BRISTOL DELFT DISH.
Inscribed "A Voyage to the Moon by Domingo Gonzales from the Ile of Tenerife."
REVERSE OF DELFT DISH.
Marked I F and dated 1740.
(Diameter 13½ inches.)
(In the collection of Mr. W. C. Wells.)
Liverpool Delft.—Collectors of Liverpool delft would like to ascribe many pieces to that city. But, unfortunately, the difference between this and the other English delft is not so defined. One has to take the style of subject largely as a guide for the origin. There is a large punch bowl at the Victoria and Albert Museum which may certainly be attributed to Liverpool. It was painted by John Robinson at Seth Pennington's factory. A similar bowl is in the Mechanic's Institution at Hanley. It is painted in blue with a three-masted man-of-war inside the bowl. The flag is touched with red. The exterior shows an array of military trophies. It is somewhat confusing to collectors to know that the fine punch bowls of Seth Pennington, with his renowned blue colouring, are of delft, earthenware, and of china. These latter are of great rarity and value.
Another maker of delft punch bowls was Shaw, but it is not easy to determine with exactitude to which factory to ascribe some of these delft bowls, and there is room for considerable inquiry and exhaustive research to be made into the early history of the Liverpool potteries in general, as much information is needed to settle controversial points.
Delft Printed Tiles.—It is here that Liverpool stands pre-eminent in the transfer printed delft tiles. As early as 1750 Sadler and Green discovered the transfer printing by means of adhesive paper placed on previously inked copper-plates and laid on the earthenware as a decoration in black or in red, and sometimes puce. The signature of the engravers appears on some specimens, J. Sadler, Liverpool; J. Sadler, Liverpl.; Sadler, Liverpool; Green, Liverpool; or Green.
The invention was invaluable as a decoration for china and earthenware in lieu of painting. The following affidavit was made in 1756 by John Sadler and Guy Green that they "without the aid of or assistance of any other person or persons, did, within the space of six hours, to wit, betwixt the hours of nine in the morning and three in the afternoon of the same day, print upwards of 1,200 tiles of different patterns at Liverpoole aforesaid, and which, as these deponents have heard and believe, were more in number, and better and neater, than one hundred skilled potmakers could have painted in the like space of time in the common or usual way of painting with a pencil, and these deponents say that they have been upwards of seven years in finding out the method of printing tiles, and in making tryals and experiments for that purpose, which they have now, through great pains and expense, brought to perfection."
There is no doubt that this invention revolutionised the decoration of all wares. In regard to the controversy which has arisen as to the prior claims of Battersea for its transfer decorated enamels, and of Worcester for similar decorations by Hancock, the whole matter has been exhaustively dealt with by Mr. William Turner in his "Transfer Printing on Enamels, Porcelain, and Pottery," in which the case for each claimant is minutely analysed.