Belleek.
The village of Belleek, county Fermanagh, Ireland, is situated on the banks of the river Erne, near the borders of Donegal and Fermanagh and on the outskirts of the Donegal highlands. It has a station on the Enniskillen and Bundoran line; which line communicates with Dublin, Belfast, and the various other lines of the kingdom. Belleek is within three miles of Ballyshannon; six of Bundoran; four of Lough Melvin, renowned for its salmon and trout fishery, and especially famous for the Gillaroo trout. It is also within short distances of Pettigo, Garrison, Devenish Island, with its monastic ruins and a perfect round tower, the beautiful park and grounds of Castle Caldwell, and many other objects of attraction.
Fig. 726.—The Belleek China Works.
The manufactory, a view of which is given on Fig. [726], stands on a small island in a bend of the river Erne. Near the bridge is a large water-wheel, over 100-horse power, which gives motion to grinding-pans, lathes, turning-plates, and all the varied and skilfully designed apparatus of the works. “In the interior, the factory bears all the appearance of business and bustle. Enormous grinding-pans, in which the raw material is prepared for the hands of the artisan, rumble and roar, driven by the irresistible and constant power of the large water-wheel; the furnaces of the great ovens, in which the moulded clay is baked, roar by the draught caused by their great height; while in the workshops the lathes and turning plates whiz noiselessly round, as the soft, putty-like clay is being deftly moulded by the skilled workman into many beautiful designs.”
The works at Belleek were established in 1863 by the present proprietors, Messrs. David McBirney and Robert Williams Armstrong. Before the establishment of the works, trials were made with the felspar of the Irish locality with ordinary Cornish china clay, at the Royal Porcelain Works at Worcester. The results were so satisfactory that Mr. Armstrong, who at that time was architect to the proprietor, laid the project for forming a manufactory at Belleek before his friend, Mr. David McBirney of Dublin, a gentleman well known for his energy in aiding any movement to advance the prosperity of Ireland, and he embarked with him in the attempt to produce first-class ceramic goods in Ireland. The firm, composed of these two gentlemen, trade under the style of “D. McBirney & Co.” There are now employed at the Works about two hundred “hands,” among whom are several skilled artists; the Art director being the founder and proprietor, Mr. Armstrong.
The chief peculiarities of the ornamental goods produced at Belleek are, its lightness of body, its rich, delicate, cream-like, or ivory tint, and the glittering iridescence of its glaze. “Although the principal productions hitherto have been formed of this white ware—which either resembles the finest biscuit (of Buen Retiro or Dresden), or almost the ivory of the hippopotamus, or shines with a lustre like that of nacre—local clays have been found which yield jet, red, and cane-coloured wares. Facsimiles of sea shells, and of branches of coral, which might well be supposed to be natural, are among the principal features. The iridescent effect produced is somewhat similar to that of the ruby lustre of the famous Gubbio Majolica; that Italian enamelled ware which commands such fabulous prices, and of which an unrivalled collection is to be seen at the South Kensington Museum. Lustres were introduced many years ago for English pottery by Hancock, by Gardner, and by Stennys; and in the booths of our country fairs, rude inartistic forms, glowing with a gold or a silver lustre, are often to be seen. The effect of a good lustre may be compared to that of “shot silk,” or to the changing hues that adorn the neck of a black or dark blue pigeon, or the crested pride of a drake. Oil of turpentine, flour of sulphur, gold solution, and tin solution, constitute the gold glaze, the purple hue being due to the tin. Platinum, and spirits of tar enter, with oxide of zinc, into the composition of the silver lustre. But neither of these glazes, any more than the Italian enamel of which the secret was lost so long ago as the sixteenth century, can compare with the beauty of the Belleek ware, an idea of which can only be given by recalling the beautiful hues of a highly-polished mother-of-pearl shell. We can convey no idea of it by engravings; and it seems equally difficult to do so by written description. We may apply to it the common-place expression: ‘It must be seen to be admired;’ and certainly it must be examined to be estimated. We can, however, with some degree of accuracy, represent some of the forms produced by this manufactory.”[70] Fig. [727] is the grounds-basin of a tea-service, made for the Queen (Her Majesty being one of the early patrons of the Belleek Pottery), and presented by her to the present Empress of Germany. The basis of the design is the echinus or sea-urchin, which abounds on the coast of Donegal, and has, both the native and rarer foreign species, been utilised by the firm in many of their productions. In this instance it forms the bowl, and the supports are branches of coral.
Fig 727.—Grounds-Basin: for the Queen’s Service.
Fig. 728.
Figs. 729 to 731.
Besides the “Royal” services—breakfast, dessert, and tea—made for her Majesty, other services have been made for H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, and others of the royal family. From the Prince of Wales’s services the engravings, Figs. [732 to 735] are selected.
Fig. 732.—Ice-Pail: for the Prince of Wales.
Fig. [732] is the ice-pail. The base is formed of three exquisitely modelled mermaids, in Parian, who support the shell-formed base of the vase, around which a group of Tritons and dolphins in high relief are sporting in the water, with an effective background of aquatic plants. A wreath of coral surrounds the rim. The effect of the charming contrast between the dead and the iridescent surfaces is heightened by gilding the conches of the revellers. The cover or lid is as it were the boiling surging sea, from which three sea-horses have partially risen, and in the centre a Triton, riding on a dolphin, forms the handle.
Fig. 733.—Compotier: for the Prince of Wales.
Fig. [733] is a compotier, whose base represents the surface of the sea, upon which float three cardium shells. From between these spring up three small sea-horses, not, indeed, the hippocampi of the naturalist, but those of the mythologist, the figures which, in antique gems and in Italian paintings, are intended to serve as the artistic embodiment of the roll and the dash of the breaker. A trumpet-shell forms the central column, which, in its turn, supports the shell that serves as a fruit-dish.
The tall centre-piece (Fig. [734]) is designed on a more ambitious scale. A triton or merman is blowing a conch; a mermaid is wringing and dressing her redundant locks; and a sea-horse dashes through the spray. Between these figures, which thus divide the base into three compartments, are placed three shells of the species hippopus maculata, which form convenient receptacles for bonbons, candied fruit, or other smaller delicacies of the dessert-table. A trumpet-shell is again selected to form the main stem, which is surrounded with aquatic plants; and three paludina shells are so introduced as to form suitable vases for sprays of flowers. The shell-dish, with its beautiful markings and projections, again forms the cap of the tazza.
Fig. 734.—Centre-piece: for the Prince of Wales.
The low compotier (Fig. [735]) are modelled en suite; the idea of the entire service being that of the combination of natural objects, selected for their appropriate shape, and for their beauty of form or of sculpture, with imaginary forms. The shells which are modelled for the dishes are supported by conventional dolphins.
The tazza vase and pedestal (Fig. [736]), on which hangs a wreath of flowers, dependent from rams’ heads, is a fine specimen of Irish art.
Our next engraving (Fig. [737]) is a flower-stand composed of shells supported by dolphins, and is so iridescent as to have almost an unearthly appearance of liquid beauty.
Fig. 735.—Low Compotier: for the Prince of Wales.
“The reproduction of natural forms by Ceramic Art,” says the Art Journal, “is not by any means a novelty. We are familiar with the fish, the reptiles, and the crustacea of Bernard Palissy, with the relieved and coloured foliage of Luca and of Andrea della Robbia. In England we have seen the shells reproduced by the artists of the Plymouth china, and the delicate leaves and flowers of the old Derby ware. The designer of much of the Belleek ware has the merit, so far as we are aware, of being the first artist who has had recourse to the large sub-kingdom of the radiata for his types. The animals that constitute this vast natural group are, for the most part, characterized by a star-shaped or wheel-shaped symmetry; and present a nearer approach to the verticillate structure of plants, than to the bilateral balance of free locomotive animals. For, at all events a portion of their existence, indeed, most of the radiata are fixed to the earth. The five-fold radiation, which is most common among dicotyledonous plants, is the usual division assumed by these zoophytic creatures. From the globular shape of the commonest echinus, or sea-urchin, through the flattened and depressed form of others of the family, the transition is regular and gradual, to the well-known five-fingered star-fish, and to those wonderfully branched and foliated forms which shatter themselves into a thousand fragments when they are brought up by the dredge from deep water and exposed for a moment to the air. Under the name of frutti di mare, these sea-eggs, covered as they are with innumerable pink and white spines, form a favourite portion of the diet of the southern Italians. When the spines, by which the creature moves, are stripped off, the projections and depressions of the testa, or shell, are often marked by great beauty of pattern; and it would have been hardly possible to bring into the service of plastic art a more appropriate group of natural models. Again, in the fantastic and graceful forms of the mermaid, the nereid, the dolphin, and the sea-horse, the Belleek art-designer has attained great excellence of ideality; the graceful modelling is set off, with the happiest effect, by the contrast between the dead, Parian-like surface of the unglazed china, and the sparkling iridescence of the ivory-glazed ground.”
Fig. 736.—Flower Tazza and Pedestal.
The productions of the Belleek works comprise all the usual services—dinner, breakfast, tea, dessert, and toilet—in large variety of patterns and of various styles of decoration, and in addition to these a vast variety of ornamental goods are produced. Figures and groups of figures, animals, &c., are also made, and are characterized by excellent modelling and judicious colouring—the peculiar Belleek glaze imparting to them a beauty all their own. Boudoir candlesticks and other choice examples of art also evidence considerable skill on the part of the artists in the modelling of the flowers and foliage and in the arrangement of the wreaths.
Among the choicest examples of actual manipulative skill produced by any manufactory are some cabinet cups and saucers, the extreme delicacy of which far surpasses the ordinary “egg-shell” china. The cup itself is the echinus, and the saucer is also tastefully modelled from the same; the body is so thin, and worked to such a degree of nicety, as to be of little more than the thickness of common writing paper. This delicate body, either plain, or tinted and gilt and then glazed with the iridescent glaze so characteristic of the Belleek ware, is unique in its appearance and matchless in its extreme delicacy. Of the same filmy body cardium and other shells are also produced, and are exquisitely tinted.
Fig. 737.—Boudoir Flower Shells.
Besides the speciality of these works (the “Belleek China”) Messrs. McBirney and Armstrong manufacture to a large extent white granite ware services of every variety, and of excellent quality both in body, in glaze, and in printed, painted, enamelled, and gilt decorations. Many of the patterns are of more than average excellence, and in every respect the Irish earthenware equals the ordinary commercial classes of Staffordshire wares. The dinner-ware is especially serviceable, being a true felspathic body, semi-vitrified, and hence ranking next to the true porcelain; smooth and admirably potted. The simple ornamentation to which it has been subjected is pure in style and Art, while the article competes as to price with inferior ware in the markets of England and America. Indeed the trade with America is already large, and is regularly increasing.
Parian and ordinary white china, as well as ivory body, are also largely made in a vast variety of styles.
Not only in these home essentials is its place established; Belleek furnishes largely the “porcelain insulators” (containing 70 per cent. local felspar) used for telegraph poles, and these have been pronounced by “authorities” the best. In pestles and mortars the factory has considerable trade, and of the minor articles of patch-boxes, &c., there is enormous produce. For supremacy in these objects it is indebted to the purity of the clay and felspar, producing a clear brilliant white, and singular “compactness,” resulting in remarkable hardness and durability. In sanitary ware, cabinet-stands, plug-basins, and other articles, form a staple part of the trade of these works.
The marks used by the Belleek Company are the following:
BELLEEK CO. FERMANAGH.
Figs. 738 and 739.]