LEEDS CREAM WARE PLATE.
Painted with Oriental figures in under-glaze blue.
(In the collection of Miss Feilden.)
LEEDS CREAM WARE MUG.
With Oriental figure and set of verses.
(In the collection of Mr. Robert Bruce Wallis.)
STAFFORDSHIRE JUG.
Painted and inscribed by Allen at Lowestoft.
(In the collection of Mr. Merrington Smith, Lowestoft.)
Rockingham.—At Swinton, near Rotherham, as early as 1778 a factory was started by Messrs. Thomas Bingley & Co., who began to manufacture cream ware. The Leeds factory, apparently jealous of rivals, as in the case of the Don Pottery, soon had an active interest in this factory. In 1790 it became Greens, Bingley & Co., and the ware then made was blue printed and the highly glazed black pottery associated with Jackfield, of which we shall speak later. At this time a brown glazed earthenware became widely known and appreciated. It was cream ware which had received a heavy lead glaze richly and warmly coloured in brown. From 1796 to 1806 this glaze became extensively used, not only by Swinton or, as it afterwards came to be known, as "Rockingham," taking the name from the Marquis of Rockingham, upon whose estate the works were situated.
This "Rockingham ware," of smooth surface and fine reddish brown colour, was very popular, and a teapot was made, known as the "Cadogan," which was an imitation of the Chinese puzzle teapot. It was made without a lid and was filled by turning it upside down. An opening, very much in the manner of the safety glass inkpot, admitted the tea, and on reversing the vessel it could be poured out. Some of these teapots are marked "Rockingham," or "Brameld," or "Brameld & Co.," and sometimes "Mortlock," a London dealer for whom they were made. In 1806 the Leeds interest passed out of the firm, and the factory remained in the hands of John and William Brameld. In 1826 it assumed the name of the Rockingham Works, and used the crest of the Fitzwilliam family. China was made there from 1820, and the factory obtained considerable reputation and was still in the hands of the Brameld family till the close of the works in 1842. A gorgeous Rockingham china dessert service made for William IV. costing £5,000.
We illustrate a "Cadogan" teapot, with its rich brown glaze, and moulded in the form of a peach, with smaller peaches applied at the top. It is a remarkably un-English design, and it is singular that it became so fashionable.
Jackfield.—We mention Jackfield here, as it has become among collectors quite a generic term for all highly glazed black ware, especially little teapots and cream jugs. It is certain that Elijah Mayer and other Staffordshire potters largely made this ware, and Bingley & Co. (Swinton) among a crowd of others. Jackfield is in Shropshire. Its history as a pot works is as old as any in the country, but it is chiefly in the period between 1760 and 1765, when Maurice Thursfield carried on the little factory, that it became renowned for its black ware. It is quite unlike black basalt. It is red clay, covered with a bright and highly lustrous black glaze. This is ornamented with oil gilding, which in use has almost disappeared. Some of the ware is decorated with raised ornaments of vine leaves. The lids of teapots often have a bird, with outstretched wings. The designs were not original, and are found in salt-glaze and in Whieldon ware, and some of this so-called "Jackfield" ware may be attributed to him.