“Here is a good vein of fine clay that will retain its whiteness after it is burnt (when others turn red), and therefore used for the making of tobacco pipes, a manufacture but lately begun at Leeds. Of the several sorts of clay, their nature and colours, and how to manage such as are stubborn, my honoured friend, John Evelyn, Esq., has writ incomparably in his Sylva and Pomona; and there is a very curious table of clay exhibited by another celebrated naturalist of this age. As to the sort and manner of making Pipes, I can add nothing to what my late friend, Mr Houghton, has writ in his useful collections, where he tells us also that the finest mugs, and even China ware, are made of this sort of Earth, of which, saith he, we may make as good in England as any in the world, and this I am fully convinced of, having a specimen in this Museum made of English materials in the Manor house at York by the very ingenious Mr Francis Place, who presented it to me with one of the outer covers purposely made to secure them from the violence of the fire in baking.”
From the examples at present in existence—and there are only two or three known—it appears that the ware was simply a tolerably fine kind of earthenware, of a greyish colour streaked with black and brown; and this is the way in which Horace Walpole describes his specimen: “I have a coffee cup of his ware; it is of grey earth, with streaks of black, and not superior to common earthenware.” This example was sold at the Strawberry Hill sale, and passed into the hands of Mr. Franks, who generously presented it to the Museum of Practical Geology. It is a cup about 2½ inches in height, and 2⅛ inches in diameter at the top. It is of thin glazed greyish ware, streaked with black and brown, and has a narrow rib, or raised band, running round it at about two-thirds of its height from the top. An old pasteboard label attached to the handle of this cup bears the words “Mr. Francis Place’s china,” probably in the handwriting of Horace Walpole.
Examples are also in the hands of some of the descendants of Mr. Place. They are of precisely the same character as the one just described. In the same hands is “a small portrait of Place, by himself, in which he has introduced one of his cups, the original of which his descendant possesses, and which is traditionally said to be one which he considered to be his masterpiece.” Mr. Place, in 1712, visited Thoresby, and in 1728 he died, leaving a widow and an only child, a daughter, married to Wadham Wyndham, Esq.
York China Manufactory.—In 1838 Mr. Haigh Hirstwood, formerly of the Rockingham china works, established a china manufactory in York, and by the succeeding spring had so far progressed that the following paragraph appeared in one of the York papers:—
“York China Manufactory.—Mr. Hirstwood, of Stonegate, is erecting a kiln, extensive warehouses, &c., in the Groves, for manufacturing, gilding, and burnishing china, which has not previously been attempted in this city.”
The works were established in Lowther Street, Groves, and were continued until about 1850, when the concern was wound up. Mr. Haigh Hirstwood was born at Royd’s Hall, near Huddersfield, in 1778; and learnt the art of china making and decorating under the Bramelds at the Rockingham works, as did also afterwards his sons and son-in-law. He continued at the Rockingham works upwards of forty years, leaving them only towards their close, when he removed to York and commenced business as a china dealer. In 1839, as I have stated, he erected kilns, &c., at York, and commenced business in the decorating and finishing departments, buying his china in the white from Sampson Bridgwood & Co. of Longton, and from others. In this business he was assisted by his son-in-law, Mr. William Leyland also from the Rockingham works, who became his managing partner. Disagreements having arisen, however, the business was broken up, Mr. Hirstwood remaining in York, where he died in 1854, and Mr. Leyland removing to London, when he took to painting and decorating lamps, where he died in 1853, leaving a widow (who soon afterwards died) and a family of two sons and four daughters, who are now of Lawrence, near Boston, Massachusetts, North America. Mr. Leyland was a clever painter, gilder, and enameller, and understood well all the practical details of the potter’s art. Mr. Hirstwood was a clever painter of flowers, &c., and was considered the best fly painter at the Rockingham works. In 1826 he copied, for use in the decoration of the Rockingham china, upwards of five hundred insects at Wentworth House, which had been arranged by Lady Milton, the daughter-in-law of Earl Fitzwilliam. He and his sons Joseph and William (who were brought up at the Rockingham works) were engaged upon the chef-d’œuvres of that manufactory, the services for King William IV. and for the Duchess of Cumberland. He was succeeded in his business in Coney Street by his son, Mr. William Hirstwood, father of the present proprietor, but the manufactory has been entirely discontinued since 1850. No mark was used.
The goods principally produced were dinner, tea, dessert, and other services, vases, figures, &c. The style of decoration was, as is natural to expect, closely assimilated to that of Rockingham china; indeed, so closely as in some instances scarcely to be distinguished from them. Some of the flowers are beautifully painted, as are also the butterflies and other natural objects, and the gilding is remarkably good. The figures are usually of good character.
Layerthorpe Pottery.
This manufactory of coarse ware—flower-pots, chimney pipes, bowls, socket pipes, &c.—was established in 1846 by its present proprietor, Mr. John Webster, who produces considerable quantities of ware.