A very fine transfer-printed plate in black is illustrated ([p. 397]), showing something higher in engraving than Staffordshire had attempted. It stands, leaving out the delicate black transfer-printing done on the Worcester porcelain, as an exceptionally artistic piece of work. The adjacent plate in the illustration at once shows the source of its inspiration. It follows one of Wedgwood's Queen's ware patterns painted in green and violet of the grape pattern, although it must be admitted that the Swansea adaptation is richer than the somewhat thinner design found on old Wedgwood plates.
One of the most interesting features in the history of the Swansea factory is the introduction by Haynes of a ware termed "opaque china," which was in reality a finer and whiter kind of cream ware, and eminently suitable for the painted decorations by W. W. Young, an artist from the Bristol factory, who painted from about 1803 to 1806, flowers and butterflies and shells with great fidelity. He was followed by another artist Thomas Pardoe, from the Derby factory, who brought more poetry into his floral subjects. Another artist named Evans painted flower-pieces with almost equal beauty. We illustrate a fine Cambrian vase painted by Pardoe, and a Swansea jug painted by Evans ([p. 401]).
There is no doubt that a very high standard of painting on the Swansea ware prevailed during the best period, and the illustration of a set of three Swansea-ware bulb pots (see [p. 397]) shows that landscape painters of no mean gifts were employed. It is this picturesque quality of decoration (dependent in a great measure on the fact that from 1814 to 1824 porcelain was made too), together with the equally fine quality of the ware itself, that has placed Swansea well to the front among the collectors of artistic earthenware.
We have alluded to Haynes the proprietor who first brought the factory into prominence. This was in 1790. But in 1802 it passed into the hands of Lewis Weston Dillwyn, and it was during this period that W. W. Young did the work we have alluded to. In 1817 the factory passed into the hands of the Bevingtons, and in 1824 it again came into the possession of the Dillwyn family, who held it till about 1850, when the firm was known as Evans and Glasson, and later as D. J. Evans & Co. until its close in 1870. During this long period the marks assumed various characters. We have at the end of this chapter given most of the more important to enable collectors to identify the period of their Swansea ware—when marked.
Another ware greatly collected must be alluded to, of which an illustration is given ([p. 405]). This Etruscan ware, following the early example set by Wedgwood, was an attempt to copy some of the Greek vases which were painted red on a black body.
In "Dillwyn's Etruscan Ware," made only for three years from 1847 to 1850, the body was a warm red, and the design was impressed thereon either by means of black transfer-printing or outline, and the background was then painted and the classic figures heightened. This ware is not always marked, but when the mark appears it is in a scroll, as given in the list of marks ([p. 416]).
Lowesby Pottery.—There is very little to be said about this pottery in Leicestershire, which was conducted under the auspices of Sir Francis Fowke about 1835. The mark is always puzzling to collectors which is a fleur-de-lis with the name Lowesby, both impressed. The ware usually made at this small pottery was red terra cotta coated with a dull black upon which were flowers and butterflies painted in bright enamel colours. This decoration was done elsewhere, probably in London.
