CLOBBER WARE, OR REDECORATED PORCELAIN
Many lovely specimens of blue and white with the Kang-he marks, with
the double rings or with the leaf symbol inside the double rings under
the glaze, genuine specimens of old Kang-he, have been irretrievably
spoilt by being plastered over with thick enamels of red, green, blue,
&c. The old English word "clobber" means a paste to conceal cracks in
shoes, and the pity of the clobber decoration was that the enamels,
having been burnt in, are to all intents and purposes irremovable.
Before me, as I write, is a Kang-he vase with a leaf symbol within the
double circle, showing a real old Kang-he blue and white production,
but unfortunately the clobberer has plastered coloured enamel over the
blue decoration, now faintly visible, and only where a transparent
green or pink glaze has been applied; the rest is absolutely hidden by
opaque glazes of rose and yellow, white, lilac, and blue, until the
character of the Oriental piece has been entirely destroyed. The number
of pieces so spoiled seemed to indicate that there was a demand for
clobber ware, or that, as we noted, blue and white was not popular,
or that it was imported for redecoration in the absence of white
ware which could be used for the same purpose. Chinese porcelain in
its white state was freely imported into Europe and decorated in the
factories of Holland, France, Germany, and Italy, as well as in this
country.
Every one who collects china is familiar with the so-called Lowestoft
decoration, not a thousandth part of which ever saw Lowestoft; in
fact, that researches which have been made at Lowestoft indicate that
the manufacture was soft paste resembling early Bow and Worcester.
Of course, some white Oriental china may have been decorated there,
though no traces of broken hard paste seem to have been found in
the excavations. It may be that Bow, Chelsea, and Worcester did
decorate white Oriental china, but the information we have on this
point is singularly weak and inconclusive. The clobber decoration is
not alone in enamel colours or gold, but even lacquer is used for
the same purpose. It is needless to say that the change is never to
the advantage of the piece, and often the under-glaze blue may be
seen peeping, as it were, reproachfully from beneath the overlying
transparent enamel.
Another, but similar name, is sometimes applied to this style of
decoration. It is said that an enameller named Globber--hence Globber
ware--redecorated white and blue porcelain with enamels at Soho during
the latter part of the eighteenth century.
XVIII
RETICULATED
PORCELAIN