very kindly came out here and named my specimens as far as he could,
but I notice among the labels I had then affixed the word “probably”
sometimes appears before the name given. I was somewhat disappointed
with the result of his visit, for he pronounced some of the jugs which
I had hoped were Liverpool as not coming within that family, so I have
decided to be my own judge in future, as by that means I may in time
have one of the largest collections of “Old Liverpool” in the country.
As those I include will be so near in appearance to some of the
varieties made, I am hoping no collector will have reason to dispute
my classification. Only one jug is marked, and that has a letter “P,”
which denotes Pennington, and I spotted this mark without a suspicious
dealer--to whose astuteness I refer later on--being aware of the fact,
and so I got it for 3s., which is not an excessive price considering it
is hand painted with line decoration, an uncommon design, and bears a
very rare mark.
Collectors should be careful how they clean Old Liverpool which has
been printed over the glaze, for I remember on one occasion I gave a
sovereign for a jug with pictures done in brown which had a smudgy
look. The dealer was a straight man, and said if I was not satisfied he
would give me my money back. When I got home and filled the bathroom
hand-basin with hot water and soda and began cleaning, I thought what
a dirty condition the jug must be in, for the water soon began to look
like brown ink. I thought it was time to probe deeper, and to my alarm
found the picture still blurred, but not so dark in colour, and then I
thought I was “done in brown”! I saw the dealer and told him all about
it. When he asked was I not satisfied, I admitted I was not altogether
enamoured with the running thing, and that it was the pictures by the
Old Master I placed such value on, so he laughingly returned the money.
A collector from the south came along soon after and gave the dealer
more than the even sovereign. My only wonder is how many times that jug
has been washed since, and how much of the pictures remain.
A jug 8½ inches high shows “King William, Prince of Orange,” on
horseback, and on the reverse side a print of Britannia and Erin
throttling a snake coiled round a broken pillar, also the words “Great
Britain and Ireland United MDCCC.” One 7-inch jug has an heraldic
illustration headed “The Cooper’s Arms,” and on the reverse side a lion
and anchor surmounted by “Great Britain and Ireland United 1800.” A
specially fine specimen of Herculaneum pottery is the 7½-inch jug of
uncommon pattern which gives the “Duke of York” and “Prince Coburg”
in relief, and this jug is painted in the old delft colours, brown,
yellow, orange and blue. The cups and saucers bear portraits of
Washington and Lafayette; they must have missed the American boat over
a hundred years ago, or I should not have found them in Wigan, and they
were undoubtedly made for the American market.
SUNDERLAND (_See_ Plate XXXIV)
Many of these jugs and mugs are very quaint, but it is to me impossible
always to identify them. One evidently commemorates the opening of the
cast-iron bridge over the River Wear on August 9th, 1796. The fact that
maritime subjects were often used for illustration assists in deciding
sometimes, so I include the frog-mug. Lake lustre and yellow lustre
were largely used, the colours being brushed on in a careless way.
DON POTTERY (_See_ Plate XXXV)
So much pottery was made without indication of its origin that it
is well for a collector when he comes across a marked piece cheap,
even if it is imperfect, to procure it. In 1915 I bought a pedestal
oval-shaped bowl which bears the distinction of being the only piece in
my collection which did not cost me more than 2d. It looked as if it
had spent half its long life in an oven and most of the remainder in
being knocked about, for both handles were off. I saw it was impressed
“Don Pottery” and knew it would be made in Leeds about 1780, that it
bore traces of being printed in black transfer at Liverpool, that it
had been banded black by hand, and that the colour of the ware was of a
dark grey cast. In June, 1919, I saw the uncommon plate shown in this
group bearing many features tallying with the Don Pottery bowl but in
perfect condition (unmarked), having also a silver lustre band, and on
comparing these pieces satisfied myself they both came from the same
factory. Such finds as these, trifling though they may be, help to make
collecting a pastime.
TURNER LANE ENDS (_See_ Plate XXXVI)
In 1911, in an old shop at Prescot, near the house in which Kemble
lived, I discovered a well-printed blue-and-white dish impressed
“Turner” and bought it, finding a place for it on the shelf over the
mantel. Three years after I was in a manufacturing town 25 miles away
looking about, and in a sort of a marine store window noticed a tureen
(unmarked) with ladle complete which matched my Turner dish. Enquiring
the price, the woman said “she didn’t know,” and “he was out.” So I
asked her to fetch “him.” When “he” arrived, somewhat fuddled, I asked
him the price, and on getting his answer remarked it seemed a bit
stiff, when he huffily and huskily replied, “Why, the ---- ladle’s
worth the money,” and left me straightaway. With an assurance like that
from such an authority I decided to buy. I knocked, and my lady friend
appeared again and anxiously put the question:
“Did you pay him?”
“No.”
“That’s a good thing; I’ll have the money.”
The tureen has since adorned my mantel, and it might have been a part
of the same set as the dish. I recently found at a Red Cross sale a
little pickle-holder to match. I once priced a larger dish of the same
pattern, but owing to the difficulty of getting it home left it, and
the next time I was in that town it had been sold.
WEDGWOOD (_See_ Plate XXXII)
Josiah Wedgwood must have been a wonderful man, and I am pleased to
have a portrait of him on a jug bearing his name on a scroll with the
dates “1730 to 1795.” I believe this to be a Centenary piece, and as
his works started in 1752 the jug will be about seventy years old. I
have seen so much of Wedgwood’s Jasper Ware that I have refrained from
buying any, but I show two small pieces--a really old pepper-pot and a
sugar bowl (part of a set here)--which I did not collect. Early on I
placed the teapot, sugar bowl, and cream jug in my china cabinet, but
as so many visitors after running their eyes over my rarer specimens
usually remarked, “I see you have some Wedgwood,” I put them out of
sight. This Jasper Ware has had a tremendous sale for years and years,
and is better known than its age. For these three things I substituted
a Jasper spill vase, and many a spill has been caused by the knowing
ones calling this Wedgwood, when it is not.
I have been lucky in finding some early specimens of Wedgwood--a
plate impressed “Pearl,” printed but touched up by hand, a pair of
tortoise-shell (back and front) plates with raised daisy and bead
border. One plate, octagonal shape, cupids dancing in centre, with
a remarkable light and shade effect, with oak-leaf relief border,
and having a fine tortoise-shell back. All these are heavy and have
“Wedgwood” stamped in large type, so they will date 1760 to 1765.
These are followed by a Cream-ware plate, partly hand coloured, and
a little later by a plate of a whiter shade giving a brown printed
view of sailing vessels in harbour. These have the impressed mark in
smaller type. Two little teapots, one black basalt and the other bisque
pattern, about 1780, complete this interesting group.
Another excellent specimen of Queen’s Ware will be seen on shelf No.
1, Plate XXXIII. This bears the early large type Wedgwood impressed
mark, and has the lug and feather border carefully painted in brown and
red over the glaze. As my ten plates--two of which were given me--have
cost me just half the price I was once asked for a single cracked
tortoise-shell plate, I conclude I have been working on right lines.
PUZZLE JUGS (_See_ Plate XXXIV)
With the intention of describing to the reader the peculiarities of
these jugs and the difference in the puzzles, I have just had the
six filled with water to experiment with so that I might give lucid
explanations of the enigmas, and I have been most successful--in making
myself wet. That the investigation should be complete, I obtained the
assistance of a young friend who revels in logarithms and abstruse
problems, and as I noticed signs of his temper giving way under his
many efforts to elucidate the why and the wherefore of these strange
devices and their tricky behaviour, the enquiry is postponed _sine die_.
Of the two brown stoneware jugs the one with figures in relief hails
from Brampton, and the other would have been made in some local
pottery. The tall, fancy shape is a good specimen of those made at
Leeds. The one with the pantomime group would be made in Staffordshire
about eighty years ago, while the Harlequin jug was the work of Elsmore
and Forster, about 1850. The white jug is the oldest of the tribe, and
I should be surprised to hear of another like it being in existence.
I fancy this to be the work of an industrious apprentice to show what
a clever hand he was, and that the letters “G. B.” scratched on the
bottom under the glaze will be his initials. I wish he had not given in
his tally before he had added a date.
NELSON JUGS (_See_ Plate XXXII)
The jug almost covered with blue printing is a fine specimen, showing
Nelson, the _Victory_, and a list of his titles and his battles,
together with his famed last signal and some eulogy. The jug with
Nelson in relief bears on the reverse side a likeness of Hardy, and it
is in such good condition that I believe the party I bought it from in
Liverpool thought it was a reproduction, while I felt quite satisfied
that it was a specially well preserved antique. The black printed jug
is a disreputable-looking relic, and when found it appeared as if it
had been in the battle of Trafalgar instead of commemorating the fight,
for the jug had “got it in the neck” and had lost its handle. As the
printing was all there I decided to salve it, and after going into dry
dock it came out looking quite spick and span. Dampness, followed by
a spell of hard frost, penetrating where it was berthed, shivered its
timbers, and so you see the paint and enamel coming off. I give this as
a warning to any collector who may pay about half a sovereign to get a
piece of old pottery overhauled to ever after keep it in a warm, dry
place and not to touch it unless compelled.
MASK JUGS (_See_ Plate XXXIV)
My advice is, it you can buy old jugs like these two at a reasonable
price, do so. You would not be able to see the handle of the one which
faces the audience if it were in profile, for some “daft budy” had
knocked it off before I came along.
DELFT (_See_ Plate XXXV)
An amateur will find it difficult to get to know this when he finds
it, but he will find it still more difficult to find it before he gets
it. I think something of what I have, especially one 9-inch plate with
coloured design, Liverpool Fazakerley pattern, and someone must have
thought quite a lot of it before I gave a shilling for it, as they went
to the trouble of breaking it and to the expense of having the pieces
fastened together again with seventeen rivets. The two other coloured
plates are not yet identified, while the hand-painted blue plate is
semi-porcelain. The French candlestick, richly decorated by hand, bears
the mark of Widow Perrin, of Marseilles, 1770. It was sold to me as
a sauce-boat, and when I enquired the meaning of the chimney in the
centre was answered, “How should I know?”
A large Bristol Delft dish, blue painted, figures at the top of the
pictorial pottery on Plate XXXVI.
Twentieth-century Dutch delft is not antique; I have been where it was
in the making in Holland and seen it on sale in old shops in England.
ROCKINGHAM (BROWN) (_See_ Plate XXXIII)
I am fortunate in having a Cadogan pot impressed “Rockingham,” as
by comparing I believe I have only included brown ware made at this
factory. Brown “Rockingham” snuff-taker jugs have been made elsewhere
by the thousand.
LUSTRE (_See_ Plate XXXIII)
I have chosen for this group what I consider the best of my bunch,
which consists of gilt, copper, silver, lake, brown, and yellow
lustres. The only marked one shows that J. Aynsley was using lustre
about 1800. My largest copper lustre jug bears the first owner’s
initials, “W.P., 1823,” while the silver lustre cannon is lettered
“Battle of Wagram, 1806,” so I can only surmise that most of these
exhibits were made in the first half of the nineteenth century. The
main difference between the modern and old lustre ware is usually
noticeable on the bottom of the pieces, the finish of the old being
more carefully executed.
WOOD, ENOCH AND RALPH (_See_ Plate XXXII)
All students or collectors of old pottery will be anxious to have
authentic representations of the work of these early potters. I was
lucky in having the bust of Whitfield given to me, and I am convinced
this is genuine. I have tried to procure Enoch Wood’s companion bust of
Wesley, but the two I have had offered were reproductions, the features
not being so sharp and the impress mark blurred and indistinct. Ralph
Wood had a great reputation as an engraver of moulds, and this is
certainly justified by my large light blue enamelled jug, impressed
“Wood.” I also show an early brown printed plate impressed “Wood”
beside the word “Ivory,” which plate will probably be contemporary with
the Wedgwood “Pearl.”
BROWN AND BUFF STONEWARE (_See_ Plate XXXIV)
The Doulton Jubilee Jug dated 1887 is probably the most modern of the
pieces photographed, but the small jug next it will make up for the
matter of age if it is Old Fulham, as I believe it to be. The jug with
hunting scenes in relief is stamped Copeland, while the small “salt”
with lion-head ends is by W. Briddon, and would be made in Chesterfield
about 1770. This and the Fulham jug are salt glaze.
I have omitted to include a Spode buff mug with lion-head handle and
blue rim giving “Wellington, with soldiers and a cannon” (9.2 in.),
also a Continental tree with huge leaves in white relief commemorating
the Battle of Vittoria, 1813.
TRANSFER PRINTING
Anyone interested in the evolution of this art would find in my
collection enough specimens to point out the advancement as time went
on, and evidence that not many years elapsed before the printing was
all that it need to be. My earliest example is an irregular wavy edged
7½-inch plate, the glaze of which looks like thin tin enamel, and over
this glaze there is a quaint picture of a woman and child in a garden
under a palm tree, of course. To add to the impression that this is
a very early effort at stipple printing on pottery there is a white
line running nearly across the print, denoting the paper had either
been torn or the blue ink had not entirely covered it. The plate is
crazed all over like a fine spider’s web. The sauce-boat described on
Plate XXXVI as printed over the glaze, probably dates next, and then
must come a study of a 10-inch cream-coloured ware soup-plate. This
is not among the pieces photographed, as I have only just discovered
its peculiarities, which, now they have secured my attention, strike
me as remarkable. It is the heaviest plate of its size I have, and
weighs 1 lb. 9 oz.; it is well made, and is in good preservation. It
is printed over the glaze with fern leaves and common English flowers,
like poppies, lilies, and harebells, the stalks and foliage in green
transfer, while the flowers are enamelled red and yellow by hand. With
difficulty I have made out the mark to be an impressed crown, and
this, together with the colour of the ware, satisfies me that it is
an early piece of Herculaneum. It was pushed on to me nine years ago
by a dealer, instead of a shilling change out of a sovereign, with
the remark, “Perhaps you would rather take that plate,” and I did not
wish to disappoint him by declining anything he desired to be rid of.
Readers will do well not to miss any transfer printing over the glaze,
and the search for it will keep them busy.
NOTES ON THE GROUPS
I now come to the arranging of the groups of the many jugs and pieces
which I know are worthy of being shown, and I find I am up against
the difficulty caused by so few of the makers marking their wares.
The advantages of the markings on pottery are twofold. In the first
place, you get a guide to the age of the piece, also an idea of the
class of work the maker mainly went in for. Secondly, you can guess
at the age fairly well of pieces made by other makers who copied the
designs. By the Cottage Jug I know I have some Whieldon, but how much
more I cannot say, so I shall confine my efforts in this direction to
the endeavour to make the photographs a guide as to age, and I believe
I can show that the period from 1750 to 1850 is covered. The style
of the earliest specimens is so pronounced there is little difficulty
in picking them out. The large jug with a farm-house painted on it
bears on the front, “T. Clare, 1805,” which helps me to fix the date
of others with somewhat similar handpainting. Then the illustrations
give a clue, for instance, the Duke of Wellington and General Hill,
Nelson and Hardy, Princess Royal and Prince of Prussia, Queen Caroline
of England, pictures of the stage coach, prize-fighting, cock-fighting,
the first railway trains, Disraeli and the Earl of Derby, Gladstone
and John Bright, George IVth died 1830, Grace Darling died 1842, and,
to end the list happily, a plate, cup, and saucer printed in green,
“Commemorating Sir W. W. Wynn attaining his majority 1841.”
Photographic readers may be interested to know that I have used the
same set of shelves for the pottery that I used for the metal subjects,
but covered with brown paper for the former and white for the latter.
A few of the light blue items are rather disappointing; these, of
course, required less exposure than the darker colours, but I could
not separate them all from the groups to which they belong. The groups
have required six negatives, but they have had eight exposures. After
the first six operations I sent the three slides to my developer, who
reported Numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 as “quite good,” but Numbers 5 and 6
had “no plates in them,” so the result failed to reach the high pitch
of efficiency to which I had aspired. The groups had to be rearranged
another day, and the slides chanced to be filled that time.
PRETTY POETRY PRINTED ON POTTERY
Parents are advised, before compelling their children to commit the
following gems from the jugs to memory, to insist on their repeating
aloud the above title rapidly but accurately until they or their
children are, so to speak, fed up.
On an “Oddfellows’ jug,” which holds about a gallon:
Behold, Behold the Upright Band,
In virtue’s path go hand in hand,
They shun each ill, they do no wrong,
Strict honour does to them belong.
On a Sunderland jug, giving view of “Bridge over the River Wear”:
Glide on my Bark, the Summer’s tide,
Is gently flowing side by side,
Around thy prow the waters bright,
In circling rounds of broken light,
Are glittering as if Ocean gave,
Her countless gems to deck the wave.
On a Sunderland jug, with picture of ship in full sail, titled, “True
Love from Hull”:
Kindly take this gift of mine,
The gift and giver I hope is thine,
And though the value is but small,
A Loving heart is worth it all.
On a Sunderland “Frog mug,” showing a black print of a man-of-war with
all sails set:
THE FAIRY OF THE SEA
Ther’s a frigate on the waters,
Fit for Battle’s storm or fun,
She dances like a Lifeboat,
Though she carries Flag and Gun,
What ’er may try, she’ll stand the test,
The brave, the staunch, the free,
She bears a name of stainless fame,
The Fairy of the Sea.
On a jug with print, touched up with colours, of a tavern called:
THE JOLLY BOATMEN
Let none John Barleycorn despise,
He makes the drooping spirits rise,
Then drink till all are satisfied,
But reason ever be your guide.
On a Queen Caroline jug:
May Loyal George and Caroline,
Agree to rule our nation,
And peace and happiness combine,
In every rank and station.
On a Staffordshire milk-bowl with a black printed farm scene:
GOD SPEED THE PLOUGH
We plough the fertile meadows,
And sow the furrow’d land,
But yet the waving harvest,
Depends on God’s own hand,
It is His mercy give us
The sunshine and the rain,
That paints in verdant beauty,
The mountain and the plain.
Success to the Farmer.
On a Liverpool jug bearing a representation of “Charity”:
SUCCESS TO COMMERCE AND TRADE
The watery grave now opens,
All dreadful from below,
When the waves move the Sea,
And the stormy winds do blow,
But when the danger’s over,
And safe we come on shore,
The horrors of the tempest,
We think of them no more.
On a Staffordshire jug, probably made by Daniels, and transfer printed
with a picture of an old dandy, who has a paper headed “Oracle” on his
knee, and whom the artist has crowned with a wig that would stuff a
furnish-on-the-hire-system settee:
Long may we live,
Happy may we be,
Blessed with content,
And from misfortunes free.
On a small plate with a rim edged with red, which carries the alphabet
in raised letters, I see a quaint print of two men, one holding his hat
in his hand, the other has his right hand thrust in his vest, while the
left is in the flap pocket of his knee breeches. There is, of course,
a cow, one sheep, and a lamb. In the background there is a thatched
roof covering some house from out of which a lady, who appears to have
donned her shop-soiled sables, has brought into the road a stool and
a spinning-wheel. She is sitting on the former while she works the
latter. It is a quiet road, and no motors are anticipated. The artist
has wonderfully conveyed the idea that they are having a very warm
time, and that the “Johnnies” are having a heated argument; further,
it is the fly season, or why is the cow whisking her tail? It is a
peaceful scene, for not a leaf stirs, and it is small wonder that the
author has been carried away from his object, which was to report that
at the top of the illustration there is printed:
POOR RICHARD’S MAXIMS
“Fly pleasure and it will follow you; the diligent spinner has a large
shirt.”
While at the foot every child can read:
“Now I have a sheep and a cow everybody bids me good morrow.”
So I conclude the diligent spinner whose hands are hidden by his
clothing is bothered by too large a shirt on this hot day, and that
he is such a super-diligent spinner that he sees his wife does the
spinning while he swanks about counting the cow, sheep, and lamb, and
is accosted by an indigent acquaintance who is anxious to negotiate a
loan--hence the heated argument.
WILLOW PATTERN (_See_ Plate XXXVII)
Of course, everyone knows the Willow Pattern; if not, they fancy
they do, and it was only natural that the first old looking dish I
met with I bought. It was marked “stoneware K. & B.”; there was also
a small cross in blue. I couldn’t find “K. & B.” in the book I then
had, but I found a cross was a Bristol mark, so I concluded the dish
was old Bristol, whereas it would be made by Knight and Bridgewood in
Staffordshire. Then I bought other Willow Pattern plates and dishes,
some marked on the back and some not, and found there were no two
actually alike. On reference I found that the Willow Pattern was the
original design of Thomas Minton, made for Thomas Turner, of Caughley,
so I turn(er)ed to my guide books to look for a reproduction of the
genuine picture, and I found each author showed photographs which
differed in many particulars, but some specially recommended marks “C”
or “S” and I surmise that we may take it that “C” is the most original
of all the originals.
As I was growing older every day, and wished to solve this
Anglo-Chinese problem for the benefit of a bewildered brain, I rambled
farther afield, and at last discovered a dish marked “S,” this being
the mark of the Salopian works which were early in the market with this
remarkable design. When I found another dish marked “S,” I exchanged
two of my mongrels for it, and I repeated this bargain when I found a
third. I use the word “bargain” from the shopkeepers’ point of view,
as they would by my generous treatment receive double from their sale
than they had previously expected. One of them told me I was too
good-natured ever to be well off, and I think he was a man of keen
perception of character, but it is disconcerting if a bank-book can be
revealed by the face, or by the old Burberry worn on the back. Having
a trio of the genuine article, each one “bought” at different places,
on comparing I found the pictures identical, although the blue varied
slightly, and so I recommend the reader, if he is interested in this
grave question, to study Plate XXXVII.