Chats on Old Earthenware
CHAPTER I
HOW TO COLLECT: A CHAPTER FOR BEGINNERS
Reasons for collecting—What is earthenware?—How earthenware is made—What to collect—Method of studying old earthenware—Forgeries—Table for use in identifying old English earthenware.
To attempt to advance reasons for collecting old English earthenware is seemingly to commence this volume with an apology on behalf of collectors. But there are so many persons ready to throw a stone at others who betray the possession of hobbies differing from their own, that it is necessary to state that the reasonable collection of old earthenware is based on sound premisses.
Similar reasons may be given for the collection of old English earthenware to those that may be advanced for the collection of old English china. Earthenware may be approached mainly from the æsthetic side and studied with a view to show the development of decorative art in this country and the foreign influences which have contributed to its evolution. The art of the old English potter is of especial interest to students of ceramic art, as many processes were invented in this country, and, in spite of periods of decadence, English earthenware has won for itself a considerable reputation on the Continent from a technical point of view.
It may be collected as an adjunct to old furniture by lovers of old furniture who are precisians in regard to harmony in schemes of decoration. They prefer to see china and earthenware of the same period as the furniture. A modern set of vases adorning a Georgian cabinet is like putting new wine into old bottles. So that concomitant with the love for old furniture, old pictures, and old prints is the accompanying regard for contemporary china and earthenware.
The "drum and trumpet history" relating the personal adventures of princes and nobles, and the pomp of courts, or the intrigues of favourites, sets no store on the apparent trivialities which mark the social and intellectual progress of a nation. But the scientific student of history cannot afford to ignore the detailed study of social conditions which are indicated by the china-shelf. The due appreciation of the development of costume, of furniture, and of the domestic arts gives life and colour to the written records of byegone days. A mug or a jug with an inscription may tell a story of popular party feeling as pointedly as a broadsheet or a political lampoon.