The Rockingham Works—a view of which in their palmiest days is on a dish made by Twigg, in my own collection—when in full operation, gave employment to a considerable number of hands and occupied a large area of ground.[119] At the present time the place is a sad and desolate-looking wilderness. The buildings have most of them been removed, and others, at the time of my visit, were being taken down. The whole place was in ruins, and in the area, where but a few years ago all was life, activity, and bustle in the execution of a royal order, “weeds and briars grow;” while in the centre of the wreck stood a building bearing the almost defaced words, “This way to the China Room,” where no china, save broken fragments scattered about on the “shard rucks,” was to be seen.
Of the “brown china” or “Rockingham ware” services, Cadogan pots, &c., I have given notices. It will be sufficient to add that although all which was made at these works were not marked, they usually bore the impressed marks of “Rockingham,” “Brameld,” or “Brameld & Co.,” or the name of “Mortlock.”
Fig. 870.
In fine hard “white stoneware,” and in fine cane-coloured ware, jugs of remarkably good design were made, and were decorated with groups in relief in the same manner; indeed, strongly resembling, both in body and in design, those of Turner, which are so well known to collectors. In Mr. Davis’s and other hands are remarkably good jugs of this kind, decorated with raised groups of figures in blue, and bearing the embossed mark to be hereafter spoken of. The handles of these jugs are formed of the leg and tail of a horse. In “green-glazed earthenware,” dessert services, flower vases, garden seats, and all the usual varieties of articles were made. The green, as a rule, was a somewhat lighter colour and not so good in quality as Wedgwood’s. The pieces were generally marked with the usual impressed mark. In fine “earthenware,” services of every kind were produced, both white, blue-printed, painted, and gilt. The glaze on the earlier pieces, it should be remarked, is of a decided blue tint, and somewhat inferior in quality. Some of the dessert-services produced in the early part of the present century are particularly interesting. On each piece is painted some flower as large as life, and coloured true to nature in every particular. The name of the plant represented is in each case pencilled at the back of the piece. The plants represented on the two examples (Fig. [870]) are respectively marked as “Althea Frutex” and “Virgilia helioides.” In the late Dr. Brameld’s possession was a service of this same kind, in which the flowers were beautifully painted. The painter of these pieces was Collinson, the best flower-painter employed at the Swinton Works, and they were made between the years 1810–15. The ware is particularly light, and has a remarkably pleasant feel in handling. I have been somewhat particular in speaking of this variety of goods, because similar services were produced far more extensively at the Don Works, at Swansea, and at other places.
Figs. 871 and 872.
Of works of Art, in earthenware, the Swinton Pottery produced many vases and other objects of a high degree of excellence, both in design, manipulation, and in decoration, and were, indeed, far in advance of most of their competitors. Fig. [871] represents one of a pair of remarkably fine pot-pourris, which were “thrown” at the Swinton Works by Mr. Thomas Brameld the year he was out of his apprenticeship, in 1805, and were, till his death, in the possession of his son, Dr. Brameld. They are 18 inches high, and have lions’ heads for handles, while on the top of the lid is a lion couchant, the family crest, gilt. The jars are beautifully painted in Chinese subjects. The next engraving shows one of the specialities of the Swinton pottery, a “lotus vase,” from an example in Mr. Manning’s possession. It is formed of leaves, &c., and has butterflies, &c., raised, as if resting upon the leaves. The whole is carefully enamelled, and altogether forms a flower vase of surpassing beauty. It is pleasant to add that at the close of the Rockingham Works, the moulds for the production of these “lotus vases,” as well as others, including the model of the keep of Conisborough Castle,[120] which, by the way, was another of the specialities of the Swinton Works, passed into the hands of the late Mr. John Reed, of the “Mexborough Pottery,” by whose successor they continue to be made, both in the fine old green-glazed style, and enamelled.
In “Queen’s ware,” or “cream-coloured ware,” services were formerly made at Swinton. It was of a very similar quality to that made at Leeds and at Castleford, and, being unmarked, is generally ascribed to one or other of those works. In Dr. Brameld’s possession was a teapot of this material, which is said to have been made in the latter part of last century by his grandfather. It is here shown. It is of deep buff, or cream colour, with beaded edges, and bears the name and date—