STONEWARE JUGS WITH ROYAL ARMS AND PORTRAIT MEDALLIONS OF WILLIAM AND MARY.
The left-hand jug with portrait of Queen Mary is attributed to Dwight.
(In the collection of Mr. F. W. Phillips, Hitchin.)
In the group of fine Bellarmine jugs illustrated, the characteristics of the ware are shown. The decorations begin to assume a national feeling, and the jugs differ in form from the continental type. The fine specimen of grey stoneware with the portrait medallion of Queen Mary is attributed to Dwight. The inscription runs "Maria. D. G. Mag. Brit. Franc, et. Hib. Regina." The right hand jug in the group has a raised medallion portrait of William III.
The Bellarmine, or Greybeard or Longbeard, is so called from the head which appears on the neck of the jug, which mask is always referred to in a satirical manner as being the likeness of Cardinal Robert Bellarmin, who rendered himself obnoxious by his opposition to the reformed religion in the Low Countries.
The fact that they were imported and not made here appears from the petition of William Simpson, merchant (Lansdowne MSS.) to Queen Elizabeth: "Whereas one Garnet Tyne, a strainger living in Acon, in the parte beyond the seas, being none of her Majestie's subjects, doth buy up all the pottles made at Culloin called Drinkynge Stonepottes & he onlie transporteth them into this realme of England & selleth them; It may please your Majestie to graunt unto the sayd William Simpson full power & only license to provyde, transport, & bring into this realme, the same or such like Drynkynge pots"; the petitioner adds that "no Englishman doth transport any potte into this realme," he also gives a promise "as in him lieth" to attempt to "drawe the making of such like potte into some decayed town within this realme, whereby many a hundred poore men may be set a worke." Thirty years later Letters Patent were granted to Thomas Rous and Abraham Cullyn in 1626 for the sole making "of the stone pottes, stone juggs, & stone bottles, for the terme of fourteene years for a reward for their invention."
Here, then, are sufficient facts to show how largely the importation and manufacture was in foreign hands, and the finer specimens must undoubtedly be assigned to foreign potters.
John Dwight.—In 1671 a patent was taken out by John Dwight for "the mistery of transparent earthenware, commonly knowne by the names of porcelaine or China and Persian ware, as alsoe the misterie of the stoneware vulgarly called Cologne ware." It appears from this patent that he had "invented and sett up at Fulham, several new manufactories." There is no doubt that John Dwight was one of the greatest, if not the greatest of English potters. His magnificent life-size bust in stoneware of Prince Rupert, now in the British Museum, excites the wonder and admiration of modern potters. The technical excellence he displays in his fine stoneware, which is of a grey-white or pale fawn colour, and is salt glazed, is as remarkable a triumph of modelling as it is of skill in potting. To quote Professor Church in regard to Dwight's busts and figures, "They stand absolutely alone in English ceramics. They are the original and serious work of an accomplished modeller. The best of them are instinct with individuality and strength, yet reticent with the reticence of noble sculpture."
