Llewellynn Frederick William Jewitt

“ It cannot be wondered that an art, then such an important secret, should have been followed at Caughley,—a place so perfectly retired from the world, situated in the midst of woods and wilds, almost unapproachable to strangers, and with every facility for keeping the workmen away from all chance of imparting the secret to others,—in place of in Worcester, where secrecy would be almost impossible, and where the information would ooze out from the workmen, at the ale-house or elsewhere, and be greedily caught up by those interested in the process. ”

“ So true to nature are many of the flowers, and so delicately modelled in all their minutest details, that the most skilful botanist can scarce find a deviation from nature in leaf or flower. The basket engraved on Fig. 807 is a fair specimen of the Matthews’ reproduction of flowers; but the most exquisitely beautiful group yet produced is an example in my own possession—the chef-d’œuvre of the works. It is unsurpassed by any production in terra-cotta. These floral baskets are a speciality of the Royal Pottery, and are among the most beautiful of art productions. ”

“ Armed with his new Act of Parliament, by which he was empowered to enjoy nearly twenty-two years’ patent right, Champion spared no pains and no expense to make the productions of his works as good as possible; and that he continued to produce a magnificent body and a remarkably fine glaze, and turned out some truly exquisite specimens of fictile art, both in design, in potting, in modelling, and in painting, is fully evident by examples still remaining in the hands of collectors. ”

“ The vases, which are made in endless variety, are characterized by extreme chasteness and elegance of outline, and by excellent taste in decoration, whether that decoration consists in festoons of hand-modelled flowers, in pressed work, in milling, in printing, or in painting. Many of them in form and in ornamentation, although of so different a body, bear comparison with the better specimens of Wedgewood-ware, and exhibit a purity of taste which is quite refreshing. For tea or déjeuné services, the insides of the teapots and cream-ewers are simply, but judiciously glazed ”

“ The weapons and other implements of imperishable stone and flint have, long ages ago, died out, and any possible connection between them and the weapons or tools of our own day has died with them; but the vessels of simple clay have an abiding-place with us which has lasted without a break until now, and will yet last for ever. Hitherto the course of the potter’s art has been one of constant and gradual improvement; but its capabilities for further development are almost unbounded, and another generation will witness advances of which we can now but dimly dream. ”

“ In modelling, these busts are among the most easy, graceful, and life-like we have ever seen, either in marble, in parian, or in any other material, while as productions in warm-tinted terra-cotta they surpass anything yet produced. They are not only life-like portraits of these two great and widely-different types of men, as regards features and figure and pose, but they convey an actual reflex of the mind of each in the expression which the modeller has caught and perpetuated. ”

“ Brackets, of charming design, candlesticks, jugs, medallions, tobacco-jars, spill-cases, flower-stands—and, indeed, all the articles produced—bear the same stamp of care and elegance. The turning is done with admirable precision; the moulding with a refreshing delicacy of finish; and the gilding and enamelling—only sparsely introduced, by the way, and then only as an accessory to the general design—executed with a pure taste and by a master mind. ”

“ They produce every possible variety, from the simple gold and white to the most highly decorated tea, coffee, déjeûner, dinner, toilet, and other services. These are produced in very large quantities, and form a staple and constantly increasing branch of the manufacture; and in all these, however simple, the same purity of taste in patterns is displayed as in the rarer and more costly gems of art. ”

“ It is pleasant to know, and to be able indisputably to prove, that from those early days down to the present time the art has, through a long succession of ages, continued with more or less skill, to be observed among us, and that thus in pottery, as in nothing else, an unbroken chain, connecting us in our present high state of civilisation with our remote barbarian forefathers of the stone age, exists. ”

“ I do not, by this, claim for Caughley the honour of inventing the art of transfer-printing on to porcelain; but I feel assured that that art must have been there practised at quite as early a period as the dated example of Worcester make; and I am led to this belief partly from the fact that the Robert Hancock whose beautiful productions I have before spoken of, and to whom the engraving of the dated example is ascribed, also engraved for the Caughley works. ”

“ Cookworthy, who is his particular friend; he gives him all the merit which is due to so great a discovery; he deserves it for finding out the means of a manufacture, which will, in all probability, be a very great advantage to this country; but yet Mr. Champion claims the merit of supporting the work, and, when the inventor declined the undertaking himself, with his time, his labour, and his fortune, improved it from a very imperfect to an almost perfect manufacture; and he hopes, soon, with proper encouragement, to one altogether perfect. ”

“ Wedgwood is so fully convinced of the great injury that would be done to the landed, manufacturing, and commercial interests of this nation, by extending the term of Mr. Champion’s monopoly of raw materials, of which there are immense quantities in the kingdom, and confining the use of them to one or a few hands, that he thought it a duty of moral obligation to take the sense of his neighbours upon this subject, and to give up to the manufactory at large all advantages he might have secured to himself. ”

“ I have now by me the bottom of a Chinese punch-bowl, which was plainly glazed, when it was raw, or a soft biscuit; for the ware wants a great deal of being burnt, it being of the colour of coarse whited-brown paper. But the same body, when exposed [326] to a proper degree of fire, turns to a chinaware of a very good colour—a demonstration that it had not, as our ware in England hath, the great fire before the glaze was laid on. I don’t point out the advantages of painting and glazing on a soft biscuit, as they are very obvious to anyone, ever so little used to pottery. ”

“ Wall, a man of high intellect and attainments, and of noble character, was impelled to the prosecution of his inquiries; but that for the good of science and of commerce alone, and with a knowledge that a branch of manufacture of the kind, if once well established, must be lucrative to its possessors and advantageous to the city, he was induced to work hard and zealously in his laboratory until he had mastered the difficulties which surrounded him, and had produced a material that should successfully rival the foreign examples which he took for his model. ”

“ The work in Brandenburgh is nothing more than the Dresden materials, wrought by workmen removed hither from that city, the Brandenburgh work having no clay of its own territory. Mr. Champion is surprised that Mr. Wedgwood can find no cause but one, which he chooses to blame, why a new manufacture, upon a principle never before tried in England, should not have attained perfection in a shorter space than the very short space of seven years. ”

“ In majolica the Worcester works produce many splendid varieties of articles, and many spirited and beautiful designs. Dessert services, floral table decorations, shell-pieces, spill-cases, and vases are among the articles produced. The body is finer and more compact than that frequently used by manufacturers, and the colouring is faultless and in the purest taste. It was a wise thought to graft this branch of ceramic art on to that of the finest porcelain at Worcester, and its rapid development shows how thoroughly it has been appreciated. ”

“ This new ware was first made public at the Great International Exhibition of 1851, and from its peculiar qualities of durability, hardness, and freedom from cracking with heat, attracted considerable attention. The surface of the semi-porcelain bears every characteristic of the finest china, and, of course, in colour, in painting, and in gilding can be made quite equal to it; but it has the additional advantage of being so completely vitrified that the inside, in case of being chipped or broken, remains of its original whiteness. ”

“ The productions of the Worcester works have been brought to a wondrous state of perfection, both as to body, glaze, form, and decoration. Certainly neither in ancient nor in modern specimens of ceramic art have such exquisitely beautiful works been produced as some of the enamels which, under the fostering hand of Mr. Binns, have of late years been made here. The body, unlike the works of Limoges or the Sèvres imitations, is pure porcelain, not a coating of porcelain over sheets of metal ”

“ We first baked our ware to a soft biscuit, which would suck, then painted it with blue, and dipped them with the same ease; and the glazing grows hard and dry, as soon as it does in the delft-ware. Large vessels may be dipped raw, as the Chinese are said to do it. But the proper thickness of the glaze is not so easily distinguished this way, as when the ware is biscuited; for, the raw body being of the same colour and consistence with the glaze, when the latter is dry, ’tis hardly possible to determine the limits of either; a thing very easy to be done when the body is hardened by biscuiting. ”

“ The manufacture in England has been carried on so far by great labour, and at a large expense; it is in many points to the full as good as the Dresden, and the late Duke of Orleans told Colonel York that the metal or earth had been tried in his furnace, and was found to be the best made in Europe. It is now daily improving, and already employs at least one hundred hands, of which is a nursery of thirty lads, taken from the parishes and charity schools, and bred to designing and painting—arts very much wanted here, and which are of the greatest use in our silk and printed linen manufactures. ”

“ Of China-ware I see but little imported in the year 1694, I presume by reason of the war and our bad luck at sea. There came only from Spain certain, and from India certain twice. ’Tis a curious manufacture, and deserves to be encourag’d here, which without doubt money would do; and Mr. Dowoit at Fulham has done it, and can again in any thing that is flat: but the difficulty is that if a hollow dish be made, it must be burnt so much that the heat of the fire will make the sides fall. He tells me that our clay will very well do it; the main skill is in managing the fire. ”

“ Among London establishments who, from a long and intimate connection with some of the more eminent of our porcelain works, may almost be considered to be manufacturers, are the following. To these firms the world owes many of the most striking and beautiful of ceramic productions. These have been designed by the firms themselves, and made specially for them; they thus become literally their own productions. ”

“ It is a common belief that high art and commercial success cannot go hand in hand,—that to make things sell you must sink art—or that, if you produce high art examples, you must give up all expectations of a remunerative trade. This theory I do not [251] believe in. I hold it to be the mission of the manufacturer, in whatever branch he may be engaged, to produce such goods as shall tend to educate the public taste, and to lead it gradually upwards to a full appreciation of the beautiful. ”

“ Wedgwood’s calculation of the profits sufficient to recompense the ingenuity, and repay the trouble and expense of others, Mr. Champion submits it to a discerning and encouraging legislature, whether a seven years’ sale is likely to repay a seven years’ unproductive, experimental, and chargeable labour, as well as the future improvement to grow from new endeavours? Until Mr. Champion was able to make this porcelain in quantities to supply a market, it was rather an object of curiosity than a manufacture for national benefit. ”

“ The green, as a rule, was a somewhat lighter colour and not so good in quality as Wedgwood’s. The pieces were generally marked with the usual impressed mark. In fine “earthenware,” services of every kind were produced, both white, blue-printed, painted, and gilt. The glaze on the earlier pieces, it should be remarked, is of a decided blue tint, and somewhat inferior in quality. Some of the dessert-services produced in the early part of the present century are particularly interesting. On each piece is painted some flower as large as life, and coloured true to nature in every particular. ”

“ The productions in this department are of a very high order of merit, and will take rank with those of any other manufactory. The brackets and jardinières are of great beauty, and are characterised by a pure artistic feeling and a touch such as is seldom attained; the pieces bear evidence of being not only modelled by a clever artist, but of receiving finishing-touches by the master-hand itself. In colour the Fulham terra cotta is a light pink and a rich red, and, when these are combined, a peculiar delicacy and finished effect is produced. ”

“ Greenwood was a very sensible man, yet he held it just for a man to destroy himself, and, like my friend, in his perfect senses, actually made away with himself the day before he was to have been married to a person of credit and property. They are two of the strangest suicides I ever heard; and had James Doe written to his friends in London, he would have had money sent him; for his friends in London would have thought it a happiness to relieve him. He was a very useful man in the Staffordshire ware manufactory, as he had studied the chemical secrets of that business. ”

“ In a neighbourhood which has the honour of having given birth to Sir Joshua Reynolds, to James Northcote, to Haydon, to Sir Charles Eastlake, to Opie, to William Cooke, and to a score others, it would be strange indeed if the Art part of the manufacture had not been prominently good, and had not produced artists, like Henry Bone, of more than local excellence. ”

“ The “body,” it may be well to note, is made from Dwight’s original recipe—the very body of which the first china ware made in England was produced—and therefore the “Fulham china” of to-day has an historical interest attached to it which is possessed by no other. It was a wise thought that induced Mr. Bailey to restore to Fulham the special manufacture which has rendered its name famous in the ceramic annals of this country; and it is to be hoped that the spirit he has shown will be amply compensated by a liberal patronage of his productions. ”

“ Champion, as a further answer to Mr. Wedgwood’s implication of want of skill, begs leave to observe that the Dresden manufacture (like this, a native clay) , which has been established so great a number of years, was long before it attained perfection, and even now it has not that exact proportion of shape which the Chinese manufacture possesses. The Austrian manufacture (also a native clay) was twenty-five years before it attained any degree of perfection, and then only by accidental aid of the Dresden workmen who were dispersed during the late war. ”

“ As to the sort and manner of making Pipes, I can add nothing to what my late friend, Mr Houghton, has writ in his useful collections, where he tells us also that the finest mugs, and even China ware, are made of this sort of Earth, of which, saith he, we may make as good in England as any in the world, and this I am fully convinced of, having a specimen in this Museum made of English materials in the Manor house at York by the very ingenious Mr Francis Place, who presented it to me with one of the outer covers purposely made to secure them from the violence of the fire in baking. ”