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CHAMBERLAIN, WORCESTER. |
Marks of Chamberlain porcelain:
Plymouth—Hard Porcelain.—The first true or hard-paste porcelain made in England was made by William Cookworthy, who, being greatly interested in porcelain-making, established a factory at Plymouth about 1760. He seems to have discovered the true kaolin clays in Cornwall, the beds from which so much of the English clays are now taken. He took out patents for “a kind of porcelain newly invented, composed of Moorstone or growan, and growan clay,” found in Devon and Cornwall. He advertised for painters, and a Frenchman named Soqui seems to have been very skillful. Bone, also, was one of his best painters. The ware made was perfect hard porcelain, but it was much more costly than the ordinary soft porcelain of England, and could not compete with it for price. Many of the pieces were warped or crazed in the strong heat necessarily used, and the loss in this way was great. Besides this, the good public did not care to pay high for what then had no prestige, and was really no more beautiful than the soft-paste porcelain of England. As the first hard-paste porcelain made in England, and as but little of it was made, it is now valued by china-collectors, and it sells for high prices.
Some highly-finished dinner and tea services made there, like the Nanking blue, are excellent, and are much valued. Vases and other pieces painted in colors, with birds and other highly-colored designs, were also produced in the same styles as those made on the Continent. Figures, also, then much in fashion, were modeled here, like those made at Chelsea and elsewhere.
Cookworthy spent much money, and made none, and he came to his end. At last, in 1774, he sold his interests and patents to Champion, of Bristol, and the work ceased.
The mark used was the sign of the planet Jupiter—very nearly the figure