To give an idea of the excellence to which the work attained in Bristol, I may observe that a tea-service presented by Richard Champion to his wife Judith in November, 1774, painted in figures, was sold at Sotheby's April, 1871, for £565. It consisted only of six pieces (counting a cup and saucer as one), i.e., the teapot, milk jug, sugar basin and three cups with their saucers. Of course, their value was greatly enhanced by their age.
Plymouth Porcelain.
To William Cookworthy, of Kingsbridge, and Lord Camelford we owe the production of porcelain at Plymouth. They worked together, and took out a patent in 1768. For the manufacture, Cookworthy discovered kaolin and pentuse in Cornwall, both natural substances, requisite for the production of hard paste; the former to supply an opaque body, and the latter a perfectly transparent substance, commonly called "moonstone," or "chinastone," the two being blended together.
In the first patent taken out in this country in 1768, the porcelain was described as made of moonstone, or granite and china clay, the latter giving infusibility and whiteness, Henry Bone, the enameller, and M. Soqui, a painter from Sèvres, being the decorators of the Coxside manufactory at Plymouth. After a lapse of a few years, the interest of the latter was sold, and the patent rights transferred to Mr. Champion, of Bristol, in 1774. The mark of the original Plymouth porcelain was the alchemic symbol for tin, sometimes, but rarely, incised in the clay, in blue under the glaze, or in gold or red upon it; but many pieces have no mark at all. A great similarity appeared between the work executed at Plymouth and that in Bow, which may be accounted for by the fact that Cookworthy employed workmen procured from the last-named factory. Some £3,000 were expended in perfecting the discovery of how to bring the porcelain to perfection.
PLYMOUTH MARK.
(To be continued.)
[NEIGHBOURS.]
One of the penalties of the "civilisation" that drives so many people to live in cities, is that they must have neighbours, good, bad or indifferent, in close proximity.