ORIGINAL COPPER-PLATES—CAUGHLEY AND COALPORT.
Of the painters employed at Caughley, it will be sufficient to say that amongst those apprenticed there were John Parker, Thomas Fennell, and Henry Boden, famous for their skill in flowers; and that Muss, Silk, and others, excelled in landscapes and figures—some sepia landscapes being remarkable for their pure artistic treatment; while among the gilders, a most important art, and one to which special attention has always been directed at these works, were men of the names of Rutland, Marsh, and Randall who were considered proficients. Of the latter, a nephew, who is the author of pleasant little volumes on the “Severn Valley” and “The Willey Country,” is still employed at the Coalport works, principally on birds.
I have named above that Robert Hancock engraved for Caughley as well as for Worcester, or at all events that plates of his were printed from at the former place possibly for the latter. His name appears on one of the plates as follows:—
and other plates are evidently the work of his hand, though without name. I engraved a curious mark, the monogram RH, anchor, and name of Worcester, in the account of those works. This I reproduce on Fig. [611], and give another which occurs on a plate from Caughley, with the anchor and the word Derby, which I introduce for the purpose of comparison, and to suggest the probability that the place which produced the one with the word Derby (for whatever reason that may have been done), which was undoubtedly Caughley, also produced the one with the word Worcester. The engraved plate, with the anchor and Derby, is a curious one (for a mug), and represents a landscape—a river, with trees on either side, swans sailing in the foreground, behind them two fishermen in a boat drawing a net, beyond them a boat with sails, and in the background a bridge, and church with ruins to the left, and a tall gabled building on the right, over which are the words “Sutton Hall,” whilst above the whole picture is “English Hospitality.”
Figs. 611 and 612.
