GROUP OF SWANSEA WARE.
Transfer-printed in blue, black, and brown.
(In the collection of Mr. A. Duncan.)
Dillwyn's Etruscan Ware.
VASE.
With Warriors in Chariot and Pegasus. (Height 14 inches.)
TAZZA.
With Dancing Girl (side view and interior). (10½ inches diameter.)
(In the collection of Mr. A. Duncan.)
Bristol.—Joseph Ring in 1786 commenced to make a cream ware with the assistance of potters he engaged from Shelton in Staffordshire. In colour it was a warm cream due to the glaze and not to the body of the ware itself. Connected with this factory are some finely painted flower-pieces in enamel colours by William Fifield (born in 1777, and died in 1857), and his son, John Fifield. The factory changed hands in 1825, and became Pountney and Allies and Pountney & Co. until 1872. Many of Fifield's decorated pieces with floral works bear the name and date of the person for whom they were made. These are quite characteristic of the pottery, and occur after 1820 and in the Pountney and Allies period. There is a strong similarity in these chains of flowers and garlands to the Oriental ware, and its later French imitation which poses as Lowestoft. Much of this Bristol earthenware is confounded with somewhat similar New Hall porcelain, and is termed by very inexperienced buyers and sellers as "cottage Worcester." "Cottage" it may be, but it has no relationship with Worcester.
Caughley or Salopian.—The Caughley under-glaze blue-printed ware with its rich almost purplish blue is well known, but the various tints of this blue employed in the porcelain are not so well known varying as they do from this deep blue to a fairly light slate blue—but that concerns china and is another story. The Coalport factory china mark at the present day has the date 1750, proudly going back to these early days. Of Salopian earthenware not too much is known, it is eclipsed by the porcelain which Thomas Turner commenced to make at Caughley in 1772.
But earthenware was made at the factory from 1750 to 1775 by Browne, the owner of the factory, whose niece Thomas Turner married and took over the pottery in 1772. There are, belonging to this early period, some exceedingly well-modelled Caughley figures which are equal to the finest work of the Staffordshire potters. Some of these figures are 20 inches in height, and among those attributed to this Salopian pottery are the following: Prudence, holding a mirror, draped classical figure with figured gown; and Fortitude, a companion figure. Antony and Cleopatra are also believed to belong to this factory by some collectors. Caughley pottery is sometimes, though rarely, marked with the word Salopian or with the initials S or C in blue under the glaze. A considerable doubt still exists as to what is and what is not Salopian or Caughley earthenware, and an opinion should not be hastily arrived at on superficial examination. Many of the early under-glaze blue-printed porcelain cups and saucers with Oriental designs similar in character to the "willow pattern" bear a mark of a blue crescent not unlike that of the Worcester factory. When such specimens in earthenware are found thus marked in under-glaze blue with the crescent they may certainly be pronounced to be Caughley, in date about 1772 to 1785. Some of the octagonal dark blue-printed Caughley earthenware plates are of similar shape to the Oriental porcelain model (illustrated [p. 327]), and the design especially in the treatment of the border is handled in the same manner except that Turner was fonder of more crowded detail.
