CHAPTER XIII
LUSTRE WARE
Early crude Copper Lustre (Brislington)—Gold Lustre, pink and purple Wedgwood, Leeds, Swansea, Sunderland—Platinum Lustre (termed "silver lustre").—Thomas Wedgwood (1791), Spode, E. Mayer, Wood and Caldwell, Leeds, Castleford, Swansea, and others—Lustre in combination as a decoration—"Resist" Lustre—Copper or Bronze Lustre—Marked Lustre Ware—Prices.
The collection of lustre ware is comparatively modern. In common with salt-glaze ware which was not thought much of in the auction-room some few years ago, lustre-ware has been studied and collected with avidity, and a good deal has been discovered concerning its origin.
It may be said at the outset that lustre varies very considerably in quality, and the plain undecorated platinum or "silver" lustre is being produced at the present day in teapots and cream-jugs in simulation of the old Georgian silver patterns.
So great is its variety and quality that some collectors have confined themselves specially to the collection of what is known as silver lustre "resist" style, and others have specialised in the pink or gold purple, with veined effects, of the Wedgwood school.
Lustre ware may be divided into the following classes:—
1. Early brown copper lustre, crude in style, made by Frank, of Brislington, near Bristol, about 1770.
2. Gold lustre, probably invented by Josiah Wedgwood, about 1792 (not to be confounded with gilding). The effect varies from pink to purple, and in the early pieces a combination was effected of gold, yellow, and purple, iridescent in varying lights.
3. Platinum or "silver" lustre (discovered by Thomas Wedgwood, the youngest son of Josiah Wedgwood, about 1791), imitations of silver ware, busts, &c.