beauty and lesson of it make one long to tell it till every American
china-manufacturer learns to read between the lines the story of
personal supervision, patient trial, unwearied labor, honest ambition,
and liberal broadness that made his life a success and his productions a
delight. Miss Meteyard and Mr. Jewitt have given it in careful detail,
and every word is of keenest interest and importance to the china
collector. From these books, and from the beautiful volumes of
engravings and photographs of Wedgwood ware preserved in English
collections, the American china hunter can learn, if not from the
specimens themselves.
A few of the Wedgwood cameo medallions are found in America. Wedgwood
sent as a gift to Thomas Jefferson three exquisite medallions; two were
oval and one oblong in shape. They were in blue and white jasper, with
mythological designs. The largest was twelve inches long and six inches
wide, and bore the lovely design of Cupid and Psyche with troops of
attending loves. Jefferson had them set in the front of a mantel in a
room at Monticello, and one of them dropped out and was destroyed before
the family sold the house. The others were picked or cut out and stolen.
Mrs. Ellen Harrison, the oldest living descendant of Jefferson, tells me
that during a visit to Monticello, some years before the present owner
took possession, she found on the floor a tiny bit of blue jasper
showing the foot and leg of one of the loves. Thus did this English
cherub cast from his feet the dust of an inartistic and relic-hunting
nation of vandals. Oh, the pity that things so beautiful could be so
wantonly destroyed! Would that everything that Wedgwood made had been
endowed with qualities of immortality and indestructibility to live
forever as lessons and examples for future generations of potters.
Occasionally a jasper medallion is found here with Wedgwood’s famous
anti-slavery design, a kneeling slave with fetters falling from his
hands, and the motto, “Am I not a Man and a Brother?” Dr. Darwin says
that “Wedgwood distributed many hundreds of these to excite the humane
to attend to and assist in the abolition of the detestable traffic in
human creatures.”
“Whether, O friend of art, the gem you mould
Rich with new taste, with ancient virtue bold,
Or the poor tortur’d slave on bended knee,
From Britain’s sons imploring to be free.”
Many found their way to America and a few are still preserved.
Occasionally also a rich dessert-service of old Wedgwood ware is seen.
Two superb ones were brought across the water by a sea-captain at the
beginning of this century and landed at Hudson, N. Y. A fair young bride
saw and coveted one of these china treasures, but stern and frugal
parents were horrified at the thought of spending seventy dollars for
such an unnecessary luxury. The bridegroom, Silas E. Burraws, at a later
date the starter of the monument to the mother of Washington, more
extravagant and more indulgent, bought it as a wedding gift. It is
“queen’s ware” of the rich blue, red, and gold design which is known
among American dealers as “Queen Charlotte’s pattern.” The fruit dishes
and comports are of the unique and perfect shapes often found in
Wedgwood ware. I have seen a single plate of this pattern in a shop
labelled with the price “thirty dollars.” The price given for a similar
one in the South Kensington Museum was four pounds. I know also of one
or two dinner services of yellow Wedgwood ware, with the vine and grape
border in white, early works of Wedgwood, clear and firm in outline and
beautiful in quality.
The frail fluted bowl, the graceful pitcher with twisted handle, and the
fragile creamer of queen’s ware shown on page 1 are all Wedgwood of
lovely shape and so thin and delicate a paste, that it is wonderful that
they have been safely preserved for a hundred years outside a
collector’s cabinet, and stranger still, have been used upon the
tea-table of a country home.
[Illustration: Castleford Teapot.]
A pottery was founded at Castleford in 1770, and black basalt ware, much
like Wedgwood’s, was made, and white stone-ware which must have been
imported to this country in vast quantity, for specimens are not rare. A
teapot commonly seen is here shown. It is found both in black basalt, a
curious brown ware, and salt-glazed cream ware. Special raised work
designs of the figure of Liberty and the American eagle were used, and
the sugar-bowls, creamers, and teapots bearing such designs were
doubtless made entirely for this market. The white surface of Castleford
ware was frequently divided into compartments by raised lines which were
colored blue or green. Teapots were made with lids hinged on metal pins,
or with sliding lids, and were exceedingly pretty and convenient. They
are often called Wedgwood, as are also pieces of Castleford black ware.
VI.
ENGLISH PORCELAINS IN AMERICA
As soon as porcelain was manufactured to any extent in England it was
exported to America. The _Boston Evening Post_ of November, 1754,
advertised “a variety of Bow China Cups and Saucers and Bowls,” and
other sales of Bow china were made, and special pieces also brought
across the ocean to wealthy Americans. Specimens of Plymouth and Bow
china may still be occasionally found in America, but any such that have
been preserved and gathered into private collections can be positively
identified only by comparison with authenticated and marked pieces in
public collections. It would be impossible to give any definite Bow
marks. The stamp or design of the anchor and dagger is popularly
considered proof that the piece thus marked is Bow. The triangle,
formerly regarded as a positive Bow mark, now appears to have a rather
shaky reputation, and is as frequently assigned to Chelsea. The
character and shape of the ware, and the style of the decoration are
better grounds to base identification upon than any marks. Excavations
made upon the site of the old Bow china-works revealed much débris of
broken pieces of china, and these specimens afford the most positive
means of identifying the paste and ornamentation. An account of these
discoveries was given in the _Art Journal_ of 1869. All the fragments
found were of porcelain, milky-white in color, and relatively heavy for
the thickness; some were ornamented in relief, with the May flower or
hawthorn; with a little sprig of two roses and a leaf on a stalk; with
the basket pattern; or with vertical bands overlaid with scrolls. Some
were painted in blue under the glaze with Chinese landscapes, flowers,
and figures. All were hand-painted, none were printed. These hints may
serve as guides in the detection and identification of Bow china.
I have seen in America cups and saucers painted with the partridge
pattern, which I believe are Bow, though the same pattern is found on
Worcester and Plymouth china. The well-known and exceedingly valuable
goat milk-jugs that, after forming for years the immovable standard from
which streamed defiantly the flag of Bow, are now calmly turned over to
Chelsea. These creamjugs are ornamented with two white goats in relief
at the base, and a bee is modelled on the front under the nose. The
handle is rustic with raised flowers. These jugs often have the triangle
mark. Some are painted with flowers, others are plain white porcelain.
Mr. Jewitt says they were sometimes made without the raised bee, but I
have never seen such an one. Two of these Bow jugs were in the
Strawberry Hill collection.
A very excitable young woman came rushing home one cold winter day, in
New York, with a demand for the “china books.” She had seen in an
antique shop, such a funny and pretty little pitcher, with a raised bee
on it, and she was sure that there was a picture of it somewhere in the
books—and she found it in Mr. Prime’s book on pottery and porcelain—a
Bow goat cream-jug. Well, it snowed, and was cold, and was late in the
afternoon, and the confident young collector deferred a purchasing visit
till the following morning. Alas! such a sickening disappointment—some
miserable despoiler had chanced to “drop in” on his way up-town and had
carried off the treasure. Worse still, the small boy who had sold it did
not know the purchaser’s name.
[Illustration: Plymouth Salt-cellar. Bow “Goat Cream-Jug.”]
Deeply did she mourn her ignorance, her indecision, her indolence, her
carelessness. The opportunity of a lifetime had thus been lost, to have
a goat cream-jug such as was sold at the Cother sale in London, in 1876,
for twenty-five pounds, to have such a jug offered for the paltry sum of
one dollar, and to refuse it—not to know enough to grasp such a
treasure. The bitterness of regret and of self-reproach nerved her to
action, and with the friendly and actively interested aid of the
antique-shop-boy, the jug-buyer was waylaid within a month’s time and
cajoled into reselling his purchase, which he did willingly enough. He
had bought it to keep his shaving brush in, because his father used to
keep his shaving brush in a similar one in England. With flecks of dried
shaving soap clinging to the goat’s horns, and mottling the bee’s wings,
she triumphantly brought her treasure home. It varies slightly in height
and by the turn of a leaf and twig from my Bow goat cream-jug, which
came from the Cavendish-Bentinck sale in London. The porcelain of the
New York captive of the chase is not so pure and clear and it may be of
Chelsea manufacture.
Another dainty piece of Bow found by a friend is a creamer or sauce-boat
of the overlapping leaf pattern. The handle is formed by a leaf stem;
raised flowers are at the base of the handle, and on the leaves flowers
are delicately painted. This is like Number “H. 12” in the Museum of
Practical Geology.
The beautiful tall coffee-pot here shown is Plymouth with embossed
surface and Chinese style of decoration in blue. Its cover was
destroyed, alas! by some careless Newburyport housewife. The salt-cellar
of pure unpainted porcelain on page 121 is undoubtedly Plymouth also,
being clearly marked. The design of vine leaves and grapes is very
delicate and perfect. The piece came from an old home in Baltimore.
Though Bristol china was manufactured only from the year 1768 to 1781,
and though pieces are rare and high-priced in England, it is possible to
obtain specimens in America. Perhaps some invoices of the ware of the
short-lived factory were sent to the new land by Richard Champion, the
founder of the Bristol Works, for he was an enthusiastic lover and
admirer of America. In the Trumbull-Prime Collection are a large number
of pieces classed as Bristol because they have the Bristol cross, but
not assigned definitely to that factory.
[Illustration: Plymouth Coffee-pot.]
The few Bristol pieces I have seen in American homes are portions of
tea-services, teapots being more plentiful than other forms. Some have
an imperfect or blistered glaze, but occasionally fine specimens are
found. It is impossible to state the value of Bristol china. In the
Governor Lyon sale there were two lovely Bristol cups and saucers
decorated with a heavy gold rim and oriental landscape in dark blue,
that sold for four dollars each. A plate with the same decoration
brought only a dollar and a half.
The most beautiful and interesting piece of Bristol porcelain in
existence is in America. It is owned by Mrs. James M. Davis, of Camden,
South Carolina. She is a great-granddaughter of Richard Champion and
inherited it from him. This lovely piece is a funerary design—a mourning
female figure leaning against a pedestal bearing a funeral urn. In one
hand she holds a wreath. The beauty of the figure, the grace of the
attitude, and the elegance of the drapery combine to make this statue
exceedingly exquisite. It was made by the English potter as a memorial
for his daughter, Eliza Champion, who died in early youth—a memorial
such as was tenderly though crudely suggested by the carefully made
burial urn of the Indian mother. The inscription is so simple and so
touching, and is couched in such quaint old-time diction that I copy it
in full.
ELIZA CHAMPION
Ob. XIII Octob. MDCCLXIX
AEtat XIV
Nat. XXI Mart. MDCCLXVI
On the cornice of the pedestal are the words:
“OSTENDENT TERRIS HANC TANTVM FATA NEC VLTRA ESSE SINENT.”
[Illustration: Bristol Memorial Figure.]
On the dado this inscription:
“We loved you, my dear Eliza, whilst you were with us. We lament you now
you are departed. The Almighty God is just and merciful, and we must
submit to His will with the Resignation and Reverence becoming human
frailty. He has removed you, Eliza, from the trouble which has been our
Lot, and does not suffer you to behold the Scenes of horror and distress
in which these devoted Kingdoms must be involved. It is difficult to
part with our beloved Child, though but for a season. Yet our Interest
shall not be put into competition with her felicity, and we will even
bear her Loss with Chearfulness. Happy in each other, we were happy in
you, Eliza, and will with contented minds cherish your memory till the
period arrives, when we shall all again meet and Pain and Sorrow shall
be thought of no more. R.C.—I.C.”
On the plinth lines altered from Book I., Ode XXIV., of Horace are
printed thus:
(QVIS DESIDERIO SIT PVDOR AVT MODVS
TAM CHARI CAPITIS?—
—CVI PVDOR, ET JVSTITIAE SOROR
INCORRVPTA FIDES, NVDAQVE VERITAS
QVANDO VLLAM INVENIENT PAREM?
DVRVM! SED LAEVIUS FIT PATIENTIA,
QVICQVID CORRIGERE EST NEFAS.)
On the base:
“THIS TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF AN AMIABLE GIRL WAS INSCRIBED ON HER
COFFIN THE 16TH OF OCTOBER, 1779, BY A FATHER WHO LOVED HER.”
Who could read, even after a century’s time, this beautiful and tender
tribute to the gentle young girl, who died so many years ago, without
feeling deep sympathy with the bereaved father, “who loved her?” The
unsuccessful worker and the patriot speak plainly also in the lines:
“He has removed you from the trouble which has been our Lot and does not
suffer you to behold the scenes of horror and distress in which these
devoted Kingdoms must be involved.”
Mrs. Davis also possessed some of the beautiful Bristol figures of
Spring, Summer, and Winter, and she patriotically sent them for
exhibition at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, in 1876. Like
many another rare and beautiful article sent confidingly there at that
time, they were never returned to their owner. This loss must have been
hard to endure with patience, not only from the historical and
hereditary value and interest of the pieces, but also because the
previous year duplicate pieces of Bristol were sold in London for £54
each.
One of the most beautiful of Richard Champion’s productions in England
or America is the medallion plaque of Franklin, described in Chapter
XIV.
Mr. Owen’s description of Bristol china is very clear and concise. “The
pieces are graceful in form and well moulded, the flowers brilliant in
colour and skilfully painted; and the gilding, bright though
unburnished, is of that particularly rich and solid character that
always distinguished the manufacture. Though it often bears Dresden
marks, and is moulded in Dresden shapes, the quality of the paste is so
different that it is easily distinguished from the Dresden. The glaze is
rich and creamy white, while the Dresden has a cold, glassy surface.”
[Illustration: Crown Derby Covered Dish.]
Crown Derby is seldom picked up by the china hunter—never I believe in
country homes in New England. Near New York a few rare pieces have been
found. Miss Henrietta D. Lyon, of Staten Island, has part of an
exceedingly rich and elegant Crown Derby dinner service painted in
delicate colors and gold, one covered dish of which is here shown. The
gilding and painting upon these pieces is in the highest style of
artistic beauty and dexterity. They bear the mark used at the Derby
factory from 1784 to 1796.
The most common piece offered to the china hunter in New England is what
is known as the willow-pattern ware. It was made first by Thomas Turner,
at Caughley, in 1780. He manufactured both pottery and porcelain. I
often have wished that he had never invented that willow-pattern. I have
had it thrust in my face for purchase until I could scarcely bear to
look at it. I have had visions of dainty Bow, Bristol, and Plymouth
china brought before me through vivid but uncertain description, only to
come face to face with more printed willow-pattern. I should imagine
that a large proportion of all that ever was made was sent to America.
And it has been made in vast quantities, too, for it has been certainly
the most popular pattern ever printed anywhere on stone-ware or
porcelain. Mr. Jewitt says: “Early examples bearing the Caughley
mark—the cups without handles and ribbed and finished precisely like the
Oriental, are rare.” Of course they are, in England, but not in America;
as the prices prove at the Governor Lyon sale. Old willow-pattern plates
sold there for one dollar each.
Pieces of willow-pattern ware are often of astounding age and fabulous
value. Forty dollars is the favorite price that knowing country owners
assert they can get in the city for their willow-pattern platters. I
have a favorite formula which I always use in answer to these aspiring
traders—my “willow-pattern answer.” I reply, gravely, “Yes, that pattern
is priceless.” It does not mean anything and it pleases them, and if you
told them that the platter was worth about two or three dollars they
would look upon you as a swindler. Modern willow-pattern ware is also
offered at fancy valuations. I have never been able to decide whether an
old farmer who brought two willow-ware plates about a year old to sell
to me, assuring me (though they bore the visible mark and stamp of
modern production) that “this old crockery had been in his fam’ly more’n
a hundred year”—I have never decided whether that ingenuous bucolic were
a deep-dyed swindler or the innocent tool of some crafty sharper. I
answered him soberly with my patent “willow-pattern answer”—“That
pattern is priceless,” and he went away hugging his antiques with
delight. I have seen within a year at a well-known dealer’s in New York,
a modern willow-pattern platter upon which was pasted this printed
inscription: “This platter belonged to Miles Standish, and was often
used by him, and is therefore very rare and of great historical value.”
This was an auction label cut from the catalogue of a sale, and the
dealer let it remain as a joke for the knowing ones, and possibly as a
bait for the unsophisticated.
“The Broseley Blue Dragon” and the “Broseley Blue Canton” pieces and
their imitations are frequently found. These patterns were also made at
the Caughley or Salopian Works. The “cabbage leaf jugs” came from that
manufactory.
I have never been able to understand why the willow-pattern should have
been so much more popular than the Blue Dragon. The latter is certainly
very handsome and consistent, or rather congruous throughout, while the
willow-pattern is neither “fish nor fowl nor good red herring”—it is not
English, and it is certainly not wholly Oriental. The color is good, as
was all blue at that time.
At a later date than the reign of Lowestoft on “company” dinner tables
in New England, the fine “best tea china” of well-to-do people was
English porcelain of copper-lustre and pink and green decoration. Many
of these pretty lustre sets are still preserved and can be bought of
country owners. A terrible blow has been dealt, however, to the desire
to purchase such wares by the fact that modern reproductions showing
equal beauty of color and similar designs have appeared in large numbers
within the past two years. Pitchers of pottery, “prankt in faded antique
dress” of light brown or pinkish purple lustres are now manufactured.
They bear no marks and cannot be distinguished from the old ones—and are
just as good, perhaps, for every one but a china hunter. The solid
lustre teapots, sugar-boxes, and pitchers—copper-colored, brownish
lustre or silver on a pottery ground, have not, so far as I know, been
reproduced. On many pieces the lustre is diversified by a pretty design
in white, sometimes in relief or by painted flowers. The finest old
pitcher of this ware that I have ever seen bore a graceful embossed
design which was decorated upon the highest reliefs in pink, green, and
gold lustre. This was positively affirmed to be part of the Mayflower
cargo. Most of these lustre pieces are unmarked, hence it is impossible
to assign them to any factory. A few of them, the clearest and purest in
paste, and most delicate in decoration are New Hall, for I have plates
so marked. The stamp is a cursive New Hall not enclosed in a ring. This
stamp is not given in English books of stamps and marks. Mr. Jewitt says
such pieces are rare in England. They certainly have not been rare in
New England. Some of the lustre pieces may be assigned to Newcastle. The
Woods also manufactured them, while at Shelton were made pieces with
lustre borders and black printed designs signed “Bentley, Weare and
Bourne, Engravers and Printers, Shelton, Staffordshire.”
I have never seen a dinner set of lustre ware—only tea-sets, comprising
usually a teapot, sugar-box, creamer, bowl, a dozen tea-plates (often of
different design and paste), two cake-plates, a dozen cups and saucers,
and sometimes a dozen little cup-plates. Salt-cellars, pepper-boxes, and
mustard-pots of similar lustre are seen, and sometimes wine-glasses, or
rather wine-cups—but never any of the pieces of dinner services.
Pitchers appear in various sizes. The china is usually clear and fine in
quality, but the design is often confused. A few punch-bowls of
copper-lustre on coarse pottery have also been found in New England, but
are curious rather than beautiful.
I have never been able to add to my collection, through china hunting,
but one piece of Worcester porcelain, the one shown on page 29, nor have
I ever seen in a country home a piece of Chelsea, Coalport, Pinxton, or
Nantgawr porcelain, and but one set of Spode, which was seized from an
English vessel by a Yankee privateersman in the war of 1812, and brought
triumphantly into Salem Harbor. Nor, may I add, have I ever seen a piece
of pottery or porcelain of Continental manufacture, save Delft. For any
porcelain save that made in China and England, American collectors must
turn to china dealers.
VII.
LIVERPOOL AND OTHER PRINTED WARE
At the end of the past and beginning of the present century, great
numbers of cream-colored pottery pitchers and mugs were printed in
England with various designs and were sent to the United States for
sale. These pieces were advertised in early Federal days, and are known
as “yellow ware” and Liverpool ware, and are found in seaport towns on
the Atlantic coast, especially in New England. Many bore mottoes,
inscriptions, likenesses, and views relating to America and the
celebrated Americans of the time, and thus form interesting mementos of
the wars of the Revolution and of 1812. I have never seen a Liverpool
pitcher in an inland country home, nor have I ever had one offered to me
for sale in an inland town, either in a private home or an antique shop.
The reasons for this are very simple: many of them were brought to
America by Yankee sailors and sailing-masters who lived, as a rule, in
seaport towns, and importations of these pitchers were not transported
inland in ante-railroad days with the facility and safety that we find
possible nowadays; and, best reason of all, nine-tenths of them with
their ornamentation of ships and brigs and ropes and anchors were made
to tickle the fancy of a seafaring man, and did not appeal to the
sentiment of a land-lubber of a farmer.
It is always a great delight to the inland-dwelling and novelty-seeking
china hunter when she enters a low, single-storied seaside home, and
spies on the mantelpiece a creamy Naval or Sailor pitcher flanked by a
carved Indian idol and an elaborate model of the “Nimble Nine-pence,”
the “Belisarius,” or the “Three Wives” (named by one stanch old widower
after he was married to wife number four). Her joy is, as a rule,
quickly turned to lamentation, for the housewife who values her
Liverpool pitcher enough to place it on her parlor mantel, will never be
“willing to part with it.” And here let me render my thanks to the
American merchant service. Blessings on those dead and gone old
seafaring Yankees who risked their lives on the stormy seas and brought
home “behind their wooden walls” the variety and wealth of china and
crockery that have descended to us, a pathetic reminder of the weary
watch on deck and the homesick hours in cabin or forecastle.