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Title: The Clay Industries - including the Fictile & Ceramic Arts on the banks of the Severn
Author: Randall, John
Language: English
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Transcribed from the 1877 Salopian and West-Midland Office edition by
David Price.
THE
CLAY INDUSTRIES
INCLUDING THE
FICTILE & CERAMIC ARTS
ON THE
BANKS OF THE SEVERN:
WITH NOTICES OF THE
Early Use of SHROPSHIRE CLAYS, the History of
POTTERY, PORCELAIN, &c., in the District.
BY
JOHN RANDALL, F.G.S.,
AUTHOR OF
‘The Severn Valley,’ ‘Old Sports and Sportsmen,’ ‘Life
of Captain Webb,’ ‘John Wilkinson,’ &c.
* * * * *
MADELEY, SALOP:
Printed and Published at the Salopian and West-Midland
Office.
1877.
* * * * *
DEDICATION.
TO
Alexander H. Brown, Esq., M.P.
SIR,
The following treatise on the “Clay Industries” of the Borough you
represent may scarcely appear at first sight of that importance to
warrant the usual form of a dedication, and I confess I cannot but wish,
for present purposes, that its merits were more commensurate with the
object. As a large number of your constituents however are engaged in
these various branches of trade—in one of which you too have more than a
general interest, and as I have been at some trouble to collect facts
bearing upon their general history, the work itself may not be without
some value.
The motive which dictates the dedication will not, I think, be
misconstrued, inasmuch as the prominent part I took more than nine years
ago in introducing you to the constituency, as one likely to become a
representative of the “Commercial Element” of the Borough, and the highly
satisfactory way in which those predictions have been verified and
fulfilled, as well as the very general regard and esteem all feel who
have observed your public and private character, justify me in feeling a
special pride in the result, and hereby making this public
acknowledgement of services so faithfully and honourably rendered.
I have the honour to remain,
Dear Sir,
yours faithfully,
JOHN RANDALL.
MADELEY, JAN. 1ST, 1877.
INTRODUCTION.
THE Borough of Wenlock comprises places not only rich in historic
interest but important also as centres of manufacturing industry; and
none more so than those grouped within a mile or two of the Iron-bridge,
itself a work of world-wide fame. “Broseley Pipes” and “Broseley
Bricks,”—the latter including all similar productions emanating from
Coalbrookdale, the Woodlands, Lady-Wood, Coleford, &c.—possess
acknowledged merits which create for them a constant demand, whilst in
higher branches of the art, where similar natural and other clays are
used, Messrs. Maw, Craven, Dunnill, and Co., and Bathurst, find a still
more extensive market for their goods.
From time immemorial the merits of these clays seem to have been known
and recognised; if not from Early British, at any rate from the period
when the armies of imperial Rome penetrated the Valley of the Severn,
through intermediate ages, these beds of clay which give employment to
thousands seem to have been used for some purpose or other, either for
articles of ornament or of use. At Caersws, near Llandinam, on the left
bank of the Severn, we have seen Roman bricks apparently with the
initials of the workmen’s names upon them; whilst of pottery, cart loads
have been found there and at Wroxeter, including a number of jars,
bottles, urns, lamps, vases, &c., with hunting and other subjects. Some
of the mortars, colanders, dishes, and similar kitchen utensils, are of
coarse white clay, similar to that now used at Broseley. It is therefore
evident from modern excavations that fifteen hundred years ago the value
of these clays was known to the brick-makers and potters introduced by
that enterprising people. Specimens of Norman and of later periods are
rare, but certain evidences concur to make it clear that not only fifteen
hundred years ago was the worth of these clays established, but that from
that period to the present they have been used in one way or another.
The subject is therefore one of historical as well as of industrial
interest, although those at present engaged in the various branches of
manufacture may be too absorbed in turning the material to account to
pause to note the stages the trades in which they are engaged have gone
through.
It was the value of these clays which led to the establishment of works
for the manufacture of porcelain at Caughley, Jackfield, Coalport, and
Madeley, historical notices of which works will be found in the following
pages, which are for the most part a reprint of articles that have
appeared in the “Salopian and West-Midland Magazine.”
NATIVE CLAYS:
OR THOSE USED FOR
BRICKS & TILES, TESSELATED TILES,
POTTERY, &c.
CLAY, as commonly understood, means earth of sufficient ductility to
allow of its being kneaded by the hand into useful shapes or forms, and
ranks as a _raw_ material, or one not worked up or prepared for use.
Some clays are soft, others are indurated, or hard and rocky: but all
have, nevertheless, been in one sense prepared by poundings, washings,
and mixings, carried on by Nature on a much larger scale than that on
which they are now fitted for use. They differ in quality, in degree of
firmness, and in colour, and show certain relationships by which it is
clear that they are derived from sand, just as sand is derived from a
hardy race of pebbles, which in turn bear a close relationship to rocks,
from which undoubtedly they are also derived. Surface clays, used for
making inferior bricks and tiles, whose earthy odour gives evidence of
alumina, are often derived from red sandstone rocks, which have been
ground down by machinery of waves or streams; whilst the deeper
coal-measure clunches, used for firebricks and pottery, were originally
the sediment thrown by rivers at their embouchures into inland lakes or
seas. Common red clays, deriving their colour from iron, have many
impurities, and contain a large percentage of alumina. Fire-clays are
nearly free from iron, and contain a large amount of silica, whilst
china-clay, or _kaolin_, contains felspar, sometimes with the impurities
of soda and potash.
Let us first take brick and tile Clays. Of the three substances
expressed by the three words of four letters—clay, coal, and gold, we
question whether the first does not rank highest in importance. The
latter may be the most coveted, but the former, we imagine, contributes
most to the conveniences and comforts of mankind. It is in one form or
another universally attainable. There is a great difference in its
qualities; and when it is remembered that a porous brick made from bad
clay will hold nearly a quart of water, the advantage of good clays
producing good bricks which will protect health and property from the
injurious effects of a fickle climate, becomes apparent. In addition to
ordinary clays used for the manufacture of building materials, we have
throughout the whole coalfields of Shropshire and Staffordshire superior
fire-clays, which occur in a tough indurated state, and are known by the
familiar name of clunches. They possess but a small portion of iron,
which gives a red colour to ordinary clays, at the same time that they
are distinguished by an almost entire absence of lime and alkalies; yet
contain, on the other hand, that proportion of silica and alumina which
although they cannot be melted by the strongest heat, form ingredients
which during the process of burning combine to form an artificial stone
capable of sustaining great heat. The following is an analysis of one of
these fire-clays:—
Silica 61.91
Alumina 21.73
Protoxide of Iron 4.73
Lime 0.09
Magnesia 0.59
Potash 3.16
Soda 0.25
Chloride of sodium 0.08
Organic matter 0.70
Water 6.73
99.97
These shales or clunches, now indurated, were originally the soft soils
from which the roots of plants of the coal-measure period drew their
nourishment; and they still retain the impression of such roots in great
abundance, as any one may satisfy himself who takes a piece in his hand
to examine it. The vegetable matter derived from roots, and from the
plants themselves, give them a dark colour; but this burns away in the
firing, and the bricks come out of the kiln nearly a pure white. It is
almost invariably found that where the vegetation of a seam of coal grew
on the spot, and was not transported, as was the case in some instances,
that one of these underclays is to be found still retaining very
beautiful casts of the roots of plants, and not unfrequently the seeds as
well as the plants themselves that grew above them. As fire-clays, they
are little if at all inferior to the famous Stourbridge clays, and they
supply an invaluable material for crucibles, for bricks for the interior
of our blast and puddling furnaces, for the kilns of our potteries, and
for various other purposes where intense heat is required.
With regard to clays in general, and the art of working in them, it may
be remarked that archæologists have told us little. They have divided
the past history of the race into the stone, bronze, and iron periods,
but have told us nothing of the age of clay, or of an art which we
venture to say was one of the oldest invented by man. Clay and
clay-workers are found everywhere; and the material is one of the most
abundant provided by Nature. The first man would find it soft, yielding,
and ready to his hands, with the impressions of birds and beasts,
suggestive of the use to which it might be put, and the act of moulding
it into form would be as natural as that of plucking fruit from a tree,
or that of taking up a stone to strike a harder blow than the hand could
give. Hardening it in the sun or baking it in a wood fire would be
equally simple; whilst the act of fashioning a shapeless mass into an
enduring form would yield so much pleasure that it would be repeated.
That the art is pre-historic, and began before the race commenced a
record of its doings, is evident from specimens which accompany the
remains of men of whose tribe and nation we know nothing. Living beings
stronger than man had been masters of the globe before he came, and
ignobly perished, leaving but the impressions of their bones to tell of
their existence; but man brought with him a new element by which to
subjugate and subdue the materials he saw around him to his use, and left
behind him more enduring monuments.
Other enduring materials pressed into the service of architects of
ancient and modern times were once as incoherent a mass of atoms, and as
unshapable as these clays, and were either earths, clays, or sands, which
Nature by the processes of kneading, pressing, and baking, in her great
laboratory, converted into stone. We find them to some extent ready
shaped to hand in the quarry, and we cut them into cubes or blocks, and
pile them up in buildings, according to the humour or taste of the time.
Bricks are artificial stones, and in making them we follow the example
Nature set us only that we cut the plastic material first of all to the
size we desire it, then convert it into stone by heat; and this
artificial stone, we venture to say, for durability and beauty, is equal
even to Nature’s own production, and quite as suggestive to the mind.
Nature’s finished material may be deemed more suitable for churches; but
artificial stone, fashioned into shape by man, is quite as appropriate
for a dwelling in which the highest social sanctities gather. Indeed the
art of using artificial stone appears to have been roused from the torpor
into which it had fallen since Roman and Flemish authorities set such
good examples. People had been so long accustomed to see brickwork used
only for inferior houses, and stone for buildings of greater pretensions
that, till recently, English bricks have scarcely had justice done them.
The antiquity of brickmaking is so well-known that it is scarcely
necessary to allude to it. It will suffice to remind the reader of the
tower of Babel, built about 400 years after the period assigned to the
flood. That bricks were made in Egypt at an early period of her history
is well known; and that this same people had faith in their durability is
clear from the fact that they impressed them with hieroglyphics, or
historical records, transmitting to us the names of their kings. Mr.
Smith of the British Museum, has brought home clay cylinders which the
Assyrians used for writing upon. Again, the way in which Jewish writers
speak of pots and potters, comparing humanity to lumps of clay fashioned
into vessels of honour and dishonour, and the silly and wicked portion of
humanity to potsherds, good for nothing but to be cast upon the highway,
shows that they drew much of their philosophy from the art. With them,
as with other nations of antiquity, the art of working in clay ranked
high. Potters of the tribe of Judah “dwelt with the king.” And one very
noticeable feature is the fact that the same simple means are still
employed to effect the same object; for illustrations in the catacombs of
Thebes show that forty centuries ago clay was kneaded with the feet,
turned upon a wheel, and baked in a circular oven, as at present. The
praise of those who out of rude clay fashioned things of use and beauty,
and impressed upon plastic materials the living thoughts that stirred
men’s minds was loudly sung, whilst the more successful cultivators of
the art were honoured with medals and statues, and their names
transmitted by poets and historians to posterity. The Greeks and Romans
gave a dignity to the art by raising it to a level with that of
sculpture. A Corinthian potter, Pliny tells us, was in his day regarded
as the first who contrived making likenesses in clay by pressing the
material up to the outlines his daughter had drawn of her lover’s shadow
on the wall and placing it with other pottery to be hardened in the fire.
Other authors ascribe to the art a higher antiquity and speak of it as
the parent of sculpture. The estimation in which it was held is shown by
the fact that exhibitions of the best works in clay were frequently held
in Athens; and amongst the ruins of that city statues of clay have been
found, some in groups, representing Grecian Mythology; and some of large
size retaining portions of the paint with which they were coloured on the
eyes and eyebrows. In the Townley Gallery of the British Museum, No. 38
is a statue of a Muse, three feet eleven inches high; and also a
terra-cotta statue of a Muse resting her left arm upon a pile of writing
tablets, which are placed upon a square column, but the head is gone.
The former represents Orania, the latter Calliop, whose office it was to
note down the worthy actions of the living, as it was that of Clio’s to
celebrate those of departed heroes.
Celts, Etruscans, and Chinese made early and great advances in the art of
using clay: the latter had even an imperial porcelain work at
King-te-Ching, a hundred and eighty-four years Before Christ, and thirty
years B.C. they introduced the same art into Japan.
With regard to bricks and tiles we know that among Roman and mediæval
builders bricks made of clay were held in high estimation. The former
enterprising people having penetrated into our valleys and excavated our
hill sides in search of lead and iron were not likely to neglect the
clays with which the ore for the latter was associated; and evidences of
the extent to which they worked them on the banks of rivers, where such
seams were exposed, particularly on the banks of those flowing through
the great centres of their occupation, confirms this view. Their armies
were accompanied by men learned in the art; and in the relics dug up at
Malmesbury, Salisbury, Romsey, Malvern, and Uriconium, modern workers in
clay may learn much of the early history of their craft. The still
upstanding walls at Wroxeter, with string courses of tiles, and the
numerous specimens of bricks, tesseræ, and pottery in different coloured
clays, brought to light by excavations within its shadow, are interesting
from the fact that some are supposed to have been manufactured from clays
still in use in the neighbourhood.
At Caersws, a little village on the banks of the Severn, between
Llandinam and Newtown, well made bricks, both of composite and simple
clay, may be seen stamped with Roman letters, probably the initials of
workmen’s names; and, as a test of the durability of both, it may be
remarked that after having done duty in buildings in which the Roman
masons placed them, they have been rebuilt by British workmen into the
chimneys of the village. These, of course were burnt; but, favoured by
the extreme dryness and heat of their own climate, the Romans, like the
Egyptians, used clay mixed with chopped straw, to assist the tenacity of
their bricks, which, without being at all artificially heated, have
lasted thousands of years. The material of which Roman bricks in this
country were formed was usually a strong clay, such as brickmakers call
tile-clay; well tempered, well pressed, and well burnt, producing a heavy
tough brick, indefinitely durable, and of a good deep-red colour.
Roofing tiles have been made in a similar way to bricks, one would
imagine, looking at the specimens found at Wroxeter and other places from
the time of Roman occupation down to the present. They are found in
double layers, forming slightly projecting string-courses in the
buildings, but larger and thicker than ours; some of those dug up at
Wroxeter being 17 inches by 12, and 4 inches thick, whilst some are 21
inches square. One of these larger ones has the impression of the foot
of an ox, evidently received whilst in the process of drying. Very many
interesting specimens of bricks, tiles, and pottery are found here, and
the art of working up the clays of the district has no doubt been
practised from that time to the present.
Formerly clays were allowed to lie during the winter to weather as it is
called; and a statute now obsolete required, under a penalty, that bricks
should not be made unless the clay for making them had been turned over
at intervals, three times at least before the 1st of March. But
brickmakers now, not having patience to wait for the action of the
weather, have invented machinery to do the work, and the clay is taken
direct from the pit to be crushed by iron rollers, and conveyed by coarse
canvas screens to the pug-mill. This is an upright cylinder, with a
revolving vertical shaft, fitted up with horizontal knives following each
other at an angle so as to cut, amalgamate, temper the material, and fit
it for use. The process of forming the brick itself requires more tact
than the reader would imagine, as the yielding clay has to be thrown into
the mould so that every part shall be filled up with a body of equal
consistency. To cause the clay to leave the mould, the latter is each
time dipped into water, in which case the process is called
slop-moulding, or is sprinkled over with sand or coke-dust; and when so
made the brick is placed lengthways with others on smooth flats, half an
inch or an inch apart and allowed to dry. The best kind of bricks are
subjected to considerable pressure in the mould by means of a machine,
and a hollow is left inside for the mortar, to enable them to fit close
in the joint. Ornamental bricks of elaborate design for architectural
purposes require more delicate manipulation, and the clays for these
undergo more careful preparation. Machines also are used which take the
clay from the crushing-rollers, temper and thoroughly amalgamate it, and
convert it into the finished article.
The old methods of preparing clay for bricks and tiles, still practised
by some firms, is probably the best where a good tough article is
required: that is treading and hand-tempering by the workman, who kneads
it with his naked feet, and “slaps” or “wedges” it by breaking off pieces
and beating one against another. Machinery, however, is extensive used,
and horizontal rollers are set so as to secure different degrees of
fineness, in conduction with the pug-mill.
Lime is a great enemy to good bricks, as small portions escape both
rollers and pug-mill, and being converted into quicklime by burning, it
slacks and bursts bricks subject to rains and frosts. Compare the sound,
and hard durable bricks made here with those made near London, into which
Cockneys knock their nails without troubling themselves to look for a
joint, and say whether, with less freights, they might not be made to
supersede the rubbish passing under the name of London bricks, which are
soft, damp, and perishable, and some of which, like others of inferior
quality, will hold from a pint to a quart of water. Stone, as shewn by
the new Houses of Parliament, will not withstand the action of the
corroding acid to be found in a London atmosphere; but good hard
Shropshire bricks will, and for public buildings, to say nothing of
ordinary domestic structures, they are invaluable.
The Staffordshire blue bricks which of late years have come into such
general use, particularly in buildings connected with railways, are made
from a clay containing a large proportion of peroxide of iron, a clay
which produces a red, a buff, or a blue brick according to the process of
firing and the degree of heat it undergoes in the kiln; but it will in no
case stand a terra-cotta heat, in consequence of the iron acting as a
flux. But the great centres of the art of brick making are on the banks
of the Severn. Clay and clay workers are to be found at Lilleshall,
Lightmoor, Horsehay, and the Woodlands, where, as at Broseley, clays are
found on the surface. Here, on the valley side the surface is
honeycombed by burrowings after clay and coal. One of the most important
beds of clay for making ordinary bricks and tiles is one 17 feet in
thickness, worked in many places by shallow shafts, and levels driven
into the hill sides, which when abandoned cause the surface to collapse,
and the ground to crack, as if by an earthquake. A very pretty church,
built a century since on the brow of the hill overlooking some of the
brickfields, is now a complete wreck, in consequence of these burrowings
after clay. The chancel is falling away from the body of the building,
the walls are torn from the roof to the foundation, and the windows have
fallen from their places, leaving the oak pews and handsome marble
monuments a prey to the elements. Clays and coals are being pared away
from around it as a mouse would pare a cheese. Of course the bishop
cautions and threatens, but as long as his lordship declines to go into
the mines these sappers and miners are safe; and to them must succumb not
only the church, but the graveyard—
“Where the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.”
In conversation with the President of the Academy of Science at St.
Petersburgh, who some years ago visited this district, and with other
gentlemen distinguished in science and art, we have heard the highest
admiration expressed of these clays of the Severn Valley. Indeed, the
very handsome public structures—now that prejudice is giving way, and
that improved and more artistic treatment of the material
predominates—which we see in towns erected upon true architectural
principles, and by professors of classical and constructive styles of
decoration, are sufficient indications of the capability of the material
in all its varieties for producing works of a very high order of merit,
with a light and aerial effect not found in the old red brick, nor even
in many of the stone erections, of former times.
Besides bricks and tiles, these clays have been turned to account from
very early periods in other ways, as for pottery, for instance, of
different kinds.
We have no reliable authority for fixing the date at which the art of
potting was first practised in Shropshire, but it appears clear that the
articles were of the simplest kind, being almost uniformly domestic:
those in daily use, such as milk-pans, dishes, tea-pots, jugs, and mugs.
The latter were substitutes for the drinking horns, which later
improvements in the plastic and ceramic arts have driven out of use. We
have an ancient specimen of one made at the Pitchyard, and a drawing of
another made at Haybrook, well _potted_, and elegant in shape. The
latter is the best manipulated, and probably it was from this
circumstance that the latter work was called “The Mug-House.”
In evidence adduced sometime since in an Election Scrutiny at Bewdley, a
public-house referred to was called the “Mughouse,” which house is
situated on the Severn, at a point where the bargemen, who formerly drew
the vessels up the river instead of horses, were in the habit of stopping
to get mugs of ale. “Tots” were made out of the same kind of clay, but
smaller, and were used when the men drank in company; hence a person who
had drank too much was supposed to have been with a convivial party, and
was said to have been “totty,” a word often found in old works. Tots had
no handles, and some of the old drinking cups, more particularly those of
glass of Anglo Saxon make, were rounded at the bottom that they should
not stand upright, and that a man may empty them at a draught,—the custom
continuing till later times gave rise to our modern name of tumbler. The
small tots had no handles; the mug had a “stouk,” as it is called,
consisting of a single piece of clay, flattened and bent over into a
loop. The ware was similar to the famous “Rockingham ware” made on the
estate of Earl Fitzwilliam, near Wentworth.
The discovery of a salt glaze took place in 1690, and the manufacture of
that kind of ware must have commenced here soon after, as traces of works
of the kind are abundant. This method consisted in throwing salt into
the kiln when the ware had attained a great heat, holes being left in the
clay boxes that contained it in order that the fumes may enter and
vitrify the surface. Evidences of the manufacture of these old mugs and
tots, together with milk-pans and washing-pans, having been made at an
early period, are numerous; and the old seggars in which they were burnt
often form walls of the oldest cottages in Benthall and Broseley Wood.
A considerable number of old jars, mugs, and other articles, have from
time to time been found in places and under circumstances sufficient to
indicate great antiquity; as in mounds overgrown with trees, and in old
pits which for time immemorial have not been worked. One large earthen
jar, with “George Weld,” in light clay, was found in an old drain at
Willey, and is now in the possession of Lord Forester. Mr. John
Thursfield, who lived at Benthall hall, was at one time proprietor of
these works.
Three quarters of a century ago these works were carried on by Messrs.
Bell & Lloyd; afterwards by Mr. John Lloyd, one of the best and most
truly pious men we ever knew, who some time before his death transferred
them to a nephew, Mr. E. Bathurst. His son succeeded him, and after a
time sold them to the present proprietor, Mr. Allen, who to the ordinary
red and yellow ware, which finds a ready sale in North and South Wales,
has added articles of use and ornament in other ways, including forcing
pots, garden vases, and various terra cotta articles.
Of the Pitchyard works we know little, only that they stood where the
late Mr. E. Southorn carried on his Pipe Works, and where we remember
them in ruins more than fifty years ago; but the numerous seggars, now
found in cottage garden walls, shew that they must have been continued
for some considerable time.
But, besides the manufacture of bricks, tiles, and pottery, these clays
have been raised to a trade within the past few years in this district
which is every day increasing, and which is capable of much further
expansion: we refer now to the important department of encaustic or
inlaid tiles and mosaics. The art of producing tiles of this description
is only recently revived in this country, and is one which in point of
antiquity is not to be compared with its sister branches. The first
attempt, so far as we are aware, to revive the art in Shropshire, was at
Jackfield; but the first designs were crude, quaint, and spiritless, and
altogether wanting in those nicer distinctions and qualities which, not
being perceived by the mind of the producer, could not be wrought by the
hand. In this as in many other branches of fictile art _insight_ into
the principles as well as eyesight is required, and the mistake—as in
many other instances—was committed of attempting something which, with
the expenditure of thought and time, might catch the uneducated eye—the
object being to produce _quantity_ rather than _quality_. But the call
made upon the art by the enlightened demands of the age soon gave a
wonderful impetus to the improvement, and men of educated artistic
taste—like the Mintons and the Maws—soon called to their aid the
assistance of the greatest genius and the highest designing talent at
command; at the same time that they directed their efforts to definite
points in which utility might be made the instrument of beauty, and by
which originality and intelligible design might be made to rise out of
the most common-place wants. But although the modern manufacture of
geometric and encaustic tiles is recent, it already far surpasses the
ancients in variety and arrangement, in geometric patterns, and in beauty
of design in encaustics as well as in mechanical finish; although it may
be doubted whether the same breadth of general effect is studied as in
many ancient examples. Mintons, of Stoke, Maw and Co., of Benthall,
Hargraves and Craven, of Jackfield, and Mr. Bathurst, of Broseley, have
each produced beautiful encaustic tiles for pavements—both for
ecclesiastical and domestic use; and there is yet a large field for
development of the use of similar tiles to colour and enrich the details
of our street architecture, as well as in that of more elaborate and
important structures.
The Coalbrookdale Co., have recently manufactured some admirable
terra-cotta entablatures, with historical subjects for costly buildings
in the metropolis. The erection of the Literary and Scientific
Institution also, of different coloured clays shews their adaptation to
works of great architectural beauty.
MAW AND CO’S TESSELATED, MOSAIC, AND MAJOLICA WORKS.
It was the excellency of the Broseley and Benthall clays, above referred
to, which attracted the Messrs. Maw to the spot and led them to remove
from Worcester, to where they had been in the habit, first of all, of
having them conveyed by barges on the river, to the present site of their
works, fashioned out of the old Benthall Iron Works, carried on a century
ago by Mr. Harries, then owner of the Benthall estate. Notwithstanding
the additions made by them, the trade has so wonderfully developed itself
that after building upon or in some way occupying every inch of ground,
they are cramped for room, and have purchased a piece of ground at the
Tuckies on which they are about to erect more commodious premises.
In addition to those classical and other adjuncts of architectural
comfort and embellishment, embracing encaustic tiles—the reproduction of
an art limited in mediæval times to church decoration, but now having a
much more extended application, and the manufacture of tesseræ, used in
the construction of geometrical mosaic pavements, similar in character to
those found in the mediæval buildings of Italy, also moresque mosaics,
like those occurring in Roman remains in this country and on the
continent, they now manufacture a superior majolica, and faience of great
purity, in both of which departments they have recently received first
class medals at the Philadelphia exhibition. The accompanying engraving
will convey an idea of the adaptation of faience to articles of domestic
utility.
[Picture: The adaptation of faience to a fireplace]
JACKFIELD POTTERY AND PORCELAIN.
Older even than the Haybrook Mug House are the Pot Works of Jackfield,
which, according to the parish register of Stoke-upon-Trent, quoted by
Mr. Jewitt and Mr. Chaffers, supplied a race of potters to that great
centre of early pot-making in the year 1560. Excavations made too, some
years ago, brought to light on a spot near which the present works of
Craven, Dunnill & Co., now stand, an oven, or kiln, with unbaked ware,
which appeared to have been buried by a land-slip; and in an old pit,
which it was said had not been opened for two centuries, a brown mug was
discovered, which had upon it the date 1634. If Jackfield supplied early
potters for Stoke, Stoke sent pot masters to Jackfield. One of these was
Mr. Richard Thursfield, an ancestor of Greville T. Thursfield M.D., who
took these works and carried them on in 1713. He was succeeded by his
son John, of whom we have spoken as afterwards living at Benthall and
carrying on works there. The late Richard Thursfield, Esq., had in his
possession some good examples of Jackfield ware. Among them was a
handsome jug, gilt, having on it, we believe, the name of one of the
family.
In 1772, or soon after, Mr. Simpson carried on the works; and he appears
to have further improved the manufacture, for in addition to the “black
decanters,” as his mugs were called, he made various articles of superior
quality, which prior to the breaking out of the war with America found a
ready sale there. The old mill turned by the waters of the Severn, where
he ground his materials, has just been taken down.
Mr. Blakeway afterwards carried on the works, and was joined by Mr. John
Rose, upon leaving Caughley, and, after carrying them on a short time by
himself, he removed them, as he did the Caughley Works, to Coalport, on
the opposite bank of the river.
The site of the old pottery was on the ground which is now occupied by
the Jackfield Encaustic Tile Works, the clays of which are specially
adapted for geometrical and encaustic tiles; and such tiles have been
made here for a number of years; but since the old works, came into the
possession of the present firm of Messrs. Craven, Dunnill and Co., great
changes have taken place. The firm took a lease of about four acres of
ground, and adjoining the old works built a large and commodious
manufactory, which has been in operation for nearly two years. They have
since taken down all the buildings of the old works, and have erected on
their site and joining up to the new works, large warehouses, show room,
offices, and entrance lodge. The plan of the works is very complete, so
as in every way to economise in the process of manufacture, and they are
now among the most complete works of the kind.
As shewn in the accompanying engraving, the buildings consist of four
blocks, one detached and the others connected, each block accommodating a
separate branch of the manufacture.
[Picture: Craven Dunnill & Co.’s new works]
In the detached block the raw materials are reduced to a state ready for
the workman.
The second block contains the damping places, where the clays are kept in
a certain degree of moisture; pressers’ shops for the various colours of
geometrical tiles, and the encaustic tile makers’ shops, with their
stoves.
The next block provides for the drying and firing of the goods and
decorating shops.
On the first floor are workshops employed for painting, printing and
enamelling, or other decorative purposes.
The fourth block provides for the sorting and stocking of goods and for
packing them for despatch; also the offices and showroom.
Near to the detached block first described a small gas-works has been
erected, which supplies the whole of the buildings.
CAUGHLEY.
Like the works previously mentioned, those of Caughley were upon the
outcrop of the coals and clays of the Shropshire coal-field. They were
established about the middle of the 17th century, on the estate of Mr.
Brown, who lived at Caughley Hall, and was an ancestor of T. Wylde Brown,
Esq., of the Woodlands, near Bridgnorth. An opaque stone china appears
to have been made there in the first instance.
The works appear to have been carried on by Mr. Brown, in the first
place, and then by Mr. Gallimore, a relative of Mr. Brown’s; and
afterwards by M. Turner, who succeeded in producing an article of very
superior merit, and one which will always hold a distinguished place in
the history of the ceramic art. Mr. Turner was the son of the Rev.
Richard Turner, D.D., rector of Cumberton, vicar of Emley Castle and
Norton, and Chaplain to the Countess of Wigtown. Thomas his son, was
born 1749, and married in 1783, Miss Dorothy Gallimore, a niece of Mr.
Brown, of Caughley Hall. Mr. Turner was a gentleman of great taste, a
good draughtsman, and an excellent engraver, having learned the latter
art at Worcester, probably under Robert Hancock, some very fine examples
of whose work are in the possession of Mr. Arthur Maw, of Severn House,
who also has many very fine productions of Caughley at the best period of
its existence. In 1780 Mr. Turner visited France, and brought back with
him several skilled workmen, and an architect, whom he employed in the
erection of a very handsome _chateau_, in the French style of
architecture. The works were several years in progress, and were
completed in 1775, as shewn by a newspaper paragraph of November 1st in
that year, which, is as follows:—
“The porcelain manufactory erected near Bridgnorth, in this county,
is now quite completed, and the proprietors have received and
supplied orders to a very large amount. Lately we saw some of their
productions which in colour and fineness are truly elegant and
beautiful, and have the bright and lively white of the so much
extolled Oriental.”
Printing on porcelain appears first to have been introduced by Dr. Wall
at the Worcester works, a process soon after taken to Caughley by a
person named Holdship, a former partner in the Worcester works, where it
was practised as a great secret, with closed doors.
Mr. Chaffers says:—
“The excellence of Turner’s porcelain and the invention of the
beautiful dark blue of the Caughley china, attributed to him, gained
him great patronage. In 1780 he produced the celebrated “willow
pattern,” which even at the present day is in great demand, and the
“blue dragon,” another favourite pattern, and completed the first
_blue printed table service_ made in England for Thomas Whitmore,
Esq., of Apley Park, near Bridgnorth; the pattern was called
_Nankin_, and was something similar to the Broseley tea service
produced in 1782, all in porcelain. Mr. Thomas Minton, of Stoke,
assisted in the completion of this service, being articled as an
engraver there.
“Messrs. Chamberlain of Worcester, until the end of 1790, had their
porcelain in the white from Thomas Turner of Caughley. He at first
mixed all the bodies himself, but afterwards instructed his sister
how to do it; subsequently a man named Jones mixed for him.”
The other works at Worcester, Grainger & Co., formerly, when first
established, merely painted and finished ware manufactured at Caughley.
The China so sent was marked with the letter “C.” for Caughley; sometimes
“S.” for Salopian.
Among the chief workmen were the following:—Dontil, painter; Muss and
Silk, who afterwards attained great celebrity in London, as painters on
enamel, were landscape painters. Thomas Fennell, and Edward Jones flower
painters, Thomas Martin Randall, bird painter, Edward Randall, gold
decorator, Adams, blue painter, De Vivy and Stephan, modellers.
Perry, one of the workmen who was apprenticed to Mr. Turner, states that
in 1797 they had four printing presses at Caughley, introduced by Davis;
the patterns at that time and for years previously being birds and blue
panels; that Turner had been an engraver at Worcester; that he recollects
a slab on the front of one of the arches of the building at Caughley,
stating the date of its foundation, 1772, which would be the time he
succeeded Mr. Gallimore, and that it was not finished for some time
after.
In the Salopian Mag. we gave an engraving of the old works, from a view
in the possession of Mr. Hubert Smith, the only lineal descendent of Mr.
Turner; and also of a “puzzle jug,” now in the possession of Mr. E.
Thursfield, of Bridgnorth. It is eight inches in height, and is formed
of the usual body of these works. It is decorated with blue sprigs, and
bears on its front the name, in an oval border, of
John Geary
Cleak of the
Old Church
Brosley
1789.
On the bottom is written in blue “Mathew th v & 16,” though one would
fail to see any allusion in the text here referred to either to the
vessel or to its purpose.
The first specimens of Caughley are but little removed from earthenware,
but the material speedily improved, as did the manipulation or potting;
the latter to an extent as regards shape and outline so much so as to
render many of them superior to the same class of articles of the present
day. Their excellence in this respect is so self-evident as still to
render Caughley china a great favourite. Choice articles of this
manufacture are carefully guarded by Shropshire families, with whom they
have become heirlooms; they are carefully stored in corner cupboards and
on kitchen shelves, where they were once kept in countenance by rows of
shining pewter, and are only produced at christenings and weddings, and
on such red-letter days and rare occasions. Every year will add to their
value, to the veneration in which they are held; and at distant periods,
and when compared even with the ordinary productions of our factories at
the present day, they will serve to show how successful were the
well-directed efforts at the Caughley Works to produce a porcelain which
should take high rank and maintain it.
The buildings of the old factory have been razed to the ground; the
plough passes over where they stood, and a few pitchers turned up now and
then are the only indications obtained of these interesting works. But a
class of clever men were educated there; some of whom—as the late Herbert
Minton’s father, John Rose, and others—have done much to raise the
character of our English productions.
COALPORT PORCELAIN WORKS.
The first works at Coalport were we believe founded and carried on by
William Reynolds, Thomas Rose, Robert Horton, and Robert Anstice; the
former William Reynolds, being then Lord of the Manor. The buildings, or
a good portion occupied by them are still standing.
Mr. Thomas Rose, and Mr. John Rose, were sons of a respectable farmer
living at Sweeney. The latter was a clerk under Mr. Turner, at Caughley,
and left him to take the Jackfield works about the year, it is said,
1780. Having carried them on for a few years, in conjunction with Mr.
Blakeway, during which time he greatly improved the quality of the
article manufactured there, he established the present Coalport works on
the side of the canal, then recently opened, and opposite to those of
Reynolds, Horton, Thomas Rose, and Robert Anstice. On Mr. Turner
retiring from the Caughley works in 1799, Mr. Rose and the new company he
had formed purchased them, and by means of increased capital shortly
afterwards removed both plant and materials from Caughley and Jackfield
to the more advantageous position they now occupy, on the banks of the
canal and the Severn. Even the buildings were pulled down and the bricks
and timber removed to the opposite side of the Severn, where they were
used in constructing the cottages now standing opposite to the present
Coalport Works.
A staff of excellent work-people had been obtained from Caughley and
Jackfield works combined, but an accident occurred on the night of the
23rd of October in that year by the capsizing of the ferry, as the
work-people were crossing the Severn, by which twenty-eight were drowned,
some among them being the best hands employed at the works. It was a
dark night, the boat was crowded, and the man at the helm, not having
been accustomed to put the boat over allowed the vessel to swing round in
the channel where, with a strong tide running, it was drawn under by the
rope which went from the mast to a rock in the bed of the river. Some
managed to scramble out on the Broseley side of the stream; but the
following were lost, notwithstanding the efforts of those who rushed to
the river side on hearing the despairing cries raised to save them. Jane
Burns, Sarah Burns, Ann Burns, Mary Burgess, Elizabeth Fletcher, Mary
Fletcher, Elizabeth Beard, Jane Boden, Elizabeth Ward, Sarah Bagnall,
Sophia Banks, Mary Miles, Elizabeth Evans, Catherine Lowe, Jane Leigh,
Charles Walker, George Lynn, James Farnworth, George Sheat, John Chell,
Robert Lowe, William Beard, John Jones, Benjamin Gosnall, Benjamin Wyld,
Richard Mountford, Joseph Poole, and another. The twenty-eight lost
included some of the best artists; and an unfinished piece of work, left
by Charles Walker but a few minutes before he lost his life, was till
within a few years ago reverently kept in the warehouse as a memento of
the unfortunate event.
The event, as may be expected, created a great sensation at the time, and
was thus commemorated, by Mr. Dyas, one of the Coalport workmen:
Alas! Alas! the fated night
Of cold October twenty third,
In seventeen hundred ninety-nine;
What cries, what lamentation heard,
The hour nine, when from yon pile,
Where fair porcelain takes her form,
Where energy with genius joins,
To robe her in those matchless charms,
A wearied band of artists rose,
Males and females, old and young,
Their toil suspend, to seek repose,
Their homes to gain, they bent along.
Sabrina’s stream was near to pass,
And she her frowning waves upraised,
Her mist condensed to darksome haze
Which mocked the light; no star appeared.
Yon boat, which o’er her bosom rides,
Enveloped in the heavy gloom,
Convulsive stretch’d along her sides,
To snatch the victims to their doom.
Soon e’er on board their faltering feet
A monster fell who grasped the helm,
Hove from the shore the distressed crew,
And so the dreadful overwhelm,
Swift horror’s wings o’er spread the tides,
They sink! they rise! they shriek! they cling!
Again they sink; alarm soon flies,
Along their shores dread clamours rise,
But Oh, the bleakest night preventing
Every means to save their breath,
Helpless, hopeless, life despairing
Twenty-eight sunk down in death.
Alas small time for Heaven’s implorings,
Quick sealed their everlasting state,
Or, in misery, or in glory,
The last tribunal will relate,
Here fold, O muse thy feeble wings,
Hope where thou canst, but not decide,
Dare not approach those hidden things,
With mercy, justice, these abide.
Return with sympathetic breath,
See yon distracted mother stands,
Three daughters lost, to heaven she lifts
Her streaming eyes and wringing hands,
Hark! from those dells how deep the wailings,
Fathers, Mothers, join their moans,
Widows, orphans, friends and lovers,
Swell the air with poignant groans;
Recluse in grief, those worthy masters
Silent drop the mournful tear.
Distress pervades surrounding hamlets,
Sorrow weeps to every ear,
Sleepless sighings hail the morning,
Morning brings no soothing ray.
The author of these verses, Mr. Dyas, was a very clever carver on stone
and on wood. He engraved the blocks for a work printed by Mr. Edmonds at
Madeley, entitled “Alexander’s Expedition down the Hydaspes and the Indus
to the Indian Ocean.” He was the author too of an invention world-wide
in its benefits, that of the printers’ roller; an invention second only
to the art of printing itself, and infinitely superior to thousands of
others out of which vast fortunes have been made.
In 1804 the company consisted of Cuthbert Johnson, William Clarke, John
Wootton, and John Rose. In 1811 it was John Rose, William Clarke and
Charles Maddison. In 1820 they bought the famous Swansea works and
entered into an agreement with Messrs. Billingsley and Walker to make a
superior kind of porcelain made by them, first at Nantgarw in
Glamorganshire, and afterwards at the Cambrian Pottery, Swansea, in the
same county. This was a pure soft paste porcelain, superior to any at
present produced in the kingdom, and second only to the famous _pate
tendre_ of Sevres at the very best period of its manufacture. This china
was first made in 1813 by Billingsley, who went from Derby to Worcester,
and from there to South Wales. He was an artist, and understood the
manufacture in all its branches. He produced a fret body, by mixing the
materials, firing them in order to blend them together, then reducing the
vitrified substance into clay—a process which was carried on at Old
Sevres during the reign of Louis XV.—and thereby produced an article fine
in texture, beautifully transparent, and of a delicate waxy hue, very
superior to the dingy blue tinge given to much of the best china of that
day. Connoisseurs were at once attracted by it, and Mr. Mortlock went
down and entered into an engagement to purchase all that Billingsley and
his son-in-law could make. Mr. John Rose finding he had lost a customer,
whilst orders he was wont to receive were going to South Wales, went
over, bought the plant, moulds, and everything, and entered into an
agreement with Walker and Billingsley for a period of seven years to make
the same quality of china at Coalport. The process however was an
expensive one, from the difficulty of working the clay, which wanted
plasticity, and also from the loss in the burning, as being a soft body
it was apt to melt or warp, and to go out of shape, if it had a little
too much fire in the biscuit kiln. About that time, too, Mr. Ryan
discovered a very pure felspar in the Middleton, one of the Briedden
hills, the true _Kaolin_, to which the Chinese were indebted for the
quality of their egg-shell and other first class china. The fret body
was therefore abandoned, the _pate tendre_ for a _pate dure_, as the
French say, and by adding pure felspar to the Cornish stone and clay
which contains a large percentage, a good transparent body was obtained
at a less cost than by using a _fret body_. About this time also the
Society of Arts offered a prize to any one who should find a substitute
for lead in the glaze, the deleterious effects of which told upon the
dippers, and produced paralysis; and Mr. Rose by applying felspar to the
glaze succeeded in obtaining it. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the
Society; and from that time following, for some years, a badge was either
attached to the ware or engraved upon it as follows:—“Coalport Felspar
Porcelain, J. Rose & Co: the Gold Medal awarded May 30, 1820; Patronised
by the Society of Arts.” The Devonports and other manufacturers competed
for the prize.
The felspar porcelain however never equalled the original Nantgarw fret
body ware for purity and transparency, a white plate of which would at
the present time fetch a couple of guineas. It cannot be said that any
new element was introduced by using felspar, because the kaolin,
contained in Cornish stone and clay, as discovered by Cookworthy in 1768,
had been, and was now used at Plymouth, Derby, Worcester, Caughley, and
Coalport; and by a judicious admixture of this and a free use of bone
(phosphate of lime) a good serviceable china was produced. The former
gave mellowness, and the latter whiteness, which approached in a degree
the qualities of old and Oriental china. In fact Mr. Rose, who had the
sole management of the works, spared neither pains nor expense in raising
the character of the productions of the Coalport Works, which were now by
far the largest porcelain works in the kingdom, if not in the world.
Like Minton, he was a man of wonderful energy, being strong in body,
having a clear head, a cool judgment, and gifted with remarkable
perseverance.
The works were now in a state of prosperity; warehouses were opened in
Manchester, London, Sheffield, and Shrewsbury, and a large trade was
being done with dealers all over the kingdom. There was plenty of
employment, and a good understanding generally prevailed between masters
and their work people. Both before and after the strike there were at
Coalport, as at other works of the kind elsewhere, an intelligent class
of men, among potters and painters, as well as in other departments.
Painters, especially, had good opportunities for mental culture and
obtaining information. Numbers worked together in a room, one sometimes
reading for the benefit of the others, daily papers were taken,
discussions were often raised, and in politics the sharp features of
party were as defined as in the House of Commons itself. The rooms were
nicely warmed, and a woman appointed to sweep up, to bring coals, to keep
the tables clean, to wash up dishes, peel potatoes, and fetch water for
those who, not living near, brought their meals with them. It is not
surprising, therefore, that men, having such advantages, should sometimes
rise to higher situations. Some became linguists, some schoolmasters,
engineers, and contractors; one, breakfasting with a bishop, whose
daughter he afterwards married, saw upon the table, some time since, a
service painted by himself when a workman at Coalport. Some were
singular characters: old Jocky Hill kept his hunter; John Crowther, a
very amiable fellow, exceedingly good natured, and always ready to do a
favour to any one who asked him, lived quite a recluse, studying algebra
and mechanics. He has suggested many improvements in locomotives, steam
paddles, breaks, &c., &c., and had the honour of submitting to the
Government the plan of terminating annuities, by which money at that time
was raised to carry on the war, and by which we have been saved the
burden—so far—of a permanent debt; also of making other suggestions,
which have been likewise adopted. He also invented a most ingenious
almanack applicable to all time.
Coalport men were usually great politicians; Hunt, Hethrington, Richard
Carlile, Sir Francis Burdett, and Cobbett, had their disciples and
admirers; and such was the eagerness to get the Register, with its
familiar gridiron on the cover, that a man has been despatched to
Birmingham for it from one of the rooms, his shopmates undertaking to do
his work for him whilst he was away.
The works themselves are ill designed and badly constructed, the greater
portion of them having been put up at the latter end of the past and
beginning of the present centuries, whilst other portions were added from
time to time, with no regard to ventilation or other requirements of
health. Consequently there are the most curious ins and outs, dropsical
looking roofs, bulging walls, and drooping floors, which have to be
propped underneath, to support half a century’s accumulations of china,
accumulations amounting to hundreds and hundreds of tons in weight. In
entering some of these unhealthy _ateliers_ and passages strangers have
to look well to their craniums. Some work-rooms have very stifling
atmospheres, charged with clay or flint; the biscuit room notably so. We
have said that a good understanding prevailed generally between masters
and workmen. There was one notable exception, the great “strike” as it
was called, which occurred somewhere in November, 1833; a memorable event
in the history of the works, so much so that in speaking of occurrences
it is usual to the present time to ask in case of doubt if it happened
before or subsequent to the strike. The men had their “Pitcher,” a well
conducted sick society; and a “Travelling Society,” for assisting those
in search of employment, with branches in all centres of the trade.
Trades unions, however, were just then coming to the front. The
Combination Laws had been repealed eleven years previously; otherwise,
such was the temper of the Shropshire magistrates, and the feeling
generally in relation to the trades unions, that had they existed on the
statute book not a few would have had to have experienced the penal
consequences of their acts. With the men who still adhered to the
masters the works continued to be carried on to a limited extent; after
much suffering and privation some of the hands returned, whilst some
obtained employment elsewhere. The course taken by Mr. John Rose, in
resisting the men was warmly approved of by his neighbours, who
subscribed for a handsome silver cup, which is now in the possession of
Mr. Charles Pugh, who married Miss Martha Rose, daughter of Mr. Thomas,
and niece of Mr. John Rose. It is a large and massive piece of plate. A
vine stem entwines around the foot and forms the handles, a vine border
with grapes also forms a border round the rim of the cover. On one side
is the following inscription:
Presented to John Rose Esqr.,
of
Coalport China Manufactory,
By his
Friends and Neighbours
March 3rd
1834.
On the reverse side is the following:
Tribute of respect
to his
Public and Private Character
and to the
uncompromising firmness
with which
he has recently resisted the
demands of an illegal
conspiracy.
We have lived to see trades unions legalized, and trade combinations
adopted by masters as well as men.
Mr. Walker had invented a maroon colour dip for grounds, which was used
with much success. A good deal was done too about this time in imitation
of the _Sevres_ style of decoration, and thousands of pounds were spent
in endeavouring to make the famous torquoise of the French; but a pale
imitation, called celest, only was obtained; some years afterwards
however a much better colour was produced, first by Mr. Harvey, secondly
by Mr. Bagshaw, thirdly by Mr. Hancock.
In 1839 the late William Pugh became one of the firm, it then being John
Rose, Charles Maddison, and William Pugh. In 1841 it was Charles
Maddison, William Pugh, Thomas Rose, and William Frederick Rose. In 1843
William Pugh, and William F. Rose were the proprietors. In 1845 the
Messrs. Daniell received the command of the Queen to prepare a dessert
service as a present by herself to the Emperor Nicholas, and it was
manufactured at the works. It was a magnificent service of _bleu de
roi_, and had the various orders of the Russian Empire enamelled in
compartments, with the order of St. Nicholas, and the Russian and Polish
eagles in the centre. In 1850 the famous Rose-du-Barry was discovered.
The attempt to do so had been suggested by the Messrs. Daniell, in 1849;
and after repeated experiments by Mr. George Hancock, who is still the
colour-maker at the works, it was produced. This colour, so named after
Mdme du Barry, one of the mistresses of Louis XV, had been formerly made
at the Sevres Works, but the art had been lost, and its reproduction
created a demand for very rich dessert services and ornaments of the
colour. Very costly services of it were produced for the Messrs.
Daniell, Mortlock, Phillips, Goode, and other London dealers, which
attracted considerable attention at the Exhibition of 1851. One splendid
dessert service of it was purchased by Lord Ashburton; others also, after
special models and designs, of this colour were subsequently produced for
the head of the State, for the Emperor of the French, and for noblemen
like the duke of Northumberland, the Marquis of Lansdowne and others.
The following are the remarks of the Jurors on that occasion:—“Rose J.,
and Co., Coalbrook Dale, Shropshire (47, p. 727), have exhibited
porcelain services and other articles, which have attracted the special
attention of the Jury. A dessert service of a rose ground is in
particular remarkable, not only as being the nearest approach we have
seen to the famous colour which it is designed to imitate, but for the
excellence of the flower-painting, gilding, and other decorations, and
the hardness and transparency of glaze. The same observation applies to
other porcelain articles exhibited by this firm. The Jury have awarded
to Messrs. Rose and Co. a Prize Medal.” The company also obtained medals
at the French Exhibition in 1855, and at that of London in 1862.
A good deal has been done of late years in the Sevres style of decoration
on vases, the moulds of which came direct from Sevres manufactory. It is
a pleasing incident, and one worth mentioning, that some years ago Mr. W.
F. Rose in company with Mr. Daniell visited Paris, and of course went to
Sevres. Mr. Daniell was at once taken round the works, but Mr. Rose
feeling some delicacy remained outside. Mr. Daniell mentioned the
delicacy of his friend, and the manager at once sent for him in, and
shewed him the greatest respect. He told him he might send his best
artists to copy any thing he saw, or employ theirs to do so: and sometime
after he sent over the moulds themselves to Coalport.
In 1862 Mr. Pugh became sole proprietor of the works, and continued so to
his death, in June 1875. Mr. Charles Pugh, brother of the deceased, and
Mr. Edmund Ratcliff, brother-in-law, were left executors; and for an
adjustment of claims by them and others the estate was thrown into
Chancery and a receiver and manager, Mr. Gelson was appointed. The stock
which is immense and had been accumulating for half a century is being
brought into the market. Hundreds of dozens of one pattern, “India
tree,” for example, which had remained out of sight for forty years, are
being brought to light. In some instances a hundred dozen or so of
saucers, (printed,) are found stowed away, without cups to match; whilst
scores of piles of plates and dishes, sixteen or eighteen feet high, may
be seen (white) in others, which had been sorted and put on one side from
some defect or other. It speaks well for the quality of the china that
the biscuit and glazed are both sound and good. In some cases the floors
are literally giving way from the immense weight of stock they have to
sustain. In one place a quantity of old Caughley China was discovered;
whilst in another were found a number of Caughley copper plates engraved
by the late Herbert Minton’s father.
It may excite surprise that so large a stock should have been allowed to
accumulate, but much was the result of a wish to keep the men employed.
The fact of a number of copper plates being found with his name on,
confirms what we have previously said about Thomas Minton, who founded
the important commercial house bearing his name and that of his son at
Stoke, having been employed as an engraver at Caughley. M. Digby Wyatt,
also, in his paper read before the Society of Arts and reported in the
Society’s Journal, May 28th, 1858, on the influence exercised on ceramic
art by the late Herbert Minton, says:—“Mr. Thomas Minton was a native of
Shropshire, and he was brought up at the Caughley works, near Broseley,
as an engraver. He then went to town and worked for Spode, at his London
House of business.” In 1788 he went to Stoke, bought land, and built the
house and works which have since become so celebrated. Up to 1798
however he only made earthenware which was printed and ornamented in
blue, similar to that at Caughley.
Mr. Wyatt, in the paper just quoted, speaking of John Rose and of the
late Herbert Minton admitted that in the excellent, rapid, and cheap
production of porcelain for Mr. Minton to have stood still for a moment
would have been to have lost his lead in the trade. And Mr. Daniell, in
the discussion which followed, said:—“With reference to Mr. Minton’s
predecessors in this branch of art, he might remind the society of one
whose name was upon their records as the recipient of the society’s gold
medal for china and porcelain manufactures long before Mr. Herbert
Minton’s time. He referred to John Rose, of Coalport, who made more
china in his day than all those who were mentioned in the paper.”
It will be seen from what we have written that Thomas Turner, of
Caughley, and J. Rose, of Coalport, were the creators, so to speak, of
new industries which drew around them large populations and gave
employment to thousands who otherwise might have sought for it in vain,
or have found it under less advantageous circumstances. It will be seen
also that not only were they benefactors contributing materially to the
common stock of national prosperity themselves, but that their energies
and abilities inspired others who in turn became industrial organisers,
and through various channels carried on the work of progress.
MADELEY CHINA WORKS.
EXCEPTING to the trade, and to some of the old inhabitants, it is not
generally known that Martin Randall established China Works at Madeley,
and made porcelain similar to that of Nantgarw and little if at all
inferior to old Sevres porcelain. He and his brother Edward were
Caughley men; he left there to go to Derby. He afterwards went to
Pinxton, and thence with Mr. Robins, a Pinxton man, to London, where they
entered into partnership and carried on business. They were supplied
with Nantgarw white china by Mr. Mortlock, till Mr. Rose cut off the
supply from the Welsh Works, by engaging Billingsley and Walker to make
it for himself alone at the Coalport Works. They still continued to
carry on business at Islington, where they erected buildings suitable,
and fired the ware in box kilns with charcoal.
About this time the demand was great with connoisseurs among the
aristocracy for old Sevres china; and the London dealers, finding that it
was not obtainable in sufficient quantities to meet the demand for highly
decorated specimens, hit upon the expedient of employing agents in Paris
to buy up Sevres china in white for the purpose of having it painted in
London, as Nantgarw had been, and selling it to their customers as the
bona fide productions of Sevres. Slightly painted patterns too were
procured, and the colours got off with fluoric acid, and rich and
expensive paintings, grounds, and gilding substituted.
About the year 1826 they dissolved partnership and Mr. Randall came to
Madeley, where he occupied a house in Park Lane, now the residence of the
Wesleyan minister. He then took more commodious premises at the lower
end of Madeley, where he erected enamelling, biscuit, and other kilns,
and made and finished his own ware. Thomas Wheeler, William Roberts, and
F. Brewer, were his potters; Philip Ballard, Robert Grey, and the present
writer, were painters there, and Enos Raby was ground layer. John Fox of
Coalbrookdale, William Dorsett, of Madeley, also were with Mr. Randall
for a short time. Not having had experience in the making of china,
great mistaken were committed, and heavy losses sustained. We have known
a biscuit kiln fired till tea-pots and cups and saucers were melted into
a mass before a trial was drawn, crow bars being necessary to remove
them; in some instances they assumed the most fantastic forms. At other
times the ware would be short fired in the biscuit kiln and would take up
so much glaze that on coming out of the glaze kiln it would fly off in
splinters. These wastrels were buried, broken up, or thrown into the
canal, to be out of sight.
Mr. Randall however, as the result of repeated and persevering
experiments, succeeded in producing a fret body with a rich glaze which
bore so close a resemblance to old Sevres china that connoisseurs and
famous judges failed to distinguish them. He refused however, from
conscientious motives, to put the Sevres mark, the initials of Louis.
Louis, crossed at the bottom, which was done with less hesitation at
Coalport with much more feeble imitations. When introduced on one
occasion to a London dealer, of the name of Frost, who had a shop in the
Strand, as Mr. Martin Randall’s nephew, the dealer in old china observed
that the old Quaker made the best imitation of Sevres that ever was made,
but added, “he never could be got to put the double L on it, and we
cannot sell it as Sevres.” We remarked that he was “too conscientious to
do so,” upon which he replied, “O, d—n conscience; there is no conscience
in business.”
Mr. Randall had less hesitation however in putting the Sevres mark on
what was known to be Sevres; and he did very much for Mortlock, Jarman,
and Baldock, who had agents in Paris, attending all sales where old
Sevres was to be sold, in redecorating it in the most elaborate and
costly manner. The less scrupulous London agents however did not
hesitate to pass it off as being really the work throughout of Sevres
artists. Indeed they have been known to have boxes of china going up
from Madeley, sent on to Dover, to be redirected as coming from France,
inviting connoisseurs to come and witness them being unpacked on their
arrival, as they represented, from Paris. A little entertainment would
be got up, and supposing themselves to be the first whose eyes looked on
the rich goods after they left the French capital, where it would be
represented, perhaps, that they had been bought of the Duc-de—or of
Madame some one, after having been in the possession of royalty, they
would buy freely.
Sevres porcelain fetched high prices then, but it has risen higher in the
market, even since, and has gone on rising to the present time. In 1850
cups and saucers fetched from £25 to £30 each, and bowls £66 or £70.
Three oval vases and covers at Lord Pembroke’s sale fetched £1020.
Prices have however since gone up; and at Mr. Bernal’s sale a pair of
rose Dubarry vases sold for 1850 guineas; and cups and saucers for £100.
Single plates have since sold for £200; vases for 500 or 600 guineas
each, and cups and saucers for 150 guineas. A year ago a set of three
Jardiniers fetched at Christie’s, by auction, £10,000!
We remember seeing an ornament at the Marquis of Anglesey’s at _Beau
Desert_ which we were assured was old Sevres, and had been purchased at a
great price on the continent, but which we recognised as one of our own
painting at Madeley. A man can always tell his own painting; but it is
not an easy matter for another however experienced sometimes to do so.
An amusing instance occurred at Coalport. Mr. F. W. Rose who had been
conversant from a child with china, on one occasion bought a vase,
painted with birds, believing it to be old Sevres, but which was made at
the Coalport Works and painted by the present writer at Madeley. Mr.
Rose, sending for us down to the office said, “here, Randall, is a vase I
have given a good price for, which is the right thing; can you do
anything like it?” Our reply was, it would be strange if we could not,
as we did that when a lad, adding that it was made at his own
manufactory, that it was modelled by George Aston, and purchased out of
the warehouse, in the white, by T. Martin Randall. We need scarcely say
that he was very much astonished on finding he had been duped by a London
china dealer with a piece of his own ware. It was put out of sight; but
the late Mr. Pugh did not forget occasionally to remind his partner of
the incident.
Mr. Randall removed from Madeley to Shelton, in the Potteries, for the
greater convenience of carrying on his works. He was invited by the late
Herbert Minton to become a partner, and to make his ware for the benefit
of both at his extensive works at Stoke. Age however, and a longing for
retirement led him to decline, and he soon afterwards retired to a
cottage at Barleston, where he died, and was buried, in a sunny spot of
his own choosing, within sound of the murmuring waters of the Trent. He
was a good man; one holding large and liberal views, and one who took an
active part in various social and religious movements of the day, being
an active promoter more particularly of Temperance Societies, when first
established in this country. Specimens of his ware are much prized and
sought after by collectors. A fine specimen with torquoise ground is in
the possession of Henry Dickinson Esq.
The chief beauty of Mr. Randall’s porcelain, like that of other fret
bodies, or _pate tendre_ china, was that it admitted of a complete
amalgamation of the painting with the glaze, and also of a richness and
depth of colour, as in the case of torquoise, not to be produced on
ordinary china.
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