ASTBURY TEAPOT.
Orange glazed body, pattern in relief. (About 1740. Height 4 inches.)
(At British Museum.)
ASTBURY WARE TEAPOT.
Coffee brown body, white and green floral ornament in relief. (About 1750.)
(At British Museum.)
With the advent of Josiah Wedgwood came the strong classic influence upon his plastic art, and in his various classes of stoneware (dealt with in Chap. VII.) considerable variety was introduced both in design and in colouring. Among the most notable of the contemporaries and successors of Wedgwood who successfully produced high-class stoneware, the following may be mentioned: William Adams, Turner, Elijah Mayer, Neale, Palmer, Birch, Keeling, and Toft, Hollins, Wilson, Spode, Davenport, and Dunderdale of Castleford, and the Leeds Pottery and the Swansea Pottery both made basalt in black ware (see [Chap. VIII.], The School of Wedgwood).
Fulham Stoneware.—In the eighteenth century Fulham became noticeable for a type of mug similar to that illustrated ([p. 153]), bearing the initials "W.G." and the date 1725. Another series made at Fulham are the jugs usually marked with the initials "A.R." and "G.R." belonging to the days of Anne and of George I. A great many exist of the fuller-bodied shape, with initials inscribed "G.R." Formerly on museum shelves these were attributed to Fulham, but it is now generally held that this form was imported from the Continent, and belongs to the Grès-de-Flandres class. The true Fulham contemporary form is that which we illustrate ([p. 153]).
Nottingham Stoneware.—John Morley, of Nottingham, was cited in 1693, as one of the persons who infringed Dwight's patent for stoneware. Evidently the same family of potters carried on the business, for in 1726, Charles Morley was a maker of brown stoneware jugs and mugs. There is a brown bowl at the Victoria and Albert Museum bearing this date. The Castle Museum at Nottingham possesses some fine examples of brown stoneware. The dates of jugs and mugs vary from as early as 1700 to the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Nottingham ware is smoother in its surface than old Staffordshire, only slightly showing the orange skin texture so noticeable in the other stoneware. It is rich warm brown, sometimes inclining to red and sometimes to yellow in colour. Bear jugs are a feature of Nottingham stoneware, but they are not peculiar to that pottery, as they were also made in Derbyshire and Staffordshire. The Nottingham stoneware is excellently potted and, of course, is salt glazed, the glaze having a slightly lustrous appearance.
The examples most familiar to collectors belong to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The bear jugs may be either of plain surface or may have the rough grained exterior formed by minute particles of clay. They frequently have a collar around the neck, and a chain to which is attached a rattle. A rarer form represents a Russian bear hugging Bonaparte, who wears a big plumed hat. Puzzle jugs with incised ornament, and tall loving-cups of large size, are another noticeable production; many of these are inscribed with names and dates.
