Fig. 388.
The present firm of Bates, Walker, & Co., produce perhaps a larger variety of manufactured articles than any other one house in the trade. In earthenware, dinner, tea, toilet, and other services, and every variety of article of use and of ornament, are made; and the other wares are ironstone, opaque porcelain, jet, stone, &c. In tableware, whether in dinner, breakfast, or tea-services, every variety of style, from the plain white, ordinary printed, and flown, to the most elaborately enamelled, painted, and gilt patterns made The jugs, too, are a speciality; of these there are an immense variety of excellent shapes, and of strikingly beautiful decoration. The same remark will apply to the toilet services, which are, as a rule, characterized by good form and artistic decoration; of these, the “Mistletoe” pattern is one of the most simply elegant yet produced. Among other articles in earthenware, the richly ornamented spirit barrels form a distinct feature. In stoneware, of which I have spoken, well designed and sharply executed pressed patterns, in jugs, tea-pots, and other articles, are made in great variety.
Figs. 389 and 390.
In terra cotta, Messrs. Bates, Walker, and Co. produce statuary groups, figures, and busts of remarkably good design and of artistic finish. The body is of a somewhat similar character to that of the Watcombe ware, but the process is different. The Watcombe “is fired in the enamel kiln or in an oven not subjected to greater heat, while this is fired in the biscuit oven; the one is so soft that it may be cut with a knife, while the other is quite vitreous and hard.” In this material—a clay found near the works—the firm produce a large variety of subjects, and a selection of these formed a notable feature in the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876. Among the subjects are “Peace” and “War,” and “Time unveiling Truth,” by Grispie; “The Fighting Gladiator,” “The Bath,” “The Young Apollo,” and other subjects from the antique; “Flora,” “Pomona,” “Washington,” and other pieces by Beattie; Flaxman’s “Wine” and “Water” vases; the “Crowning of Esther,” “The Lorelei Syren,” “The Seasons,” “The Elements,” &c.
Figs. 391 to 397.
Another speciality of the firm is what they have named their “Turner Jasper Ware.” This consists of a terra-cotta body, with a slip of various colours—green, blue, chocolate, buff, &c.—decorated with bas-reliefs, many of which are Flaxman’s designs, as used by Turner at his famous works of last century. Of a large number of these old Turner moulds, Messrs. Bates, Walker, and Co. are the fortunate possessors, and they are reproducing them in a variety of ways and with good effect, although their body wants the fineness, hardness, and compact character of the old Turner ware.
