In 1684 John Dwight, having represented “that by his owne industry and at his owne proper costes and charges hee hath invented and sett vp at Fulham, in our County of Middlx, “Severall New Manufactures of Earthenwares, called by the names of White Gorges, Marbled Porcellane Vessels, Statues, and Figures, and Fine Stone Gorges and Vessells never before made in England or elsewhere; and alsoe discovered the Mistery of Transparent Porcellane, and Opacous, Redd, and Dark coloured Porcellane or China and Persian Wares, and the Mistery of the Cologne or Stone Wares, and is endeavouring to settle manufactures of all the said wares within this our kingdome of England,” had another patent for fourteen years granted to him. To Dwight, therefore, it will be seen by these patents, the credit of being the first inventor and maker of porcelain in England belongs. His name is thus one entitled to lasting honour as the pioneer of one of the best, most beautiful, most successful, and most flourishing arts ever practised in our kingdom.
Figs. 318 and 319.—Elers Ware.
In 1688 the brothers Eler or Elers, traditionally believed to have been potters from Holland, are said to have come over with William, Prince of Orange (William III.), to England at the time of the “Glorious Revolution,” and, two years later, to have settled at Bradwell and Dimsdale, not far from Burslem, in Staffordshire, where they erected kilns and commenced the making of a fine red ware (probably the kind spoken of by Dwight), in imitation of foreign red porcelain, from a vein of clay which, by some means, they had discovered existed at this spot. Here they produced remarkably fine and good red ware, of compact and hard texture, good colour, and of very characteristic and excellent designs. They were men of much skill and taste, and their productions so closely resemble those of Japan as to be occasionally mistaken for them. An example, from the Museum of Practical Geology, is here shown. The Elers, besides the red ware, also produced an exceedingly good Egyptian black, by a mixture of manganese with the clay; and this was the precursor and origin of the fine black bodies of Josiah Wedgwood and others. “Their extreme precaution,” says Shaw, “to keep secret their processes, and jealousy lest they might be accidentally witnessed by any purchaser of their wares—making them at Bradwell, and conveying them over the fields to Dimsdale, there to be sold, being only two fields distant from the turnpike road, and having some means of communication (believed to be earthenware pipes, like those for water) laid in the ground between the two contiguous farmhouses, to intimate the approach of persons supposed to be intruders—caused them to experience considerable and constant annoyance. In vain did they adopt measures for self-protection in regard to their manipulations, by employing an idiot to turn the thrower’s wheel, and the most ignorant and stupid workmen to perform the laborious operations, and by locking up these persons while at work, and strictly examining each prior to quitting the manufactory at night—all their most important processes were however developed, and publicly stated for general benefit. Mortified at the failure of all their precaution, disgusted at the prying inquisitiveness of their Burslem neighbours, and fully aware that they were too far distant from the principal market for their productions—even had not other kinds of porcelain been announced, which probably would diminish their sales—about 1710 they discontinued their Staffordshire manufactory, and removed to Lambeth or Chelsea (where is at this day a branch of the family), and connected the interests of their new manufactory with those of a glass manufacture, established in 1676 by Venetians, under the auspices of the Duke of Buckingham. Others, however, have stated that their removal was consequent on misunderstanding and persecution because their oven cast forth such tremendous volumes of smoke and flame, during the time of glazing, as were terrific to the inhabitants of Burslem, and caused all its (astonishing number of eight) master potters to hurry in dismay to Bradwell.”
The two potters who had wormed out the secret of the Elers were named Astbury and Twyford, and they are said each to have commenced business on his own account at Shelton, and to have made “Red,” “Crouch,” and “White stone” wares from native clays, using salt glaze for some of the vessels, and lead ore for others. It is interesting to add that the oven erected and used by the Elers was in existence as late as the beginning of the present century, and that the place, in an old account-book in my possession, is called “the Eller field.”
Fig. 320.
About the period when Dwight was taking out his patent, Thomas Toft and Ralph Toft were making, in Staffordshire, some large domestic dishes, which, from some of them bearing their names, put on in large letters, are universally known to collectors as “Toft Dishes.” Under this name, however, it is well to state many dishes and other vessels pass which never were, or could have been, made by them, and I warn collectors against too easily pinning their faith to a belief that their examples are genuine “Tofts” unless they bear the name. The style was common to all makers of that date. Besides dishes, tygs of various forms, with one, two, three, or four handles; pitchers of various sizes, candlesticks, posset-pots, gossips’ bowls, pans or pancheons, utensils for the chamber, and many other articles, were made of precisely the same coarse materials, and of exactly the same kind of decoration as the dishes.
Fig. 321.