Fig. 549.
Figs. 550 to 552.—Enamel; the subject taken from the Raphael Tazza.
Fig. 553.—Group of Worcester Porcelain Enamel.
Figs. 554 and 555.
The jewelled porcelain, for which Worcester now is famous, is totally different from that made at Sèvres or Tournay, whether ancient or modern. The French jewels are all made by enamellers, and each colour is fused on a small plate of metal which forms the setting, and may be stuck on the vase or plate with gum if it is not required to pass it through the fire. These jewels may be bought by the dozen or hundred in any variety: but the work decorated with them is essentially French, and tinselly. The English jewelling, though perhaps not so brilliant, is of far higher and purer character, and is far more legitimate as a decoration for pottery. Each of these jewels is formed of colour melted on to the china, and occasionally raised higher and higher by repeated firings, and thus it becomes, and is, a part of the material itself. The most elaborate piece of work produced at Worcester in this style is a déjeûner set made for presentation to the Countess of Dudley on her marriage, from the city of Worcester. It is powdered all over with turquoise, but so arranged in geometric lines that only the different sizes of the jewels are noticed. In Japanese porcelain the Worcester works produce a vast variety of articles; amongst these are vases, spill-cases, jardinières, toilet ornaments, trays, and an infinite number of other elegancies. These Japanese productions are not servile imitations of native art; they are Japanese art and art-characteristics adapted and rendered subservient to the highest aims of pure design of our own country. Mr. Binns, to whom this introduction is owing, has caught the very spirit of Japanese art, and, with the happy facility he possesses of turning everything to good account, has so grafted it upon English productions that the one becomes an essential and component part of the other. Among the more pleasing and characteristic of the vases are a set on which the designs, in relief (admirably modelled by Mr. Hadley) upon tablets, represent the various processes of the potter’s art as followed in the East; and these pictures—for true pictures they are—are so minutely and exquisitely painted and gilded (by Callowhill), that it requires a good lens to bring out their many and very minute beauties. Of these I give some engravings. This introduction, which now forms a distinctive feature of the Worcester works, is a marked and decided advance in ceramic art; the effect of bronze and other metals being quite an achievement.
Figs. 556 to 559.—Worcester Japanese Ware.