Blue and white takes my eye always, pulls me up every time, and I fancy myself fortunate in having so much of it in pottery and porcelain considering the means I have adopted while collecting.

I do not flatter myself that I have any china of extraordinary value, but the reader will gather from the photographs that, taken as a whole, I have found something worth looking for. Being wishful that the amateur may derive assistance from my book I have arranged several groups as specimens of various factories, and although the photographs can give only a poor idea of the colours, yet the style of decoration and the shapes may be some guide. I have succeeded in obtaining a black background by making use of the bookcase on the bureau, which gave me a side light. I am glad to say that all the handling, moving from place to place, fixing on wire stands, arranging on the shelves, shifting from one position to another, taking down and getting back into their respective quarters has been achieved without a chip. Beyond the annoyance of having to arrange a grouping twice, owing to an oversight which was not discovered until some days after the first negative had been taken, the photography was interesting, and I hope the result will be so to the reader, who is recommended to use a magnifying glass.

BOW ([PLATE XL])

I have drawn my bow at a venture in getting this bag and my first shot brought in a saucer pronounced “Worcester” which I found had an impressed Bow workman’s mark; next I potted a saucer which was so thick and heavy that I thought it was all pot; then came in sight the teapot sold as “Worcester,” Dr. Wall period, and soon after I got a small bowl, strange to say flying under the same false colours. Other stray shots account for the odd handle-less cups. All these are hand-painted in blue, and as they vary in shade and hardness of paste they have been very entertaining. The tea-caddy on which I placed a small cup inverted, and two cups with saucers are painted in red, blue and gold. I have already spoken of my large bowl, the bowl with green decoration, sauce-boat, fretted bon-bon tray and basket pattern dish, so I need not again refer to them.

CHELSEA ([PLATE XXXIX])

I fancy the two cups hand-decorated in red were among the first pieces made, and I wonder what has become of the saucers for they would be so thick they would not be likely to be broken except by a twentieth-century washer-up. I have three large plates, two of which were sold as Oriental, while the other was exchanged for a remark about the weather and half a crown. The two small plates were “certainly Lowestoft.” The fine cup I found at Dunbar, and strange to say I picked out a saucer to match it at a Southport shop a few days later. Here I also bought the little vase as Oriental, and at the next antique shop I visited I was kindly furnished with an Oriental lid which fitted, thus completing the picture in a way. The Chelsea painting is exquisite, yet the whole does not bear careful scrutiny. Still the two make handy examples of hard and soft paste. The odd cup dates between the cups already spoken of. The small figure of Cupid holding a shell for sweets completes the group, but an early bowl will be found on [Plate XV].

Old China.

Shelf 4.Worcester, Caughley.
  ”  3.    ”       ”
  ”  2.Lowestoft.
  ”  1.Bow.