Part 9

_Swansea_ china is frequently decorated with birds, butterflies, and shells, drawn from nature by W. W. Young. Much of it is of a glassy nature like Nantgarw; but later the Swansea ware was of a duller, heavier nature, and having a hard white appearance.

SALE PRICES.

NANTGARW. £ s. d.

Plates, seven, painted with birds, bouquets of flowers in border, all with impressed mark. Foster, December 4, 1902 97 0 0

Dessert service, each piece painted with a bouquet of flowers in the centre, the borders with raised white scrolls painted with birds and flowers, consisting of centre dish, on foot, four square-shaped dishes, two leaf-shaped dishes, seventeen plates, two small plates. Christie, January 23, 1903 128 2 0

Plate, painted with border of stippled gold and roses, the centre painted with a pastoral landscape, figures and sheep, exhibited at the 1851 Exhibition. De Rome & Son, Kendal, May 13, 1903 27 16 6

Plates, pair, painted with groups of flowers, in gilt borders, and birds in centre; impressed mark. Sotheby, May 4, 1903 33 0 0

Plate, the centre with three roses, and the rim with rose festoons on a dotted gold ground, impressed mark. Sotheby, May 17, 1920 18 0 0

Pair of Plates, painted with flowers and fruit, and the borders moulded with scrolls in relief, impressed mark. Christie, July 20, 1920 26 5 0

SWANSEA.

Jug, painted with bouquets and wreaths of flowers and gilt, and with a shield of arms, 10 in. high; and a pair of plates with a wreath of flowers, impressed mark. Christie, February 18, 1902 17 6 6

Jug, moulded with leaves, and with flowers and butterflies in green and colours, 10-3/4 in. high. Christie, February 5, 1902 8 8 0

Dessert Service, painted with cornflowers and with gilt edges, consisting of centre dish, on foot; eight oblong, four shell-shaped and four octagonal dishes; pair of sugar tureens, covers and stands; thirty plates; eighteen small plates. Christie, November 21, 1902 65 2 0

Swansea china covered Porringer and Saucer, finely decorated with flowers in natural colours on a dotted gold ground. Sotheby, May 17, 1920 14 0 0

Swansea Dessert Service, painted with named flowers with gilt foliage and trellis work round borders, consisting of pair of sugar-tureens and covers, four octagonal dishes and twelve plates. Christie, July 5, 1920 25 4 0

A pair of Swansea small vases, painted with panels of flowers on dark blue ground, richly gilt, and with swan handles, 7 in. high. Christie, July 20, 1920 22 1 0

X

MINTON

X

MINTON

Messrs. Minton, of Stoke, in Staffordshire, manufacture pottery, porcelain, and majolica. By this latter, that massive ware, of bold design and bolder ornamentation and positive colours, principally blues, yellows, and greens, Minton’s at the Paris Exhibition of 1855 created quite a sensation, and won universal admiration.

Ten years before the commencement of the nineteenth century Thomas Minton established his factory at Stoke-upon-Trent. Only earthenware was manufactured at Stoke Works up till 1798, chiefly ordinary white ware, ornamented with blue, in imitation of Nankin china. From about 1799 down to 1811 a semi-transparent china was also made, but was abandoned as unprofitable. In 1817 Mr. Minton’s two sons entered the firm. In 1821 the manufacture of china was again resumed; about this time, too, a very marked improvement was noticeable in Minton’s printed earthenware; the body was whiter, and the glaze was more highly finished.

We give the two early marks of the firm down to 1837. These were usually in blue, and very often had a number underneath. In these earlier examples the flowers and other decorations were painted. They very shortly became mostly printed designs, except in elaborate pieces, and the personal character of the ordinary china grew, in consequence, of less interest.

[1851.]]

Sometimes “M. and C.” (the C. standing for Company), with an impressed stamp “BB.” or “BB. New Stone,” occurs. BB. signifies “best body.” A design of passion-flowers printed in blue is a favourite subject.

In 1836 Mr. John Boyle was admitted a partner, on the death of Thomas Minton; the firm became then Minton and Boyle, and the marks were accordingly changed. After continuing for five years Mr. Boyle went over to the Wedgwoods.

Mr. Minton was subsequently joined by his nephews, M. D. Hollins and Colin Minton-Campbell. The second Minton seems to have been of considerable business ability. In his father’s day fifty hands were employed at Stoke, but in his time the factory employed no less than 1,500. The various branches he developed were earthenware, and ordinary soft porcelain, hard porcelain, parian, coloured and enamelled tiles, mosaics, Della Robbia ware, majolica, and Palissy ware.

It will be seen from the accompanying illustrations how highly decorative Minton porcelain is. The vase we reproduce was one of the most admired specimens of china in the Paris Exhibition of 1867.

What is known as the ermine mark (the dark trefoil with the three dots), either indented or painted in gold and colours, has been used on porcelain since 1851, and since 1865 the word “MINTON,” impressed, has been used for both china and earthenware.

In 1868 the globe, with the word “MINTON” across it, was first used, and all the firm’s works subsequent to that date are so stamped. In 1872 the design was registered, and frequently a rhomboidal stamp occurs either without or in addition to the globe mark, which has the letter R in the centre, denoting that the particular pattern of china is “Registered” as a design. This rhomboidal mark occurs on chinas other than Minton’s, and is a feature of modern china.

“Minton, Hollins & Co.” are a firm at Stoke largely engaged in manufacturing encaustic and majolica tiles. They are an offshoot of the main branch.

The illustration we give of the lion ewer is a fine example of Minton’s reproduction of the celebrated Henri II. faïence. This wonderful ware is of distinct character and ornamentation, differing from every other kind of pottery. It was made at Oiron, in France, from 1524 to 1550. There are less than one hundred known pieces. Five pieces are in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Two are in the Louvre. Some of the pieces are valued at over £3,000 each. Who shall say that there is no romance in old china and pottery when vases and ewers, tazzas and salt-cellars, have pedigrees as long as a race-horse’s, and whose whereabouts are as well known as that of a reigning prince?

The plaque of painted majolica is a good specimen of what Minton can do. It was made about 1865, as was the lion ewer alluded to on p. 184, and the candelabrum is also of the same period. There is a fine fountain executed in Minton majolica; it is 36 feet high and 39 feet in diameter. At the summit there is a group, larger than life size, of St. George and the Dragon. It was one of the features of the International Exhibition of 1862; it now embellishes the scanty grass plot in front of the Bethnal Green Museum.

Some fine old Sèvres pieces have been copied by Mintons, and great fidelity has been shown in reproducing the old ground colours of rose-du-Barri, gros-bleu, turquoise, and pea-green. Chinese porcelain has been imitated with especial success. The most notable artistic achievement is the _pâte-sur-pâte_ work, by M. Leon Solon. The coloured background is worked upon in white clay, and the delicate modelling of figures in this material is of great artistic beauty. Each result is a personal creation of the potter which cannot be duplicated.

SALE PRICES.

MINTON. £ s. d.

Vases, pair, gold wreath handles, with panels of Cupids in gold and pink on an ivory ground, 16-1/2 in. high; and a vase nearly similar, by A. Birks. Christie, January, 1902 42 0 0

(_These first nine items were from the Colin Minton-Campbell Collection._)

Vases, pair, and covers, nearly similar, with fruit in the Oriental taste on brown ground, by A. Green, 46 in. high. Christie, January, 1902 15 4 6

Vases, pair, beaker-shaped, painted with lilies and grasses in colours and gold on dark-blue ground, richly gilt, by Leroi, 33 in. high. Christie, January, 1902 33 12 0

Vases, pair, with Cupids and flowers in white and colours on black ground, in coloured and gilt borders, by L. Birks, 33 in. high. Christie, January, 1902 63 0 0

Vases, pair, oviform and covers, the bodies encircled by four shaped medallions in relief, suspended by gilt cords and oak foliage, alternately painted with camp scenes in the Moran School and trophies-of-arms, apple-green borders; the ground of the vase _gros bleu_ with marble decoration in gold, the whole executed in the style of old Sèvres, by Boullemin and Leroi, 21 in. high. Christie, January, 1902 162 15 0

Cup and saucer, with panels of figures, vases and festoons of drapery in white on a sage-green ground, by Solon. Christie, January, 1902 11 0 6

Candlesticks, pair, decorated in grisaille and gold in the taste of Limoges enamel, 12 in. high. Christie, January, 1902 6 6 0

Dish, on pedestal, with a figure of Fortune in white on sage-green ground, by Solon, 11-1/4 in. diameter. Christie, January, 1902 17 6 6

Jardinières, pair, fan-shaped, with panels of figures and exotic flowers in colours on a Rose-du-Barry ground, painted in the taste of old Sèvres, by Leroi, 7 in. high. Christie, January, 1902 63 0 0

Vases and covers, pair, Solon ware, by Minton, with Classical figures and Cupids in arabesque borders, in white on a sage-green ground, richly gilt, 15 in. high. Christie, April 17, 1903 22 1 0

Pair of Minton pilgrim bottles and stoppers, decorated with Cupids in white on blue medallions, in the manner of Solon, on pink ground richly gilt, 9-1/2 in. high. Christie, July 5, 1920 7 7 0

Minton Sèvres pattern vase and cover, painted with panels of flowers and trophies on green ground, 15 in. high. Christie, July 5, 1920 9 9 0

XI

OLD ENGLISH EARTHENWARE

XI

OLD ENGLISH EARTHENWARE[2]

It requires a word of apology for including the following “Chats” on earthenware in a volume bearing the title “Chats on English China,” but as the chief end of this little volume is to render to the beginner such aid as may be useful in the determination of the various classes of china, it was thought desirable in his interest to treat somewhat generally of earthenware in this and the succeeding chapters.

Earthenware suggests pots and pans, and the word is redolent of kitchen smells, but a Wedgwood teapot or a Toby jug, though earthenware they be, are worth the having. Pottery is the poor relation of porcelain. The one comes in silks and satins, in purple and fine linen; the other in cotton gown, like Phyllis at the fair.

The following remarks may lend a zest to dusting days, and, mayhap, the poor relation may be invited to come down from the top shelf in the kitchen to occupy a niche in the drawing-room.

It is to be hoped that what has already been said on china may have created a taste in the reader for the inventions of the potter. A blue bowl may convey a world of meaning, and may be fragrant with memories of the eighteenth century, if one cares to peer beneath the surface. To the uninitiated it will be a blue bowl—and ugly maybe at that. To some the potter’s art is as dead a thing as was Nature’s message to Wordsworth’s insensate:—

“A primrose by a river’s brim A yellow primrose was to him, And it was nothing more.”

That it is not always easy to determine where a piece of china may have come from we have already shown, even if it be “A Present from the Crystal Palace.” The ordinary mind may possibly imagine some hitherto unknown factory away at Sydenham, but the legend “Made in Germany” underneath instantly dispels that illusion.

It is necessary here to state that the world of _bric-à-brac_ is divided into two parts—earthenware or pottery, and china or porcelain. All that is not earthenware is porcelain, and all that is not porcelain is earthenware. One may liken it to prose and poetry; what is not one must be the other, as Monsieur Jourdain discovered after he had spoken prose for forty years without knowing it. To continue the simile, some of Ruskin’s prose writings approach as near to poetry as do Wedgwood’s finer wares to porcelain.

Porcelain is produced by the artificial mixture of certain minerals known by their Chinese names of _kaolin_ and _petuntse_, or their English ones of china-clay and felspar. The former is infusible under the greatest heat, the latter is not, but unites in a state of fusion with the china-clay, making a paste or “body,” which is hard, and, when broken, shows a smooth, vitreous fracture. Those who have attempted to mend old china must have noticed how different the broken surface is from that of pottery with its rougher edges.

Strictly speaking these “Chats” on earthenware ought to have appeared at the commencement of the volume, for earthenware comes first chronologically. In passing we will glance for a moment as to how porcelain came into Europe.

Porcelain was first invented by the Chinese some two centuries before Christ. It reached Europe as the Eastern civilisation penetrated to the west, and for hundreds of years vain attempts were made by potters to reproduce the fineness of porcelain with its beautiful glaze and hard paste. At Venice, at Florence, in France, and in Spain, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an approximate success had been arrived at; soft paste had been developed to its furthest limit, but the real ingredients of the Chinese hard paste were unknown.

Accident, however, completed what centuries of industry had attempted. From perruque to porcelain seems a far cry, but the story is worth telling.

John Schnorr, an ironmaster, riding near Aue, observed that a soft earth adhered strongly to his horse’s hoofs. Considering that this earth might be used as a substitute for wheat flour as hair powder, he carried some away with him, and it was subsequently sold in large quantities for this purpose at Dresden, Leipsic, and other places. This _kaolin_ (the base of hard paste) continued to be known as “Schnorr’s white earth.”

Johann Friedrich Böttcher, chemist to the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, discovered the secret about 1709. One morning, on taking up his wig, he noticed it was much heavier than usual. He was informed by his valet that a new kind of hair-powder had been used. This was the ironmaster’s white earth. Böttcher was convinced that he had discovered at last the base of porcelain.

This was the foundation of the manufacture of porcelain at Meissen, and the factory then established has supplied the world with Dresden china ever since.

So great was the secrecy at first, that Böttcher and his assistants, when Charles XII. of Sweden invaded Saxony, were removed by the Elector for greater safety to the castle at Königstein, where they were practically imprisoned. Even the clay was sealed up in barrels by dumb persons, and every workman was required to take a solemn oath not to reveal the secret. “Be silent unto death” was the motto of the establishment.

How the method of manufacture and the secrets of Meissen finally became known to other countries, and how manufactories came to be set up at Vienna and Petersburg, is one of the romances of trade.

So much for the early history of porcelain in Europe. During this period the art of the potter had not made very great progress in England. These “Chats” have shown of the heroic attempts to emulate the success of Meissen, but it was slow, uphill work to reach the heights of Worcester and of Derby in porcelain and of Wedgwood in earthenware.

Stoneware mugs were more in accordance with the taste of our forefathers than pewter pots for drinking purposes, a comparatively modern prejudice. A variety of mugs called Longbeards, largely imported from Low Countries, were in general use during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at inns for serving all the customers. The name “Bellarmine” was sarcastically given them in reference to the cardinal most conspicuous in opposing the Reformed faith in the Netherlands, the potter representing, with grotesque art, his Eminence with short stature and rotund figure.

It is but a short step from the ware imported from the Low Countries to the pottery of Staffordshire. The celebrated pattern of the Toby jug is well known. Dickens, in “Barnaby Rudge,” makes Gabriel Varden ask Dolly to “put Toby this way.” Uncle Toby himself might have suggested the design, but it is said to be derived from one Toby Philpot, “a thirsty old soul as e’er drank a bottle or fathomed a bowl.” We give, from Mr. W. G. Honey’s collection at Cork, two fine specimens—one an old Staffordshire jug (10-1/2 in. high), representing John Bull, and marked “I. W.”; the other, the well-known pattern of the Vicar and Moses (9-1/4 in. high). This latter is the work of Ralph Wood, of Burslem, and was frequently reproduced by later potters. Both these pieces are blue and white.

Of Josiah Wedgwood, the English Palissy, we deal in a separate “Chat.”

A whole volume could be written about him and his work. His busts, magnificently produced in black basalt, his cameos and gems, with which the name of Flaxman must be coupled, his white terra-cotta, and his cream-coloured earthenware, known as Queen’s ware (first made for Queen Charlotte), may be ranked among the most important factors in the history and development of the potter’s art in England.

Of the most important of the other Staffordshire potters, perhaps the name of Spode is the best known. After 1798, Spode the younger commenced to make porcelain.

Concerning Liverpool, to which we devote a separate “Chat,” it seems remarkable to read that in 1754 the making of pottery was the staple manufacture of the city. “The blue and white earthenware almost vie with china,” so says an eighteenth-century journal.

John Sadler conceived the idea of transferring prints from copper on to pottery, and struck out a new line in printing on earthenware.

Another factory, called the “Herculaneum Pottery,” was started on the Mersey side by Messrs. Abbey and Graham in 1794. The making of china was started here in 1800.

About the end of the eighteenth century, a potter named Absolon had works at a place called “The Ovens” at Yarmouth. The work consisted of decorating the articles which were manufactured elsewhere, and very little more is known about it.

At Swansea both pottery and porcelain were made. In 1750 works were established, and in 1790 “Cambrian Pottery” became quite well known. In the early part of the next century a superior kind of ware, called “Opaque China,” was made.

Leeds pottery is well known. At one time it had quite an extensive Continental trade, and the pattern-book of the pottery was issued in several languages. Alas! now it is the French and the German and the Japanese pottery books that are issued in several languages.

It is largely cream-coloured ware and such articles as candlesticks, teapots, mustard-pots, cruet-stands, tea-canisters, and sugar-basins, with covers, together with the usual dinner and tea services, that were manufactured.

Bristol claims to have made pottery at a period as remote as Edward I. Wherever excavations have been made in the city, along the north bank of the river from Bristol Bridge to Redcliffe Pit, remains of pottery and shard heaps have been discovered.

Joseph Ring, in 1787, successfully imitated the Queen’s ware of Wedgwood and the best Staffordshire pottery. Ring’s cream-ware is thin and well made, the edges being remarkably sharp, and the fluted pieces very regular and well defined. It is generally yellower than either Wedgwood’s cream-ware or the Leeds pottery. Both of these have coloured bodies, but Ring’s Bristol ware has a white body, the yellow surface tint being obtained by means of a glaze.

The mugs and jugs of Newcastle and Sunderland are much sought after on account of their quaint inscriptions.

By kind permission, we reproduce some fine specimens of this ware from the collection of Mr. W. G. Honey, of Cork, which were on view at the Cork Exhibition. Many of these jugs have a frog in the interior of the vessel. As the liquor is drunk the creature appears to be leaping into the drinker’s mouth.

The mug in commemoration of the cast-iron bridge across the Wear bears the date 1793. We give three positions of the mug, and in the inverted one the frog can be plainly seen. On the reverse side are the following lines:—

THE SAILOR’S TEAR.

“He leap’d into the boat As it lay upon the strand, But, oh, his heart was far away With friends upon the land. He thought of those he lov’d the best A wife and infant dear: And feeling fill’d the sailor’s breast The sailor’s eye—a tear.”

Nottingham, too, has produced some excellent earthenware. Wrotham, in Kent, had an old-established factory. A dish in the British Museum is dated “Wrotham, 1699.”

London and its environs has given birth to several celebrated potteries. Fulham pottery has a worthy history. Letters patent were granted in 1671 to John Dwight, for the “misterie of transparent earthenware, commonly knowne by the names of porcelain or China and Persian ware, as alsoe the misterie of the stone ware, vulgarly called Cologne ware.” There was, too, a pottery at Mortlake. “Kishere, Mortlake,” is the mark generally used. Isleworth had a small factory at Railshead Creek, Isleworth. Much of the coarse pottery made here was known as “Welsh ware.”