Part 4
Mr. Randall had less hesitation however in putting the Sevres mark on what was known to be Sevres; and he did very much for Mortlock, Jarman, and Baldock, who had agents in Paris, attending all sales where old Sevres was to be sold, in redecorating it in the most elaborate and costly manner. The less scrupulous London agents however did not hesitate to pass it off as being really the work throughout of Sevres artists. Indeed they have been known to have boxes of china going up from Madeley, sent on to Dover, to be redirected as coming from France, inviting connoisseurs to come and witness them being unpacked on their arrival, as they represented, from Paris. A little entertainment would be got up, and supposing themselves to be the first whose eyes looked on the rich goods after they left the French capital, where it would be represented, perhaps, that they had been bought of the Duc-de—or of Madame some one, after having been in the possession of royalty, they would buy freely.
Sevres porcelain fetched high prices then, but it has risen higher in the market, even since, and has gone on rising to the present time. In 1850 cups and saucers fetched from £25 to £30 each, and bowls £66 or £70. Three oval vases and covers at Lord Pembroke’s sale fetched £1020. Prices have however since gone up; and at Mr. Bernal’s sale a pair of rose Dubarry vases sold for 1850 guineas; and cups and saucers for £100. Single plates have since sold for £200; vases for 500 or 600 guineas each, and cups and saucers for 150 guineas. A year ago a set of three Jardiniers fetched at Christie’s, by auction, £10,000!
We remember seeing an ornament at the Marquis of Anglesey’s at _Beau Desert_ which we were assured was old Sevres, and had been purchased at a great price on the continent, but which we recognised as one of our own painting at Madeley. A man can always tell his own painting; but it is not an easy matter for another however experienced sometimes to do so. An amusing instance occurred at Coalport. Mr. F. W. Rose who had been conversant from a child with china, on one occasion bought a vase, painted with birds, believing it to be old Sevres, but which was made at the Coalport Works and painted by the present writer at Madeley. Mr. Rose, sending for us down to the office said, “here, Randall, is a vase I have given a good price for, which is the right thing; can you do anything like it?” Our reply was, it would be strange if we could not, as we did that when a lad, adding that it was made at his own manufactory, that it was modelled by George Aston, and purchased out of the warehouse, in the white, by T. Martin Randall. We need scarcely say that he was very much astonished on finding he had been duped by a London china dealer with a piece of his own ware. It was put out of sight; but the late Mr. Pugh did not forget occasionally to remind his partner of the incident.
Mr. Randall removed from Madeley to Shelton, in the Potteries, for the greater convenience of carrying on his works. He was invited by the late Herbert Minton to become a partner, and to make his ware for the benefit of both at his extensive works at Stoke. Age however, and a longing for retirement led him to decline, and he soon afterwards retired to a cottage at Barleston, where he died, and was buried, in a sunny spot of his own choosing, within sound of the murmuring waters of the Trent. He was a good man; one holding large and liberal views, and one who took an active part in various social and religious movements of the day, being an active promoter more particularly of Temperance Societies, when first established in this country. Specimens of his ware are much prized and sought after by collectors. A fine specimen with torquoise ground is in the possession of Henry Dickinson Esq.
The chief beauty of Mr. Randall’s porcelain, like that of other fret bodies, or _pate tendre_ china, was that it admitted of a complete amalgamation of the painting with the glaze, and also of a richness and depth of colour, as in the case of torquoise, not to be produced on ordinary china.