In 1769 Josiah Wedgwood took out his only patent; it was for decorative, not manufacturing, processes, and will be spoken of more fully in the notice of Etruria.
In 1782 James Crease patented some inventions in the making of sanitary vessels; and in the two following years “Joseph Cartledge, of Blackley, in the county of York, Doctor of Physic,” enrolled his specification for “a method of glazing earthenware.” This interesting document is as follows:—
“Whereas His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifth day of February, in the twenty-fourth year of His reign, reciting that I, the said Joseph Cartledge, had, by my Petition, humbly represented unto His said Majesty, that I had, by great study, invented “A New Method of Glazing Earthenware,” which would be of public utility and advantage, and praying His said Majesty to grant unto me, my e[~x]ors, adm̃ors], and assigns, His said Majesty’s Letters Patent for the sole exercise of my said Invention, within England and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, for the term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent, was graciously pleased to condescend to my request; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said Joseph Cartledge, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in his said Majesty’s High Court of Chancery within four calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may and will more fully appear.
“NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Cartledge, in compliance with the said proviso, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as follows, viz.:—
“First, as to the nature of the Invention, it is well known to the manufacturers of earthenware, that all the sorts of common ware now in use are now, and have been heretofore at all times, both in this and all other countries I know, glazed either by sea salt, or by lead ore, or by some preparation of lead, or of lead and tin united to ground flints or clay, or both. Now the nature of the discovery which I have made consists in this, that instead of the use of sea salt, or metallic substances, the earthenware is glazed with various kinds of earths and stones, by which there will be a great saving of expence in the glazing of the said ware, and the glaze itself, it is apprehended, will be more perfect than that which is made with salt, and more wholesome than that into which either lead, or lead and tin, enter as constituent parts.
“Secondly, with respect to the manner of applying the earth and stones:—They are to be ground into powder, and laid on the ware as potters use their own composition. With respect to the sorts of earths and stones which are adapted to the purposes they are various. The toad-stone of Derbyshire, and other places, the Scotch and Guernsey pebbles, the basaltes, and other productions generally esteemed volcanic, rag stone, slate, shale, granite, gypsum, fluor spar, mare stone, and many other kinds of earths and stones which I know not how to denominate, will all, either severally or when mixed in different proportions with each other, or with siliceous or argillaceous, micaceous, or calcareous earths or stones, or with all of them, answer the purpose. I would have it also understood, that portions of the metallic substances now used for the purpose of glazing earthenware or saline bodies (tho’ not necessary for producing the effect) may be used in conjunction with the earths and stones here mentioned. I would further remark, that the slags of furnaces, the slags of pit-coal, and the crust which forms on the bottom slip-kilns, by themselves, or in conjunction with the substances before mentioned, will glaze earthenware. But as the same effect may be produced by a great many different sorts of earths and stones, when used either separately or when combined in very different proportions, all of which it is impossible to enumerate or ascertain, I think it fit to mention the three following, which have succeeded well with me. Take of Derbyshire toad-stone five parts by weight, fluor spar one part, take thirty-three parts of clay, nineteen parts of flint, thirty-eight parts of striated gypsum, take fluor spar one, two, three or four parts, porcelain clay two parts, siliceous earth one fourth of a part, of calcareous earth one sixth of a part.”
The next patent, in 1785, was by Thomas De-la-Mayne, for “making buttons of burnt earth or porcelain;” and the next, in 1786, by John Skidmore, for ornamenting various articles and “all sorts of china and earthenware with foil stones, Bristol stones, paste, and all sorts of pinched glass, lapped glass, and every other stone, glass, and composition used in or applicable to the jewellery trade,” in ways therein described. In 1789 an improvement in the form and construction of “soup ladles, tureens, gravy spoons, ladles, and skimmers,” was patented by John Baynes; and in 1790, Johanna Hempel patented newly invented filters. In 1796, James Keeling patented improvements in decorative and glazing processes; and in the same year, in conjunction with Valentine Close, an improved mode of constructing “ovens, kilns, and firing-places, so as to make and cause a very great saving of coals and fuel in and about the firing, hardening, and baking all manner of porcelain, china ware, and all manner of earthenwares, in every state wherein firing is needful and necessary.”
In the same year, 1796, Ralph Wedgwood took out three separate patents. The first of these was for a “new discovered and invented method of making earthenware, whereby the article of earthenware may be made at a less cost than hitherto, to the great advantage of the manufacturers thereof, and of the public.” This consists “in casing over inferior compositions with compositions commonly used for making cream-coloured ware, white ware, or china.” “Thick bats or laminæ” of the inferior are covered on each side with thin bats of the superior clay, and if the edges of the ware are required to be cased, they are surrounded “with a square piece commonly called a wad.” Afterwards the “bats” are beat, pressed, or rolled out to the required dimensions, “as are proper for the wares to be made from the same.” For moulding the wares single moulds may be used, but double are preferred, of wood, or “wood cased with plaster, of metal,” or any material capable of standing much pressure. The press is such as is used for stamping buttons. The glazing is applied dry to the bats; if the edges of the ware, after moulding, are not properly covered with dry glaze, supply these parts “with wet glaze, by means of a pencil;” afterwards stove and burn the ware. The others were respectively for a new method of making glass from old earthenware, china, &c.; and for “a new-invented stove,” “calculated principally for the use of manufacturers of earthenware and china.” On the same day on which this patent was dated, one was also granted to John Pepper, for a new construction of kilns or ovens for the same purpose. In 1799 Messrs. William and John Turner patented “a new method or methods of manufacturing porcelain or earthenware, by the introduction of a material not heretofore used in the manufacturing of those articles;” the material being “Tabberner’s Mine rock,” “Little Mine rock,” and “New rock,” mixed with the growan, or Cornish stone, and flint.
This is the last patent connected with ceramics before the year 1800, and therefore brings us down to the commencement of the present century. From 1800 to 1861 no less than three hundred and twenty-two patents were taken out for improvements in the potter’s art or in matters connected with that art. These will be briefly enumerated at the close of this work, and of many of them notices will be found incorporated in its body.
In the early part of this century, with the exception of the productions of a few houses, the state of the art was still at a low ebb; and, although improvements were constantly being made, when the great world-struggle took place in 1851, we, as a nation, were found to be lamentably behind some other countries, not only in the beauty of form and decoration of our ceramic productions, but even in quality of body and glaze. Between the Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862 a marked improvement was effected, and this has gone on steadily extending itself, until now Great Britain, without exception, stands foremost of all the nations of earth in this art.