Vase, large, by Bloor, painted with a view of Temple Bar and a group of flowers, in two large panels, on dark blue and gold ground, 21 in. high. Christie, December 5, 1902 21 0 0 Dessert service, painted with bouquets of flowers on white ground, and the borders gilt with vases and arabesques, consisting of an ice-pail, cover and liner, centre-dish on foot, eight dishes and six plates. Christie, July 5, 1920 17 17 0 Set of three vases, painted with flowers in the Chinese taste in dark blue panels, gilt snake handles, 6-3/4 in. to 8-1/4 in. high. Puttick & Simpson, July 16, 1920 8 18 6 Set of four vases of flowers, on scroll bases, with gilt paw feet, 6-3/4 in. high. Puttick & Simpson, July 16, 1920 12 12 0 II CHELSEA CHINA [Illustration: CHELSEA FIGURE. With candelabrum.] [Illustration: CHELSEA FIGURE OF CARPENTER WITH BAG OF TOOLS. _In Victoria and Albert Museum._] II CHELSEA CHINA The origin of Chelsea china is like that of the celebrated Charles James Harrington Fitzroy Yellowplush, “wropped in mystry.” The southwestern corner of London has always been connected with the making of pottery in some form or another. To-day Messrs. Doulton carry on the tradition of Lambeth and Vauxhall. Battersea was famed for its enamelled ware, and Fulham had a factory established by John Dwight, M.A., of Christ Church, Oxford, the inventor of porcelain in England, to whom a patent was granted in 1671 for his manufacture of porcelain and stone ware. Tradition, with a light heart, circulated the fable that the origin of the Chelsea works was owing to the clay that was brought as ballast in ships from Chinese ports. In a “Life of Nollekens” this absurdity finds its way into print, but for all that it is utterly without foundation. “The cunning rogues produced very white and delicate ware, but then they had their clay from China, which, when the Chinese found out, they would not let the captains have any more for ballast, and the consequence was that the whole concern failed.” Equally foolish and erroneous statements have been made about other of the English factories, and the difficulty of sifting real facts from a mass of chaff in such factories as Bow or Lowestoft is very great.