were produced in different varieties of wicker-work, the “twigs,” or “withies,” are really composed of clay in long or short “strips,” as occasion required, and then twisted and formed into shape. The process was one which required considerable care and nicety in manipulation, and was well calculated to exhibit the skill of the workman. Baskets of this kind were made by various makers, as well as at Leeds, and all on much the same model, so that without an intimate knowledge of the body and glaze of the Leeds ware, it is difficult to distinguish them from others. One of these baskets on its oval stand or dish (the wholesale price in 1794 ranging from 1s. 4d. to 3s. 6d., according to size) is engraved in the book of patterns of which I have spoken, and those who are fortunate enough to possess, or to be able to refer to that extremely scarce work, “Wedgwood’s Engraved Pattern Book” (18 plates, 4to.), will there find one engraved on Plate 13, Fig. 851. The same baskets were produced at Castleford and Don, and by Staffordshire houses.

Another characteristic variety of Leeds work was the combination in basket-work, &c., of embossed patterns with perforations. Of these I give an excellent example on the accompanying engraving, in which the rim of the dish is embossed and pierced in basket-work. The way in which this was produced was this. The plate, dish, basket, or other piece, was formed in the mould so that the pattern stood out in relief above the parts intended to be incised. These were then cut out by hand, with a penknife, leaving the pattern entirely in open-work. The dish here engraved is one of the simplest kind, but is an extremely early specimen, having probably been made about 1779, and is therefore a good illustration of this class of work. It is marked in small capital letters LEEDS POTTERY.

In this same ware—the Queen’s or cream-coloured earthenware—the Leeds works produced services of various kinds, as well as the usual vessels for domestic use, and works of Art in the shape of vases, candelabra, centres, &c. &c. Of the services, which, as a rule, were of remarkably elegant forms, and produced with extreme skill in workmanship, it will not be necessary to give illustrations. Of the more decorative pieces, however, I give Figs. 854 to 856, engravings, because it is well to show collectors to what degree of perfection in design these almost forgotten works had arrived. The first example which I engrave is a magnificent centre, or “grand platt menage,” of four tiers. It is composed of five separate pieces. The base is rock, and each tier is composed of shells after the fashion of the Plymouth designs. The shells are supported on elegant brackets, and the whole piece is surmounted by a well-modelled female figure.

Fig. 855 shows a jardinière of very elegant and effective design, of cornucopia form, with a head of Flora, crowned with flowers, in front, and festoons above held by a ram’s and an eagle’s head; and Fig. 856 exhibits a “grand platt menage,” similar to that engraved on Plate 26 (Fig. 106) of the “Book of Patterns.”

In the plate to which I have referred this elegant piece has a base for cruets added, and is somewhat different in some of its details, but it is much the same in general design. Around the centre of the base, it will be noticed, is a series of rams’ heads with large bent horns, hooked at the end, and the foliage beneath the pine-apple at the top is also deeply bent downwards, and the point of each leaf hooked up at the end. On these—the horns and leaves—it was intended to hang small earthenware wicker-work baskets, and on the engraving to which I have alluded, these are all shown in situ. It is interesting to note that in Mr. Hailstone’s collection is a precisely similar piece, but with the addition of a circular base, which is of Wedgwood’s Queen’s ware, and is marked WEDGWOOD in the usual manner. This circumstance shows that the design was common to both manufactories, and the natural inference to be drawn is that Messrs. Hartley, Greens, & Co., in this instance, as in others, copied and reproduced Wedgwood’s designs; while in other instances it is equally possible Wedgwood copied from them. It is curious in going through the pattern-books of Hartley, Greens, & Co. of 1783, and downwards to 1814, Wedgwood’s of 1815, and the “Don,” to note the similarity of designs exhibited, some of which are so nearly identical, as to appear almost to have been produced from the same moulds.

A teapot, dated 1777, has been ascribed to the Leeds works; but I am doubtful as to the correctness of the appropriation. It bears on one side the words:—

And on the other side:—

The vases, scent jars, cockle pots, and potpourri produced at Leeds, were many of them of very elaborate and elegant designs, and of large size, and were decorated with raised figures, medallions, flowers, festoons, shells, &c., and with perforated work. They were also frequently painted, or enamelled, in various colours, blue, green, and red being the prevailing ones. One “cockle pot,” 22 inches in height, has a square stand, highly decorated with shells, &c., in relief, and with perforations, standing on four feet. At each corner is a raised seated figure. From the centre rises the stem, supporting a solid globe, on which rests the bowl, supported by mermaids. The bowl is decorated with festoons of shells, flowers, and sea-weeds in high relief. The cover is also ornamented with raised groups of shells and seaweed, and is perforated in an elaborate and somewhat intricate pattern. It is surmounted by a spirited figure of Neptune with his trident and horses.

Candlesticks were made in great variety, and were highly decorated. Some were in the form of vases, and in this variety vases were produced in the same manner as Wedgwood’s jasper ware, with reversible tops, so as to serve either as ornaments only, or as candlesticks. Others have dolphins; others again Corinthian and other pillars; others have massive bases perforated and embossed, while the candlestick itself rose from griffins; and others again are vases with branches for two or more candles springing out from their tops. These are now of great rarity, as, indeed, are many of the productions of the Leeds works.

Single figures, and groups of figures, were also produced, principally in the plain cream-coloured ware, but sometimes painted. It is also said that some minute works of Art, small cameos, were made at Leeds. A pair of these, said to be authenticated as Leeds manufacture, are in the possession of Mr. Ferns, who is also the owner of many excellent specimens of perforated ware.

In Mr. Hailstone’s possession is a remarkably fine fountain of large size. It has a dolphin spout, shell terminations, mermaids and shells for handles, and has figures and ornaments in relief in front.

In tea, coffee, and chocolate services, a large variety of patterns were produced; both plain, engined, fluted, pierced, and otherwise decorated. Many of these are of similar form to Wedgwood’s, to whom their manipulation would, indeed, have been no discredit. The great peculiarity of the tea and coffee pots, &c., is their double twisted handles, with flowers and leaves for terminations. Many of these are extremely beautiful, both in design and in execution. These services were made either in plain cream-colour, or painted with borders and sprigs of flowers in various colours. The chocolate cups are usually two-handled, or without handles. The stands are, in many instances, highly ornamented with perforations, or take the form of melon or other leaves, and have ornamental sockets for the cups attached. Several patterns appear in the engravings of which I have spoken. Tea-kettles and milk-pails with covers were also made, and in the possession of the late Mr. Lucas was a fine example of a tea-kettle with double twisted handle, with foliated terminations.

In the early part of the present century, white earthenware was made at these works. It was a fine, hard, compact body, and had, like the cream-coloured, a remarkably good glaze. In this ware services, especially dinner and tea, were produced, and were decorated with transfer printing, painting, lustre, and tinsel. “Tinselling,” it must be understood, is the peculiar process by which a part of the pattern is made to assume a metallic appearance by being washed here and there over the transfer or drawing. Examples of these, consisting of plates, and a cup and saucer, belonging to Mr. Manning and Mr. Davis, are marked with the curved mark to be hereafter described.