[240] These two buildings may be probably traced back to the Temple of Vespasian, in the Forum, and to the Pyramid of Cestius respectively. Hancock must have got his materials from French and Italian engravings after Claude and Pannini.
[241] Dr. Johnson was for a long time a close neighbour—his well-known interest in the manufacture of porcelain must have brought him into contact with the Baxter family. We find a Baxter mentioned in Bowcocke’s notes as early as 1751. See Chaffers, p. 896.
[242] The teapot in the Schreiber collection with the mark ‘Allen, Lowestoft,’ must be regarded as a supercherie. The painting on it of a crucifixion is evidently by a Chinese hand. This teapot has, however, been connected with an Allen of Lowestoft, a porcelain enameller and amateur glass-stainer.
[243] Some recent discoveries of moulds make it, however, probable that the early wares of Worcester and Bow were imitated at Lowestoft.
[244] We are told that the first three of these substances are to be fritted together, but this would be manifestly impossible. The recipe is curious as being an anticipation of the materials used by Spode thirty years later. But we must receive most of these recipes that have thus come down to us cum grano.
[245] This ‘soapy rock’ was at once identified with the steatite of the Lizard. The other porcelain experts, from Worcester and from Liverpool, who visited Cornwall about this time, seem to have devoted their attention more especially to this substance. They were thus, to some extent, on a false scent, for the Père D’Entrecolles probably somewhat exaggerated the importance of this Wha-she, and, moreover, as has been shown by later French investigation, most of the material of soapy consistency employed at King-te-chen is no true steatite or magnesian silicate, but rather a more fusible variety of the petuntse, containing much mica.
[246] Was Frye, the painter of Bow, who first made use of the American earth, also a quaker? Cookworthy and Champion, it appears, first became acquainted with one another through the medium of one of the Bristol Frys, and it is known that moulds and patterns from Bow were used at Plymouth. It is at least remarkable that we should be indebted for our knowledge of the constitution of Chinese porcelain, in the first place, to a Jesuit father, and then to a member of the Society of Friends; while, on the other hand, Böttger—like Cookworthy, a druggist—was an adept in the dark arts.
[247] Besides the factory mentioned in this letter, we hear from the diary of Dr. Pococke that as early as 1750 a white ware with reliefs was made at the ‘Lowris China house’ with ‘soapy-rock from Lizard Point.’ A sauce-boat marked ‘Bristoll’ is referred to these works in the Guide to English Pottery in the British Museum, p. 109.
[248] Lauraguais (Comte de), Duc de Brancas, born 1733; died 1824.
[249] See [p. 306]. At Strawberry Hill was ‘Michael Angelo’s Bacchus, made in the china of the Comte de Lauraguais, from the collection of the Comte de Caylus’ (Walpole’s Works, ii. 405 seq.).