I saw the figure of “Wesley over the Clock” in a small grocery window, and on asking if it was for sale was told “Yes! We are sick to death of seeing him on the mantel”—and then bang went saxpence.
After these reckless purchases it is consoling to remember that the bust of Whitfield by Enoch Wood was given me by a neighbour who fished it out of his lumber room. (See [Plate XXXII]).
I purchased several pieces at odd times from a man who spoke Yiddish to his wife and broken English to me, and no matter whether the article was Wheildon, Wedgwood, or Worcester, he invariably assured me “It was a fine bit of old Zwanzee.”
On the shelves round two of my rooms I have some quite uncommon dark blue printed plates and dishes, some unmarked, others by Rogers, Challenor, Adams, Spode, Davenport, Turner, also part set of a dinner service with fine illustrations of Pera, Mosque in Latachia, Triumphal Arch, Latachia, Pillar of Absalom. I also have the tureen, which illustrates Eski-Estamboul. One of the dishes is marked “B” and they can with safety be attributed to the Burtons of Hanley, 1820.
A dish in rich blue, illustrating Little Boy Blue blowing his horn for the cows in the meadow and the sheep in the corn; I fail to identify the cow and surmise that on this particular farm these animals must have been very much alike. I espied the rim of this dish nearly hidden on the shelf of a broker and I enquired, “Is that a blue and white dish?” and was answered, “Yes, but it’s more than you’ll pay, we are saving that for a swell who comes in a motor-car.” After this, of course I had to see it, and ascertaining the price paid up at once. I left my name and address and they promised to let me know if they got anything more like it. A few weeks later I received a postcard and caught the earliest train in great expectancy, to find on my arrival a few Willow Pattern dishes. I left these to swell the swell motorist’s collection.
Never mind the absence of marks on the back, for if you desire to decorate you want good illustrations, and these are the main consideration. When a visitor, after contemplating these plates for a time, remarks, “I like your Willow Pattern” when there is no Willow Pattern on view, I usually change the subject and switch on to domestics, as I find so many people are on the look out for these, and I gather from the conversation that in collecting them they have the greatest difficulty in finding good specimens to add lustre and charm to the home.
Old Pottery.
Plate XXXIV.