[104] Reliquary, Archæological Journal and Review, vol. xv. p. 207.
[105] The whole of the dated examples which I have described (with the exception of this last, which I now make known for the first time) and those of 1765 and 1782, I fully described in the Art-Journal for 1863, and they have served, unacknowledged, as the foundation upon which Chaffers and every other later writer have built up their notices of Lowestoft.
[106] It is worthy of note that Mr. Chaffers, speaking upon this, says (p. 619): “There is such a peculiarity in the form and quality of the Lowestoft porcelain, that we are surprised any one at all conversant with or accustomed to see collections of china could ever mistake it for Oriental;” and yet a few pages later on he says (p. 636), “a punch-bowl representing similar harvest scenes is in the collection of the Author, which has been in his (Mr. Chaffers’) family for nearly a century, painted evidently by the same artist; former possessors supposing it to be of Oriental manufacture.” How is it that, being in his own family for nearly a century, and he being assuredly “conversant with and accustomed to see collections of china,” Mr. Chaffers did not previously find out that it was Lowestoft, but should have allowed his family always to suppose it to be Oriental?
The same writer relies in great measure on a statement made by Mr. Abel Bly, in 1865, that “No Oriental porcelain ever came into it to be decorated.” The statement is as follows:—“From my Father working at the Factory I was in the habit of going daily to the premises, and can most positively affirm that no manufactured articles were brought there to be painted; but that every article painted in the Factory had been previously made there. I remember that the ware produced in the Factory was deemed far superior to anything to be obtained in the country.”
The statement is almost too ridiculous to notice, and how any careful writer could give credence to it is somewhat mysterious. Abel Bly begins his statement (which evidently was drawn up for him to sign) by saying, “I ... am now in the 84th year of my age.... My father’s name was Abel Bly, who was employed in various departments in the china factory at Lowestoft. He died when I was eleven years of age.” It will be seen that he says that, from his father working at the factory, he was in the habit of going there daily, and so can “positively affirm” as above, and yet his father died when he was only a little boy eleven years old! and he was only four years old when hard paste porcelain, according to Chaffers, began to be made there. I think one can judge pretty well what amount of weight can be attached to a statement made seventy-three years afterwards, of the internal and commercial arrangements of a manufactory where, till he was only eleven years old, a boy was in the habit of going daily, probably with his father’s dinner! The statement is just as ludicrous as the next, where he says, “I remember that the ware produced at the factory was deemed far superior to anything to be obtained in the country.” Where was the Chelsea? the Bow? the Derby? the Bristol? the Plymouth? and a host of others?
[107] A copy of this most interesting pattern-book—from which, however, three plates are missing—is in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London, which has the English list, 1786; German, 1783; and French, 1785. I have also copies bearing the date 1794, and others undated.
[108] In the Pattern Book of 1783 the plates represent the various articles as follows:—
Nos. 1 to 4 are covered terrines; 5 to 8 are sauce terrines with spoons and stands; 9 and 10 are the same articles with fast stands; 11 to 13 are a pickle leaf, a sea shell, and an escallop shell; 14 to 17 are sauce-boats; 18 to 21 are oval dishes; 22 to 25, table plates; 26 to 29, covered, or ragout dishes; 30 to 34, sallads; 35, a turtle dish; 36 to 39, compotiers; 40 to 46, pierced dessert dishes, with open-work rims; 47 and 48, fish drainers; 49 to 54, salts, with covers; 55 to 57, egg-cups; 58 and 59, pierced double salts; 60 and 61, jugs; 62 and 63, salts; 64 to 67, mugs covered and uncovered; 68, melon terrine and spoon; 69, round terrine and stand; 70 and 71, covered bowls; 72 and 73, covered dessert, pierced covers, and bowls, &c.; 74 to 79, butter-tubs and stands; 80 to 82, single castors; 83 to 85, mustards; 86 and 87, strawberry dishes and stands; 88, platt menage; 89, water-bottle and basin; 90, ice cellar; 91 and 92, bakers; 93 and 94, ice-pails; 95, glass tray; 96 and 97, double and single pails; 98, hot-water dish; 99, asparagus shell; 100, escallop’d nappy; 101, salad; 102 and 103, large furnished castors; 104, oil and vinegar stand; 105 and 106, grand platts menage; 107 to 115, various candlesticks, some highly ornamental; 116, vase candlestick; 117, composite candlestick; 118, flat candlestick; 119 and 120, ewers and basins; 121 and 122, scaphia; 123 and 124, “spitting pots;” 125 and 126, shaving basin; 127 to 130, spoons and ladles; 131, pierced fish trowel; 132 to 136, fruit-baskets and stands of elegant basket, twig and open work; 137, pierced chesnut basket and stand; 138, ornamented jar, or pot pourri; 139, a cockle pot, or potpourri; 140, caper jar, or pot pourri; 141, covered flower cup; 142, a quintal flower-horn; 143 and 144, sweetmeat cups; 145, confectionery basket and stand; 146, a pot pourri, whose top inverts to form a candlestick; 147, inkstand; 148, a wafer-box; 149, a fountain inkstand; 150, a sand-box or pounce-box; 151, inkstand; 152, a cross with holy water cup. Tea ware: Nos. 1 to 4, teapots; 5 to 8, coffee-pots; 9 to 11, tea-cannisters; 12 and 13, milk pots with covers; 14 and 15, slop-bowls; 16 and 17, milk ewers; 18, tea or coffee-tray, with open-work border; 19 to 24, sugar-basins with covers; 25 to 32, cups and saucers of various kinds.
[109] Henry Ackroyd died in 1788. In a letter from John Green, of the Leeds Pottery, to his partner, John Brameld, at the Swinton Pottery, dated “Leeds Pottery, 15 April, 1788,” the following curious allusion is made to him:—“Our worthy friend Ackroyd is dead, and I doubt not but is alive again. It was a pleasant reflection to me, being one of the pall-bearers, to think I was bearing the Cover over a dead Carkess whose soul I had not the least doubt was in heaven. He left this world with as great Composer and Confidance in his future state as was posable for a man to do; and I sincerely wish that you and me may be as well prepared as friend Ad for a future state.”
[110] A letter of John Green’s in June, 1788, says, “Letters are to be directed to me at Flint Mill Grange, near Wetherby.”