Jackfield.
The Jackfield Pottery was one of the oldest in Shropshire, and is believed to have been worked for centuries. The potters had, at different times, probably from being expert hands, migrated into Staffordshire; and I am informed that, as early as 1560, several entries occur in the parish registers of Stoke-upon-Trent of people (potters, of course) as “from Jackfield.” A few years ago a coal-pit at Jackfield, which was known not to have been entered for nearly two centuries, was opened, and in it was found a small mug of brown earthenware, bearing the date 1634. The works were, probably not long after this period, carried on by a person of the name of Glover, who used the old salt glaze for his ware. He was succeeded by Mr. John Thursfield, son of Mr. John Thursfield of Stoke-upon-Trent, about the year 1713. This John Thursfield had married a daughter of Captain Webb, who had been in the wars under Marlborough and Prince Eugene, and had, while in the Low Countries, married a Dutch lady. In 1729 John Thursfield married a lady named Eleanor Morris, of Ferney Bank, who is curiously described in the Broseley register as a “sojoinner.” He died in 1751, leaving two sons—John, who built the works at Benthall; and Morris, who succeeded his father at Jackfield. The kind of ware made at Jackfield was a white stoneware, very similar to the Staffordshire make, and on some examples flowers and other ornaments were incised and coloured, that is, the outlines were cut in while the clay was soft, and the flowers and other ornaments touched afterwards with colour. Tiles of the kind usually known as “Dutch tiles” were also made. In 1763 Mr. Simpson carried on the pottery at Jackfield, and made yellow ware, and a ware the body of which was pipeclay and glazed with salt. This he sent down the Severn to the Bristol Channel for export to America—a trade which the American war of independence put an end to. Maurice Thursfield made at Jackfield a very superior black ware, highly vitrified and glazed; indeed, so highly glazed was it that it had all the outward appearance of glass. The forms, and the potting of these articles, locally known as “black decanters,” were remarkably good, and on some specimens which I have seen ornaments have been judiciously introduced. On one, in the possession of the late Richard Thursfield, Esq., of Broseley, a head and wreath are executed in gold and colour; and on others, paintings in oils, both portraits and views, and raised ornaments, are introduced. Some good examples are preserved in the Museum of Practical Geology. Maurice Thursfield died in America, where he had, it appears, considerable business connections.
In these works Mr. Rose, in conjunction with a Mr. Blakeway, soon after the death of Maurice Thursfield, began making china. The works were not, however, carried on long, but were removed to Coalport, on the opposite side of the Severn, where they were begun in some buildings which had formerly been a pottery (I believe belonging to a Mr. Young, a mercer of Shrewsbury), and where they have continued uninterruptedly to the present day.
In the early part of this century a pottery—spoken of in 1836 as the “new pottery”—was established here by Mr. John Myatt, for brown and yellow stone-wares. Here, too, at the same time, near the Calcuts, extensive brick and tile-works were then and still are carried on.
Jackfield Encaustic Tiles.—Many years ago Mr. Peter Stephan (still at this date a modeller at Coalport), son of Stephan the potter, who was a Frenchman, and at one time at Derby and afterwards of Jackfield, where he had a small pottery, produced some strikingly good arabesque patterns in blue printing. His mark was an anchor with cable, impressed in the body of the ware; and also the crest of an anchor on an heraldic roll, with his name above (see Figs. [683 and 684]), and printed in blue on the bottom of the ware. His pieces are of rare occurrence. He also made encaustic tiles. These were the first made in this district.
Figs. 683 and 684.
Fig. 685.—The Jackfield Works.
The Jackfield Works.—The site of the present works carried on by Craven, Dunnill, & Co., for the manufacture of Encaustic and Geometrical tiles, is that of the above old pottery in Jackfield, in which Hargreaves and Craven for several years made geometrical tiles by the clay-dust process, and encaustic tiles from plastic clay; but the buildings being old and dilapidated, Mr. H. P. Dunnill formed a limited liability company, consisting of seven shareholders, for rebuilding and carrying on the concern. The old buildings were taken down, a considerable extent of land added to the premises, and on this land the present handsome new works were erected. They now cover an extent of nearly two acres of ground, and are fitted with machinery and arrangements specially adapted to the requirements of the trade, each department succeeding the other in perfect rotation; so that the clay goes into the blunging-house at one point, from thence into the slip-kilns, mill-room, damping-houses, press-shops, encaustic rooms, drying-stove, seggar-house, firing and glaze-kilns, sorting-house, warehouses, packing-room, and finally, having in the various processes gone the circuit of the manufactory, passes into the railway lurries to be conveyed to various parts of the kingdom and abroad. The fine clays of Jackfield and Broseley are largely used in the manufacture, and within the grounds of the works there is a pit in which, from a depth of thirty-five yards, is brought up by steam-power a beautiful red clay, of very fine tone of colour. The firm justly pride themselves on the colour and quality of their plain tiles; and the hardness of their buff tiles—a point much desired by the trade—is very noticeable. The colour and hardness of body of their dove tiles are also very apparent. In encaustic tiles many beautiful designs by Waterhouse, Goldie, Gibbs, Bentley, and other architects are produced. At the instance of one of the firm, Mr. A. H. Brown, M.P. for Wenlock, a noticeable arrangement has been made in the interest of the work-people. Any profit made after ten per cent. paid to the proprietors is equally divided between them and the work-people, and the latter have thus a direct interest to do their work in the best manner, so as to add to the reputation of the firm. Glazed tiles for hearths, of great variety and beauty of pattern, are made here, and also glazed wall tiles in white, cream, celadon, and other tones. The company also produce majolica tiles of the richest class, with an endless variety of printed, painted, and art tiles for decorative purposes. The quality of the tiles is remarkably good; the colours are pure and clear, the body hard and durable, and the glaze firm. Many of the patterns are of extreme beauty and excellence. The marks adopted, impressed on the back of the tiles, are—
HARGREAVES
&
CRAVEN
HARGREAVES CRAVEN
DUNNILL & CO
JACKFIELD
NR IRONBRIDGE SALOP
CRAVEN DUNNILL & CO
LIMITED
JACKFIELD
NR IRONBRIDGE SALOP
HARGREAVES
CRAVEN DUNNILL & CO
JACKFIELD
CRAVEN
DUNNILL & CO
JACKFIELD
SALOP
CRAVEN
& CO
Benthall Works.—The manufactory of encaustic tiles, mosaics, and majolica, which has for the last twenty-two years been carried on by Messrs. Maw, at the Benthall works, near Broseley, was initiated at Worcester (as named in my account of the works of Mr. St. John in that city) in the year 1850, where Messrs. Maw commenced experimenting on the processes of manufacture on the premises formerly occupied by the Worcester Porcelain Manufactory, when under the hands of Messrs. Flight and Barr, and afterwards used for the production of encaustic tiles by my late friend Mr. Fleming St. John and his partners, by whom the moulds, &c., which had been used by them in the manufacture of encaustic tiles were sold to Messrs. Maw. These gentlemen at once saw that a much wider field was open to them in the production of tiles than had previously been attempted at Worcester. In 1852, Messrs. Maw, feeling the necessity for carrying on the manufacture in a neighbourhood which would produce both the coal and the clay, abandoned the works at Worcester, and removed their moulds, plant, &c., to the Benthall works, near Broseley, where another seven years was spent by them in a series of costly experiments with no immediate profit except the experience gained by which they have subsequently built up the business. Their first effort was to thoroughly investigate and experiment upon the clays of the Shropshire coal-field, as well as the plastic materials found throughout the kingdom, many of which no one had before attempted to turn to economic account.
Figs. 686 to 693.—Examples of Messrs. Maw’s Tiles.
The results of these experiments have been illustrated in an extensive series of specimens of the clays or plastic slates of Great Britain presented by Mr. Geo. Maw, F.S.A., to the Government Museum of Practical Geology, in Jermyn Street, and printed in the supplement to the catalogue by Sir H. De La Beche and Mr. Trenham Reeks. In 1857, after all these years of patient labours, the manufacture was commenced on a commercial scale, which for several years barely paid its expenses; but from that time to the present continual additions have been made to the works to meet the increasing demand for their productions. In 1871 supplementary works were commenced at the Tuckies, about two miles from the Benthall works, celebrated as the spot where the late Lord Dundonald carried on his experiments in the manufacture of coal-gas.
Fig. 694.
Messrs. Maw have from the first laid themselves out for applying the very highest art and architectural talents to their manufactures, and, in 1856, commissioned Mr. M. D. Wyatt to design a series of patterns of geometrical mosaic, which were issued as a small lithographed volume of fourteen pages. This little book, which first established their reputation as art manufacturers, was subsequently superseded by a much larger volume, published in 1867, including the designs of Digby Wyatt, George Goldie, J. P. Seddon, George E. Street, J. Burgess, and others, as well as the reproduction of all the best obtainable examples of ancient tiles, geometrical, and Roman mosaic, majolica, &c.
Fig. 695.
In 1851 Messrs. Maw began the manufacture of plain tiles, geometrical mosaic, and the ordinary encaustic tiles of two colours, to which their productions were for several years limited: but since 1857 their progress has been marked by the continual grafting on of specialities, the yearly production of new colours, and new phases of ceramic art applied to tiles. In 1861 they commenced the manufacture of very small tesseræ for the formation of pictorial mosaics, and produced for the Exhibition of 1862 their well-known mosaic of “The Seasons,” here engraved (Fig. [695]), and which is now in the South Kensington Museum, from a design expressly made for them by Digby Wyatt. The result was so successful that Mr. Wyatt commissioned Messrs. Maw to execute a mosaic frieze for the inner quadrangle of the New India Office.
The production of coloured enamels for the surface decoration of majolica tiles next occupied their attention, and after years of experimenting, all the colours employed in the ancient tiles of Spain or Italy were successfully reproduced, as well as others which were unknown to the mediæval and Moorish manufacturers.
A stone chimney-piece, enriched with tiles executed for the International Exhibition of 1862, was their first attempt in the application of enamels and majolica in architectural work. Shortly afterwards the successful decoration of ceilings was carried out in the corridors of the India Office. And now the production of majolica tiles and enamelled terra cotta for all kinds of internal and external decoration forms an important branch of Messrs. Maw’s manufacture. Among the more important of their works in enamelled terra cotta may be mentioned the beautiful staircase executed for Sir D. Majoribanks, a portion of which was exhibited in the International Exhibition of 1871, and the chimney-pieces manufactured for the board-room of the South Kensington Museum, and the Museum of Science and Art, at Edinburgh. Messrs. Maw were the first in this country to produce the transparent celeste, or turquoise blue, employed in ancient Chinese enamels, specimens of which were exhibited in the Paris Exhibition of 1867.
Among their more recent productions may be mentioned tesseræ for mosaic work, decorated with rich enamels; embossed tiles; “sgrafito,” a ware the decoration of which is produced by the cutting away of superimposed layers of different coloured clays, after the fashion of cameo carving; “slip painting,” the production of a pattern by the painting of liquid clay on a ground of another colour, and the whole glazed over, after the first burning, with transparent coloured enamels; “pâte sur pâte,” tiles in which the design in high relief is superimposed on a ground of a different colour; mixed coloured glasses and enamels for the decoration of pottery, by which the most subtle and brilliant effects are produced; terra cotta and Parian plant-markers, forming an economical and indestructible substitute for the old wooden and iron name tallies. On these the names of trees and shrubs are written in a permanent black enamel and burnt in.
The special processes employed by Messrs. Maw have been made the subject of a number of patents, among which may be mentioned their mill machinery, used in the preparation of clay for the manufacture of tiles by Prosser’s process; the steam blunger, by which the rough clay is levigated, sifted, and refined ready for drying on the slip-kilns, without the intervention of manual labour; the manufacture of encaustic tiles out of pulverised nearly dry clay, and their patent press worked by steam power for the pressing of tiles, which is the only successful application of steam power to screw presses which has yet been attained.
The geometric and tesselated pavements produced by Messrs. Maw are of the most elegant, elaborate, and beautiful character, and the tesseræ and tiles of which they are composed are made with the utmost mechanical accuracy, and of the finest quality both in body, in colours, and in glaze. The patterns they have prepared are of exquisite beauty and of endless variety, and suitable for every possible purpose both for public and private buildings.
Fig. 696 to 699.
Figs. 700 to 701.
The encaustic, or figured tiles, for pavements, are also a great speciality of Messrs. Maw’s works, and are, like those of other makers, produced in immense variety and in large quantities. They are made in two, three, four, or more colours combined, the colours used being buff or yellow, red, black, blue, chocolate, white, cream, fawn, green, &c., and of various sizes, the usual dimensions being 6 and 4¼ inches square. The patterns are, in many instances, taken from the best remaining ancient examples, and in others have been specially designed for Messrs. Maw by Sir Digby Wyatt, Owen Jones, and the best authorities of the day; and many of the pavements thus produced are matchless both in design, in general effect, and in beauty and brilliancy of colour. Messrs. Maw are not content with producing simple quarries, to be arranged in the usual varieties of ways, but they have introduced entire pavements, over which is spread one grand design covering its entire surface; many entire patterns occupying not the usual old numbers of 4, 9, 12, 16, or 24 tiles, but 144 and other numbers. These are peculiarly rich and effective, and particularly well adapted for halls, vestibules, corridors, &c.
Fig. 702.
Fig. 703.
The marks used by Messrs. Maw are—
MAW & CO
BENTHALL
WORKS
BROSELEY
SALOP
MAW & CO
BROSELEY
MAW & CO
BENTHALL
BROSELEY
MAW & CO
BROSELEY
SALOP
MAW & CO
The enamelled hearth-pavements and wall-tiles are another great speciality of these works, and are of unsurpassable richness and beauty, as are also their majolica tiles and fire-place linings. These are produced in every possible variety, and are remarkable not only for the richness and delicacy of the colours which are used, and for their purely artistic and masterly combination, but for the excellence of both body and glaze, and the scrupulous accuracy of forms for fitting together. The same remark applies to the embossed and indented tiles, and also to those which are partially pierced for open work. They are all equally good, and bear evidence of that thorough appreciation of art which pervades all the productions of the Benthall works. The engravings (Figs. [702] and [703]) show two of their majolica chimney-pieces. The first is of the finest majolica, with a fire-place lining of encaustic, or enamel, tiles, which would also be used for the hearth. The decorations are in high and bold relief, and being coloured with pure artistic taste, have a charming and very striking effect. It is 4 feet 8 inches in height, and 7 feet in width, and is, of course, furnished with a marble shelf at the top—which, however, is not shown in the illustration.
Fig. 704.
The next shows another of these chimney-pieces entirely complete; it is, like the other, of majolica. The ornaments are in bold relief, set off with an excellent arrangement of groundwork and colour; the hearth is formed of encaustic, or enamelled, or mosaic tiles; and the fender is of majolica.
Another branch of ceramics—that of “Art Pottery”—has recently been added to Messrs. Maw’s manufactory. This is the production of vases, &c., in majolica, a branch which they are eminently qualified to bring to perfection. In this branch vases, tazzas, and other articles, more or less decorated with raised or surface ornamentation, are produced. They are of excellent design, the body light but compact, and the decorations of remarkably good and artistic character.