Chats on Old Earthenware

by Arthur Hayden

BROWN STONEWARE JUGS.
Decorated with game in high relief.
Shore & Goulding (Isleworth). Marked S & G. (Height 7½ inches.)
(In the collection of Mr. W. G. Honey.)

BROWN STONEWARE JUGS.
With sporting subjects in relief, the handles showing a debased form of the "hound" handles.
(In the collection of Mr. W. G. Honey.)

The pictorial history of the evolution is not a pretty one. It shows how the rushing need of the public for "more pots" destroyed the craft of the potter. It was far easier, since the demand was for pots, to turn out hasty work, and to let the modelling take care of itself. For this reason the mug degenerated into a mere commonplace mug, such as Staffordshire could produce quite as cheaply by the ton. So the factory put out its furnaces for ever.

MARKS USED AT SWANSEA, LOWESBY, LIVERPOOL, CAUGHLEY, DERBY, AND ISLEWORTH.

	Swansea. Established 1769, works closed 1870. Cambrian Pottery, after 1780. A large number of marks employed. Sometimes the marks were impressed, but more often painted or stamped in red.
	The word "Cambrian" as a mark is very uncommon.
	Used on the improved white hard earthenware invented by Haynes at the end of eighteenth century.
	Stone china was made from 1810–1830, and on some pieces this mark is found.
	Other of Dillwyn's Marks, from 1802–1817, are given here.
	Swansea porcelain, with its finely painted flowers, was produced from 1814 to 1817.
	The celebrated "Etruscan Ware" was made by Dillwyn from 1847 to 1850, and it generally bears this printed mark.
	From 1850 to 1870 the firm was Evans & Glasson, and D. J. Evans & Co., and some of the later marks printed on the Swansea ware of this period are reproduced.
	This Prince of Wales' Feathers mark was often accompanied by the fancy name of the particular pattern on which it appeared.
	Lowesby. The mark of this small Leicestershire factory often puzzles collectors, and it is given here. In date it is about 1835, and it only existed for a few years.
	Liverpool. The marks of Liverpool are of exceptional interest. Sadler & Green (except in rare instances, when they signed their tiles) did not use a mark. Seth Pennington (1760–1790), celebrated for punch bowls of rich blue decoration, may have used the mark here given.
	The Herculaneum Pottery (1794–1841) (which produced porcelain too, in 1800, as did W. Reid & Co. (1754–1760) of fine quality, but unmarked).
	The Herculaneum marks are various on earthenware, and when the mark of the bird, the "Liver," appears, it may be attributed to Herculaneum.
	Caughley or Salopian (1751–1775). As a china factory Caughley is well known, and is the parent of the Coalport porcelain factory.
	In its early days nothing was marked, but from 1772 to 1775, under Thomas Turner, Salopian figures, some of large size, were made, and a great deal of under-glaze blue-printed earthenware produced. The word Salopian sometimes appears, and Turner is impressed on cream-ware plates (often ascribed to John Turner, of Lane End, Staffordshire).
	Sometimes the letters S or C appear in blue under the glaze. These marks appear also in Salopian porcelain.
	Bristol. The pottery at Bristol has a history extending from seventeenth-century days down to 1820. Its delft frequently had dates inscribed, and sometimes initials of potters. Its later ware was rarely marked. But sometimes a blue cross appears, and we give a late mark, found infrequently.
	Isleworth (1760–1830). As much of the red ware of Messrs. Shore and Golding passes as Elers ware, the mark should be of interest to collectors. It is very small and impressed sometimes at the side of the piece near the base.