Porcelain

by Edward Dillon

Before we return to the West of England to treat of the true hard porcelain of Plymouth and Bristol, there remain to be mentioned briefly a few unimportant factories of soft paste—unimportant, that is, from the point of view of art.

Lowestoft.—Taking advantage of some suitable clay found in the neighbourhood, and of the fine silvery sand of the shore, a manufactory of soft paste was established at Lowestoft about 1756. Later on we find some references to a ‘Lowestoft Porcelain Company.’ The ware produced was chiefly blue and white, with views of the neighbourhood, but other small pieces are found crudely painted in colour. The execution of much of this ware is very summary, and the glaze is often dull and spotted. A blue and white plate in the British Museum, with poudré ground and panels painted with views of Lowestoft and the neighbourhood, is an unusually favourable specimen. More commonly we find jugs and ink-pots with inscriptions—‘A Trifle from Lowestoft,’ etc.—and with dates in one or two cases ranging from 1762 to 1789. Whether any hard porcelain from other sources was ever painted at Lowestoft is very doubtful.[242]

The ‘Lowestoft porcelain’ of the dealers is now known to have been painted by Chinese artists at Canton. That this is so was conclusively proved many years ago by Sir A. W. Franks. The thrashing out of the question had the advantage of throwing much light on the origin of this curious pseudo-European decoration. The greater part of this porcelain painted at Canton is covered with elaborate armorial designs, and it was made not only for England but for other European countries that traded with the East. The history of this Sinico-European ware is well illustrated in a large collection brought together chiefly by the late Sir A. W. Franks and now in the British Museum.[243]

Liverpool.—Pottery had been an article of export from Liverpool from an early date, and much of the ware exported (it went above all to America) was made in the neighbourhood. During the sixties of the eighteenth century more than one of the local potters began to make a soft-paste porcelain. One of these men—Richard Chaffers—we find scouring the county of Cornwall in search of soap-stone and china-clay, as early probably as the year 1755. Professor Church gives the recipe for the ‘china body’ used in 1769 by another potter—Pennington. The materials are bone-ash, Lynn sand, flint, and clay,[244] the latter probably from Cornwall.

There is a good deal of uncertainty as to the identification of the Liverpool china: some of it has perhaps been classed as Worcester or Salopian. Examples of the ware attributed to this town may be found at South Kensington; they are somewhat rudely printed in a heavy dark blue. But it is probable that very little true porcelain was made at Liverpool in the eighteenth century.

Early in the next century an important factory for pottery and porcelain was founded on the opposite side of the Mersey, and thither many workmen were brought from Staffordshire. Porcelain was made there until the year 1841. The ware was marked ‘Herculaneum,’ the name of the works. We find at times a bird holding a branch in its beak used as a mark. This is the ‘liver,’ the crest of the town of Liverpool. The liver, indeed, is occasionally found on ware of an earlier date.

Pinxton.—Our chief interest in the factory established in 1795 at Pinxton, on the borders of Derbyshire and Northampton, by John Coke, is derived from the temporary residence there of Billingsley. This was his first stopping-place after leaving the Derby works: here he remained until 1801, and it was here, probably, that he developed the ‘china body’ used by him afterwards at Nantgarw. There were some pleasing specimens of the Pinxton ware in the old Jermyn Street collection simply decorated with ‘French twigs’ in blue and green. The ice-pail at South Kensington, with canary ground and frieze of roses, illustrated in Professor Church’s little book, was probably painted by Billingsley.

At Church Gresley, in the extreme south of Derbyshire, an ambitious attempt to make a porcelain of high quality nearly ruined Sir Nigel Gresley, the representative of the old family long settled there. This was in 1795, and after three successive owners had sunk their fortunes in the factory, the works were finally closed in 1808. I can point to no example of porcelain that can with certainty be attributed to these kilns. Pottery and encaustic tiles are, however, still made in the district.

Rockingham Porcelain.—At Swinton, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, not far from Sheffield, pottery-works were established in the eighteenth century on the estates of the Wentworth family. These potteries were called after the Marquis of Rockingham, who was more than once at the head of the Government, and the name was carried over to the porcelain which was made there by Thomas Brameld in the next century. This factory was in existence from 1820 to 1842, and the ware turned out well represents the taste of the time. ‘Brameld,’ we are told, ‘spared no labour or cost in bringing his porcelain to perfection, and in the painting and gilding he employed the best artists.’ The ornate dinner-services made by him for William iv. and other royal personages probably surpassed in elaborate decoration and expense of production anything of the kind ever made in England. At South Kensington is a gigantic vase—it is more than three feet in height,—on the top is a gilt rhinoceros, an oak branch embraces the sides, the base is modelled in the form of three paws, and the whole body of the vase is covered with a series of highly finished pictures, chiefly flower pieces. This vase is a unique example of everything that should be avoided in the modelling and decoration of porcelain. On some of the Rockingham china we find a griffin as a mark, in honour of Lord Fitzwilliam, who had succeeded to the Wentworth estates on the death of his uncle, Lord Rockingham.

Already, at the commencement of the nineteenth century, the manufacture of porcelain in England was beginning to be concentrated in the hands of a few large firms in the pottery district of North Staffordshire, and here a definite type of ‘china body’ was established suitable for practical use. Bone-ash mixed with china-stone and china-clay from Cornwall were and still remain the essential constituents of this paste: to these materials ground flints are sometimes added.