CHAPTER I

HOW TO COLLECT: A CHAPTER FOR BEGINNERS

Reasons for collecting--What is earthenware?--How earthenware is made--What to collect--Method of studying old earthenware--Forgeries--Table for use in identifying old English earthenware.

To attempt to advance reasons for collecting old English earthenware is seemingly to commence this volume with an apology on behalf of collectors. But there are so many persons ready to throw a stone at others who betray the possession of hobbies differing from their own, that it is necessary to state that the reasonable collection of old earthenware is based on sound premisses.

Similar reasons may be given for the collection of old English earthenware to those that may be advanced for the collection of old English china. Earthenware may be approached mainly from the æsthetic side and studied with a view to show the development of decorative art in this country and the foreign influences which have contributed to its evolution. The art of the old English potter is of especial interest to students of ceramic art, as many processes were invented in this country, and, in spite of periods of decadence, English earthenware has won for itself a considerable reputation on the Continent from a technical point of view.

It may be collected as an adjunct to old furniture by lovers of old furniture who are precisians in regard to harmony in schemes of decoration. They prefer to see china and earthenware of the same period as the furniture. A modern set of vases adorning a Georgian cabinet is like putting new wine into old bottles. So that concomitant with the love for old furniture, old pictures, and old prints is the accompanying regard for contemporary china and earthenware.

The "drum and trumpet history" relating the personal adventures of princes and nobles, and the pomp of courts, or the intrigues of favourites, sets no store on the apparent trivialities which mark the social and intellectual progress of a nation. But the scientific student of history cannot afford to ignore the detailed study of social conditions which are indicated by the china-shelf. The due appreciation of the development of costume, of furniture, and of the domestic arts gives life and colour to the written records of byegone days. A mug or a jug with an inscription may tell a story of popular party feeling as pointedly as a broadsheet or a political lampoon.

The ordinary man sees in the collection of china and earthenware an interesting hobby. He reads of the prices remarkable specimens bring under the hammer, and he begins to think that his education has been partly neglected since he knows little or nothing concerning these art treasures, which seemingly are attractive to other men of culture and means.

"Collecting for profit" is a phrase that tickles the ears of many others. Undoubtedly there have been many who have entered the field of collecting and regarded their purchases solely as investments. It must be borne in mind that this class of collector is not to be despised, inasmuch as when he has mastered his subject (and as there is money in it he very speedily sets to work to do this) he is a very formidable rival.

It is absurd to imagine that an amateur, after having given especial study to a subject such as old earthenware, is not in a better position to enter the market as a buyer or a seller than he who comes with little or no training.

It is only reasonable that a man should take an intelligent interest in the evolution of the ware in everyday use. But it is to be feared that long rows of cases at the museum with specimens of earthenware behind glass doors must necessarily be a valley of dry bones to the spectator unless he bring the seeing eye and the understanding heart to quicken these dry bones into life.

Enough, perhaps, has been said as a prelude to this volume to show that various reasons may be advanced to account for the new spirit of collecting which has become so infectious. It is the hope of the writer that the following chapters, as an outline of the subject of collecting old English earthenware, may point the way to a better appreciation of what is really of value in this field, and will enable the collector in his search to sift the wheat from the chaff, and him who already possesses _lares et penates_ of uncertain age to identify them.

=What is Earthenware?=--To know what is earthenware always puzzles the beginner. A rough-and-ready means of determining the difference between earthenware and porcelain is to apply the light test. Porcelain more nearly approaches glass and is translucent--that is, it clearly shows the shadow of the hand holding it when placed up to the light. But there are occasions when this test fails; for instance, a block of porcelain may, as in a heavy figure, be so thick as to render this experiment impossible. On the other hand, fine stoneware may be partly translucent in the thinner parts. In early nineteenth-century days a class of ware, such as that of Mason, is stamped "ironstone china" or "stone china." This is earthenware of a peculiar nature, having certain of the properties of porcelain. Similarly, at various times earthenware has been made which nearly approaches porcelain in its constituents. Dwight with his stoneware busts and Wedgwood in his jasper ware produced earthenware of such character as to come close to the border line dividing earthenware from porcelain.

The potter's art is divided into two sub-heads--porcelain and earthenware--which latter, for purposes of simplification, includes stoneware.

Earthenware is of soft body, is opaque--that is, it cannot be seen through. Its thinness or its thickness has nothing to do with its title. Stoneware is equally opaque, but it is as hard as porcelain. It may be as thick and heavy as a German beer-mug or a stone ginger-beer bottle, or it may be cream in colour, and thin as a Passover cake, as in salt-glazed Staffordshire ware, or white and heavy, as in later stone china. Porcelain may be hard or soft and possesses properties equally its own, but is outside the scope of this volume.

Practically earthenware is of such porous clay that when fired in the kiln it is unfit for use, as it is still too porous until it receives a coating of glaze. Unglazed stoneware, Egyptian black, and Wedgwood's jasper ware differ from earthenware in this respect, as they do not receive any glaze, since they are of dense enough body to be used in "biscuit" or unglazed state.

_Its appearance._ In colour earthenware may be brown or white in exterior, or brown or white in body as shown when broken. At its best its style to the beginner may not be suggestive of great difference between earthenware and porcelain. Similar figures were attempted in the one material as in the other. In France at Niderviller, at Marseilles, and at Scieux the potters deliberately set themselves to make objects in earthenware as delicate and fanciful as were produced in hard porcelain at Dresden or in soft porcelain at Vincennes. Clocks, vases, sweetmeat-boxes, and elaborate dinner services lavishly decorated in over-glaze enamels and gilded, emulated the best work of the porcelain factories. In Staffordshire the story has been repeated. So that form is no guide as to what kind of ware a piece may be. In weight earthenware is lighter than porcelain as a general rule, though variations in the body make this rule an elastic one. In stoneware, and ware approximating to this in character, the weight is heavier than porcelain. All ironstone ware is exceedingly heavy.

_Reasons for its appearance._ The earlier earthenware was brown in body. The Dutch potters in the seventeenth century covered their ware with an opaque white tin enamel to conceal the dark earthen body and to enable them to paint on its surface in imitation of Chinese porcelain. Stoneware, such as the jugs of early type known as Bellarmines, is of very vitreous earthenware fired so hard as to resist acids or the use of a file when applied to the surface. When glazed this class of ware has salt glaze. Dwight, of Fulham, introduced white, or nearly white, stoneware into England in his statuettes, which induced him to claim that he had discovered the secret of making porcelain. Cream ware followed later, and, perfected by Wedgwood, it was adopted as the standard earthenware of Staffordshire. It was the last note in earthenware till the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the Staffordshire potters invented an earthenware with a white body more nearly approaching porcelain in appearance. For fifty years experiments had been carried on, and this cream ware was whitened by a process called "blueing" by the use of cobalt to whiten the lead glaze. But the final invention was by Mason with his patent ironstone china, in which he produced a hard, white body.

=How Earthenware is made.=--A good deal of theory has found its way into print, but it is not every one, even among collectors, who has actually seen the various stages through which a lump of clay passes before it finally takes its place on the table as a teapot or a breakfast cup.

It has, therefore, been thought of interest to illustrate a few steps in the process of this transformation of clay into vessels of utility and beauty. By the kindness of Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, of Etruria, this series of illustrations appears, and the subjects have been chosen with a view to showing those processes of the potter which are practically the same as in the days of the great Josiah.

The first illustration (p. 37) shows an _Exterior View of the Etruria Works_, with the Cornish stone and the ball clays from Dorset and Devon and the flints lying in heaps exposed to the sun and frost in order to "weather." This exposure is considered advantageous, as the longer the clay is in the open the better it will work when required for use.

The second illustration (p. 41) shows a _Corner of the old Etruria Works_. The structure is practically the same as in the early days, and the bottom windows on the right have remained unaltered. The farthest at the bottom corner on the right was the room of old Josiah.

The third illustration shows the _Mill for grinding raw materials_. The clays are put into this vat and crushed between two stones. There is nothing different now from the early days. The old oak beams tell their story. It is true that steam is now used, but that is all to make this process differ from that employed a century and a half ago--first when wind-power was used, as in flour mills, and later when a horse was substituted.

This grinding is done with water, and the mixture comes out a thick liquid. The mixing-tank is the next stage. These liquid constituents, such as ball clay, china clay, flint, &c., according to the formula of the pottery, are carefully admitted into the tank in correct proportions and thoroughly "blended" together. The body is now in its "slip" state, and is pressed and dried to make it more malleable when not required for casting. In its later stage, in more solid form, it is ready to be thrown on the potter's wheel.

=The Potter's Wheel.=--We illustrate (p. 40) the ingenious potter who is known as "The Thrower." It is he who, on a little revolving table between his knees pressed with his hands, magically transforms the lump of clay into beautiful shapes. Unfortunately, modern methods are eliminating the work of "the thrower," whose art dates back to the remotest past in the East when man first made clay into objects of beauty. We find the prophet Jeremiah saying, "Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold he wrought a work on the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter, so he made again another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it."

Old Omar Khayyam brings a moral to bear on the potter and his wheel:

"Surely not in vain My substance from the common Earth was ta'en That He who subtly wrought me into shape Should stamp me back to common Earth again."

And Shakespeare, not to miss a good simile, makes one of his characters say, "My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel."

=The Pottery Kilns.=--The next stage is to convert the vessel thrown in soft clay, and put aside to dry, into being as a piece of pottery. There are three ovens, termed the "biscuit," the "glost," and the "enamel." In the illustration (p. 53) it is seen how the vessels are put into "saggers," which are boxes of fire-clay piled upon one another. The doorway is bricked up and plastered, and gradually the furnace is heated. Practically this "oven" illustrated is typical of the "biscuit" or the "glost" oven, the difference being in the temperature applied, the latter being at a much lower temperature.

It may be interesting to mention that a quick oven is three days in firing and three days in cooling before the ware is removed. For ornamental and important specimens of a very special nature as long a period as a month may be taken to fire and half that time to cool. But of course this is only in exceptional circumstances.

It conjures up a picture of the awful anxiety of some of the great master potters at the critical moment when the doorway is pulled down and the contents of the oven are drawn. It is here where the triumph or the failure of the potter manifests itself.

When taken out of the first oven the ware is termed "biscuit." It is now ready for glazing. Of course, in such ware as jasper or unglazed stoneware, basalt, and similar kinds, the "biscuit" state is the final one, the object being completed.

=The Dipping-house.=--In the illustration (p. 57) it will be seen that the ware in its "biscuit" state is dipped in liquid glaze in a very deft manner, after which it proceeds to the "glost" oven to harden this glaze on its surface.

It is here that great care has to be exercised in keeping the pieces from coming in contact with each other; spurs and tripods are placed between each piece to obviate this. The "saggers" in which this newly-glazed ware is placed are dusted with material infusible at the lower heat to prevent the pieces adhering to these "saggers." In fact, as is readily seen, a fine specimen may be easily ruined at any stage.

In undecorated ware, as in the cream-ware examples illustrated (p. 225), this ends the process, and they are complete. But in ware that is to be decorated _over_ the glaze there is yet another stage before they are finished.

It will be observed that we are alluding to _over-glaze_ decoration. But ware may be painted before being glazed,--that is _under-glaze_. In order, however, not to confuse the beginner at the outset, this has been described in a later chapter (p. 326).

=The Enamel Kiln.=--After the decorations have been painted upon the glazed ware it has to be fired in the enamel kiln. A far lower heat than that of the "glost" oven is required; the flames do not pass inside the kiln, as in an oven, but are led in flues all round the kiln. We give an illustration (p. 61) of this for firing colours or gold _over_ the glaze. As will be seen, the pieces are carefully protected from contact with each other, and at this last stage it is quite possible to undo all the patient labour previously employed and irretrievably ruin a piece.

In this hasty outline of the various processes of the potter much has been omitted; but, in the main, these illustrations should serve to kindle a more intelligent interest, even among collectors, in the earthenware and china which has passed through so many critical periods in its life-history.

=What to Collect.=--This is largely a question of personal predilection. In general the field of English earthenware may be divided into nine classes, and the collector who wishes to specialise will have his individual taste for one or more of these, according as its technical or artistic qualities appeal to him. This arrangement is mainly chronological, but obviously one class will overlap others in point of time. These classes are further summarised in detail in the table intended for use in identifying old earthenware given at the end of this chapter.

I. Early English pottery. II. Delft ware. III. Stoneware (including Staffordshire salt-glaze ware). Prior to the inventions of Josiah Wedgwood. IV. Variegated ware--agate and clouded ware. V. Cream ware-- (1) Plain. (2) Decorated by painting. (3) Transfer-printed. By far the largest variety of English earthenware, including domestic ware and figures. Made by all potters. VI. Classic ware--the school of which Josiah Wedgwood is the founder. VII. Figures (mainly Staffordshire). VIII. Lustre ware. IX. Opaque china } Semi-porcelain } Nineteenth century. Ironstone china }

=Method of studying old Earthenware.=--To those readers who peruse this volume without any definite idea of the standpoint of the collector it should not be left unsaid that the proper study and collection of old English earthenware require a considerable amount of reading and, what is of much greater importance, a very practical examination of some hundreds of specimens. It is this practical experience which alone can give the beginner the training he requires. It is a complex subject bristling with unexpected difficulties in regard to technical points and crowded with apparent contradictions. The bibliography given on pp. 23-25 will enable readers to pursue special studies in greater detail.

The next best thing to handling the actual specimens is to see them. It cannot here be impressed upon the beginner too strongly that it is absolutely necessary, in order to educate his eye, that the finest known examples in the particular classes should be frequently seen. The national museums, the Victoria and Albert and the British, in London, both contain splendid collections classified in a very thorough manner. In the provinces, the following museums among others contain fine collections, often of richer interest in special subjects than the aforementioned. For instance, the Public Museum at Liverpool contains the most representative collection of the various classes of Liverpool ware. The fine Art Gallery at Leeds is rich in typical examples of the finest productions in Leeds earthenware. At the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, and at the Science and Art Museum, Dublin, there are finely arranged collections of pottery. At the Castle Museum, Nottingham, at York, at Norwich, at Bath, at Bristol, at Swansea, at Cardiff, at the Weston Park Museum, Sheffield, at the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Farnham, North Dorset, at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, at Maidstone, at Bury St. Edmunds, and at Saffron Walden, there are collections which can be studied.

In the district of the Potteries itself the following museums have representative collections of special varieties of Staffordshire ware. At Hanley, at Tunstall, at Burslem, at Stoke-on-Trent, and at Etruria, with its Wedgwood Museum, there is material enough to be seen, so that it may be said that there is little need for the beginner to be starved for want of opportunities to see fine examples.

=Hints as to Prices.=--It is impossible in such a complex subject as old earthenware to lay down any hard and fast rules as to prices to be paid. Specimens vary very considerably in quality, and according to demand prices fluctuate as in other markets.

If the beginner will make a point of learning his subject and will keep in touch with a few dealers, he will find that they will readily assist him to identify his own specimens and systematically aid him in adding judiciously to his collection. A great deal of offensive nonsense has been written by fashionable lady journalists, declaiming against the professional dealer and crediting him with every conceivable trick under the sun. But the greatest and the wisest of collectors number a host of dealers as personal friends. A continuous stream of good things passes through the hands of the dealers who, by incessant handling and practical study, are able and willing to help the collector and to solve his difficulties.

_Dealers' prices_ are in many cases surprisingly low considering the great trouble they have taken to acquire the pieces. It is far better to procure bargains in this manner, with one's personal knowledge supplemented by the friendly suggestions of one's favourite dealer, than to attempt to obtain through private sources "great bargains" from amateur dealers whose possessions would not, in many cases, bear the light of day in the open market.

=Forgeries.=--There are many "faked" pieces in existence, and there are many copies and a great quantity of productions of factories of to-day who reproduce their old patterns made a century or more ago. Some of this is made with intent to deceive, and much is merely a trade movement to supply a known want on the part of the public. But it is exactly here that the dealer who has a respect for his clients, and being a business man naturally does not wish to ruin his reputation, may be of inestimable value in advising the collector.

Mr. Solon, the eminent authority and a practical worker in artistic pottery, tells in his "Art of the Old English Potter" how, when he was searching for fine specimens to make his collection, he was deceived by some sham old slip ware bought at a high figure in a lonely cottage in a remote district. If the fabricator could lure so studious a collector into his net, it goes without saying that especial precautions should be taken by the beginner not to give large prices unless he has a guarantee or knows the seller's reputation.

Buyers of old delft ware should be careful in examining the decoration of their purchases. Plain ware, which is not so valuable and is comparatively common, is decorated in blue, or a coat-of-arms and a date added, giving a fictitious value to the piece. In fact, such genuine dated pieces are worth ten times the plain ones. Plain jars and jugs worth £2 or £3, with the fraudulently added word "Sack" and the initials "C. R." in blue, may tempt the unwary collector to give £20. It will thus be seen that this is the most dangerous of frauds, and difficult to detect unless the collector has handled many decorated pieces, for the delft itself is absolutely genuine.

Similarly, plain pieces of genuine Staffordshire salt glaze are enamelled in colours in order to enhance the value, owing to the fashionable demand for coloured examples. As much as £50 has been paid by an unfortunate collector for a teapot quite worth this if genuine old colour work, but unhappily it was, although fine old salt glaze, quite recently coloured, evidently with fraudulent intentions.

Staffordshire figures that are modern tell their own story, or should do so, to the collector who has ever carefully examined the potting and the glaze of fine old examples. Nor is there much excuse for the blundering collector who cannot readily distinguish between the crude modern Toby jug with its blatant colouring, so smudgy and smeary with black stains to impart age, and its genuine prototype.

There are some fairly modelled Toby jugs, of modern origin, one in particular seated in a corner chair, with a salt-glaze surface. Another "fake" appeals to the lover of the Whieldon style, and has a mottled base and hat. But they are, as the expressive term goes, "hot from the oven." The "Vicar and Moses" was so well modelled by Ralph Wood that it shared the fate of George Morland's pictures which were copied by his contemporaries. Ralph Wood's "Vicar and Moses" was copied all through the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and to-day modern fabrications repeat the same model _ad nauseam_. Sham Voyez "Fair Hebe" jugs, made for foolish collectors, are frequently to be seen and avoided.

Leeds ware has engaged the attention of the imitator. Some of the ware is made in Germany and is unmarked. But other modern productions exist stamped "Leeds Pottery," and are imitations of the old Leeds patterns. There is a tobacco jar in pewter having a shield with the Leeds coat-of-arms, and raised medallions of a ship and of the patron saint of the woolcombers. This jar has been of late years copied in cream ware, and with its lid with twisted handle it has passed as "genuine old Leeds." But it is nothing of the sort.

In general, earthenware comes off better in regard to forged marks than porcelain. In the latter, of course, it is the easiest thing in the world to add the marks, especially when most of them were _painted_. But in earthenware the majority of marks were _impressed_ in the ware and this cheats the "faker" of his quarry.

As a matter of fact, the mark should not lead the collector by the nose. Before seeing any mark a collector should begin to know his subject so well that the mark is an additional piece of information which serves to confirm his previous conclusions as to the specimen under examination. An unmarked example may show every evidence in modelling, in paste, in colour, and in glaze, of having been made by a certain potter at a particular date. The only confirmation lacking is the mark. It is here that marked ware becomes of paramount importance for purposes of comparison. And it is better to have a genuine marked piece in one's cabinet, from a business point of view, than a genuine piece equally fine that bears no signature or trade-mark. But this craving on the part of collectors for marks has led in the field of china to a disastrous state of things; marks of one potter have been added to the productions of another, and no fabricated Worcester china is worth its salt as a correct piece of forgery unless it bears the square mark or the crescent.

Happily, in earthenware the question of marks only affects the ware from Wedgwood's day onwards. The finest specimens of earthenware in the noted collections throughout the country, of Elers, and Dwight and Astbury, and Whieldon, and the whole salt-glaze school bear no mark, for the very simple reasons that the old potters had no "marks." But they signed their pieces all over, and the touch of these old masters is immediately intelligible to the trained eye of the collector.

=How to identify old Earthenware.=--The following Table roughly summarises the field under which English earthenware may be classified. It is the hope of the writer that possessors of earthenware which they are unable to identify will, by the help of this Table, be able to place their pieces under the sub-head to which they belong. The references given to the chapters dealing with the classes in detail are intended to point the way to a more extended examination of specimens.

A good general rule for beginners in attempting the proper identification is to commence by eliminating all the classes of ware to which the piece obviously cannot belong. Gradually the field becomes limited to one period, and finally it is narrowed to two or three factories. But it is only by practice that definite and accurate conclusions can be arrived at.

TABLE FOR USE IN IDENTIFYING OLD ENGLISH EARTHENWARE.

=I. EARLY POTTERY.= Early examples of green glazed pitchers and jugs of crude form, =Mediæval.= 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries.

Domestic Vessels. Costrels (_i.e._, pilgrims' bottles), flasks with holes at shoulders for use of cord in carrying.

Ecclesiastical Tiles Ecclesiastical tiles. Incised or (15th-16th centuries). impressed patterns, raised, inlaid, or with slip decoration.

Floral, geometrical, heraldic ornamentation. Figures of men and of animals (see illustration, p. 85).

=Slip Ware.= Loving-cups, or tygs, with several (17th century.) handles, posset pots with spouts. Lead-glazed, greenish in colour, with tones varying from purplish-brown to black (see illustration, p. 89).

Wrotham Ware Wrotham, in Kent, the seat (1612-1717). of this ware of red body with slip stamped decorations or incised ornamentation. A great number of pieces of this class bear dates covering a century.

Toft Ware Dishes and posset pots of Staffordshire (Latter half of origin, Thomas Toft, 1660, 17th century). Ralph Toft, Ralph Turnor, William Chatterly, Robert Shaw, William Tabor, John Wright, Joseph Nash, John Meir and other names appear on this ware, some being those of the potters, and others the owner's name.

(=These varieties of Early Pottery are described in Chapter II.=)

=II. DELFT WARE.= _General Characteristics of Delft Ware._ In appearance it cannot be mistaken for any other ware. It has a brown or grey body, showing at crumbled edges where the glaze is chipped off. The surface is white, and the painting upon it is more coarse than Dutch examples. English decorations are mostly painted under glaze in blue, yellow, or dull purple.

=Lambeth.= Dishes, plates, salt-cellars, puzzle-jugs, sack bottles, pharmacy jars Early examples, 1630. and candlesticks are most ordinarily found. The enamelled surface of Van Hamme, potter of Lambeth delft has a pinkish tint. Lambeth, 1671. Plates with portraits and dates (1637-1702), Adam and Eve dishes, of large size, painted in blue with this and other Biblical subjects, "The Journey to Emmaus," "Jacob's Ladder," or with Oriental designs.

Earlier specimens have a purplish or dull yellow lead glaze at back of dish.

=Bristol.= Election and other plates dated 1740-1784. Painted tiles and plates with landscape subjects--Chinese figures, parrots. _Bianco sopra bianco_ white enamel on greenish ground. Bowls with purple ground and white reserved panels with blue decoration.

=Liverpool.= Prior to 1762 all Liverpool delft, including tiles, was printed. Early in 18th century, the principal trade Delft dishes decorated in Chinese of the city. style. Bowls with ships as decoration. Druggists' jars.

Transfer-printed tiles by Sadler & Green, or later by Zachariah Barnes.

=Wincanton.= Similar to Bristol in character. Up to the present very little is known of this factory. (See illustration, p. 127.)

(=These varieties of Delft Ware are dealt with in detail in