VI
ENGLISH PORCELAIN
PLATE 17
Jug, with hinged Cover, Sèvres, dated 1770, with the mark of the flower-painter Bouillat fils. Height, 5 in.
No. 2019-1855. See p. [57].
Mark:
The obscurity which enshrouds the history of the earliest English porcelain works may be accounted for by the fact that these factories were private ventures, started for commercial purposes; they were not, as at the outset were many of their Continental rivals, experimental undertakings conducted under the protection, or subsidised out of the funds, of a royal or princely patron. It is true that the Chelsea works received some measure of support from King George II. and his son, the Duke of Cumberland, but it was probably to private enterprise that they owed their beginning and continuance alike.
While the earliest known piece of English china, bearing the date 1745, belongs to Chelsea, the other great London factory, Bow, has the honour of the earliest documentary record of the manufacture in this country. This priority, by one year only, based on a patent applied for in 1744, entitles the Bow works to be noticed first.
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