Bradwell. A potter to whom Staffordshire was indebted for great improvements in the ware was John Philip Elers, who about 1690 came over from Holland and settled at Bradwell. He was descended from a noble family of Saxony.
Elers was a clever chemist, and discovered the art of mixing the clays of Staffordshire to greater perfection than had ever before been attained. He manufactured to a considerable extent an improved kind of red pottery, in imitation of that of Japan, while by the addition of manganese to the clays, he made a fine black ware, which a century afterwards was adopted and improved by Wedgwood.
Fig. 250.—Teapot.
Of red ware, with flowers in relief.
Hanley. Shaw mentions a Mr. Miles of Miles’s Bank, Hanley, who produced the brown stoneware about 1700. There is in the Victoria and Albert Museum a fayence barrel of brown glaze with gilt hoops, dating apparently from the first half of the 18th century, and it is impressed with the name of Miles (see Fig. 251).
Fig. 251.—Barrel.
Elijah Mayer of Hanley was a contemporary of Wedgwood. He was noted for his cream-coloured ware and brown-line ware, but he produced many other varieties. A vase of unglazed drab terra-cotta, with festoons, &c., in relief, coloured (see Fig. 252).
Fig. 252.—Vase.