(1760-1820) 1766 Goldsmith's _Vicar of Wakefield_.
1768 Sir Joshua Reynolds first president of the Royal
Academy.
1775 The American War.
1777 Sheridan's _School for Scandal_.
1779 Gainsborough at the height of his fame.
1782 The Independence of the United States recognised.
1786 Gillray's caricatures commenced to appear.
1790 Burke's _Reflections on the French Revolution_.
1791 Burns's _Tam O' Shanter_.
1792 Thomas Paine's _Age of Reason_.
1795 War with Holland. Capture of the Cape of
Good Hope.
1801 Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
CHAPTER V
EARLY STAFFORDSHIRE WARE
THOMAS WHIELDON:
HIS CONTEMPORARIES AND HIS SUCCESSORS
The forerunners of Whieldon--The position of Staffordshire
Ware--Whieldon as a potter--Early Staffordshire Art--The rivalry
with salt glaze--Form _versus_ Colour--The last years of the
Eighteenth century--The English spirit--Prices.
"Early Staffordshire" is a generic term used to include much of the
unknown ware of the early period between about 1720 to 1760. It is not
early enough to go back to the butter-pot days of Charles II. nor to
include the school of Toft and his contemporaries, with their quaint
native humour. But it is an important period when earthenware was in a
transitional stage. It is, in fact, the period when Staffordshire may
be regarded as the great nursery of potters in swaddling clothes who
came into their majority later with full honours.
The chronological table at the head of this chapter shows the great
events that were shaping the destiny of this country, and, in politics,
in art, and in letters, it must be admitted that the age of Anne and
the first two Georges was prolific enough in incident. It was during
the greater portion of the first half of the eighteenth century that
English earthenware was finding itself. Attempts at classification
nearly always leave the borders overlapping. In trying to gather in our
net a band of representative potters with work peculiarly illustrative
of this period which was essentially English--as English as Toft--but
progressing towards something that should stand as worthy of our art,
several great potters, such as the Woods, have escaped, and will be
treated separately later. It must be granted that the influence of
the Whieldon school was not obliterated even by the great rise of the
classic school of design as exemplified by Wedgwood, Turner, and Adams.
The strong English robustness and the national insularity of design
never wholly died out in the eighteenth century. It was eclipsed by
classic frigidities from across the Alps, and it suffered discomfiture
from the rococo insipidities from France first naturalised at Chelsea
and at Derby. But it lingered in the hearts of the common people like
the tunes of some of the old ballads in spite of the fashions of Gluck
and of Handel. Thus it comes to pass that, side by side with the
Iphigenias, the Andromaches, the Venuses, the Minervas, and the other
esoteric personages from among the gods and goddesses of Olympus,
with their accompaniment of foreign fauns and satyrs, there were the
very English (founded on Gillray and Rowlandson), almost Rabelaisian,
grotesques in the army of Toby Jugs and the sporting, rural, nautical,
historic, commemorative, and satiric jugs and mugs and figures, with
English doggerel and with idiosyncrasies enough to make our earthenware
essentially national.
[Illustration:
WHIELDON WARE CAULIFLOWER TEAPOT.
With vivid green and yellow colouring.
TORTOISESHELL WARE PLATES.
Richly glazed, producing clouded and mottled effects.
(_At Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
Unfortunately in the early days it is impossible with any degree
of certainty to assign many of these older pieces to any particular
potter. The collector can only lament "the iniquity of oblivion blindly
scattering her poppy," as Sir Thomas Browne puts it. It is without
doubt rightly believed that Thomas Whieldon had a great and lasting
influence upon the potters of his generation, but his own actual work
has been swallowed up by the covering phrase "Whieldon ware," which,
like "Elers ware" and "Astbury ware," has come to mean a good many
things, and these are names of types rather than persons.
=The forerunners of Whieldon.=--It is necessary briefly to recapitulate
the events immediately from the commencement of the eighteenth century
to the day when Whieldon established his status.
There was a continuous chain of potters working in Staffordshire from
the days of the Elers (1690-1710), to the period when Josiah Wedgwood
became a master potter on his own account in 1760; he was then thirty
years of age.
Wedgwood's own estimate of the Elers is interesting. Speaking of what
Elers did for Staffordshire he says, "It is now about eighty years
since Mr. Elers came amongst us ... the improvements made (by him) in
our manufactory were precisely these--glazing our common clays with
salt which produced _Pot d'grey_ or stoneware, and this after they had
left the country was improved into white stoneware by using the pipe
clay of this neighbourhood and mixing it with flint stones calcin'd and
reduced by pounding in to a fine powder."
There is not a word about Dwight in all this; evidently Josiah seems
not to have known of the legal action against Elers and one of his
own kinsmen amongst others. The invention of flint is an allusion to
Thomas Astbury about 1720, but Dwight also knew of this formula as his
recorded notes prove.
To continue, "The next improvement by Mr. Elers was the refining of
our common red clay by sifting and making it into tea and coffee ware
in imitation of the Chinese red porcelain by the casting it in plaster
moulds and turning it on the outside upon Lathes, and ornamenting it
with the tea branch in relief, in imitation of the Chinese manner of
ornamenting the ware. For these improvements--and very great ones they
were--we are indebted to the very ingenious Messrs. Elers, and I shall
gladly contribute all in my power to honour their memories and transmit
to posterity the knowledge of the obligations we owe to them."
This is in respect to a jasper medallion portrait of John Philip Elers.
Wedgwood is wrong in one or two particulars. The salt glaze question
is open to doubt, and most certainly Elers never used moulds for their
ware.
We give this as showing the continuity which existed between Elers
and Wedgwood, the latter certainly owed his application of the
ornamentation in relief to the method which Elers had introduced into
Staffordshire. We do not say invented, because there is always Dwight
standing in the background.
To give Elers his due he certainly set Staffordshire talking and
wondering, and he unwittingly filled Twyford and Astbury with new ideas
which they were not slow to adopt. Astbury comes as the echo which
Elers left behind in Staffordshire, a substantial enough echo, for
Astbury took his master's ideas and created a ware with white stamped
ornaments in relief, to which his own name is given as a generic term.
John Astbury the elder died in 1743, and Thomas, his son, commenced
potting as early as 1723. And the Astburys rub shoulders with Thomas
Whieldon, whose apprentice and sometime partner (1752-1758) was Josiah
Wedgwood.
It will thus be seen that Thomas Whieldon (1740-1780) came upon the
scene in the history of the Staffordshire potteries when the art was in
a somewhat transitional stage. New fields were opening and new ideas
developing that were shortly to bring English pottery into line with
that on the Continent.
=The position of Staffordshire Ware.=--It is necessary to show the
stage at which English pottery had arrived in order to place Whieldon
aright and to show the various impulses which led to the outburst of
potting which stirred Staffordshire. Stoneware in crude form or in
highly finished foreign style in Cologne ware had been gaining ground
since Tudor days. Later the use of delft had won favour and was still
in full swing at Lambeth, at Bristol, and at Liverpool when Whieldon
commenced potting. It had also become acclimatised in Staffordshire.
Toft's and other slip ware was contemporary with delft as a native art.
And now, looking forward, we see the oncoming triumph of stoneware, in
its finely potted and highly artistic Staffordshire form, which was
to overthrow delft and slip ware, and in turn be stamped out by the
utilitarian cream ware of Whieldon's apprentice, Josiah Wedgwood, who
built up his fortune at Etruria on this domestic ware.
The Whieldon period (1740-1780) was an important one in ceramic events.
In 1744 Bow commenced to make porcelain. In 1745 is the earliest dated
piece of Chelsea porcelain, the year that the Pretender won the battle
of Preston Pans, near Edinburgh, and invaded England, bringing his
army as far as Derby. In 1750, Derby made earthenware, and in 1751
commenced to make porcelain, which is the same year in which Worcester
commenced a glorious record in the making of porcelain. Longton Hall,
Bristol, and Liverpool continued the same story, and transfer-printing
was practised at Worcester by Hancock on porcelain, and at Liverpool on
delft tiles by Sadler and Green. Lowestoft opened a kiln in 1756. Leeds
ware was made in 1760, and, finally, Wedgwood's queen's ware in 1762,
and four years before Whieldon gave up his work Wedgwood had invented
his jasper ware.
=Whieldon as a potter.=--Not a great deal is known of Whieldon's
personality. He must have commenced in a small way of business as he
tramped from place to place with specimens of his wares on his back in
pedlar fashion. But he became of considerable importance as he held the
office of High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1786, some six years after
he retired from his pottery. Whieldon numbered among his apprentices
some young men who afterwards became famous. There was Josiah Wedgwood,
who became his partner from 1753 to 1759, Josiah Spode, and William
Greatbach, Edge, Heath, Marsh, and there was Aaron Wood, who was
employed at Little Fenton for some time. On account of his apprentices
having become famous, it has been suggested that he was probably
indebted to them for much of his fame. On reflection it may possibly be
seen that the opposite conclusion may very well be true, and it is not
improbable that Wedgwood and Spode and Greatbach and the others owed a
considerable debt to Whieldon for having received a highly technical
training at his hands.
[Illustration:
TEAPOT, TORTOISESHELL WARE.
Embossed with hawthorn pattern.
(_At the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh._)]
[Illustration:
BOWL AND COVER, TORTOISESHELL WARE.
Embossed with floral pattern.
(_At the Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
In regard to cream ware, undoubtedly this was in an experimental stage,
and Whieldon in common with Astbury made those queer little figures
with yellow heads and red or yellow bases, but the tortoiseshell flown
colouring apparently denotes some of the specimens made by Whieldon.
He made salt glaze, he made tea and coffee pots with the Astbury
decorations, but with a strong leaning to the earlier Elers style in
his avoidance of too strong contrast between white pipe-clay ornament
on a dark body. Whieldon toned his ornaments with touches of his own in
green and yellow and brown. His solid agate ware and his tortoiseshell
and clouded wares, and his cauliflower ware have become so memorable in
the cabinets of collectors that they have won him fame, and he has in
consequence been credited with all specimens of these classes of ware.
We illustrate (p. 161) an example of the Whieldon _Cauliflower Teapot_
with vivid green and yellow colouring.
Of this early period, the fine group we illustrate (p. 171) with
a _coffee-pot_ of glazed red ware, a kaolin of deep cream colour
decorated in red, may not unreasonably be attributed to John Astbury,
while the little _Figure_ of flown colouring, with red base and brown
shoes, may be either by Whieldon or possibly by Thomas Astbury.
The "solid agate" of Whieldon is something far more artistic than the
combed ware of earlier days or the very rough attempts at solid agate
made by clumsier hands than his own prior to his experiments.
Surface decoration in imitation of agate had been produced by employing
two different coloured clays on the surface of a vessel, and when in a
wet state combing them to represent the desired veining of the stone
to be simulated. "Solid agate" is another process of placing layers of
clay of different colours and cutting them in section to show the bands
of colour. In Whieldon's hands the layers were thin and the waves and
twists, cut off the clay with a wire like cheese is cut, showed in the
finished result something more artistic than had ever been attempted
before. He made jugs and sauceboats, teapots, teapoys, and other table
utensils of this ware, including knife handles. No two pieces are
exactly alike, and there is a considerable variety in the breadth of
the veining and in the ware, some being intentionally coarser in order
to suit the subject potted.
There is no doubt that this ware, standing in a measure in a _cul
de sac_ of ceramic art, is highly effective, and Wedgwood used with
great skill both the solid agate and the surface colour for his
ornamental pieces and vases of classic type, in imitation of granite,
Egyptian pebble, jasper, porphyry, and several kinds of agate. His
range of colour was more extended than that of Whieldon, but there is
little doubt that he gained his first knowledge of the properties and
possibilities of this variegated ware when he was with Whieldon.
Casting about for something equally effective with possibly less
technical difficulties, Whieldon evolved his celebrated clouded wares.
Here he took advantage of the new cream ware as a body, the surface
of which is splashed or sponged with various tints in imitation of
tortoiseshell, although many of the colours introduced depart from
tortoiseshell tones and introduce something fresh and original in
earthenware decoration.
[Illustration:
GROUP OF ASTBURY WARE.
KYLIN. Chiefly red and deep cream colour.
COFFEE POT. Glazed red ware.
FIGURE. Flown colouring, red base and brown shoes.
(_In the collection of Col. and Mrs. Dickson._)]
[Illustration:
AGATE CAT. (4 inches high.) Grey, with brown solid marbling,
and splashed with blue on body and ears.
SALT-GLAZED BEAR JUG. (Height 3-1/8 inches.)
(_In the collection of Mr. Robert Bruce Wallis._)]
There is the patent taken out by Redrich and Jones, Staffordshire
potters in 1724, for "staining, veining, spotting, clouding, or
damasking earthenware, to give it the appearance of various kinds of
marble, porphyry, and rich stones, as well as tortoiseshell." And
Ralph Wood, of Burslem, made variegated ware of a particular kind
which may well be termed "tesselated," as small pieces of tinted clay
were affixed or inlaid on the surface of vessels to be decorated, and
subsequently glazed. This mosaic work in imitation of granite was
employed also at Leeds.
To return to Whieldon. There is no doubt that he found this variegated
ware in a somewhat inchoate state in regard to technique, and the more
scientific exactitude which he employed has gained for his wares their
fame. We illustrate (p. 167) two fine examples of tortoiseshell ware, a
_Teapot_ embossed with hawthorn pattern design, and a finely decorated
_Bowl and Cover_ having a running floral pattern in relief.
The many coloured dessert plates, sometimes of octagonal shape, made
by Whieldon in this later mottled manner, in which the surface only is
decorated, are well known to collectors. In Whieldon's own examples the
potting is more perfect than in those of other potters. His plates are
to be recognised not only by their colour, but in the very subtle way
he has handled it. The deft touch of blue or yellow or green, has in
other hands become a patch of obvious crudity, striking a discordant
note at once. The deep grey octagonal plates by him are loved by
connoisseurs as exhibiting his subtlety at its best. We illustrate two
examples of this class of Whieldon tortoiseshell plates with rich brown
colouring flecked with green and yellow (see p. 161).
The mechanical mottling by his imitators, seemingly dabbed on in spots
by a sponge, should not be easy to distinguish after having seen one
of his best examples. In regard to the potting, Whieldon ware plates
have a flat broad rim, which almost invariably has a border of applied
strips laid crosswise.
But it must not be forgotten that, when once the fashion for "Whieldon
ware" became general, other potteries came into line. At Liverpool this
class of mottled and clouded ware was made, and also at the Castleford
pottery, near Leeds, and consequently many unmarked examples may be
attributed to these potteries. Some of the Castleford tortoiseshell
plates are impressed "D.D. & Co."
=Early Staffordshire Art.=--Among the earlier figures of the Astbury
pottery the elder Astbury worked from 1736 to 1743, and his son
continued his traditions later. There are a number of quadrupeds and
birds which are assigned by collectors to the elder Astbury, which
are, although crude, extremely interesting as showing the experiments
in coloured clays and in lead glazing. Agate figures of cats of
intermingled clays, and diminutive figures of men, some six inches
in height, with splashed or clouded decoration, all come into this
indeterminate period. The figure in the group (p. 171) already referred
to is a case in point.
In the illustration of a fine specimen of an agate cat, in height only
4 inches, the body colour is light grey with dark brown solid marbling,
and the front and ears are splashed with blue. Another miniature animal
figure belonging to this period is the salt-glaze jug in form of a
bear, only 3-1/8 inches high (see illustration, p. 171).
[Illustration:
WHIELDON TORTOISESHELL ANIMAL.
(_In the collection of Col. and Mrs. Dickson._)
SPLASHED CREAM WARE ELEPHANT.
(Staffordshire, about 1750. Height 3-3/4 inches.)
(_At British Museum._)]
[Illustration:
WHIELDON GROUP.
ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON. Knight in green and cream;
horse and base tortoiseshell.
EARLY STAFFORDSHIRE FIGURES. Old Women Hucksters.
(_In the collection of Mr. James Davies, Chester._)]
We illustrate two animals, one of the tortoiseshell variety, a beast of
formidable appearance and having considerable power in the modelling
and strongly suggestive of the jaguar, but it must be remembered that
beasts as depicted in contemporary books have an inclination towards
heraldic monsters such as "never were on land or sea." The splashed
cream ware elephant, only 3-3/4 inches in height, is fairly well
modelled. But these, in common with the many diminutive figures of a
like nature, belong to a period when Staffordshire was endeavouring to
found an English school of potters, blindly groping along in almost
untutored fashion--lame in design and feeble in inventiveness. From out
of this chaos it seems impossible that there should arise soul enough
to set the fashion later--nearly fifty years later--to the continent of
Europe, and make English earthenware the formidable rival in point of
cheapness, and often in point of beauty, to anything produced on the
Continent. But the earthenware of Staffordshire was able to teach new
points in technique concerning body and glaze to the continental potter.
In the illustration showing the group of _St. George and the Dragon_
it will be seen that the modelling begins to assume a more pretentious
character. The prevailing colours of the knight are green and cream,
the horse and the base of the group are of the familiar tortoiseshell
colouring. Beside this St. George are two early Staffordshire
figures representing two old women as hucksters. Here the feeling
is instinctively English, as national as are the Dutch beggars of
the seventeenth-century Dutch etchers. Pity it is that this class
of figure, recording national and local types, did not develop on
uninterrupted lines. It is true, and of these we shall speak later,
that the family of Wood in their types carried on the tradition, but
the unfortunate classic influence monopolised the talents of the best
modellers.
We illustrate two fine examples of _Toby Jugs_ belonging to the
Whieldon period. There is a strong family likeness between the two. The
left-hand one is richly glazed and mottled in tortoiseshell markings.
The other has the fine translucent colouring and glazing so noticeably
prominent in this school. They are both remarkably good specimens of
the Whieldon manner, and of unusual interest, as they represent the
Toby jug in its earliest form.
=The rivalry with Salt-glaze.=--This "Whieldon ware" (of course it must
not be forgotten that Whieldon made salt-glaze too) was contemporaneous
with undecorated salt-glaze ware, which at its best exhibited in no
small degree a complete knowledge of the strength and beauty of form
unaided by colour. But in this school of Whieldon there is a distinct
appeal to colour as a leading feature of the ware as opposed to form.
There is a fine artistic blending of the colours and the variation
of the glazes which palpitate with life and give extraordinary
power to pieces possessed of the "Whieldon" touch. Not only on flat
surfaces such as the well-known octagonal plates, but in figures
and groups such as we have illustrated, these colour effects were
employed with considerable dexterity. So that, in the contemplation
of black-and-white illustrations of "Whieldon ware," everything is
lost which gave the beauty and richness and mellowness which have an
irresistible charm to those collectors who confine themselves to this
early school of colourists.
[Illustration:
WHIELDON TOBY JUG.
Richly mottled and glazed.
(_In the collection of Col. and Mrs. Dickson._)]
[Illustration:
WHIELDON TOBY JUG.
Fine translucent colouring and glazing.
(_In the collection of Mr. A. H. Baldwin._)]
=Form _versus_ Colour.=--The salt-glaze potters, when they left
their ideals of form and essayed to become colourists as well, made
this attempt chiefly for two reasons.
(1) They had a very laudable desire to emulate the coloured porcelain
made at Worcester, Bow, Chelsea, and Derby, which had become a serious
competitor in their markets.
(2) They recognised a certain weakness in their ware in regard to its
inapplicability to figures and groups. Unless the modelling is of the
highest order the salt-glaze figures are insipid.
With regard to enamelled salt-glaze in general this is dealt with
in another chapter, but it may here be remarked as touching the
second point--the salt-glaze figure--that the salt-glaze potter
brought himself directly in comparison with the figures and groups of
earthenware of the later Whieldon school. Realising that if he must
stand at all as a figure potter his modelling must be superlative, we
find the salt-glaze figures, which are mainly small in size, taken
direct from the antique or from porcelain models. But feeling the
lack of colour he added touches here and there by applying reliefs of
different coloured clays to heighten the effect. The salt-glaze potter
rarely enamelled his figures in colours. In the illustration of a
salt-glazed figure (p. 351) there are slight touches of blue.
So that in the contest between salt-glaze (the pre-eminent art of the
Staffordshire potter in early eighteenth-century days) and its two
great rivals, English porcelain and Staffordshire coloured earthenware,
in other words--Form _versus_ Colour--the first fall it received was
at the hands of "Whieldon ware." The coloured and exquisitely clouded
tortoiseshell plate, with its fine gradations of tone throbbing
with colour, more than holds its own with the salt-glaze plate, even
although its clear-cut arabesque designs and intricate patterns exhibit
the excellence of its potting.
=The Last Years of the Eighteenth Century.=--Enough has been said to
show that this typically English school had firmly established itself
in Staffordshire. Whieldon, Dr. Thomas Wedgwood, Aaron Wood (block
cutter to Whieldon), Josiah Spode the first, Greatbach, Enoch Booth,
and many others, firmly adhered to their love of colour and their
desire to see cream ware triumphant. The struggle for the supremacy
of earthenware over English porcelain was still waging. And Wedgwood,
with his marvellous invention of jasper ware and his equally stupendous
innovation in the introduction of severe classic ornament, did not
impose his style on all Staffordshire. We shall see in a later chapter
how he had a crowd of followers and imitators, but at the same time
many, very many, productions were potted contemporary with him that
owed nothing in design to him, and on the face of them bear no traces
of the classic influence.
It is this overlapping period, during which so many examples are
unmarked, which is so puzzling to the collector. "Old Staffordshire,"
they certainly are, "Early Staffordshire" they may not be, but they
exhibit a national and original feeling which it is impossible not to
recognise and value.
[Illustration:
GROUP OF EARLY STAFFORDSHIRE JUGS.
1. Jug. Pencilled floral decoration in blue. Inscribed "William and
Mary Harrison. One Nother and Then."
2. Jug. Panel with _Miser_ each side in relief.
3. Jug. Heart-shaped panel in low relief, _Children at Play_.
4. Jug. Panels of _Peacocks_ in relief.]
[Illustration:
GROUP OF EARLY STAFFORDSHIRE JUGS.
1. Finely mottled granite jug.
2. Whieldon jug. Figures in coloured relief.
3. Jug. Moulded in form of satyr's head.
(_The above groups are in the collection of Mr. James Davies,
Chester._)]
We illustrate two groups of jugs which belong to this period. In
the top jug of the upper group, which is pencilled with blue floral
decoration, the spout betrays a trace of Worcester and a tinge of
classicism in the acanthus leaf ornamentation at its base. But the
inscription drops at once into the homely vernacular, "William and
Mary Harrison One Nother and Then." The quaint phonetic spelling tells
its own story of the mission of the ale-house jug, with its invitation
to another burst of hospitality.
The three jugs below are of the same species. The handles vary
slightly, showing the inclination to adopt silver models. The left-hand
one has a panel with figure of Miser in relief each side. The middle
jug, with the heart-shaped panel, is decorated in relief with group
of Children at play. Such subjects had not appeared on jugs before
Wedgwood's day, but the idea might easily have been derived from
contemporary prints of the pretty school of Bartolozzi and Angelica
Kauffman. The right-hand jug, with its Peacocks in relief, is evidently
derived from the exotic birds of Worcester.
In the other group of jugs, the uppermost betrays in the spout and neck
distinct traces of its indebtedness to classic forms. It is translucent
green in colour, and with coloured figures in high relief. At the
front is Shakespeare, with figures of _Miser_ and _Spendthrift_ each
side. Between these (one is just visible in illustration) are classic
medallions. This is an incongruous style of decoration, and shows how
little the Staffordshire potter who made it understood the meaning of
ornament. He realised that the classic style was becoming popular,
and so he half hesitatingly affixed two cameos to his otherwise
harmonious production. The granite-ware jug, finely mottled, with two
black-and-white bands as ornament round body, is the newer development
of the early variegated ware. The right-hand jug is, in its gnarled
and bulgy protuberances, known as the crabstock variety, the moulding,
in the form of satyr's head crowned with vines, is an addition and is
extraneous to the usual crabstock form. Obviously this is a welding
together of the English and classic grotesque, and the combination is
not too harmonious.
The early Staffordshire potters, apart from the splashed and variegated
ware associated with Whieldon, made a variety of ware in pre-Wedgwood
days and in the late eighteenth century. Obviously such a jug as
that illustrated (p. 189) is an Oriental design taken straight from
the contemporary English porcelain, or even from the actual Chinese
original. But the Staffordshire potter was conservative in his shapes.
Similarly, such jugs as that illustrated (p. 189) with the rustic
design in crude painting, or seemingly in parts applied with a sponge,
must have been general in the latter half of the eighteenth century.
The scene is suggestive of Herrick and maypoles and haywains and rustic
junketings, and such early cream-ware cider-mugs and ale-jugs are not
uncommon. The _Mug_ (illustrated p. 189) shows distinctive qualities.
It is by Enoch Wood. It is decorated with translucent bands at top and
base, and ornamented with a diaper-pattern stamped and coloured brown,
with alternate lines of grey. These jugs and mugs are here illustrated
to impress upon the reader the fact that in the Whieldon period
(1740-1780) other forms than variegated ware were being made, and much
unidentified early Staffordshire ware belongs to the later years of the
eighteenth century.
=The English spirit.=--These forms--and the field is a great one for
detailed study--were growing up in spite of foreign and un-English
fashions, and long after Wedgwood's day they existed. It seems as
though it was a dogged and obstinate attempt on the part of the
potter to ignore classic models, and produce something "understanded
of the people." Obviously such ware did not rise to elaborate
ornamental vases, but confined itself to mugs and jugs and useful
articles in common use. So that, in spite of the enormous influence
of Wedgwood, both in technique, but more especially in decoration,
upon his contemporaries and his successors, it would seem that there
was always an undercurrent of pottery which, even if crude, was
extremely national. It appealed to no cosmopolitan _clientèle_, and
the potters who made it were not important enough to issue price lists
in three or four languages. Their message--as conveyed by their quaint
inscriptions, "One Nother and Then," "I drink to you with all my hart,
Mery met and mery part," and a host of other naïve sentiments--comes
direct from the heart of the potter to his friend and neighbour who
bought his wares. In a word, we may say that much that is native, much
that is racy of the soil, in the long line of queer Staffordshire
figures of animals and birds and of homely individuals, grotesque in
their diminutive personality, owe direct kinship to Whieldon and the
pre-Wedgwood school of potters, forgetful of the cold classic day,
and, in the words of William Blake, snug by the glad sunshine of "the
Alehouse so healthy and pleasant and warm."
[Illustration:
CREAM WARE JUG.
Painted decorations in under-glaze colours. Typical example of
Oriental influence on earthenware.
(_In the possession of Mr. W. L. Yeulett._)]
[Illustration:
STAFFORDSHIRE CREAM WARE JUG.
Crudely painted in colours with English subject. Typical of
earthenware of latter part of eighteenth century.
(_In the collection of Mrs. M. M. Fairbairn._)]
[Illustration:
BARREL-SHAPED MUG BY ENOCH WOOD.
Decorated with translucent green at top and base. Diaper pattern
stamped and coloured brown, and alternate lines of grey.
(_In the collection of Mr. Robert Bruce Wallis._)
PRICES--EARLY STAFFORDSHIRE WARE.
WHIELDON. £ s. d.
Teapoy, square, cream coloured, splashed
with green, having female embossed
figures, and inscribed "Abraham
Randell, Alice Randell 1779," 5-1/4 in.
high. Bond, Ipswich, April, 1906. 7 10 0
Plates, pair, foliage in blue on mottled
ground, inscribed "LBC 1739."
Christie, June, 1906 14 3 6
Teapot, agate ware, modelled with shells.
Christie, June, 1906 12 1 6
Figures of musicians (three). Christie,
November, 1906 13 2 6
Plaque. Portrait of Sarah Malcolm
Saunders, executed in 1733 (very
rare), taken from picture by Hogarth.
Sotheby, November, 1906 2 10 0
Teapot and cover and milk ewer and
cover, mottled. Puttick & Simpson,
November, 1906 4 4 0
Figure of "Hope," with splashed and
mottled base. Sotheby, February,
1907 1 15 0
Toy Teapot and cover, with vine-leaves
and grapes in relief, decorated in rich
translucent colours. Sotheby, February,
1907 2 18 0
Teapot and cover, agate ware, modelled
with shells. Christie, April, 1907 5 15 6
Teapot, with roses in colours on blue
ground, and another with rosebuds
and strawberries on pink ground.
Christie, April, 1907 27 6 0
Teapot, teacup, and two saucers, with
flowers in colours in Chinese style.
Christie, April, 1907 11 0 6
Group of two birds in tree, translucent
colours. Sotheby, July, 1907 2 18 0
Teapot and cover, with peasant figures in
colours. Christie, July, 1907 13 13 0
Figure of _Stag_ at rest, mottled brown
and white, on green pedestal
(10-1/2 in. high). Christie, November,
1907 10 10 0
Group of _Lovers_, pair, with birdcage,
lamb, and dog (10 in. and 11 in.
high). Christie, January, 1908 22 1 0
_St. George and Dragon_ figure (11 in.
high), and group nearly similar.
Christie, January, 1908 10 10 6
Figures, pair, Peasant Boy and Girl,
emblematic of Autumn and Winter,
on octagonal plinths (7-1/4 in. high),
and a Figure of _Man with Bagpipes_
(8-1/4 in. high). Christie, January,
1908 13 13 0
"King David" Figure (12-1/2 in. high), and
"Neptune" (11-1/2 in. high), on square
pedestals, with medallions in relief.
Christie, January, 1908 14 3 6
Cauliflower-pattern Teapot, cream-jug,
and canister. Christie, February,
1908 11 0 6
Teapot and cover, solid agate ware, very
large size. Sotheby, May, 1908 10 0 0
Teapot and cover, formed of leaves, with
rabbit on cover. Sotheby, May,
1908 4 4 0
ASTBURY WARE.
Teapot and cover, dark buff body, decorated
in relief with grapes, tendrils,
and leaves in cream colour. Sotheby,
November, 1907 3 10 0
Teapot and cover, brown hexagonal shape,
with panels of Chinese subject in
relief, lid surmounted by rabbit.
Sotheby, November, 1907 3 15 0
Astbury and early Whieldon figures, which are of small size as a rule,
range in price from £4 to £10. Exceptional examples command much higher
prices.
VI
SALT-GLAZED
WARE--STAFFORDSHIRE
CHAPTER VI
SALT-GLAZED WARE--STAFFORDSHIRE
The originality of English Salt-glazed Ware--What is Salt
glaze?--Early Salt-glaze--The classes of Salt-glaze--Its
decadence and its extinction--Prices of Salt-glazed Ware.
The fine salt-glazed stoneware of Staffordshire which was made during
the greater part of the eighteenth century is something in art of
which the English potter may very justly be proud. It is remotely
derived from the fine Flemish and Rhenish decorated stoneware, but
the connection ends with the common qualities of being glazed with
salt and of being extremely hard, almost so hard as to resist a file.
But in the Staffordshire salt-glazed ware the body became almost of
a porcelain-like quality. It was able to be made as thin as stamped
silver, and in the thinnest portions of the pieces it is translucent
like porcelain. Indeed, since the days of Elers (whom Dwight termed a
silversmith) earthenware, or rather stoneware, took some of its details
in form and in ornament from the worker in silver.
The applied ornament of Elers stamped with a brass die suggests the
metal worker, and, with the models of the school of Astbury before
them, Staffordshire potters followed the same methods. It is not
astonishing to find the moulded designs with their intricate patterns
in the newer school of potters of salt-glaze ware--which in its best
period (1720-1740) relied solely on form and not on colour, being a
dull, creamy white--emulating the fine work of the silversmith. It
was only a natural striving in the new generation of potters of the
Whieldon school, with fresh inventions in clays and glazes and moulds,
to cast about them for better and worthier ideals than Toft had, and
fresher models than stoneware Bellarmines which had been in circulation
in the country since Tudor days.
Silver models provided many a fine shape for Wedgwood, his cream
ware and his basalt teapots are bodily taken from Sheffield. But
imitativeness has always been the curse of English potters. Wedgwood
copied in jasper ware the cameo work of the classic world, and the
whole of Staffordshire to a man commenced to pot on similar lines.
Through the last decades of the eighteenth century, and well into the
nineteenth, thousands of vases and jugs were turned out as echoes of
Etruria in Staffordshire which, as its name denotes, was but an echo
of something centuries earlier. Bow called itself "New Canton," and
Worcester slavishly copied Chinese mandarins and exotic birds, coined
in the brain of some Oriental potter. Chelsea copied Dresden, and
Lowestoft copied the Bow and Worcester copies of Chinese originals, and
the list could be prolonged _ad nauseam_.
[Illustration:
SALT-GLAZED LOVERS' TEAPOT.
In the shape of a heart. Floral decoration slightly gilded.
(_At Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
[Illustration:
SALT-GLAZED TEAPOT.
In the form of a camel.
(_In the possession of Mr. F. W. Phillips, Hitchin._)]
Indeed, this curse lies very heavy on the collector who has to devote
a great portion of his energy to research in order to determine who
first made certain models. This, unfortunately, tends to divert the
study of old earthenware, its artistic qualities and its technical
triumphs, into channels more or less contentious. The literature of
English ceramics is rapidly becoming like many of the editions of
Shakespeare, where a few lines of text stand as an oasis in a desert of
commentators' controversial opinions.
It is, therefore, refreshing to find, as one does undoubtedly find in
Staffordshire salt-glazed ware, one of the most remarkable and original
outbursts in English art pottery that has taken place. This delicate
stoneware is as thin as some of the Oriental porcelain, and possesses
a grace and symmetry peculiarly its own. In some of its decorations
it bears a likeness to Chinese work. This does not detract from its
high place as a ceramic record. On the contrary, this similitude is a
tribute to pay to its artistic excellence, for there is very little
earthenware that came out of Staffordshire that will bear comparison
with the work of the Chinese potter.
=What is Salt glaze?=--We know that many of the stoneware Bellarmines
and Rhenish jugs were glazed with salt. It was a process known on the
Continent at a very early date, some authorities place it as early
as the twelfth century. But it was not until the second half of the
sixteenth century that German and Flemish potters used this salt glaze
to any great extent. We have seen, in the chapter on stoneware, that
the appearance in the mottling and in the orange-skin-like surface is
due to the action of salt glaze.
To cover pottery with an outer surface has been practised from earliest
times either by the use of some glassy material or by powdered lead.
Glazing with common salt was quite a new departure by the English
potters. In order for this salt glaze to be used there must be a very
high temperature, so high, as a matter of fact, that it would melt or
soften in the kiln most English earthenware. This is where stoneware in
its body differs from earthenware; it is what is termed "refractory,"
that is to say, it is not readily fusible. Stoneware is not always
glazed. Elers did not glaze his red ware, and Wedgwood did not glaze
his basalt or black ware. Stoneware can also be glazed with other
processes than the salt glaze, but, as a rule, stoneware is associated
with salt glaze.
Without entering too tediously into the exact steps by which salt
glazing is performed, it may be roughly described as follows. Other
glazes, such as lead, are applied to the surface of the ware prior to
its entry into the kiln for firing, but in salt glaze the glaze is
incorporated with the ware while it is actually in the kiln. Towards
the end of the firing common salt (chloride of sodium) is thrown into
the kiln, which is packed with the ware, through apertures in the kiln
which has to be specially designed for salt-glaze use. At the high
temperature of the kiln (about 2,190° Fahr.) the salt is volatised
and its vapour penetrates the saggers (that is, the earthen vessels
containing the pieces being made), which have perforated sides to
enable this vapour to form on the surface of the pieces being fired.
This vapour chemically unites with the silica largely present in the
body of the stoneware, and forms a silicate on the surface of the ware.
That is to say, the stoneware becomes coated with a thin layer or glaze
of sodic silicate or soda-glass.
[Illustration:
GROUP OF SALT-GLAZED WARE.
Jug enamelled in colours. Teapot blue enamel by Littler.
(_In the collection of Col. and Mrs. Dickson._)]
This chemical action taking place simultaneously with the final firing
of the ware before its removal from the kiln incorporates the
glaze with the body of the ware itself. It is this combination which
causes the minute depressions or tiny pin-holes in all stoneware from
Bellarmines down to the finely and nearly translucent salt-glazed
Staffordshire ware which has a surface like that of leather. The same
multitudinous pin-hole surface is characteristic of Oriental porcelain,
which like stoneware is fired at a very high temperature, and the glaze
and the body completed at one firing in the _grand feu_. Though, of
course, this is not salt glaze, nor is the surface other than as smooth
as glass to the touch, although under a strong glass or even to the
naked eye these pin-holes are easily discernible.
At the present day salt glaze is mainly used for such ware as ink-pots,
drain pipes, insulators for telegraphic instruments, and common
ginger-beer bottles. The connection between John Dwight, of Christ
Church, Oxford (Master of Arts), the creator of the magnificent bust
of _Prince Rupert_, the glory of the ceramic collection at the British
Museum, and between John Philip Elers, godson of Queen Christina, and
this sad array of utilitarian nondescripts, is not a pleasing subject
for reflection. It is sad to think that these triumphs have been
won in vain by the genius of the old potters over the plastic clay.
What an ignoble ending to the long chain of experiments! When Dwight
destroyed his secret memoranda it is as though he foresaw the era of
the drainpipe.
=Early Salt-glaze.=--The early stages of the manufacture of salt-glazed
ware were crude and experimental. There is some connection between the
finely potted lustrous stoneware of Nottingham and "Crouch ware," the
undeveloped form of the later phase of finely-potted Staffordshire
salt-glaze ware. This "Crouch" ware represents the transitional
stage between the ordinary brown stoneware and the later drab or
greyish white examples. Crouch ware at its earliest was not made in
Staffordshire till 1690, and there is presumptive evidence to show
that salt-glaze brown ware was made at some pot-works at Crich, near
Matlock, Derbyshire; and that the same or similar clay was used by the
Staffordshire potters who gave it that name, and there is proof that
the Crich pottery existed as early as 1717, and Nottingham has dated
pieces as early as 1700.
On the face of it, in spite of Josiah Wedgwood's letter in connection
with the medallion to John Philip Elers, there is little evidence to
go upon to credit the Elers with having made salt-glaze ware at all.
Excavations on the site of their factory at Bradwell Wood have only
resulted in the discovery of fragments of their unglazed red ware, "red
porcelain" as it was called, and experts have pronounced their oven as
being unfitted for salt-glaze operations.
On the whole, therefore, in accordance with the latest research, one
is inclined to come to the conclusion that the Brothers Elers did not
invent Staffordshire salt-glazed ware. If they made it at all, they
made very few examples. The red ware is theirs as far as Staffordshire
is concerned, although Dwight had something to say on that score when
he charged them and Nottingham potters and others with infringing his
patents.
[Illustration:
SALT-GLAZED TEAPOT.
Enamelled in colours. Marked "John Toft."
(_In the collection of Col. and Mrs. Dickson._)]
Among the early makers of salt-glazed ware were Astbury and Twyford,
and Thomas Astbury, son of the former, being associated with the
introduction of ground flint into the body in 1720. Thomas Billing
in 1722, and Ralph Shaw in 1732, made further improvements in the body.
Dr. Thomas Wedgwood and Aaron Wood, and Thomas Whieldon and Ralph
Daniel, of Cobridge, were all well-known makers of this ware, the
latter having introduced plaster-of-paris moulds in lieu of alabaster,
and being further notable for his enamelled decorations in colour, in
the period 1743 to 1750, which attempted to vie with the contemporary
coloured porcelain. William Littler, of Longton, used a similar blue to
that which he used on the porcelain at Longton Hall.
At this date the ware became white in colour, and took its pleasing
forms so dear to connoisseurs.
=The Classes of Salt-glaze.=--In its various styles salt-glazed ware
may be roughly divided into periods. The experimental stage was over in
1720. From 1720 to 1740 the undecorated or white examples were made,
depending on form for their beauty. These had applied ornamentation
stamped with metal dies, or made in separate moulds and affixed to the
body to be decorated (similar to the Elers style). It is during this
period that some of the finest pieces were made with sharp, clear-cut
designs. Later, when moulds were made of plaster-of-paris in place of
alabaster, the design became blurred.
Among the most beautiful designs in this plain white ware having raised
ornament are sauceboats, pickle trays, sweetmeat dishes, teapoys or tea
canisters, and teapots; these latter are of a great variety of shapes,
many having shell ornament, very exquisitely moulded, and others being
of hexagonal shape divided into compartments. There is, too, a trace of
the grotesque discernible in some of these teapots and a subtle humour
too rarely found in English pottery. There are those of the camel
form, such as the specimen illustrated (p. 197). The peculiar handle
made by hand is very noticeable, usually such handles are snipped off
at the end. Others are of the shape of a house, and many types of this
design occur. Some are in the form of a squirrel. Then there are the
heart-shaped teapots with the spout incongruously representing an arm
resting on the neck of a swan. These teapots were supposed to have
been made for lovers. We give an illustration (p. 197) of one of these
heart teapots, and it will be seen how a slight touch of gilding has
been added to heighten the effect on the embossed portions showing the
fruit. Of course the cauliflower teapot exhibits a touch of humour,
too, but this form is rarely found in salt glaze. The bright natural
colours of that interesting vegetable were reproduced by Whieldon, who
made this type as well as melon and pineapple teapots and coffee-pots.
The vivid green and yellow glaze of this cauliflower ware is of the
period when Josiah Wedgwood was with Whieldon and is held to be young
Josiah's invention. He afterwards made similar ware himself.
The next stage was the slight use of colour in what is termed
"scratched" blue. This style of decoration is the opposite of the
relief ornaments. The pattern was incised with a sharp instrument on
the piece, in the lines thus cut cobalt blue was applied with a sponge.
Birds and foliage are the typical form of decorations to pieces of this
style from 1740 to about 1750.
From 1745 to 1750 William Littler introduced his cobalt blue ware over
which decorations in black or white were enamelled or gilded, and such
pieces are rare. (See illustration p. 201.)
[Illustration:
SALT-GLAZED VASE.
Enamelled in colours--turquoise blue, yellow. (Height 5-3/4 inches.)]
[Illustration:
SALT-GLAZED PUNCH BOWL.
Enamelled in colours, with portrait of the Young Pretender. (Diameter
10 inches.)
(_In the possession of Mr. S. G. Fenton._)]
Then comes the period in which colour was in full swing. From 1740 to
1760 enamelling in colours was extensively used. It was employed on
plain surfaces, or as a touch of colour to ornaments in relief. There
is no doubt that some of these coloured examples are very beautiful.
It is not necessary to dethrone the plain white ware from its place of
honour. With later developments it was found that colour could be used
with artistic advantage, nor is there any deterioration of the ware
from an æsthetic point of view in this colour work when in the hands of
skilled craftsmen.
Similarly transfer-printing was recognised as a suitable means of
decoration, and pieces are found with printed designs of black or red
or puce. The head of the King of Prussia is found on some specimens
of this type. Of course this is later in date, and must have been
subsequent to 1760, when Sadler and Green invented transfer-printing
at Liverpool. Doubtless these pieces entered into competition with the
new colour ware then in vogue, which drove the salt-glaze ware from
the market, and killed the most artistic and original productions the
English potter had ever made.
The industry had by this time grown to great dimensions, and apparently
the Staffordshire potters were turning out this salt-glazed ware as
fast as they could, no very good sign that good work was to last much
longer. Nor is all the enamel work English; two Dutchmen were secretly
employed at Burslem to do this enamelling in colour. But the secret
spread, and we find two Leeds painters, Robinson and Rhodes, doing
enamelling on the salt-glazed ware for the Staffordshire potters.
We are enabled to reproduce a very fine example of enamelled
salt-glaze ware having the inscription "James and Martha Jinkcuson,"
and dated 1764. It stands as a fine specimen of its class. The colours
of the flowers and insects are very rich, being, as is usual, enamelled
over the salt-glaze ground. Dated salt-glazed ware is always uncommon,
and an example of such fine colouring in such perfect condition stands
as a rare and splendid specimen.
There is yet another style in salt-glaze in which the whole surface
of the piece to be decorated is coated with a slip of another colour,
and the decoration cut through it to show the white body beneath. This
belongs to the last period, 1760 to 1780, as also does the basket work
for which Aaron Wood, and R. J. Baddeley, of Shelton, are noted for
their fine patterns. Incised work in imitation of Japanese work was
also prevalent during the last period of salt-glaze work.
We illustrate another very important salt-glazed piece, a teapot
enamelled in colours having what is known as a "crabstock" handle,
spout, and lid. It is remarkable as being incised with the name "John
Toft" (see p. 205). Undoubtedly this is a member of the celebrated
Toft family, whose dishes, marked "Ralph Toft" and "Thomas Toft"
in slip-ware, gave the generic name to a class of ware. It is not
improbable that one of the Tofts modelled the celebrated salt-glaze
"pew group" in the Victoria and Albert Museum. It exhibits the
peculiarly quaint doll-like faces with beady eyes associated with Toft
dishes.
[Illustration:
SALT-GLAZED JUG.
Richly enamelled in colours, and inscribed 'James & Martha Jinkcuson
1764.'
(_In the collection of Mr. Frederick Rathbone, South Kensington._)]
In the group illustrated (p. 201) there is one enamelled jug. The two
dishes show another type of plain salt-glaze. The teapot shows incised
work on the broad band around it, but no indication of colour. The
coffee-pot is the well-known squirrel form, and the dark teapot on
left is enamelled in blue by Thomas Littler, and is a rare example.
In colouring the salt-glazed vase in bright turquoise blue and pink and
green, with its Oriental design, strongly suggests the enamel work of
Limoges (see p. 209). It stands in the eighteenth century in the same
relationship to the metal enameller as does a modern French factory at
Bordeaux, Messrs. Viellard & Cie., whose work in coarse earthenware
simulates the _cloisonné_ enamel.
The punch bowl illustrated has a portrait of the Young Pretender. In
date it is, of course, not earlier than 1745, the year of the Rebellion
in Scotland on behalf of the Pretender, and when his son Charles Edward
landed and defeated the royal forces near Edinburgh. This punch bowl
tells its story of stirring days, when Jacobites secretly met at night
in quiet manor houses and drank a toast to the Stuart claimant. In
public by a kind of subtle jest when they were driven to drink the
health of "the king," they by a specious mental reservation flourished
their glasses over any water on the table, the hidden meaning being
"the King--over the water." But here is a punch bowl which was probably
brought out for the sworn partisans to drink to the pious memory of the
exiled Stuarts. There was always, even when the Stuart cause was a lost
one, a tender recollection of "Prince Charlie," the "Young Chevalier."
The lilting lines of Bobbie Burns in the last quarter of the eighteenth
century, always awaken romantic associations, and bowls such as this
were relics of something that had been, and without doubt in its day
this same bowl has filled the glasses of a loyal company who drank the
health of his Gracious Majesty George the Third.
As we have pointed out in the introductory note there are many
monuments in clay on the collector's shelf which punctuate the sonorous
phrases of the historian. Such pieces are exceptionally interesting in
aiding the reflective mind to recreate the events of a former day which
touched the life roots of the nation.
PRICES.
SALT GLAZE. £ s. d.
Teapoy, square shaped, decorated with
scratched flowers in blue. With
female half-length figure (within a
Chippendale frame), inscribed "Martha
Saymore September ye 25th 1770"
(5-1/4 in. high). Bond, Ipswich, April,
1906 11 0 0
Bowl and cover and milk jug decorated,
rich blue ground. Sotheby, June,
1906 26 0 0
Teapot, brilliantly enamelled in colour
with roses, auriculas, &c., with turquoise
handle and spout. Sotheby,
June, 1906 50 0 0
Teapot, crimson ground, with white panels
with flowers in colour. Sotheby,
June, 1906 26 0 0
Teapot and cover, modelled as house with
royal arms over door. Sotheby,
February, 1907 5 12 6
Teapot and cover, modelled as a camel.
Sotheby, February, 1907 6 6 0
Jug and cover, hexagonal, with subjects
in relief. Sotheby, February,
1907 4 4 0
Teapot, enamelled in colours, with portrait
of Frederick King of Prussia; on
reverse, spread eagle holding ribbon
with inscription, "Semper Sublimis."
Sotheby, March, 1907 21 10 0
Milk jug and cover, enamelled in colours
in a continuous landscape with castle,
obelisk, and other buildings. Sotheby,
March, 1907 7 15 0
Vessel, modelled as a _Bear_, head
forming cup. Sotheby, March, 1907 4 4 0
Basin with raised subjects in panels.
Sotheby, July, 1908 13 5 0
Teapot and cover, enamelled in colours,
with roses, &c. Sotheby, July, 1908 8 0 0
Teapot and cover, dark blue ground.
Sotheby, July, 1908 8 5 0
Coffee-pot and cover (small), decorated in
enamel colours with Chinese figures.
Sotheby, July, 1908 14 15 0
VII
JOSIAH
WEDGWOOD
CHAPTER VII
JOSIAH WEDGWOOD
1730-1795
Josiah Wedgwood's place in the ceramic world--His business
abilities--Josiah Wedgwood's wares--Cream Ware and its
invention--Jasper Ware and its imitation--The influence of Josiah
Wedgwood--Wedgwood Marks--The Prices of Wedgwood.
The time is now ripe to form a mature judgment as to the exact niche in
the temple of fame which Josiah Wedgwood is to occupy permanently. His
immediate successors were in too close proximity to his own day to form
an opinion as to his life-work in relation to what had gone before and
what has succeeded him.
The inquiry into the origins of certain inventions attributed to him
have been pursued of late years with a scientific thoroughness, and
many facts have come to light which tend to raise the reputation of
other lesser known potters who immediately preceded him or were his
contemporaries.
John Dwight (of Fulham) has come into his own. The Elers (of
Staffordshire) have been dethroned from the unique position they
occupied as pioneers of salt-glaze ware. In regard to the Astburys,
father and son, credit has been given them for great work, and Whieldon
is held to have had an immense influence on his contemporaries. During
the great outburst in salt-glazed ware, cream ware, its later rival
and conqueror, was in a transitional stage. This transitional period
embraces a great field of pioneer workers who experimented unceasingly
with clays and glazes. The days of salt-glaze were drawing to a close,
it had many obvious defects; the ware would not readily stand hot
liquids--and this in an age when tea drinking was becoming fashionable.
The artistic side for the moment was cast aside in these experiments,
the uppermost question in the Staffordshire potters' minds was the
invention of some ware that could hold its own against the competition
of the new English porcelain factories.
It thus came about that this period of great technical activity
(1720-1740) was immediately succeeded by an almost simultaneous
exhibition of work, suggesting a renaissance of earthenware in England
(1740-1800) and establishing the European reputation of Staffordshire.
Josiah Wedgwood with John Turner, of Lane End, and William Adams, of
Greengates, stand as a trio of master potters who developed the classic
spirit in jasper and kindred ornamental ware. In regard to developing
the manufacture of cream ware and stone ware for domestic use, and in
building up a continental and American trade which won for British
earthenware the supremacy of the world's trade in pottery, Josiah
Wedgwood takes an equal prominence together with Warburton and the
Baddeleys and the Adamses and Turner.
In roughly detailing the stages which led up to the manufacture of the
main classes of ware for which Wedgwood was famous, it will be shown
how with a masterly mind for realising broad results he combined the
patient industry of a practical potter. He commenced with a capital of
twenty pounds and died worth half a million. In spite of his ill-health
and the loss of his leg, his unflagging energy and his keen foresight
enabled him to build up an important business which is still carried on
by his descendants. His love of organisation and the system of control
which he exercised over his own enormous output had a lasting effect on
the methods of the Staffordshire potteries.
The genius of Josiah Wedgwood has won the continued admiration of
succeeding generations. It may be that he has somewhat overshadowed
many of his contemporaries, and his successors have been termed
imitators. In order to adjust matters there is a tendency in some
quarters to belittle the work of the great Josiah. But surely the
pendulum has swung too far the other way when it is advanced that
"Wedgwood himself was no artist, he was a tradesman pure and simple."
This is not the opinion of critics with nicer balanced judgment and of
cosmopolitan taste. The epitaph upon his monument in the parish church
of Stoke-upon-Trent, which bears the inscription that he "converted
a rude and inconsiderable Manufactory into an elegant Art," has been
assailed in order to prove it to be a "travesty of the fact," and to
state that "what he _really_ did was to convert an Art--rude it may
be, and inconsiderable, but still an Art--into a manufacture. In other
words, he inaugurated an entirely new order of things in the production
of pottery, and a less desirable one."
The truth is that it is not necessary to belittle Wedgwood in order to
put his great contemporaries in the order of their merit. The later and
more corrected opinion may be arrived at quite judicially by crediting
them with some of the artistic impulses he possessed. While he lived he
worked harmoniously and in close friendship with his fellow potters,
and a century after his death it should not be difficult to determine
their relative positions without bespattering his epitaph with mud.
=Wedgwood's business abilities.=--He was undoubtedly a keen man
of affairs. When in partnership with Whieldon he had travelled to
London, to Manchester, to Birmingham, to Sheffield, and to Liverpool,
which brought him into touch with silversmiths and metal workers in
connection with the agate knife-handles and similar Whieldon ware. He
evidently realised that Staffordshire was behind other districts in
many respects. Although only a young man, he interested the influential
people in the neighbourhood of the potteries and the roads were
improved and water transit provided as an outlet for goods. He cut the
first sod of the Trent and Mersey Canal.
In 1759 he was master potter, but he made most of his own models,
prepared his own mixtures, superintended firing, and was his own clerk
and warehouseman. Less than ten years afterwards, on the advice of the
Duke of Marlborough, Lord Gower, and Lord Spencer, he opened showrooms
in London in Newport Street.
A year after this the demand for his fine jasper ware and expensive
ornamental productions had so increased that he found the greatest
difficulty in finding sufficient workmen.
[Illustration:
WEDGWOOD CREAM WARE DESSERT BASKET.
Showing fine pierced work.
_By the courtesy of Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood & Sons._]
[Illustration:
WEDGWOOD CREAM WARE DESSERT CENTRE-PIECE.
Designed from Josiah Wedgwood's collection of shells.
(_In Museum at Etruria._)
_By the courtesy of Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood & Sons._]
His catalogues were printed in several languages, and he had the shrewd
common sense to add some forewords of his own to indicate the lines
on which he was working as a potter and to bring the attention of
likely buyers to his ware.
=Wedgwood as a potter.=--There is no doubt that Wedgwood always had in
view the improvement of whatever ware he engaged to make. When with
Whieldon he perfected the green glaze in the cauliflower and kindred
ware, and when he became a master potter in 1759, he produced pieces
which were eminently remarkable for their fine technique. There is
no doubt that his connection with silversmiths induced him to follow
their designs. Some of his early ware, such as teapots, have punched
perforated ornament in the rims for which he invented tools. In the
museum at Etruria are some six thousand trial pieces, some few inches
in length, covering a wide period when Josiah was pursuing his way
towards his crowning achievement, the invention of his jasper ware.[3]
[Note: 3 These have been recently arranged and catalogued by Mr. Frederic
Rathbone.]
He claims credit for great improvements, both as an inventor and as
a ready and masterly adapter, quick to seize the salient points of
a half-perfected ware and by a few touches of genius make it his
own. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society for his invention of
a pyrometer, an instrument for registering high temperatures in the
kilns. His experiments led him into new fields in connection with
bodies, glazes, and colours, and he introduced for the first time in
pottery certain minerals such as barytes in his pastes.
=Josiah Wedgwood's wares.=--It will be seen, in the enumeration of the
various classes of ware which were produced by him, in what respect he
added improvements which in their turn were improved upon by later
potters, and to what extent his productions were entirely original,
adding a new note in English pottery, creating an entire school, and
leaving the mark of his genius on his successors for nearly a century.
_Variegated ware._--The agate, the cauliflower, and melon ware, the
clouded and mottled glaze, and the various imitations of marbling, came
into vogue in the days of Whieldon. But Wedgwood was more ambitious
in his designs. We have already seen, in dealing with Whieldon ware,
how the "solid" agate ware was produced by means of fine layers of
clays of different colours, which after careful manipulation produced
a series of waves resembling the natural ornamentation of the stone.
Wedgwood also employed "surface" colouring for this variegated ware,
the body being of the common cream-coloured earthenware and the
veining and mottling being applied to the surface. In such pieces the
handles and the plinths were usually oil gilded; later he used a white
semi-porcelain for plinths of such ware.
Two agate vases and ewers marked "Wedgwood and Bentley" belong to the
period 1768 to 1780. The plinths of the agate vases show the white
undecorated body. Wedgwood imitated Egyptian pebble, jasper, porphyry,
and various kinds of granite speckled with grey, black, white, or
green. Much of this is a flight higher than the agate ware.
_Black basalt Ware._--In this ware, which was termed "Egyptian black,"
Wedgwood triumphed over his predecessors. We know the black ware
made by Elers and by Twyford (two fine black Twyford teapots are in
the Hanley Museum), but the ware into which Wedgwood infused his
genius is worthy to be called what he termed it--"black porcelaine."
With its rich black, smooth surface it was capable of varied use,
including useful as well as ornamental ware. In the former, we find
tea services and coffee or chocolate pots strictly adopting the severe
Queen Anne silver shapes, and in vases he followed bronze prototypes.
See illustration (p. 241) of two _Black basalt Teapots_. It was used
in fine manner for life-size busts and for medallion portraits of
"illustrious Ancients and Moderns."
This basalt ware Wedgwood further used in combination with other
processes. He imitated the ancient Greek vase paintings by decorating
the black surface with unglazed colours, or he had ornaments in relief
in red. Another replica of classic art was his simulation of bronze,
and this black ware formed the groundwork to which he added the bronze
metallic colouring in his rare bronze examples.
The two black basalt ewers, entitled _Wine_ and _Water_, designed
by Flaxman, are well known. It is at once evident that they owe no
inconsiderable debt to the metal worker. It requires no great stretch
of imagination to believe them to be in bronze. Technically, as
specimens of earthenware, they are perfect, but it is open to question
whether the potter has not trespassed on the domain of the worker in
metal. There are canons which govern the art of pottery; form and
ornamentation strictly appropriate in metal are utterly unfitted for
the worker in clay. Branched candelabra are false in porcelain though
extremely beautiful in silver. In passing this criticism, which applies
to some of Wedgwood's work, we are incidentally brushing aside the
contention of those critics who find him unoriginal. As a matter of
fact he was so original and so responsive to the suggestion of allied
arts that he often undertook the creation of pieces in his kilns the
like of which no potter had ever attempted before.
_Red Ware._--It is not to be supposed that Wedgwood would allow the
fine red Elers ware to stand as representative of the uttermost that
Staffordshire had produced without attempting to emulate this early
ware. Accordingly, we find in what he terms his _rosso antico_, a red
ware of extraordinary beauty. Some of the engine-turned pieces of
this red ware are exceptionally fine. There is in the Hanley Museum
a coffee-pot of great technical and æsthetic value. Wine-coolers and
other useful creations, with classic ornamentation in relief, show
the wide range of this red terra-cotta or unglazed ware. The Elers
style was simple, with applied stamped ornament of small dimensions
and Oriental rather than classical in _motif_. The red stoneware
of Böttcher, of Dresden, was by this time fairly well known, and
Wedgwood had both Elers and Böttcher to serve as models, although he
does not seem to have employed this red ware to any great extent. Nor
did Wedgwood confine himself to red in this type of ware; he made
chocolate-coloured examples, and in his cane-coloured and bamboo ware
he made articles for domestic use, such as tea and coffee services
as well as mugs and jugs of this type, which differed from the black
basalt inasmuch as the basalt was an especially hard body, whereas
these others were porous and soft. As was usual with Wedgwood, not only
did he have a series of wares of different colours, but he often worked
with a combination of these colours in the same piece.
=Cream Ware.=--Something must be said concerning the development
of cream ware before it can be accurately determined how much
Staffordshire was indebted to Wedgwood for its development. At the
outset it must be granted that he did not invent the ware. But he
improved it. Similarly it was further improved subsequent to his day by
other potters who made it finer and whiter.
But to this day, a hundred and fifty years after the introduction of
this cream ware, his descendants, still trading under the name of
Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, produce this cream ware exactly as
it was then produced. Dinner services are made with Flaxman's designs
on the border, essentially English in character and feeling. Last year
Messrs. James Powell and Sons, of the Whitefriars Glass Works, near
the Temple, which were flourishing in 1710, and still continue to
produce the finest glass in England, held an exhibition of Wedgwood
ware. Considerable interest was drawn to the subject of this revival
of the old patterns of 1775 from the designs of Josiah Wedgwood's
band of artists. Those connoisseurs who love old furniture and old
eighteenth-century glass ware, as made by Messrs. Powell, welcomed the
Wedgwood queen's ware designs as being something eminently fitted to
strike the right note of harmony, and accordingly, by arrangement with
the firm at Etruria, some of the finest patterns of the old ware are
exclusively made for Messrs. Powell. The English dinner table may now
be as English as it was in Georgian days, and, happily, this æsthetic
revival has met with a warm response by the patronage of the royal
family, the nobility, and by all those who love the old-world charm of
the domestic art of our forefathers.
Before Wedgwood's day cream ware was made. Astbury used an addition of
white clay and flint to his bodies about 1720. In 1726 the grinding of
flint stones into powder for the potters' use became so important that
Thomas Benson took out a patent for a machine to do this. In 1750 we
find cream ware being largely made. Aaron Wedgwood and William Littler
introduced about this time a fluid lead glaze instead of the old manner
of using powdered galena (native sulphide of lead). Body and glaze were
at this period fired at one operation. Enoch Booth improved this by
revolutionising the method of glazing. He fired the pieces to a biscuit
state and then dipped them in this fluid lead glaze (ground flint and
white lead), and refired them at a lower temperature. At this date
two other potters, Warburton (of Hot Lane) and Baddeley (of Shelton),
followed Booth's practice, and cream ware may be said to have been in a
fairly flourishing condition.
These facts are all important and cannot be ignored in arriving at a
satisfactory conclusion. Wedgwood commenced as a master potter in 1759,
that is, about nine years after the latest inventions in cream ware had
brought the ware into something more than an experimental stage. In
1761 Wedgwood's cream ware, both by its variety of beautiful form and
its finer glaze and body, had surpassed that of his rival potters.
In 1762 Wedgwood presented to Queen Charlotte a caudle and breakfast
service of the ware; this was painted by Thomas Daniel and David
Steele. The Queen and the King were so pleased with the ware that
complete table services were ordered, and Wedgwood received the Queen's
command to call himself "Potter to Her Majesty" in 1765, and from that
date he termed the ware "Queen's Ware."
[Illustration:
WEDGWOOD CREAM WARE PLATES.
Painted with English scenery. From service made for Catherine II. of
Russia, 1774. Having green frog in reserve on each plate.
(_In Museum at Etruria._) (_At British Museum._)]
[Illustration:
WEDGWOOD BUSTS OF ROUSSEAU AND VOLTAIRE.
Enamelled in colours. (Height 6-1/2 inches and 6 inches.)
(_At Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
Though the invention of cream ware may not be his, there must have been
something essentially more pleasing in his productions to have made
such strides in so short a time. Perhaps Wedgwood, "the tradesman pure
and simple," had something to do with this achievement, but we prefer
to think it was the master hand of Wedgwood the potter and Wedgwood the
artist.
We cannot leave this _cream ware_ question without referring to an old
legal controversy. This brings us down to the year 1775 when Wedgwood,
in company with John Turner (of Lane End) journeyed to Cornwall and
jointly leased some clay mines. The reason for their visit was that
the whole of the Staffordshire potters were up in arms. Salt glaze was
coming to an end in spite of the enamelling in colours in emulation
of English porcelain. And now Cookworthy, the potter of Plymouth, the
maker of the first hard porcelain in England, had sold his patent
rights to Champion of Bristol, who, in 1775, applied for a further
patent for fourteen years to use certain natural materials for making
porcelain. The Staffordshire potters elected Josiah Wedgwood and John
Turner as their representatives and petitioned against the granting of
this patent, and Wedgwood urged that
"the manufacture of earthenware in Staffordshire has of late
received many essential improvements, and is continually
advancing to higher degrees of perfection; that the further
improvement of the manufactory must depend upon the application
and the _free use_ of the various raw materials that are the
natural products of this country."
He further adds that "the natural productions of the soil ought to be
the right of all."
Incidentally, this controversy throws light on the position of Wedgwood
as a maker of cream ware, and it had a lasting effect, as we shall
show in the improvement of cream ware itself and upon the class of ware
turned out in Staffordshire.
Champion, in his reply to the Staffordshire outburst in petitioning
parliament not to grant his patent, pays Wedgwood a great compliment:
"Mr. Champion most cheerfully joins in the general praise which
is given to Mr. Wedgwood for the _many improvements which he has
made in the Staffordshire earthenware_, and the great pains and
assiduity with which he has pursued them. He richly deserves the
large fortune he has made from these improvements."
Champion goes on to make a most vital point in upholding his claim to
protection that he
"has no objection to the use which the potters of Staffordshire
may make of his or any other raw materials _provided earthenware
only, as distinguished by that title, is made from it_."
Here, then, is the reason of the visit of Wedgwood and Turner to
the West, in search of the natural earths that half the potters in
Europe had been hunting for since Böttcher, of Dresden, made his great
discovery of white clay.
But the story of _cream ware_ is not ended. Wedgwood to this printed
"Reply" by Champion entered the lists with some printed "Remarks,"
which he circulated to members of parliament. In this--and we must bear
in mind that he was holding a brief on behalf of all the Staffordshire
potters--we find the following statement:--
"_When Mr. Wedgwood discovered the art of making Queen's Ware_,
which employs ten times more people than all the china works
in the kingdom, he did not ask for a patent for this important
discovery. A patent would greatly have limited its public
utility. Instead of one hundred manufactories of Queen's Ware
there would have been one; and instead of an exportation to all
quarters of the world, a few pretty things would have been made
for the amusement of the people of fashion in England."
In spite of the opposition of Staffordshire, the Bill enabling Champion
to obtain his patent rights passed both houses of parliament, and in
the last stage a clause was inserted throwing open the free use of raw
materials to potters for any purpose _except for the manufacture of
porcelain_; practically this patent was to be enjoyed by Champion for
nearly twenty-two years.
Two extraordinarily important effects upon the pottery industry
in Staffordshire were the result of this controversy: (1) The
Staffordshire potter confined himself to earthenware. (2) Growan stone
and Cornish Kaolin were added to the cream ware body, which enabled
earthenware to compete successfully with china.
It may have struck an inquiring spirit as singular that the
Staffordshire potters as a body were content to imitate English
porcelain and compete with it. At first, of course, the remoteness of
the Potteries from the West accounted for this, but clay was brought
by sea from Bideford to Chester and carried overland to Staffordshire,
but not the growan stone nor Cornish kaolin. Chelsea and Bow did not
have natural earths to hand. But the additional reason seems to be
the one we have given--that practically Champion's patent precluded
them from making porcelain. When, in or about 1769, cream ware was
perfected there was no need to cast about for new bodies. Staffordshire
earthenware had found itself, and all other improvements after that
date, for fifty years, until early nineteenth-century days, mainly
concerned enamelling, printing, glazing, and the _exterior_, or
developments in mechanical production, or attempts at higher artistic
effects.
In the illustrations we give of cream ware it will be seen that it was
of varying form and it received a variety of decoration.
It was _plain or undecorated_, relying chiefly on its symmetry of
form as an artistic asset. The cut and pierced designs and many other
shapes followed those of the silversmith, and in dessert dishes and
centre-pieces considerable beauty was exhibited in modelling--a style
which was closely followed by the Leeds potters, who made excellent
cream ware.
A beautiful example of the perforated basket ware is illustrated (p.
225). It is a dessert dish of most pleasing shape, and is a rare
specimen of the pierced work in Wedgwood's cream ware.
Wedgwood, as early as 1775, still experimenting with a view to make his
cream ware better, determined to make a whiter body by the addition
of more china clay and flint and to kill the yellow tone by the use
of blue (oxide of cobalt). This later white ware he termed "Pearl
ware." Among the most noticeable productions in this whiter ware are
the dessert services modelled from shells. We know that Wedgwood
had a collection, although he was not a conchologist, yet it is not
improbable that the contemplation of these beautiful forms suggested
ideas and he derived many of his artistic shapes from the forms of
shells. The use of shell forms was not unknown. Salt-glaze pieces
repeatedly show the pecten shell design, and Plymouth porcelain had
adopted shell designs in salt cellars and similar pieces. We illustrate
(p. 225) a remarkable example of a centre-piece in the form of a
nautilus shell. Some of the shell dishes have a faint wash in pink,
and yellow radiating bands, hardly perceptible, but conveying the
suggestion of the interior of the shell.
Queen's ware, when decorated, was of two classes: (1) painted; (2)
transfer-printed in red or puce or black.
It is not necessary to go into details in regard to these two forms of
decoration. It is interesting in regard to the enamelling in colour to
know that Wedgwood sent his ware to Mrs. Warburton's factory at Hot
Lane to be painted. He also employed a band of enamellers at Chelsea
who had been trained in the china factory. We reproduce an illustration
(p. 233) of two painted queen's-ware plates from the celebrated service
executed for Catherine II. of Russia. The enamel painting of the views
and borders cost Wedgwood over £2,000. In the centre of each piece is
a scene representing some place of interest in the country. Each view
in this series of British scenery is different, and there are some
twelve hundred. The body is in pale brimstone and the view painted in
a brownish purple; the border was a wreath of mauve flowers and green
leaves, and, as will be seen in the illustrations, each plate has a
green frog in a reserve. This design has puzzled many writers, but as
the Messalina of the North intended to place this service in her palace
of La Grenouillère, near St. Petersburg--Grenouillère meaning a marshy
place full of frogs--explains the whimsical design of the frog on each
plate.
This dinner and dessert service was completed in 1774 at a cost of
about £3,000. It was exhibited in London, and set the town agog
with amazement. The rooms in Greek Street, Soho, were thronged with
fashionable people, and, as may be imagined, it gave a great impetus to
the manufacture of Wedgwood's ware.
The other decoration employed by Wedgwood on his cream ware was
transfer printing. He availed himself at once of the new style of
printing by Sadler and Green on the glazed surface of his ware, which
was periodically sent to Liverpool to be so decorated. In the earlier
pieces the tile design is evident, quite unsuitable for a round plate,
in spite of Wedgwood's addition of wreaths and ribbons in enamel
painting to help out the incongruity. In early books illustrated by
Bewick with square woodcuts a similar use of garlands and ribbons as an
ornamental border is observed.
Nor was the cream body confined to strictly domestic ware. Among his
multifarious productions Wedgwood made some fine coloured figures,
remarkable for strong modelling and subdued and harmonious colouring.
The large figures, such as Fortitude, Charity, Ceres, Juno, Prudence,
and many others, are not always marked. "Fortitude" and "Charity" both
bear the impressed mark WEDGWOOD, the latter belonging to the series
Faith, Hope, and Charity designed for Wedgwood by Mrs. Landré, and
a marked example is in the Willett Collection. Many small coloured
cream-ware busts were made. We illustrate two typical examples (p. 233)
of Rousseau and Voltaire. They were evidently intended for the French
market, and are very dainty though somewhat highly-coloured likenesses
of two great Frenchmen. Jean-Jacques is portrayed in Armenian costume,
after the well-known portrait. The coat is a chocolate brown and the
stand is marbled. Voltaire has a blue surcoat, a terra-cotta cloak, and
lilac vest.
[Illustration:
WEDGWOOD BLACK BASALT TEAPOTS.
WEDGWOOD JASPER WARE DICED PATTERN TEA SET.
_By the courtesy of Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood & Sons._]
=Jasper Ware.=--As early as 1773 Wedgwood was experimenting with a
view to producing jasper body. It is here that his greatest triumph
in the ceramic art was won. Nothing like it had ever been seen in
pottery before, and the ware he produced in an endless variety of forms
which were termed "ornamental" by him to distinguish them from the
queen's ware, or "useful" ware. About 1775--a great date in Wedgwood's
history--the jasper ware was perfected, and from 1780 to 1795 is the
period when it was at its best, when he poured forth from Etruria, then
filled with a highly-trained body of workmen and artists, his jasper
ware, exquisite with grace and beauty of form and fascinating in its
charm of dainty and subtle colour.
The spirit of classicism was in the air in the days of Wedgwood. Dr.
Johnson had imposed his ponderous latinity on the world of letters.
Alexander Pope was still writing when Josiah was apprenticed and
known already as a "fine thrower." Homer's _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ had
appeared in many editions just prior to Wedgwood's manhood. The statues
of naval and military commanders in Westminster Abbey were in Roman
costume. The Brothers Adam were in the heyday of their popularity. From
sedan chairs to silver-plate their style was the vogue. The classical
mouldings, capitals, and niches, the shell flutings and the light
garlands in the Adam style are welcome sights in many otherwise dreary
streets in London. In furniture, the Adam style is as severe as the
French prototypes which had absorbed some of the ancient spirit of
Rome and Greece. As early as 1763 Grimm wrote, "For some years past we
are beginning to inquire for antique ornaments and forms. The interior
and exterior decorations of houses, furniture, materials of dress,
work of the goldsmiths, all bear alike the stamp of the Greeks. The
fashion passes from architecture to millinery; our ladies have their
hair dressed _à la Grecque_." Men of thought joined in clamouring for
simplicity, and Diderot lent his powerful aid in heralding the dawn of
the revival of the antique long before the France of Revolution days.
But eyes other than French were fixed on the remote past. The
excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii had given a new stimulus to
archæological research. In this country Sir William Hamilton, as early
as 1765, promoted the publication of the magnificent work, "Greek,
Roman, and Etruscan Antiquities," illustrated from his collection.
It was a specially valuable exposition of the system and methods
and æsthetic value of classic art, especially plastic art; and in
promulgating this sumptuous illustrated disquisition on the ancient
potter's art Sir William Hamilton laid modern workers in the same field
under a heavy debt. Incidentally it may be mentioned that Sir William
was the husband of the beautiful Lady Hamilton.
So that in the midst of this eighteenth-century classic revival Josiah
Wedgwood was but the child of his age, and, associated in partnership
with Bentley, a man of refined and scholarly tastes, he entered into
the new spirit with willing mind. Adroitly seizing classic models,
Wedgwood in his art adapted all that was most suited to modern
requirements. Pope translated Homer into English verse, and Wedgwood
translated classic designs into English pottery.
[Illustration:
WEDGWOOD JASPER VASE.
Subject--representing the Apotheosis of Virgil; surmounted by Pegasus
cover.
_By the courtesy of Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood & Sons._]
Wedgwood's jasper ware is of various colours--blue in various tones,
sage-green, olive-green, lilac, pink, yellow, and black, and, of
course, white, which is its natural body without the addition of
metallic oxides. It is capable of taking a polish on the lapidary's
wheel. In use it was mainly employed for ware of a highly ornamental
character, though it was also employed for utilitarian objects, such
as tea and coffee services, dishes, and flower vases, and in plaques
it was used as interior decorations in fireplaces and in furniture. We
illustrate (p. 241) a jasper ware diced pattern _Tea Set_, which shows
how wide a field Wedgwood covered with his new ware.
It is usually found with a ground of one colour, such as blue, lilac,
_et cetera_--one of the seven--and the ornament applied in relief is,
as a rule, white. It was Wedgwood's appreciation of antique gems that
suggested the idea of reproducing them in earthenware, and in the
period prior to Bentley's death, in 1780, cameos, portrait medallions,
and plaques were mostly made.
There are two classes of jasper ware--_solid jasper_ and _jasper dip_.
The difference is similar to that between solid agate and surface
agate. Solid jasper is coloured throughout. That which is coloured only
on the surface is jasper dip. This latter gives more delicate effects,
and was employed, after 1780, in the important series of classic vases
which required translucency and greater delicacy in the white reliefs,
which is especially effective in the filmy garments and flowing
draperies of the classic figures.
Considerable progress had been made in Staffordshire since Elers left
in 1710, but it is the Elers method of stamping the ornaments and
applying them to the body of the ware that Wedgwood adopted. But there
was more than enough originality of invention in this jasper ware to
carry his fame to the confines of Europe. Blue and white porcelain
in imitation of his jasper was made at Sèvres, and other continental
factories, such as Meissen, Furstenburg, and Gros Breitenbach, made
similar echoes of this wonderful English jasper ware of Josiah Wedgwood.
No illustrations can do justice to the charm and tender colour of some
of the finer examples of this Wedgwood jasper ware, varying from pale
lemon colour to delicate mauve as a ground, and having translucent
diaphonous draperies in white standing in relief in the groups of
figures.
To the sense of touch fine old specimens of this jasper ware are as
soft as satin. Usually the dull matt surface of this ware is left
without polish, though it is so dense and hard as to receive a high
polish, which was occasionally employed in the inside of basins and
cups and on the bevelled edges of some of his cameos.
His classic subjects were no feeble echoes of ancient art, but were
executed from designs by a band of great artists working together
and saturated with the spirit of the new classic revival. John
Flaxman, James Tassie, John Bacon, William Hackwood, Thomas Stothard,
George Stubbs, William Greatbach, were all employed by Wedgwood. And
distinguished amateurs such as Lady Diana Beauclerk and Lady Templeton
supplied him with designs, and it is interesting to note that Mrs.
Wilcox, an accomplished painter of figures and borders on his Etruscan
ware, was a daughter of Fry, the mezzotint engraver and founder of the
Bow porcelain factory.
We illustrate (p. 245) a fine jasper vase representing _The Apotheosis
of Virgil_, the cover surmounted by a Pegasus. The square pedestal has
griffins at the corners. A companion vase, _The Apotheosis of Homer_,
changed owners at eight hundred guineas, and is now in the possession
of Lord Tweedmouth.
Wedgwood himself regarded his copy of the celebrated Barberini vase,
which was lent to him by the Duke of Portland, as his masterpiece.
This vase is a cameo glass vase, which was discovered in the middle
of the seventeenth century in a marble sarcophagus on the road to
Frascati, two miles from Rome. This vase belongs to the early part of
the third century. It was bought by Sir William Hamilton for £1,000,
and subsequently purchased by the Duke of Portland. This vase, of rich
dark blue glass, almost black, is decorated with opaque white enamel
cameos in relief cut with the most extraordinary skill, and it stands
as a superb example of classic art. Strictly speaking, Wedgwood's copy
of this was at best a copy in one material of the technique of another.
But if it be not the highest art to copy thus in intricate detail, yet
it must be admitted that such masterly elaboration had never before
been attempted by the potter, and the early copies of Wedgwood (he set
out to make only fifty) stand unequalled as specimens of potting by the
hands of trained workmen directed by genius.
=Wedgwood and his influence.=--As a final word on Wedgwood and his
influence, something should be said as to the charge laid against him
that he inaugurated the factory system as applied to pottery. There
is no doubt that he organised what was before his day a somewhat
chaotic industry. And it is certain that he trained his workmen to
become specialists, and that the system of the division of labour
was the order of the day at Etruria. But how else could such an
output as his be handled? It has been advanced that the quaintness
of the peasant potter and his later development was submerged, and
that all individuality was lost under the new system. There was a
growing tendency to develop mechanical perfection and to introduce
labour-saving appliances, but this was the spirit of the oncoming
modern age. Other factories, his contemporaries, were adopting the same
principles, and those who think Wedgwood unoriginal or uninventive are
quite willing to credit him with all the inventiveness and originality
necessary to overturn the old system. The truth lies between these two
extremes. Wedgwood, in common with his contemporaries, not unwillingly
embraced all the newest devices known. It was Sadler and Green, of
Liverpool, who together in one day by their invention printed as many
tiles as it would have taken a hundred painters to do in the same
time. Similarly all over the country artisans in the china trade were
becoming specialised. There were the enamellers at Chelsea and other
places, and a little examination will show that Wedgwood did not
inaugurate this modern factory method, but without doubt, in common
with all other master potters, he had to go with the times. Trade
rivalry was very strong, and competition was not unknown when every
potter in Staffordshire was jealously watching the latest improvement
of his neighbour. But to saddle Josiah Wedgwood with the responsibility
of stamping out original talent is beside the mark. His life-work
stands impregnable against petty assault. "In a word, no other potter
of modern times has so successfully welded into one harmonious whole
the prose and the poetry of the ceramic art."
WEDGWOOD MARKS.
[Illustration: wedgwood]
1.--This mark occurs upon a very early specimen of "Queen's Ware,"
a teapot, painted with flowers, &c., supposed to have been made by
Wedgwood at Burslem: each letter apparently stamped singly with
printers' type.
[Illustration:
WEDGWOOD
WEDGWOOD
Wedgwood]
2, 3, 4.--These marks, varying in size, were, it is thought, used by
Wedgwood up to the accession of Bentley as his partner, 1768-9, and are
found upon specimens said to have been purchased about that period.
[Illustration: WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY]
5.--The circular stamp, without the inner and outer rings, and without
the word Etruria, is doubtless the earliest form of the Wedgwood and
Bentley stamp, and is found upon a set of three early painted vases, in
imitation of natural stone, with gilt serpent and scroll handles. No
other example of this mark is known: it may have been an experimental
one, afterwards changed for No. 6, and never in general use.
[Illustration]
6.--This mark, with the word Etruria, is made upon a wafer, or bat, and
fixed in the corner, inside the plinth of old basalt vases, reversing
for candelabra and some large specimens; it is sometimes found on the
pedestal of a bust or large figure.
[Illustration]
7.--The well-known circular stamp, with an inner and outer line, always
placed round the screw of the basalt, granite, and Etruscan vases, but
is never found upon the jasper vases of any period.
[Illustration:
WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY
WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY
Wedgwood & Bentley
Wedgwood & Bentley]
8, 9, 10, 11.--These marks, varying in size, are found upon busts,
granite, and basalt vases, figures, plaques, medallions, and cameos,
from the largest tablet to the smallest cameo for a ring (the writer
has one, only half an inch by three-eighths of an inch, fully marked);
also found upon useful ware of the period.
[Illustration:
Wedgwood
& Bentley
356]
12.--Marks upon the Wedgwood and Bentley intaglios, with the catalogue
number, varying in size. Very small intaglios are sometimes marked W. &
B. with the catalogue number, or simply with number only.
[Illustration: Wedgwood & Bentley.]
13.--This rare mark is found only upon chocolate and white seal
intaglios, usually portraits, made of two layers of clay; the edges
polished for mounting.
It may be noted that the word "and" in every Wedgwood and Bentley
mark is always contracted "&," that no punctuation or other points,
excepting those in marks No. 5, 6, 7, and 13, are ever used.
[Illustration:
Wedgwood
Wedgwood
Wedgwood
WEDGWOOD
WEDGWOOD
WEDGWOOD
WEDGWOOD]
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.--Marks, varying in size, attributed to
the period after Bentley's death, and probably used for a time after
Wedgwood died. These marks and others were used by chance--a small
piece often bearing a large stamp, and a large one a minute stamp.
[Illustration: WEDGWOOD & SONS]
21.--This rare mark exists upon some large square plateaux in
cane-coloured jasper. It may have been one adopted upon the change
of partnership in 1790, but little used. The circular announcing
the change says: "The mark 'WEDGWOOD' will be continued without any
addition."
[Illustration:
WEDGWOOD
ETRURIA
WEDGWOOD
ETRURIA
Wedgwood
Etruria]
22, 23, 24.--These marks rarely found upon pieces of very high
character--usually upon dark blue stoneware, vases, and glazed ware.
Adopted about 1840, but soon disused.
[Illustration: WEDGWOOD (_in red, blue, or gold_)]
25.--The mark upon Wedgwood PORCELAIN made from 1805-1815. Always
printed either in red or blue, sometimes in gold. An impressed mark
cannot be used with certainty upon soft-paste porcelain, being so apt
to diffuse out in firing.
[Illustration:
WEDGWOOD
WEDGWOOD ]
26, 27.--These marks, varying in size, are still used at Etruria for
the modern jasper and useful ware of all varieties.
[Illustration: WEDGWOOD]
28.--The manufacture of fine porcelain was revived at Etruria, 1878,
and is still continued. This mark, _printed_ in black and other
colours, is used.
[Illustration: ENGLAND]
29.--The word ENGLAND was added to the mark WEDGWOOD in 1891, to comply
with the new American Customs Regulations, known as the McKinley Tariff
Act.
The occurrence of three capital letters, ANO, REP, &c., in addition to
name appears on ware after 1840. The first two letters are workmen's
marks, and the third is a date letter, _e.g._, O = 1855, P = 1856, and
so on, as in hall-marks on silver.
PRICES.
WEDGWOOD. £ s. d.
Oval. Ganymede feeding Eagle (6-1/4 in.
by 5-1/4 in.), marked Wedgwood & Bentley
Christie, June, 1906 40 19 0
Oblong oval. Marriage of Cupid and
Psyche (6 in. by 7-3/4 in.), marked
Wedgwood & Bentley. Christie,
June, 1906 54 12 0
Busts, _Minerva_ and _Mercury_,
black basalt, 18 in. high. Christie,
November, 1906 16 16 0
Oval portrait, in jasper, white on blue
ground, of Captain Cook (10 in. by
8 in.), marked Wedgwood & Bentley.
Sotheby, February, 1907 16 16 0
Jasper vase, blue, with Venus and Cupid
in relief, handles coiled with serpents.
Christie, February, 1908 33 12 0
A pair of splashed mauve Nautilus Shells,
marked Wedgwood. Sotheby, December,
1908 3 10 0
The above prices are for ordinary collectors' examples of old Wedgwood.
But exceptional pieces bring exceptional prices. The largest known
example of a blue and white jasper plaque (11 in. by 26 in.) sold for
£415 at Christie's in 1880, and the fine jasper vase _The Apotheosis of
Homer_ (now in the Tweedmouth Collection) realised 800 guineas.
VIII
THE
SCHOOL
OF WEDGWOOD
CHAPTER VIII
THE SCHOOL OF WEDGWOOD
1760-1810
William Adams (of Greengates) (1789-1805)--John Turner (of Lane
End) (1739-1786)--The plagiarists of Wedgwood--The Wedgwood
influence--The passing of classicism--Table of Marks--Prices.
Potters who followed Wedgwood may be divided into three classes. Men
such as John Turner and William Adams, who were competitors with him in
friendly rivalry, each striving to emulate the successes of the other,
and each doing original and independent work. Indebted, and greatly
indebted to Wedgwood as these potters were, they produced work equal
with his in technique. The blue jasper of William Adams, if anything,
is rather finer than that of his master. John Turner, of Lane End, made
jasper from a different formula to Wedgwood, being more porcellanous in
character. These men, his friends and intimates, and Palmer, of Hanley,
who was first to apply bas-reliefs to his black vases, in 1769, may
be said to represent original research, as compared with uninventive
copying.
The second class, which includes contemporaries such as Elijah Mayer,
and Palmer, of Hanley, who must be included here (in spite of his
streak of originality above alluded to, and his fine use of gilding to
granitic ware), and Neale, his brother-in-law, and Voyez, the modeller,
and Hollins, may all be said to be plagiarists who lived largely on
Wedgwood's jasper and basalt ware, as well as several schools such as
Hartley Greens (of Leeds), and Swansea and Spode, and many others who
followed his cream-ware designs. In regard to Palmer and Neale and
Voyez the case is very strong, as they are stated to have forged the
mark "Wedgwood & Bentley" in some of their medallions; but against the
others the case must not be pressed too closely, as they undoubtedly
displayed a fertility of invention and an originality after they had
once learned the Wedgwood manner. Leeds, in particular, having caught
the spirit that Wedgwood had transplanted from the silversmith to his
dessert services, produced cream-ware rivalling that of Etruria.
Tennyson had a set of verses which illustrate this situation. He tells
of him who "cast to earth a seed" which grew so tall "it wore a crown
of light."
"But thieves from o'er the wall
Stole the seed by night."
Sown far and wide in every town, it won universal admiration, and,
says the poet--who, by the way, was thinking of plagiarists of his own
style--
"Most can raise the flowers now,
For all have got the seed."
We must make one other point; it was Wedgwood who lighted the way even
to his source of inspiration. He made no secret of his indebtedness
to the art of the silversmith, and in recognising in the antiquarian
works of Count Caylus and Sir William Hamilton a new field, he left
it open for others to go to the same original sources, nor were his
contemporaries slow in doing this. So that, in a measure, this second
class of potters may be exonerated from the charge of plagiarism when
we find them striking out for themselves.
Chippendale, when he promulgated his "Director" giving designs for
furniture, straightway started a school of cabinet-makers, who
worked after his designs in every locality in England. These early
pioneers in art--Chippendale, the masterly adapter of all that was
best on the Continent, and Wedgwood, translator of classicism into
English pottery--worked with broad and generous spirit, and their
contemporaries and those who came immediately after them helped
themselves liberally to the overflowing profusion of ideas.
The third class is the great crowd of lesser men, potters who claim
little attention for original work, but who are remembered as
producing, as an echo to the great classic revival, designs and shapes
and copies of Wedgwood's ware, sometimes in stoneware for jugs, and
more often in cream-ware, without an added touch of originality. In
this decadent period, when not only in Staffordshire but in other parts
of the country this was being largely done, and not always done well,
though there are exceptions to which we shall allude later, one is
reminded of the pregnant words of Goethe: "There are many echoes, but
few voices."
=William Adams (1745-1805).=--The Adams family are renowned in
Staffordshire as being among the oldest potters in the country.
In connection with classic ware William Adams, of Greengates, is
pre-eminent. At his death, in 1805, the works were carried on by
Benjamin Adams till 1820. There is considerable confusion between
contemporary members of this family, both of the same name, William
Adams (of Cobridge), William Adams (of Greenfield), and the subject of
the present remarks, William Adams, of Greengates, who commenced as
master potter there in 1789. There were other firms, such as J. Adams
& Co., or Adams & Bromley, who made jasper ware between about 1870 and
1886, and who stamped their ware "ADAMS," or "ADAMS & CO." This, of
course, does not come into the realm of collecting, and this latter
firm has nothing to do with the old-established family of Adams. But
collectors cannot be too careful when auction catalogues describe such
ware as "Adams."
The beautiful Adams blue which is of a violet tone is much admired, and
in the finely-modelled classic reliefs the style is less frigid than
Wedgwood, as William Adams drew his inspiration more from Latin than
Greek models. As a rule his jasper is a trifle more waxen than that
of Wedgwood, but never glossy. William Adams was a favourite pupil of
Wedgwood, and was doubtless indebted to him for the guidance that set
the young potter to work in friendly and amicable rivalry with his late
master.
[Illustration:
BLUE AND WHITE JASPER VASE.
Impressed mark TURNER.
Subject--Diana in her Chariot.
(John Turner, of Lane End, 1762-1786.)
BLUE AND WHITE JASPER VASE.
Impressed mark ADAMS.
(About 1790.)
(William Adams, of Greengates, made jasper 1787-1805.)
(_At British Museum._)]
As a modeller he was of exceptional merit, and it is known that he
designed, himself, several of his finest pieces, such as the _Seasons_,
his _Venus Bound_, and _Cupid Disarmed_, his _Pandora_, _Psyche trying
one of Cupid's Darts_, and the _Muses_. Monglott, a Swiss artist, was
employed by him on jasper vases, and it is believed that Enoch Wood is
responsible for designing the hunting scenes which appear on the
fine stoneware jugs and tankards similar in style to the Turner jug
illustrated (p. 267). Many of his jugs had silver mounts.
In regard to marks, that usually found is ADAMS impressed. Sometimes,
though rarely, the mark is ADAMS & CO.; and later his son, Benjamin
Adams, had the impressed mark B. ADAMS, which appears on stoneware and
blue printed ware.
To those who desire to familiarise themselves with the genius of
William Adams, there is a special volume by Mr. William Turner,
entitled "William Adams, an Old English Potter" (Chapman & Hall, 1904),
which is a full and learned monograph, dealing in thorough manner with
the productions of William Adams and of his kinsfolk, the Adams family
of potters.
We illustrate one of a pair of jasper vases in blue and white by Adams,
in date about 1790. The classic figure subjects, as will be seen,
display a simplicity and exquisite grace of modelling and arrangement
not surpassed even by Wedgwood (see p. 261).
=John Turner, of Lane End (1739-1786).=--Wedgwood and Turner were
intimates, and in considering Turner we must regard him as a friendly
neighbour, as well as a rival potter. He made some remarkably fine
jasper, though it differed in its body very greatly from that of
Wedgwood, being more closely allied with porcelain. It contained no
barytes in its composition. In design Turner, though not imitative,
followed the Greek school and produced, as a modeller himself,
some exquisitely proportioned pieces. We illustrate a fine vase in
blue-and-white jasper which is especially graceful in design, the
severity being relieved by the delicacy of the fine subject in relief
of _Diana in her Chariot_ drawing a pair of goats and accompanied by
flying cherubs (see p. 261). This subject, it will be noticed, is
reproduced in a transfer-printed jug illustrated in a later chapter (p.
319).
But it is in the unglazed stoneware that he surpassed anything his
contemporaries had done. It was about 1780 that he discovered, after
hunting for clay even so far afield as Cornwall, the precise earth he
wanted in his own neighbourhood at Longton. In colour it was a warm
biscuit tone, and it was capable of being modelled with exactitude into
fine sharp designs in relief. In stoneware jugs with classic figures
in relief he set the fashion for half a century. His teapots and
coffee-pots are models of graceful design. We illustrate a fine example
of a _Teapot_ (p. 267), with the lid perfectly fitting, made to slide
in a groove, and showing in clear relief the style of ornamentation
for which Turner became so renowned. The other illustration, on the
same page, of an equally perfect _Stoneware Jug_ with metal mounts,
shows a slight departure from classic ornament. The figures are in
old English costume, and are engaged in archery. It will thus be seen
that even in the early days there was exhibited a tendency to depart
from classic figure design and turn to equally graceful but homelier
subjects. Possibly this influence may have been due to Enoch Wood, who
is believed to have been employed by Turner as a modeller; but accurate
information regarding Turner's modellers is not known.
Besides the above-mentioned wares, Turner also made black basalt of
very high quality, being preferred by some connoisseurs to that of
Wedgwood. He also was the first to introduce under-glaze printing into
Staffordshire, and although he did not introduce the "willow pattern"
(Spode brought that from Caughley), he made ware with this pattern
printed in under-glaze blue, and his plates and dishes have perforated
borders. We illustrate a fine example of this ware (p. 331).
=The Plagiarists of Wedgwood.=--We have seen that John Turner, of
Lane End, that William Adams, of Greengates, came under the strong
influence of Wedgwood, but were no more imitators, in the broad sense,
than Gainsborough and Romney may be said to be imitators of Sir Joshua
Reynolds. It must be allowed in art that a school may arise under the
guidance of some remarkable genius who tinges the originality of his
contemporaries with his own master mind. Wedgwood had the inspiration
to transplant classic decoration into Staffordshire--the rest was easy;
having shown the way, crowds of lesser men seized the new ideas with
avidity.
Chief among the direct copyists was Henry Palmer. He had a spark of
originality, as we have seen, anticipating Wedgwood by some five
years in applying bas-reliefs to his black vases, and the sprinkled
marbled ware touched with gold was another success of his, but here his
ingenuity ended. He must have been a great thorn in Wedgwood's side,
for he is said to have procured every new pattern on its appearance
and copied it. Voyez, who was a modeller and not a potter, assisted in
this nefarious traffic; but Voyez, in spite of his rascality, was a
clever modeller, and struck out a new line in his rustic or "Fair Hebe"
jugs. He was employed at one time by Wedgwood, and probably by Ralph
Wood. Voyez specialised on the intaglio seals, and added Wedgwood
and Bentley's names to his handiwork. On other intaglios, equally
imitative, and on vases is the name PALMER or the initials H. P.
Wedgwood himself--as do collectors nowadays--was obliged to acknowledge
the fine quality of the work of Palmer and of Neale, for he admitted to
Bentley that they were "serious competitors," and he evidently feared
their activity, as he says, "We must be progressing or we shall have
them treading on our heels."
The sagacity of Wedgwood's remark is obvious, for an examination of
the Neale-and-Palmer jasper and other ware reveals an amazing mastery
of technique. It is finely potted and well balanced in ornament and
design. If it were not for the impressed mark such vases might readily
pass as Wedgwood. It is not improbable that in the middle nineteenth
century the names both of Adams and Palmer and Neale were ground out of
the bases of some of their finer vases by ingenious persons, who passed
them off as the work of Wedgwood.
[Illustration:
TURNER STONEWARE TEAPOT, UNGLAZED.
With ornament in relief and classic figure subjects.
Mark impressed TURNER. (Height 4-1/2 inches.)
(_In the collection of Mrs. L. Scott._)]
[Illustration:
TURNER STONEWARE JUG, UNGLAZED.
With decoration in relief of archery. Silver lid and rim.
Mark impressed TURNER. (Height 9 inches.)
(_In the collection of Mr. John Watson Bradley._)]
=Marks--Palmer, Neale, Wilson.=--In regard to marks, H. PALMER or
PALMER. HANLEY is the earliest--sometimes only the initials H. P.
About 1776 he entered into partnership with his brother-in-law, and
sometimes the mark NEALE alone is found and often NEALE & CO. These
marks are usually in circles; on one piece appears I. NEALE, with the
word HANLY (spelt wrongly) beneath. About 1778 Robert Wilson joined
the firm, and after 1788 his name alone appears. Stoneware jugs--drab
ground with cupids in relief--baskets, and cream-ware are often found
marked WILSON surmounted by a crown with the letter C above. Sometimes
this is present without the name. Wilson, too, is remembered for
having introduced chalk into the body of his cream-ware, which was of
exceptional value in whitening the ware and rendering it more adapted
for under-glaze printing. At Wilson's death, in 1802, David Wilson
succeeded to the pottery, and the firm shortly after became D. Wilson &
Sons. These Wilsons made pink lustre, similar to that of Wedgwood, and
also silver lustre, upon some of which the name of Wilson is impressed.
This brings the factory down to 1820, when it passed into other hands.
We have seen that Adams and Turner and Palmer and Neale came more or
less into touch with Wedgwood as contemporary rivals. Before coming to
the crowd of lesser men, or lesser-known men, we must not omit Josiah
Spode, who was a colleague of Wedgwood under Whieldon; Elijah Mayer,
whose black basalt was almost equal to that of Wedgwood, and whose
enamel cream-ware stands artistically very high; and Samuel Hollins, of
Shelton, with fine red or chocolate ware, having as dense a character
as Wedgwood's imitations of the Elers ware, and Hollins in his jasper
produced some fine examples with original combinations of colours.
=Josiah Spode= the First (there are three potters in succession of
that name) made, in common with other potters, the black basalt ware
from 1770, when he commenced as potter, and he produced stoneware
jugs similar in character to those of Adams and Turner, following the
sporting subjects in relief and departing from the ultra-classical
subjects of Wedgwood. This class of jug and mug was made by many
potters--its character was English, and it was evidently popular. An
illustration of the type appears on page 277. Davenport, of Longport,
made the same pattern; it was made at Castleford, near Leeds, and
Hollins and others adopted the design in relief of a fox-hunt, with
horsemen dismounted preparing to join others at the "kill," which
is shown on the reverse. In fact, it was almost as much copied in
stoneware as the "willow pattern" was in blue-printed ware.
But Josiah Spode is best known as devoting considerable skill in
the improvement of under-glaze blue-printing cream-ware. In 1783 he
brought two workmen into Staffordshire from Caughley, where under-glaze
blue-printing under Thomas Turner was in full swing. Spode was not
the first to introduce under-glaze blue-printing into Staffordshire;
this is due to John Turner, of Lane End (whom we have described, maker
of the fine jasper-ware and stoneware teapots and jugs), not to be
confounded with Thomas Turner, the maker of porcelain at Caughley,
who introduced the "willow pattern" in 1780, which same design was
introduced into Staffordshire in 1784 by Spode--a year after his two
men came over from Caughley. But this and blue transfer-printing is
dealt with in a subsequent chapter.
Something should be said of Josiah Spode the Second (1797-1827),
who continued the blue-printed ware, and produced a great number of
stoneware jugs with decoration in relief similar to those we have
alluded to, and produced jasper ware in blue and white with the
familiar subjects of Wedgwood's day. To him must be given the credit
of introducing colour into Staffordshire earthenware, colour such as
it had never before attempted. His fine imitations of the Derby-Japan
porcelain designs mark a new era in Staffordshire earthenware.
[Illustration:
BLACK BASALT TEAPOT, UNGLAZED.
Impressed mark E. MAYER. (1770-1813.) (About 1786.)
(_At British Museum._)]
[Illustration:
BLACK BASALT TEAPOT, UNGLAZED.
Impressed mark BIRCH. (About 1802.)
(_In the possession of Mr. F. W. Phillips, Hitchin._)]
These illustrations show the imitativeness of this school of potters
and the difficulty of identification.
The Spodes brought something new into Staffordshire earthenware.
The elder Spode evidently had a strong love for Oriental subjects, as
in the "willow pattern," which he "lifted" from Caughley porcelain. He
broke away--and others followed him readily enough--from the cupids
and psyches and gods and goddesses of the old world, and followed the
newer-imported ideas in Chinese taste, now the fashion at Worcester,
Bow, and other china factories. Leeds and Swansea were not slow in
snatching at this new Oriental style of decoration.
In the Staffordshire cream-ware jug we previously illustrated painted
in under-glaze colours, somewhat brown owing to the imperfect knowledge
of the Staffordshire potter in under-glaze work submitted to great
heat, we see an example of painted design in Oriental style, which
came shortly to be more perfectly done in under-glaze blue, as in the
painted plate of Leeds ware illustrated (p. 303).
But much in the same manner work such as the painted scenery on
services like that made by Wedgwood for Catherine II. was shortly
supplanted by black and purple and red transfer-printing done at
Liverpool, so the short-lived under-glaze blue painting on earthenware
was quickly killed by Spode and the other Staffordshire potters when
they rapidly developed the under-glaze transfer-printing in blue.
It was quite an original departure, and owed nothing to Josiah
Wedgwood (who never employed transfer-printing in blue), though it
was adopted very successfully by the firm after his death. And Josiah
Spode the elder most certainly had a strong influence in the potters
of his day in acclimatising the "willow pattern" in Staffordshire,
and in assimilating the best efforts of Chinese decoration as applied
to blue-and-white ware. And Josiah Spode the Second, with equal
originality, took up the next stage in adopting the gorgeous colouring
of Japan.
This brings the story of the development of Wedgwood's cream-ware
up to modern times. And the same chain of development might be
traced in the history of some of the other great potters whose
descendants still carry on the manufacture. Cream-ware at first
painted, then transfer-printed in black or red, then painted in blue
under-glaze--which was killed by the blue under-glaze printing--finally
emulated the rich colours and gilding of porcelain.
To return to =Elijah Mayer= (1770-1813). From 1786 he appears to have
produced black basalt tea ware; his fine teapots with the seated figure
at the apex are well known, and his unglazed cane-coloured ware is
much prized, with its simple decorations in lines of green and blue.
We illustrate (p. 271) an example of a _Black Basalt Teapot_, and
beneath it an illustration of a similar model by Birch, showing the
imitativeness of this school of potters and how difficult it is to
identify specimens. His cream-ware deserves especial attention, as his
enamelling was in very artistic manner, and it stands out prominently
among a crowd of imitators of Wedgwood's cream-ware borders. Every
maker not only took the body of the ware, but in so doing he followed
the designs by Flaxman or some of Wedgwood's other artists, still found
in the old pattern-books to-day at Etruria. As an example of this
imitation in detail, see the Swansea cream-ware plate illustrated (p.
397).
Mayer made black glazed tea ware, and this, when unmarked, is very
commonly attributed by beginners to Turner. The marks impressed are E.
MAYER, and after 1820 E. MAYER & SON. At a later period the mark was
JOSEPH MAYER.
=Samuel Hollins= (1774-1816), with his red and chocolate unglazed ware
decorated with ornament in the Elers manner and made from the clay
at Bradwell Wood, is deservedly noteworthy as well as for several
important departures in colour in the stoneware teapots and coffee-pots
which he made of green, with touches of applied ornament in blue
jasper. He followed silver designs, and avoided the cold, classic forms
of Wedgwood. He departed from the straight lines of the Turner teapot.
He loved ornament, and there is a touch of elaboration in his design,
as though attempting to shake off the severe formality of the Brothers
Adam style of design, and he strongly loved colour.
Samuel Hollins was one of the proprietors in the New Hall china works,
and his successors were T. and J. Hollins, who continued to make jasper
ware in the style of Wedgwood. Their names are impressed on many
examples.
=The Wedgwood influence.=--In the latter days of the eighteenth century
and the early days of the nineteenth, the direct influence of Wedgwood
became something more remote. But even in early nineteenth-century
days there were undeniable traces of the old models and the old form
of ware. Take, for example, the unmarked early nineteenth-century
_Black Basalt Teapot_ in the form of a barrel, with the grape-vine
ornament in relief, and the pine cone at top of lid (illustrated
p. 277). Undoubtedly this has left all classic form, but it has
retained the technique of Wedgwood. In some of the buff-coloured,
unglazed stoneware jugs which are unmarked, there is the inclination
to follow the sporting subjects in relief, which Adams and Turner
and Spode so successfully adopted, and the twisted snake-handle and
reptilian-modelled mouth become original in treatment. In general, it
may be said, that the classic influence remained for a considerable
time in the stoneware of various kinds, but in the cream-ware which is
the main stream of English earthenware, the forms and the ornamentation
more rapidly departed from the styles of Wedgwood's queen's ware.
Hence we find two opposing influences working against each other in the
Staffordshire potters' minds. The best of them in their highest flights
essayed to make jasper, or to copy or emulate Wedgwood's classic style
in vases and important ornamental pieces. Most of them largely made
the stoneware of various colours, and also the black basalt. All of
them made cream-ware, which was the staple ware of Staffordshire, in a
thousand different forms. As time went on all except cream-ware began
to deteriorate from the earliest prototypes, and the later forms are
debased in design and inferior in potting.
[Illustration:
SPODE STONEWARE JUG.
Rich blue glazed ground with decoration of hunting scene in white
relief.
DAVENPORT STONEWARE JUG.
Same design as adjacent jug, but having white ground with subject in
relief.
(_In the possession of Mr. Hubert Gould._)]
[Illustration:
BLACK BASALT TEAPOT.
In the form of a barrel, with grape-vine decoration in relief.
(Early nineteenth century.)]
=The passing of classicism.=--From the first there were those who
were classic only by compulsion. Wedgwood was regarded as too classic
for vulgar tastes. The cream-ware and the coloured figures display a
ready appreciation of public wants. Even Voyez descended to rusticity
in his jugs. Spode had a leaning for Oriental subjects in his blue
printed ware, which was quickly adopted by Leeds. Adams leaned to
landscape subjects after Claude and English scenery. Nor was this all.
The cream-ware figures and the mugs and jugs provided full scope for
the potter's fancy in political, satirical, patriotic, and humorous
and fancy subjects. From Sunderland to Swansea the cream-ware took
to itself more homely sentiments and more characteristic design. It
became, during the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first
quarter of the nineteenth, as English as if the gods and goddesses had
never descended into Staffordshire, and as though Wedgwood had never
been.
Most of this cream-ware was transfer-printed, the Caxtons of
Staffordshire had found blank spots enough to fill on their white ware,
and in filling them they have left us a permanent record of popular
feeling which was at the time strong enough to induce them to rush into
print on every conceivable subject with queer engraved decoration and
whimsically illiterate verse.
=Marks.=--The following are some of the names, mostly found as
impressed marks, on ware of the Wedgwood school, in date from 1760
to 1835, a period of three-quarters of a century. In many cases in
addition to ware bearing traces of a classic influence, the potters
made cream ware with blue-printed decoration, a style which was not
employed at Etruria until the second Wedgwood period, on the death of
Josiah Wedgwood in 1795.[4]
[Note: 4 Compare this with the List of Marks on Transfer-printed Ware, pp.
347-35.]
The names are arranged alphabetically, and, where of interest, the
class of ware associated with the potter is given.
William Adams 1787-1805 Fine jasper ware of the highest
(of Greengates) quality. Stoneware and blue-printed
ware.
J. Aynsley 1790-1826 Silver lustre. Transfer-printed
ware. Melon- and barrel-shaped
teapots.
Batty & Co. Vases and jugs, classic figures as
frieze, printed in under-glaze blue
touched with vermilion.
E. J. Birch Black basalt ware of good quality
(sometimes marked with E.I.B.
impressed).
Bott & Co. Busts painted in colours. Vases
transfer-printed.
J. Clementson 1832-1867 White ware blue-printed with
foreign scenery. (Marked with
name and phoenix.)
Clews 1814-1836 Stoneware jugs. Blue-printed
cream ware. Picturesque views
and subjects after Wilkie's pictures,
Rowlandson's _Dr. Syntax_, _Don
Quixote_, &c.
Close & Co. from 1843 Cream ware with printed decoration
(Successors to W. in brown.
Adams & Sons, of
Stoke.)
Cookson & Harding 1856-1862 Cream ware blue transfer-printed.
C. & H.
(late Hackwood.)
Davenport (Longport) 1793-1834 Cream ware painted and printed.
(Firm continued Handles in form of dolphins. Plates
till 1886.) and dishes--dragons and fret border
printed in blue; ground pencilled
in scale pattern.
Eastwood 1802-1830 Vases small, jasper, Wedgwood
style; stoneware blue and buff. W.
Baddeley, of _Eastwood_, is believed
to have used this mark, frequently
found.
Hackwood 1842-1856 Cream ware painted with knights
and armed figures.
Harding 1862-1880 Blue glazed earthenware, white
ornaments in relief. Brown glazed
jugs and teapots in Rockingham
style.
Harley about 1809 Teapots, white glazed stoneware;
cover surmounted.
Heath 1770-1777
Heath & Bagnall 1777-1785
Heath, Warburton 1786-
& Co.
S. Hollins 1774-1816 Jasper ware, white ground cameo
figures in blue.
T. & J. Hollins 1802-1820 Similar ware to above.
A. & E. Keeling 1786-1828 Black basalt and cream ware.
Lakin Cream ware blue-printed with
English landscape subjects, &c.
Lakin & Poole 1770-1846 Dishes and cream ware. Centres
often finely painted with exotic
birds in Worcester style.
J. & T. Lockett 1786-1829 White stoneware and salt-glaze.
E. J. Mayer 1770-1813 Black basalt tea services, &c.,
with animals in relief; silver lustre.
E. Mayer & Son 1813-1830
Mayer & Newbold 1823-1837 Made porcelain as well as
earthenware (marked M. & N.).
Mayer & Elliott Cream ware, blue-printed.
F. Meir White glazed earthenware services,
English landscapes printed
in blue, dishes with pierced border.
Morr & Smith
Moseley 1802-1825 Black basalt ware; teapots, &c.
Myatt 1802-1840 Unglazed red ware coffee-pots in
Elers style. Engine-turned with
wavy patterns. Sometimes marked
with an oval enclosing letter =W=.
H. Palmer 1760-1775 Fine jasper ware, granitic vases;
figures.
Neale & Palmer 1776-1778 Jasper ware strongly imitative
of Wedgwood.
Neale & Co. 1778-1788 Jasper ware and classic figures.
Phillips (Longport) 1760-1830 Small dishes; salt cellars, cream
ware, Oriental decoration,
blue-printed.
Pratt Vases and jugs, white stoneware,
with blue figures in relief; border
of vine.
Ridgway 1790-1854 Various elaborate marks used.
W. Ridgway and W. Ridgway &
Son. In 1836 the firm became
W. Ridgway, Morley, Wear &
Co.
Riley
Rogers 1786-1829 Blue-printed stoneware. Inferior
imitations of Wedgwood.
Salt 1820-1864 Figures enamelled in colour.
Shorthose 1783-1802 Black basalt vases and flower
jars.
Shorthose & Heath 1802- White glazed earthenware, transfer
printed in red over-glaze.
Subjects--children at play, &c.
Cream ware embossed with wicker
pattern pierced border. (Mark
printed in red, also impressed.)
Sneyd about 1850 Imitations of Portland vase, &c.
Josiah Spode 1770-1797 Black basalt ware. Stoneware
(_the First_) jugs with sporting subjects in relief.
Steel 1780-1824 Jasper and ornamental ware,
white relief on blue, dark blue
figures in relief on pink ground, &c.
W. Stevenson about 1828 White glazed ware, classic figures
in relief on pale blue ground;
impressed mark W. Stevenson, Hanley.
John Turner 1739-1786 Fine Jasper ware of excellent
(of Lane End) quality. Stoneware jugs, &c., of
warm biscuit colour unglazed.
Black basalt, and under-glaze,
blue-printed ware.
Walton 1806-1839 Figures-classical Lions, _Fishwife_,
_Gardener_, &c.
Warburton 1751-1828 Rarely marked. Mrs. Warburton,
of Cobridge, in 1751 made great
improvements in cream ware prior to
Wedgwood's queen's ware. In 1828
the firm was J. Warburton & Co.
Wilson 1788-1820 Stoneware jugs with classic figures
in relief. Ornamental vases in Wedgwood
style. Copper lustre ware.
E. Wood 1784-1790 Cream ware, basket pattern, &c.
Busts.
Wood & Caldwell 1790-1818 White glazed earthenware.
Figures, coloured busts, &c.
Enoch Wood & Sons 1820-1846 Figures of classic form.
PRICES.
=School of Wedgwood.=
ADAMS. £ s. d.
Jug (with old Sheffield plate lid), chocolate
band with Bacchanalian subject. Escritt
& Barrett, Grantham, April, 1907 2 2 0
Jug, blue jasper, with figure subjects of
_Seasons_ in white relief, old Sheffield
plate cover. Sotheby, May, 1908 6 5 0
Sucrier and Cover, marked "ADAMS & CO."
Sotheby, November, 1908 2 14 0
TURNER.
Female figure of a "Water Carrier" in black
basalt, marked TURNER. Sotheby,
December, 1905 3 5 0
Teapot and Cover, blue ground with classical
subjects in high relief; impressed mark,
TURNER. Sotheby, November, 1908 2 6 0
Teapot, of different form, similar decoration,
unmarked. Sotheby, November, 1908 2 4 0
Sucrier and Cover, similar decoration; impressed
mark, TURNER. Sotheby,
November, 1908 3 12 0
Cake Plate with classic decorations in
relief; impressed mark, TURNER.
Sotheby, November, 1908 4 10 0
Coffee Pot and Cover, similar style; impressed
mark, TURNER. Sotheby,
November, 1908 4 0 0
NEALE & PALMER.
Vase and Cover with medallions, wreaths
and masks in relief, in gilt on mottled
grey-blue ground, marked NEALE,
HANLEY. Puttick & Simpson, Nov., '08 4 10 0
Vase and Cover, urn-shaped, with medallion
and figure subject in white relief;
ram's head handles, wreaths and
borders in gilt on mottled-blue ground,
marked H. PALMER, HANLEY. Puttick
& Simpson, November, 1908 3 10 0
RALPH WOOD.
Figure of Apollo with lyre. Sotheby, May,
1908 2 5 0
Figures, Boy and Girl Harvesters, square
bases; one marked R. WOOD.
Sotheby, May, 1908 10 5 0
E. WOOD.
Bust of John Wesley, signed ENOCH WOOD.
Sotheby, June, 1906 2 0 0
E. MAYER.
Four plaques of Cupids in relief; mark impressed,
E. MAYER, and dated 1784.
Sotheby, November, 1905 1 18 0
HEATH.
Plate of cream ware, crudely decorated for
the Dutch market, subject--Abraham
offering up Isaac (Hodgkin Collection).
Sotheby, December, 1903 0 3 0
LAKIN.
Dish decorated with border of rose, shamrock,
and thistle. Prince of Wales'
feathers and lion over crown in centre.
Made for the Prince Regent (George
IV.); marked "Lakin." Sotheby,
February, 1906 2 0 0
Pair of _Lakin_ plates from above service.
Sotheby, November, 1907 3 0 0
LAKIN & POOLE.
Mug, with mask head on front, marked
"Lakin & Poole," and four shell
dishes. Sotheby, June, 1906 1 6 0
IX
LEEDS
AND OTHER
FACTORIES
CHAPTER IX
LEEDS AND OTHER FACTORIES
Leeds Marks--The best period of Leeds--Leeds Cream Ware--Blue
and White Ware--Leeds Ware decorated at Lowestoft, Castleford,
Jackfield, Rockingham, Sunderland, and Newcastle--Table of
Marks--Prices.
Leeds claims notice mainly on account of its fine cream ware that was
produced in the period from 1783 to about 1800 when the factory was
at its zenith. The date which commences its known history is the year
1760, a most pregnant year in the history of pottery. Before that there
always exists some doubt as to the exact date or the particular maker.
"Early Staffordshire" or "Whieldon" are as definite as most collectors
dare go.
In 1762 Wedgwood's cream ware was perfected, and all Staffordshire
was aflame with the prospects of something that at last was to stand
artistically side by side with Bow and Chelsea and Worcester and Derby
and Plymouth. It did nothing of the sort, but still it was the dream
of the Staffordshire potters that it should by reason of its cheapness
smash the new china factories, and it seems to have had no little share
in doing this.
In 1775 the Leeds pottery was in the hands of Humble and Green. In
1783 it was known as Hartley, Greens & Co., and for the next ten years
some splendid examples of cream ware were produced rivalling the best
productions of Wedgwood, at first imitative, but later strikingly
original, and possessed of extraordinary artistic qualities. Down to
the opening days of the nineteenth century the trade in cream ware was
considerable. Pattern books and catalogues were issued in French and
German and Spanish, and the output from Leeds was very considerable,
and the continental trade very extensive, especially with Northern
Europe.
From 1825 to 1832 the firm was known as Samuel Wainwright & Co. From
1832 to 1840 the name changed again to the Leeds Pottery Company, under
the managership of Stephen Chapel, who, together with his brother
James, held the pottery till 1847. In 1850 Warburton, Britton & Co.
were proprietors until 1863, and Richard Britton & Sons carried on the
works until 1878 when the factory closed.
=Forgeries of Leeds Ware.=--Leeds ware has appealed, on account of its
artistic qualities, to so wide a circle of collectors and admirers that
it has had the honour of being forged with intent to deceive. Nearly
all these pieces are marked either "Leeds Pottery," "L.P.," or "Leeds
P." In addition to being copied for sale to unwary collectors some of
the basket and other patterns have been of recent years made in Germany
for sale in this country. But to any one who has had the opportunity
of handling genuine old Leeds ware the lightness in weight, the fine
finish, and the peculiar colour of the body, especially the slightly
green tinge in the old Leeds glaze are never to be mistaken. The modern
copies lack the fine potting, and they are slightly heavier in weight,
and always without exception have a thick white, glassy glaze which
fills the corners of the pierced work, and shows the touch of modern
haste.
=Leeds Marks.=--The following marks occur on Leeds ware, largely on the
blue-printed ware which was after 1791, for many of the finest examples
of cream ware are unmarked. However, these marks used may be a guide:
LEEDS POTTERY (often printed twice over and crossing at right angles),
HARTLEY, GREENS, & CO., LEEDS POTTERY (either in two lines or in a
semicircle), also the initials L.P. In its latter stage (1863-1878)
R. Britton and Sons marked their ware R. B. & S. with the initial L
enclosed in a circle.