Caughley.
Like the works previously mentioned, those of Caughley were upon the outcrop of the coals and clays of the Shropshire coal-field. They were established about the middle of the 17th century, on the estate of Mr. Brown, who lived at Caughley Hall, and was an ancestor of T. Wylde Brown, Esq., of the Woodlands, near Bridgnorth. An opaque stone china appears to have been made there in the first instance.
The works appear to have been carried on by Mr. Brown, in the first place, and then by Mr. Gallimore, a relative of Mr. Brown’s; and afterwards by M. Turner, who succeeded in producing an article of very superior merit, and one which will always hold a distinguished place in the history of the ceramic art. Mr. Turner was the son of the Rev. Richard Turner, D.D., rector of Cumberton, vicar of Emley Castle and Norton, and Chaplain to the Countess of Wigtown. Thomas his son, was born 1749, and married in 1783, Miss Dorothy Gallimore, a niece of Mr. Brown, of Caughley Hall. Mr. Turner was a gentleman of great taste, a good draughtsman, and an excellent engraver, having learned the latter art at Worcester, probably under Robert Hancock, some very fine examples of whose work are in the possession of Mr. Arthur Maw, of Severn House, who also has many very fine productions of Caughley at the best period of its existence. In 1780 Mr. Turner visited France, and brought back with him several skilled workmen, and an architect, whom he employed in the erection of a very handsome chateau, in the French style of architecture. The works were several years in progress, and were completed in 1775, as shewn by a newspaper paragraph of November 1st in that year, which, is as follows:—
“The porcelain manufactory erected near Bridgnorth, in this county, is now quite completed, and the proprietors have received and supplied orders to a very large amount. Lately we saw some of their productions which in colour and fineness are truly elegant and beautiful, and have the bright and lively white of the so much extolled Oriental.”
Printing on porcelain appears first to have been introduced by Dr. Wall at the Worcester works, a process soon after taken to Caughley by a person named Holdship, a former partner in the Worcester works, where it was practised as a great secret, with closed doors.
Mr. Chaffers says:—
“The excellence of Turner’s porcelain and the invention of the beautiful dark blue of the Caughley china, attributed to him, gained him great patronage. In 1780 he produced the celebrated “willow pattern,” which even at the present day is in great demand, and the “blue dragon,” another favourite pattern, and completed the first blue printed table service made in England for Thomas Whitmore, Esq., of Apley Park, near Bridgnorth; the pattern was called Nankin, and was something similar to the Broseley tea service produced in 1782, all in porcelain. Mr. Thomas Minton, of Stoke, assisted in the completion of this service, being articled as an engraver there.
“Messrs. Chamberlain of Worcester, until the end of 1790, had their porcelain in the white from Thomas Turner of Caughley. He at first mixed all the bodies himself, but afterwards instructed his sister how to do it; subsequently a man named Jones mixed for him.”
The other works at Worcester, Grainger & Co., formerly, when first established, merely painted and finished ware manufactured at Caughley. The China so sent was marked with the letter “C.” for Caughley; sometimes “S.” for Salopian.
Among the chief workmen were the following:—Dontil, painter; Muss and Silk, who afterwards attained great celebrity in London, as painters on enamel, were landscape painters. Thomas Fennell, and Edward Jones flower painters, Thomas Martin Randall, bird painter, Edward Randall, gold decorator, Adams, blue painter, De Vivy and Stephan, modellers.
Perry, one of the workmen who was apprenticed to Mr. Turner, states that in 1797 they had four printing presses at Caughley, introduced by Davis; the patterns at that time and for years previously being birds and blue panels; that Turner had been an engraver at Worcester; that he recollects a slab on the front of one of the arches of the building at Caughley, stating the date of its foundation, 1772, which would be the time he succeeded Mr. Gallimore, and that it was not finished for some time after.