(The letters C and S are the marks alluded to on page [270]; they here occur side by side on the original copper-plate.)
Another circumstance is also worthy of note. On two mugs printed from the same engraved plate, which I have seen, the one bears the S, and the other the accompanying curious mark (Fig. [598]), which is evidently of the same character as the examples of assimilated Chinese ones, which are occasionally ascribed to Worcester, but which are in reality, I believe, those of Caughley. Of these I give the following as examples; many of these are disguised figures.
Figs. 601 to 606.
Following the C and S, two impressed marks, bearing the word “Salopian,” were used. These are as follows:—
Figs. 607 and 608.
and it is worthy of remark that, on some examples of plates bearing this impressed mark, the blue printed S also appears; as, on others, does also the crescent. Others, probably merely workmen’s marks, are
The subject of printing upon porcelain, to which I have already alluded under “Worcester,” is one so intimately and intricately connected with the Caughley and Coalport works, that it will be necessary to consider the period of its introduction at some length. I have already shown that transfer-printing was used as early as 1757 on Worcester porcelain (p. 229, ante); and I have little doubt that quite as early, if not a few years before that period, it was practised at Caughley. Indeed, in the early years of the manufactory, the two works, Caughley and Worcester, seem to have been closely connected, and to have worked “in and in,” if I may be allowed the use of so unscientific an expression, and I believe, with ample reason, that a great proportion of the printed goods bearing the Worcester mark were printed at Caughley. Indeed, it is known that the ware was sent up from Worcester by barge to be printed at Caughley, and returned, when finished, by the same mode of conveyance. I have closely examined the style of engraving and the patterns of a large number of examples, and I am clearly of opinion that they are the work of the same hands.