“E. Coade.
“My best wishes to Patty. I did not know but I shou’d have been up by this time, but I hope it will not be long.”
The London Pottery is in High Street, Lambeth. It was established on a small scale in 1751, on a portion of old “Hereford House,” the palace of one of the former bishops of Hereford, and has been carried on without intermission, from that time to the present. In 1840 the manufactory came into the hands of Mr. James Stiff, the head of the present firm of “Messrs. James Stiff & Sons.” At that time the works consisted only of two kilns (the larger one being only about ten feet in diameter), and covered an area of probably less than a quarter of an acre of ground. Since 1840 it has been gradually developed, until at the present time it comprises fourteen kilns (some of them more than twenty feet in diameter) and covers an area of about two acres of ground. It has a very extensive frontage on the Albert Embankment, overlooking the river Thames, and by means of a private dock, with entrance under the Embankment, is enabled directly to carry on a very extensive export trade, and also to import most economically the coals, clay, and other raw material used in the production of brown and white stoneware, terra-cotta, &c. Until 1860, when fresh buildings were erected, a Delft-ware sign-board existed in the front of this pottery.
The four principal kinds of pottery manufactured by Messrs. Stiff and Sons are: 1. Brown salt-glazed stoneware, in which the tubular socket drain-pipes so extensively made here are produced; water-filters, jugs, bottles, jars, and all kinds of chemical apparatus are also made in this class of ware. 2. White stoneware or “double-glazed” ware, or “Bristol ware,” in which salt is not used, but the glazing is obtained by the application of a liquid glaze to the interior and exterior of each article before it is placed in the kiln. This ware, which is generally made with a rich yellow ochre on the upper parts of goods, while the lower part is of a creamy-white colour, has only been introduced into Lambeth about twenty years. It has, however, to a considerable extent superseded the old brown stoneware, on account of its superior appearance and cleanliness. 3. Buff terra-cotta, in which is made garden vases, pedestals, chimney-tops, window arches, string-courses, &c. This terra-cotta, being thoroughly vitrified, is valuable for the manufacture of keystones, springers, string-courses, &c., for buildings where durability is of the very highest importance; one great advantage (for architectural purposes) lying in the fact that, in it, the choicest and most elaborate patterns, either raised or countersunk, can be obtained at little more than the cost of perfectly plain stone. 4. Porous ware, in which round and square porous cells, plates, &c., are extensively made, and have been used by some of the first telegraphic engineers, philosophical instrument makers, &c., of the day, and have given much satisfaction, securing, as they do, the greatest amount of porosity, together with a degree of hardness and fineness of texture which render them insusceptible of disintegration.
The quality of the stoneware or “Bristol ware” produced at the “London Pottery” is remarkably good, being extremely hard, and covered with an excellent, clear, and firm glaze, not surpassed by any other house. The same remark will apply to the porous ware, which is fine in composition, and possesses to an eminent degree the porous quality so essential in vessels of this description. The terra-cotta goods are of very fine, hard, and durable quality, and of a peculiarly pleasing tone of colour. Their artistic execution is of a high order, and some of the designs—as notably the draped bowl and flower-pots which are engraved on Figs. [340 to 342], and [345], [346].
Fig. 340.
Fig. 341.
