Stoneware is supposed to have been made at a very early period in England by Dutch and German workmen; and from this circumstance it is almost impossible to distinguish the earlier fabrics of these respective countries. The discovery, in 1690, of an economical process of glazing this ware by means of common salt, which made it impermeable to liquids, soon brought it into general use, and displaced all the manufactures of the Delft and soft paste fabrics. A mottled-brown stoneware, known to collectors, is stated to be the manufacture of the age of Edward VI., in consequence of some of the specimens having a silver mounting of the make and fashion of the period of Elizabeth's reign. There is also a large flagon in the Museum of Economic Geology, ornamented with the royal arms of Elizabeth in relief, with the date 1594. These specimens cannot, however, be deemed conclusive of so early a manufacture in England. The first-mentioned specimens, though the mounting is English, may have been of German manufacture, as pieces of similar description of ware are to be seen in various collections of German pottery abroad. The latter specimen may either have been made at Cologne for the use of the Queen's household, or if of English manufacture, it must, in the opinion of a very eminent manufacturer, have been made at a much later period than the date upon it. In a letter received, he states "that it is a common practice even now among potters to use moulds of all dates and styles, which have been got up originally for very different kinds of ornamental work, and that he is strongly inclined to think that the mould from which the devices on this vessel have been pressed, was modelled many years before the vessel was made, and that the vessel itself is comparatively modern." Stoneware, ornamented with devices in white clay, was made in the seventeenth century at Fulham, also at Lambeth, and subsequently at Staffordshire; but there is no satisfactory evidence of any earlier manufactory in England.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century, some specimens of red Japan ware were imported into Europe. Both Dutch and English manufacturers attempted to imitate them, but failed for want of the proper clay. About this period, two brothers of the name of Elers, from Nuremberg, discovered at Bradwell, only two miles distant from Burslem, a bed of fine compact red clay, which they worked in a small manufactory, established in a retired situation upon the bed itself. They took every precaution to prevent any one seeing their process or learning their secret. They went so far as to employ none but the most ignorant and almost idiot workmen they could find. Astbury, the elder, had the talent to counterfeit the idiot, and, moreover, the courage to persevere in this character for some years during which he continued in their employ. From memory he made notes of the processes, and drawings of the machinery used. In consequence of the secret being thus discovered, numerous establishments arose in competition with that of the Elers, and, owing to the general prejudice against them as foreigners, they were finally compelled, in 1720, to quit their establishment. They retired to the neighbourhood of London, and, it is supposed, contributed by their skill and industry to the establishment of the Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory.
GREAT BELL OF ROUEN.
The grand entrance to the cathedral of Rouen is flanked by two towers, the one was erected by St. Romain; the expense for constructing the other, which bears the whimsical name of Tour-de-beurre, was raised by the product arising from permissions granted to the more wealthy and epicurean part of the inhabitants of the city, to eat butter in Lent. It was in this tower that the celebrated bell, the largest in the world, was erected; it weighed 40,000 lbs.; it was converted into cannon in the year 1793. The founder of this bell died of joy on seeing its completion. It went by his name, that of George D'Amboise, and round it was the following distich in gothic characters:—
"Je suis nomme George d'Amboise,
Qui bien trente-six-mille poise,
Et celui qui bien me pesera,
Quarante mille trouvera."