Glasgow.
The first pottery established in Glasgow was, it would appear, founded in 1749 as a delft-ware works. It was situated near the Broomielaw, in a lane which was called the “Delft-field Lane.” “Delft-field Lane” is a very suggestive name, and of course took its origin from the pot-works. The name was, I am informed by Mr. Cochran, “changed to ‘James Watt Street’ in later years. The celebrated inventor of the steam-engine lived in this lane, and it was in one of the rooms of the pottery that he was in the habit of working at his invention, and it is said, perfected it. The ware manufactured at this pottery was delft ware, and was a close imitation of the old grey Dutch ware of that name; but about the year 1770 the proprietors began to make ‘Queen’s ware,’ or white ware. They also began to make both plain and ornamented china, of such excellent quality that they received the compliment of being appointed potters to the Prince of Wales. How long this pottery lasted I have not been able to ascertain, but it was working in full perfection in the beginning of the present century. The next pottery which was built in Glasgow was about the year 1801, when the “Caledonian Pottery,” on the banks of the Monkland Canal, was erected. This is the oldest pottery now working in Glasgow, for although Verreville was built more than twenty years before it, yet earthenware was not made there till the year 1820.”
Verreville Pottery.—In 1777, as the name implies, the Verreville Works were built for a glass-house, by a Mr. Cookson, of Newcastle, and a Mr. Colquhoun, of Glasgow. In 1806 they were sold to the Dumbarton Glass Work Company, who immediately resold them to Mr. John Geddes, with this stipulation, that he was not to manufacture crown or bottle glass. Mr. Geddes carried on the manufacture of flint glass until 1820, when he commenced making earthenware as well as glass. In 1835 the works passed into the hands of Mr. Robert Alexander Kidston, who four years afterwards added the manufacture of china to that of glass and earthenware.
“He began,” I am told by Mr. Cochran, “by bringing skilled workmen and artists from the principal seats of china manufacture. Figures, porcelain basket work and flowers, were produced by workmen who had acquired their skill in the old and celebrated porcelain works of Derby, while Coalport and several of the most famous Staffordshire china works supplied a general staff of potters, together with gilders, and flower and landscape painters. Mr. Kidston carried on the business for several years and produced a beautiful porcelain, and upon his retiring from the business in 1846 was succeeded by the late Mr. Robert Cochran, who carried on the works with great vigour and success. In 1856 he ceased the manufacture of china, and devoted the whole of the works to the manufacture of earthenware. Mr. Cochran devoted great attention and spared no expense in promoting the introduction of labour-saving machinery. He also made great improvements in the kilns or ovens in which the earthenware is fired, by which he reduced the quantity of coal used to nearly one-half. It was applied successfully in his own works of Verreville and Britannia, but was not adopted by other manufacturers. This improvement was patented in 1852, and it is only now that the same principle, with some slight alterations, has been patented and is likely to be generally adopted by potters. Mr. Cochran died in 1869, and was succeeded in the Verreville Pottery by his son, also named Robert Cochran, by whom the works are still carried on. The goods manufactured are principally for the home trade, and consist of white, sponged, printed, and enamelled ware. No marks have ever been used except the initials of the proprietors stamped on the ware.” Verreville it is said was the first work in Scotland where china was manufactured.
Figs. 760 to 762.
Fig. 763.
Garnkirk Works.—These works were established about half a century ago by Messrs. Sprott, by whom—and later by Mr. Mark Sprott—they were carried on. They are now continued by the trustees of the late Mr. Mark Sprott (Messrs. Sprott, Gillespie, and Cameron), under the style of the “Garnkirk Fire Clay Company.” The goods produced at these works are the ordinary classes of fire-clay and terra-cotta articles, including ornamental chimney shafts and smoke-valves of good design and excellent mechanical construction; sanitary pipes and other appliances; architectural enrichments; garden edgings and balustrades of more than average beauty in design, of which examples are given in Figs. [760 to 762]; garden vases of great variety in design and of different sizes; fountains, notably an example of five tiers, supported by figures of dolphins and cranes, with basin twenty-four feet in height and sixteen feet across, erected in the public park at Aberdeen; busts, statuary, both single figures and groups, including Baily’s lovely conception of “Eve at the Fountain,” “Gleaner,” “Minerva,” “Bacchus,” “Atlas,” &c.; pedestals, brackets, and every other variety of ornamental goods, as well as fire-clay, bricks, blocks, &c. The markets principally supplied are the home, and those of France, Germany, Russia, and the East and West Indies. The mark used is simply the word Garnkirk impressed in the clay.
The Gartcosh Works were established by Mr. James Binnie, in 1863, and have since then been considerably extended. The produce of these works is terra-cotta vases, tazzas, pedestals, fountains, &c., of remarkably good design and of fine and durable quality; ornamental and plain garden edgings; gothic, clustered, and other chimney tops; ridge, flooring, and roofing tiles; cattle, horse, and dog troughs; copings; sewage and sanitary pipes of every description; glazed and unglazed fire bricks, furnace blocks, and all other goods for fire-resisting purposes. The clay is found about fifty fathoms below the surface, at Gartcosh; the strata being from eighteen to twenty-five feet in thickness. It is found underlying large beds of sandstone in what is called the limestone series, which lies between the upper and lower coal series of this district. The following is the analysis: silicic acid or silica, 60·96; alumina, 37·00; peroxide of iron, 1·16; lime, 0·64; magnesia, 0·24; total, 100.00.
Heathfield Pottery.—At these works Messrs. Ferguson, Miller, & Co. produced some admirable vases in terra cotta, which were shown at the 1851 Exhibition, and are here engraved. One of these (Fig. [764]) was a vase of large size and excellent modelling; it bore a frieze of figures typical of the great gathering in 1851. Fig. [765] shows, among its other ornaments, a nuptial procession, designed in the style of the antique; these figures were modelled with great accuracy, and are arranged in an artistic manner. The works passed in 1862 into the hands of Messrs. Young (which see); the moulds, &c., including those of these vases, became the property of the Garnkirk Company.
Figs. 764 and 765.
Figs. 766 to 769.
Fig. 770.
Figs. 771 to 781.—Messrs. Bell and Co.’s 1851 Exhibits.
Glasgow Pottery.—These works were established in 1842, by Messrs. J. & M. P. Bell & Co., in Stafford Street, Glasgow, for the manufacture of white and printed earthenware, and soon rose to the first rank among the potteries of Scotland. Particular attention was from the first paid not only to the excellence of body of the ware, but to improvement in form and in style of decoration. In these particulars they were eminently successful, and in 1851 received honourable mention at the Great Exhibition. Later on the manufacture of china was commenced, and later still the fine white and pearl granite wares, and white and decorated sanitary wares. The works are of great extent, and produce all the usual varieties of goods in dinner, breakfast, tea, toilet, dessert, and other services, as well as all the usual classes of articles, and in every variety of style, from the plain white or cream colour to the most richly enamelled and gilt patterns. The earthenware services are of more than average excellence of quality, and the china, both body and glaze, of superior class. Some of the dessert plates issued by Messrs. Bell, with hand-painted groups of flowers and perforated or open-work rims, are equal to most English makes; while some of the tea services are of tall classic form and of excellent taste in colour and decoration. In parian Messrs. Bell & Co. produce some admirable vases with figures in relief, and other ornamental goods; the quality is far above the average. The old marks used by the Glasgow Pottery are the following: Fig. [782], an eagle holding a roll, on which is inscribed the name of the pattern, and, underneath, the initials of the firm, J. & M. P. B. & Co.; Fig. [783], the Warwick vase and the name, J. & M. P. BELL & Co. The later marks are (Fig. [784]), a garter bearing the initials of the firm, J. & M. P. B. & Co., surrounding the trade mark of a bell; the name of the pattern below. These are all printed on the ware, while another, impressed in the body, is a bell with the initials J. B. (Fig. [785]). Another is a bell only (Fig. [786]).
Figs. 782 to 786.
Some of Messrs. Bell & Co.’s exhibits are shown in the engravings Figs. [766 to 781].
North British Pottery.—These works on Dobbies Loan, produce the ordinary qualities of earthenware goods.
Saracen Pottery.—The Saracen Pottery was established in 1875 by Messrs. Bayley, Murray, and Brammer, at Possilpark. The firm manufacture Rockingham, cane-coloured, Egyptian black, jet, and mazarene blue wares on an extensive scale, mostly, in tea-pots, jugs, and other useful domestic articles, both for the home and foreign markets. The mark used is the initials of the firm and name of the works
B M & Co
SARACEN POTTERY.
Port Dundas Pottery Company.—These works were established for the manufacture of stoneware articles about the year 1819. In the earlier years of its existence there were several changes in the proprietorship, but for the last thirty years it has remained in the hands of, and been carried on by, Mr. James Miller. The works, from a somewhat small beginning, have attained considerable proportions. In 1856 they contained three salt-glaze ovens, in which were manufactured chemical vessels and apparatus of various kinds, spirit bottles, jars, &c.; and about this time many of the towns in the North of Scotland, finding the desirability of having a good water supply introduced, had recourse to high-pressure stoneware water-pipes for that purpose, which were manufactured in large quantities at these works. Several towns and many country mansion houses at the present time have their water supply conducted through miles of the Port Dundas pipes. In the same year a new glaze was introduced, giving to the ware a cream-coloured appearance, much purer and cleaner for many purposes than the old brown salt glaze, and with this a great demand sprang up for stoneware beer bottles for warm climates, and the works consequently have been greatly enlarged to meet the increased demand.
By far the greatest portion of ware made in Port Dundas is thrown on the potter’s wheel, the motive power for which was supplied, until 1866, by girls, who turned a large driving wheel communicating with a pulley under the workman’s wheelhead by a rope. The proprietor in that year endeavoured to introduce steam power for this purpose, but so strong was the opposition of the throwers that the machines and accompanying shafting, &c., lay aside for three years unused. They were then erected in a distant part of the works, and apprentices all but forced to work on them. These, however, had not been long fitted up when the workmen, seeing the immense advantages to be derived from their use, gladly availed themselves of the offer of the proprietor to substitute steam machinery for hand-power throughout the whole factory, the immediate result of which was to raise the piece-work earnings of the workmen from 30 to 49 per cent.; they had one attendant less to pay, a part of whose wages the workman kept to himself, while a proportion of it was paid to the Company for the use of the steam-power and up-keep of the machinery. The speed of the wheel requiring to be varied according to the different operations performed upon it, is now under the complete control of the workman’s foot, and not as formerly at the will, or according to the strength of, the assistant wheel-turner. In this way a complete revolution was quietly effected in the stoneware potting of Scotland, and the incentive having been given, orders came from many potteries in England to the Scotch machine maker for similar steam machines.
With the introduction of the cream-coloured stoneware glaze the ovens had to undergo extensive alterations, the old salt-glaze cupboard kilns giving place to much larger sagger ovens, in which the ware is now burned. The improvement in the appearance of the ware having brought it into much greater demand, the works rapidly extended, until at the present time, in the Port Dundas Pottery with its branch work, the Crown Pottery, there are fifteen ovens in regular operation.
The wares produced are beer, ink, and spirit bottles; preserve, acid, butter, and druggist’s jars; chemical vessels and apparatus, and every kind of article made in stoneware, water filters, Rockingham and cane ware.
All the goods made are stamped with the name of the firm in an oval stamp.
The home markets are supplied with all descriptions of general ware, immense quantities of preserve jars, &c. Export bottlers in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Liverpool, are supplied with stone bottles. Water filters, Rockingham, and cane ware are regularly shipped to the colonies and the continent of Europe. Two years ago a process of printing on the unfired stoneware body was perfected and patented by this firm, eminently suitable for consumer’s labels, trade marks, &c., no extra firing in the shape of muffle or hardening-in kiln being required.
The Company exhibited their manufactures at the Chilian Exhibition held in Santiago in 1875, and there received the first prize gold medal for the general excellence of their wares. The clay from which this stoneware is made is obtained only from the Devonshire mines, is very free from iron, and burns a light buff colour. Somewhere about 10,000 tons are annually used in Glasgow, nearly the whole of which is brought by sea from the port of Teignmouth to the Clyde. Very little preparation and no mixing with other ingredients is required before passing into the hands of the workman; after being milled it is ready to be fashioned into all kinds of articles. It is also singular in this respect that the articles are glazed before being burned; and by one process of firing to a very high pitch of heat—higher than that to which any other kind of pottery ware is subjected—a hard, vitreous, and very sonorous ware is produced, glazed inside and out with a transparent glaze, which allows the buff colour of the clay to be seen, and which is quite proof against the action of both alkalies and acids, rendering vessels made by this ware highly suitable for storing and transporting acids and other chemicals. For many years London and Bristol were the chief seats of the stoneware trade, and workmen had to be obtained from the south to carry on business in Scotland; but apprentices were speedily trained in Glasgow to supply all wants, and in turn to feed largely the southern potteries. At present there is more pure stoneware manufactured in Glasgow than anywhere else, so that it has really become the seat of the stoneware pottery of the kingdom.
Hyde Park Potteries.—This manufactory was established about 1837 by Mr. John McAdam. His productions are ordinary stoneware bottles, jars, spirit casks, feet and carriage warmers, pans of various kinds, and all the ordinary classes of stoneware goods.
Britannia Pottery.—These large works at St. Rollox, Glasgow, belonging to Messrs. Cochran & Co., produce all the usual varieties of ordinary earthenware goods in granite and cream-coloured ware for South America; and printed, enamelled, painted, and gilt wares for the home markets. The works were established in 1855, by Mr. Robert Cochran, the senior partner of the Verreville Pottery Company (which see), and the present partners are Mr. Alexander Cochran (son of the above) and Mr. James Fleming. The works contain six biscuit and seven glost ovens.
Annfield Pottery.—Messrs. John Thomson and Co., at the Annfield Pottery, Gallowgate, formerly manufactured both china and earthenware goods for the home and foreign markets. The works have been closed some time.
Bridgeton Pottery.—The “Bridgeton Pottery” was built in 1869 by its present owner, Mr. F. Grosvenor, who for some years previous to that time had been a partner in the “Caledonian Pottery” at Glasgow. The goods manufactured are the usual classes of articles in stoneware, including chemical wares, bottles for various uses, spirit jars, bottles, &c., and Rockingham ware tea-pots. In 1870 Mr. Grosvenor took out a patent for the manufacture of bottles and jars by machinery, and he has also invented an improved bottle stopper.
Barrowfield Pottery.—Established by their present owner, Mr. Henry Kennedy, in 1866, these extensive works produce in large quantities all the usual classes of articles of “glass-lined stoneware,” including “glass-lined bottles and jars” for domestic and other purposes, both for home and foreign markets. The mark used by Mr. Kennedy is three Bottles side by side beneath a ribbon bearing the words “Established 1866.”