“Mr. Bailey exhibits some samples of well-made chemical ware of a highly vitreous and durable body, consisting of acid tanks, retorts, receivers, condensing worms, and other vessels. He sends one or two specimens of sewer pipes, well burnt, and of dense body. His contribution of Bristol ware, for excellence of make, glaze, and colour, is equal to any exhibited, and comprises, among many other things, an ingenious ascension filter, in which, by a certain arrangement of stoneware discs in the interior, the water is more exposed to the filtering material than in ordinary filters. A churn, entirely constructed of stoneware, by this exhibitor, is also well worth notice; it is stated to be exceedingly rapid in its action.”
In terra-cotta, the Fulham Works now produce vases, statues, architectural enrichments, chimney shafts, stoves, &c., of very good quality and of admirable design; Mr. R. W. Martin, sculptor, student of the Royal Academy and Government Schools of Art, having been engaged as modeller and designer. The productions in this department are of a very high order of merit, and will take rank with those of any other manufactory. The brackets and jardinières are of great beauty, and are characterised by a pure artistic feeling and a touch such as is seldom attained; the pieces bear evidence of being not only modelled by a clever artist, but of receiving finishing-touches by the master-hand itself. In colour the Fulham terra cotta is a light pink and a rich red, and, when these are combined, a peculiar delicacy and finished effect is produced. The mark R. W. Martin fecit occurs on the productions of this artist.
The manufacture of china ware was, during the year 1873, very wisely and successfully added to this establishment, and, with the aid of the good workmen and artists who have been engaged, has already done much to establish a fresh fame for Fulham. The art direction of this branch was placed by Mr. Bailey in the hands of Mr. E. Bennet, a well-known sculptor, while the china body flowers, &c., were undertaken by Mr. Hopkinson. I am the more particular in stating these arrangements as, being the beginning of a new manufacture, I am desirous of putting on record the circumstances of its commencement. The “body,” it may be well to note, is made from Dwight’s original recipe—the very body of which the first china ware made in England was produced—and therefore the “Fulham china” of to-day has an historical interest attached to it which is possessed by no other. It was a wise thought that induced Mr. Bailey to restore to Fulham the special manufacture which has rendered its name famous in the ceramic annals of this country; and it is to be hoped that the spirit he has shown will be amply compensated by a liberal patronage of his productions.
The marks used by Mr. Bailey are:—
At the 1871 Exhibition (at which no medals were given) Mr. Bailey’s productions were highly spoken of in the Official Report; and at the Dublin Exhibition of 1872 he was awarded a medal for his terra cotta and stoneware.
Lambeth.
Lambeth has been a seat of pottery manufacture from an early period. In mediæval times the characteristic brown-ware pitchers, pans, tygs, &c., were made; and, later on, at this place was quite a colony of makers of Delft ware, who in turn gave place to stoneware manufacturers. China, too, appears to have been made at Lambeth from perhaps 1760, or thereabouts. It is recorded that in the middle of the seventeenth century the Delft ware manufacture commenced; but it is not unlikely that Rous and Cullyn, some years earlier, here established themselves in the making of “stone potts, stone jugs, and stone bottels,” for which they received a patent in 1626.[50] It is conjectured, and with some probability, that one of the Delft ware makers at this place was John Ariens Van Hamme, a Dutchman, who had come over from the Hague under the encouragement of our ambassador, who, as has already been shown,[51] took out a patent in 1676 for the “art of makeinge tiles and porcelane and other earthen wares, after the way practiced in Holland,” and who, with his staff of workmen, probably formed the nucleus of what was afterwards a nest of potters, comprising, according to the “History of Lambeth,” no less than twenty manufactories. In 1693 a trial took place in the Court of Exchequer concerning some parcels of potter’s clay which had been seized by the Custom House officers, under pretence that it was fuller’s earth. In this trial five London potters, William Knight, Thomas Harper, Henry De Wilde, John Robins, and Moses Johnson, gave evidence in favour of the clay being potter’s clay. There is nothing in the record of this trial to identify any of the five potters therein named with Lambeth; but the probability is that some of them belonged to that place. One of them, William Knight, was undoubtedly the “William Knight of the parish of St. Buttolph Without, Aldgate, London, Pottmaker,” concerning whom I give, from the original deed in my possession, some particulars under the head of “Aldgate;” some of the others were, I believe, of Lambeth. The account of the trial has been printed by my friend, Mr. Reeks, in the “Catalogue of the Museum of Practical Geology,” and is so interesting that I here reproduce it entire.
A Brief Account of the Evidence given on behalf of Edmund Warner, at a Tryal had at the Bar the 24th of November, 1693, before the Four Barons of the Exchequer, relating to a Parcel of Potters Clay, seized by the Custom-House Officers, under the pretence of it’s being Fullers Earth.
William Riddal swore that he was Steward and Tenant to the said Warner for above 20 Years, in all which time the said Warner constantly sold to the Potters in London considerable quantities of the same sort of clay now in dispute, for the making of White and Painted Earthen-Ware: That he never knew or heard that the least Parcel of it was ever sold as Fullers-Earth, or put to any other Use than making Earthen-Ware, excepting some small quantities yearly in the Neighbourhood for daubing of Houses, which may be alledged as a good Argument that the said Clay is not of the nature of Fullers-Earth; for, whereas this makes the best Clay Wall in England, if it were of the nature of Fullers-Earth, upon the first wet Weather it would all fall to the Ground: He likewise further deposed, That the first time the said Warner shipt the said Clay for Holland, it was seized by the Custom-house Officers as Fullers-Earth; but upon Tryal of it, they were convinced of their Error, and cleared the same.