Antique English Pottery
Great Britain
The British potters were comparatively late starters in the field of pottery manufacture, but in this respect it must be remembered that unlike the majority of their Continental rivals, they were only rarely subsidized by royal or noble patronage and so were entirely dependent upon the commercial success of their undertakings.
The early factory of Chelsea, managed by the Flemish silversmith, Nicholas Sprimont, was an exception, recent research having proved that Sir Everard Fawkener, Secretary to the Duke of Cumberland, was involved with the factory on a financial basis. In common with many other European factories of the mid-18th century, Chelsea looked first to Meissen for their inspiration, and then from about 1756 to Sevres.
The years from 1745-70, during which time the Chelsea factory remained independent under Sprimont’s direction, is usually discussed under four periods, named after the marks usual at certain dates. From 1745 to about 1749 wares were often marked with a small triangle, and during this ‘triangle’ period the majority of the wares echoed the form of Sprimont’s earlier silver. In about 1749 the quality of the paste was improved, permitting a larger range of tablewares to be made, often marked with a small moulded anchor on an oval tablet, hence ‘the raised-anchor’ period, which continued until about 1752. It is generally agreed among today’s collectors that the Chelsea wares and figures made between 1752-8 were the finest they produced. During this period, when the mark was a small red enamel anchor (red-anchor period), some very fine figures were modelled by Joseph Willems, again mostly inspired by Meissen. Naturalism at the table also extended to the wares and various vessels were modelled to resemble animals, birds, fruit or vegetables.
During the ‘gold-anchor’ period, from about 1758-70, the small scale figures of about 16 cm (61 in), previously used for table decoration, were
replaced by large ungainly figures, often with a background of bocage and suitable only for side-table or cabinet decoration. During this same period the tablewares were fashioned in an exaggerated Rococo style as popularized originally at Sevres.
The slightly later production at Bow catered for the less wealthy customer, and by about 1747 a soft-paste pottery, including calcined animal bone, was being used to produce large quantities of cheap and durable wares, primarily decorated in the Chinese fashion of underglazeblue. By about 1750 many Bow wares were being decorated in enamel colours, often inspired by the Japanese ‘Kakiemon’, the Chinese famille rose or the German naturalistic flower-painting.
Bow figures were also of a type which would have particular appeal to the mid-18th century Londoner. Popular actors and actresses, such as Henry Woodward and Kitty Clive, were depicted in recognized roles, and national heroes, including General Wolfe and the Marquis of Granby, Worcester vase and cover c.1760.
were made in quantity, together with such characters as Bacchus or figures symbolizing the Four Seasons or the Elements. The early wares of Bow were comparatively simply made, but nevertheless possessed a distinct charm which is lacking in later wares, when both tablewares and figures became very clumsy, with loud and poorly applied enamelling.
The new collector may well be forgiven for confusing some examples of Bow with those made at the small Suffolk factory at Lowestoft, established in 1757 and continuing until about 1799. It is said that one of the proprietors, Robert Browne, actually obtained employment at the Bow works in order to learn the secrets of the production. Until about 1768 almost all the Lowestoft wares were decorated in underglaze-blue, and these examples are in great demand today. Many of the later wares were decorated in enamel colours in chinoiseries, a style of decoration that was probably responsible for that completely erroneous term `Chinese Lowestoft’.
The Lund and Miller factory, started in Bristol in 1748, was probably the first English factory to produce a pottery body containing the material soaprock, or steatite. There is difficulty in identifying their early unmarked wares as the factory was taken over in 1752 by the newly established Worcester concern, under the famous Dr Wall.
The new ingredient produced a ware which had almost all the advantages of a true pottery and the proprietors claimed their products could withstand the temperature of boiling water and so be less liable to crack.
Both Bristol and early Worcester concentrated on blue-and-white, although by about 1756 Worcester were also making some beautifully decorated wares in delicately applied enamelled colours. Worcester was one of the first English pottery factories to decorate their wares with enamel and underglaze-blue transfer-prints, many from the copperplates engraved by the master Robert Hancock, who had previously worked at the Battersea enamel factory.
Towards 1770, Worcester began to attract several fine painters who had previously worked for Sprimont at Chelsea. From about 1768 their wares were rather heavily decorated, often with the famous underglazeblue applied as scales, leaving reserves for enamel decoration, of flowers, birds or chinoiseries in rich gilt scrollwork frames. Worcester is the only English pottery factory to have survived to the present day with an unbroken history.
Other English pottery factories were soon to acquire knowledge of soapstone and gain access to the material, which was quarried in Cornwall, in the West of England. Caughley, the factory Thomas Turner established in Shropshire in 1772, produced a very good quality soapstone pottery, decorated in a wide range of patterns, both in underglazeblue and enamel colours. At least four major Liverpool factories made a similar class of ware, but the decoration was restricted mainly to underglaze-blue.
During the mid-18th century the only pottery factory in Staffordshire to survive for several years was at Longton Hall, where a glassy soft-paste pottery was made from 1749-60. Due to the high content of frit (glass), their early wares were subject to high kiln-losses and were often misshapen, but these difficulties were seemingly overcome by about 1755. Then some simple but highly original figures were produced, together with many tablewares, often of naturalistic form. Some Longton Hall mugs, and other wares, were decorated at Liverpool by the firm of Sadler & Green with enamel transfer-prints.
William Duesbury, who was formerly an independent pottery and pottery enameller in London, established a pottery factory at Derby in 1756, an undertaking he likened to ‘a second Dresden’. The finest wares produced at Derby were made from the time Duesbury took over the Chelsea factory. During this so-called ‘Chelsea-Derby’ period (1770-84) many well designed and tastefully painted table-wares were produced in the Neo-classical styles. It was on Derby wares that the fine naturalistic flower-painting of William Billingsley first appeared, alongside the painting of Zachariah Boreman, who excelled in the painting of landscapes of the Derbyshire countryside. The factory was taken over by Robert Bloor in about 1812 and closed in 1848.
William Cookworthy, a chemist, eventually produced a hard-paste pottery at Plymouth, Devon, in 1768. Although it was near the source of the raw materials of china-clay and china-stone, the undertaking was moved in 1770 to Bristol, probably because of the difficulty of recruiting competent potters. It remained in production until 1781. The early Plymouth wares were often badly fired, probably due to difficulty in controlling the high temperatures, but from 1774 when Richard Champion, one of the original partners, assumed control, his claim to produce wares with the hardness of Dresden and the elegance of Sevres, was well justified. Some extremely fine tea services were made in Neoclassical styles.
In 1781 a group of Staffordshire potters purchased the unexpired years of Champion’s patent for the manufacture of hard-paste, and so gave birth to the now popular New Hall factory, where a hard-paste body, with a rather soft glaze, was used to produce a wide range of useful wares until about 1812. Then in common with most other factories making pottery, they started to produce bone-china, as introduced by Josiah Spode in about 1796, when china-clay and china-stone became legally available to any British potter for the manufacture of translucent ware.
Caughley pottery was produced at the ‘Royal Salopian pottery Manufactory’ near Broseley in Shropshire from 1775-99. The factory was founded by Thomas Turner, an engraver, who had previously worked at the Worcester pottery factory. A pottery existed at Caughley before Turner’s arrival, but was rebuilt in 1772 as a large pottery factory with three kilns.
The Caughley works produced a wide and varied range of potterys, from buttons to dinner-services, and while for a long time it was generally believed that Caughley wares were inferior to Worcester, many collectors now agree that a not insignificant number of Caughley potterys in the post-1775 period are superior to Worcester wares. If nothing else the early feelings about Caughley ware have meant it is now highly collectable.
Much of the factory’s output was devoted to wares with printed patterns in un derglaze- blue, and after 1785 when the Worcester works ceased to produce blue and white, Turner’s only competitor was Wedgwood vase showing the ‘Apotheosis of Homer’ modelled by John Flaxman.
imported Chinese products. Contrary to a previous view, it is now thought all Turner’s underglaze-blue decoration was done at the Caughley factory and not at the main Worcester factory. The Caughley marks are the word `Salopian’ found on flat-based articles and the initial ‘S’ in underglaze-blue on a variety of objects ; the initial ‘C’ was also used on hand-painted and other pieces. Turner never used his own initials.
Many of Turner’s designs proved very popular, in particular designs such as the Fisherman and Pleasure boat. It was in fact one of Turner’s fortes that he successfully copied designs that could be produced cheaply. He also made a series of potterys that show a French influence in particular in their use of the Chantilly-style sprig motifs in underglazeblue or overglaze enamels.
The Caughley factory was sold by Turner in 1799 to the nearby Coalport works of Edward Blakeway, John Rose and Richard Rose and continued operating under John Rose for some fifteen years.
From the 1780s there were as many as three factories in Worcester producing pottery, one of the earliest and most notable of which was that owned by Richard Chamberlain. Chamberlain is said to have been the first apprentice at the main Dr Wall factory in the 1750s and certainly by the 1770s, along with his son was in charge of decoration at that factory. He and his son left the Wall factory in 1783 and established their own decorating business in Worcester in 1786. The pottery blanks for their business they first bought from the main Worcester factory until about 1789 when they were obtained from Turner’s Caughley factory. Of the blanks from Caughley, the Chamberlains enamelled and gilded some to the specifications of Turner while the remainder were sold directly. Eventually the Chamberlains went into the manufacturing side themselves and by 1796 the bulk of their products was of their own manufacture and they had built up a substantial trade.
English Stonewares
From about 1720 Staffordshire and Yorkshire potters were producing salt-glazed stoneware which had been considerably improved by the addition of white Devonshire clay and calcined flints. Apart from `thrown’ tablewares, they also made a large variety of novel forms, such as teapots in the form of houses or camels by the slip-casting method (pouring watered-down clay into hollow plaster of Paris moulds). Other forms of decoration included rubbing cobalt into incised decoration (scratch-blue) and enamel painting.
The early Staffordshire lead-glazed slipwares were soon to be similarly refined to provide wares suitable for the popular beverage tea. The name of John Astbury of Shelton is today used to describe the mid-18th century wares and figures involving the use of applied or trailed clays in contrasting colours as a means of decoration. Similar wares are known to have been made by many other English potters. The name of Thomas Whieldon is similarly used to describe the variegated glazes acquired by the application of various high-temperature oxides under a fluid lead-glaze, which was again a technique used by many other potters during the same period.
Before becoming a Master Potter, Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95), was in partnership with Thomas Whieldon from 1754-9. Wedgwood is known throughout the world for his large production of blue-and-white jasperwares, made from about 1775, during the time he was in partnership with Thomas Bentley (1769-80), but in his earlier years Wedgwood produced some beautifully moulded lead-glazed wares, often aided by the modeller William Greatbatch.
If fired at a lower temperature and then covered with a refined pale yellow lead-glaze, the body of salt-glazed stoneware can be used to produce cream-coloured earthenware. A primitive creamware was being made as early as 1720, but credit is given to Josiah Wedgwood for improving this body to such perfection that he was patronized by Queen Charlotte. His ‘Queen’s Ware’ was in world-wide demand. He produced the famous ‘Frog’ service for Catherine II of Russia, now in the Hermitage, Leningrad. It was Wedgwood’s aim to convert a rural craft into a great industry, and this he achieved. Fortunately, some contemporary potters continued to make wares in the traditional manner. Foremost was the Wood family of Burslem, who are best known to collectors for their figures, many of which were modelled by the nephew of Ralph Wood, Enoch Wood. Ralph Wood died in 1772, but the production continued under his son and grandson. The early wares were decorated with lead-glazes which had been previously coloured with high-temperature oxides, resulting in a much more orderly finish than the figures of Whieldon type.
Recent research has proved that a very large production of creamware and other ceramic bodies associated with the Staffordshire potteries was also taking place during the second half of the 18th century in Yorkshire, including the Leeds Pottery, which started about 1770.
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Tags: 18th century, Bristol, Chelsea, Chelsea-Derby, Derbyshire, Devon, English, factory, Josiah Spode, London, Longton, manufacture, Plymouth, potters, silversmith, Staffordshire, stoneware, table decoration, Worcester, Zachariah Boreman