Fig. 171.
The principal artists employed are Hürten, who has attained, and deservedly so, the distinction of being one of the best flower-painters in Europe; Weaver, whose birds are equal to those of any other painter; Besche, a figure and general painter of great power and excellence; and Abraham, Junior (a gold medallist), a figure painter of much promise. Besides these, a number of other talented artists are employed, and the staff of enamellers, ground-layers, and gilders, includes some of the best obtainable in each department. In these works, too, female talent has been highly cultivated, many of the productions of the paintresses evidencing pure feeling and cultivated taste. The whole is under the control of Mr. R. F. Abraham, as Art-director of the establishment. Mr. Abraham, who was formerly at Coalport with Mr. Rose, was a student of Antwerp and Paris, and is a successful follower of the school of Etty. The softness of touch, the purity and delicacy of feeling, and the sunny mellowness of tone, as well as the chasteness of design and correctness of drawing, produced on the best pieces of his productions, show him to be a thorough artist, and place him high above most others in this difficult art, while his intimate knowledge of all the phases and intricacies of Art, and of all the processes of the manufacture, render him peculiarly fitted for the post to which he has been called.
Fig. 172.
The marks successively used by this firm in its various changes are as follows:—
Sometimes impressed in the body, and at others pencilled on the glaze; also SPODE in larger capital letters.
Also impressed, or painted, or printed on the ware.
