I am fortunate in having a Cadogan pot impressed “Rockingham,” as by comparing I believe I have only included brown ware made at this factory. Brown “Rockingham” snuff-taker jugs have been made elsewhere by the thousand.
LUSTRE (See [Plate XXXIII])
I have chosen for this group what I consider the best of my bunch, which consists of gilt, copper, silver, lake, brown, and yellow lustres. The only marked one shows that J. Aynsley was using lustre about 1800. My largest copper lustre jug bears the first owner’s initials, “W.P., 1823,” while the silver lustre cannon is lettered “Battle of Wagram, 1806,” so I can only surmise that most of these exhibits were made in the first half of the nineteenth century. The main difference between the modern and old lustre ware is usually noticeable on the bottom of the pieces, the finish of the old being more carefully executed.
WOOD, ENOCH AND RALPH (See [Plate XXXII])
All students or collectors of old pottery will be anxious to have authentic representations of the work of these early potters. I was lucky in having the bust of Whitfield given to me, and I am convinced this is genuine. I have tried to procure Enoch Wood’s companion bust of Wesley, but the two I have had offered were reproductions, the features not being so sharp and the impress mark blurred and indistinct. Ralph Wood had a great reputation as an engraver of moulds, and this is certainly justified by my large light blue enamelled jug, impressed “Wood.” I also show an early brown printed plate impressed “Wood” beside the word “Ivory,” which plate will probably be contemporary with the Wedgwood “Pearl.”
BROWN AND BUFF STONEWARE (See [Plate XXXIV])
The Doulton Jubilee Jug dated 1887 is probably the most modern of the pieces photographed, but the small jug next it will make up for the matter of age if it is Old Fulham, as I believe it to be. The jug with hunting scenes in relief is stamped Copeland, while the small “salt” with lion-head ends is by W. Briddon, and would be made in Chesterfield about 1770. This and the Fulham jug are salt glaze.
I have omitted to include a Spode buff mug with lion-head handle and blue rim giving “Wellington, with soldiers and a cannon” (9.2 in.), also a Continental tree with huge leaves in white relief commemorating the Battle of Vittoria, 1813.
TRANSFER PRINTING
Anyone interested in the evolution of this art would find in my collection enough specimens to point out the advancement as time went on, and evidence that not many years elapsed before the printing was all that it need to be. My earliest example is an irregular wavy edged 7½-inch plate, the glaze of which looks like thin tin enamel, and over this glaze there is a quaint picture of a woman and child in a garden under a palm tree, of course. To add to the impression that this is a very early effort at stipple printing on pottery there is a white line running nearly across the print, denoting the paper had either been torn or the blue ink had not entirely covered it. The plate is crazed all over like a fine spider’s web. The sauce-boat described on [Plate XXXVI] as printed over the glaze, probably dates next, and then must come a study of a 10-inch cream-coloured ware soup-plate. This is not among the pieces photographed, as I have only just discovered its peculiarities, which, now they have secured my attention, strike me as remarkable. It is the heaviest plate of its size I have, and weighs 1 lb. 9 oz.; it is well made, and is in good preservation. It is printed over the glaze with fern leaves and common English flowers, like poppies, lilies, and harebells, the stalks and foliage in green transfer, while the flowers are enamelled red and yellow by hand. With difficulty I have made out the mark to be an impressed crown, and this, together with the colour of the ware, satisfies me that it is an early piece of Herculaneum. It was pushed on to me nine years ago by a dealer, instead of a shilling change out of a sovereign, with the remark, “Perhaps you would rather take that plate,” and I did not wish to disappoint him by declining anything he desired to be rid of. Readers will do well not to miss any transfer printing over the glaze, and the search for it will keep them busy.