Our English porcelain of the eighteenth century may be divided roughly into five periods:-- 1. The early or primitive period, very often characterised by Chinese, and especially Japanese, schemes of decoration. Oriental wares are closely copied, sometimes perhaps with the object of deception. The paste, containing no bone-ash, is soft and very waxy in appearance. Much of the ground is left unpainted, and there is no gilding. There is a great uncertainty as to the place of manufacture of many of these early pieces. 2. The fine period--approximately 1755 to 1768--especially associated with the name of Sprimont, at Chelsea. The influence of the contemporary production at Sèvres is very marked. 3. The Duesbury period, 1768 to 1786. Simple classical forms are predominant at Chelsea and Derby. The rich decoration previously in use at Chelsea is continued at Worcester, but applied to pieces of simpler outline, the vases often copying Chinese forms. 4. The early commercial period. The business firms at Derby and Worcester almost monopolise the market. Somewhat later the factories in the Severn valley form a link with the next period. 5. The Staffordshire commercial period, equally commercial and essentially eclectic. Everything is copied, and there is a constant tendency to hark back to older types. It is possible that some such historical arrangement, combined with a division according to types of decoration, might be made the basis of an account of English porcelain; but it will be a safer course to follow the usual topographical division, treating the different factories more or less in the order of the date of their foundation. CHELSEA.--The year 1745 is the earliest date to which any piece of Chelsea ware can with certainty be assigned. The factory ceased to exist as an independent seat of manufacture before 1770. In this short interval there were apparently some years during which very little china was made. It is thus essentially an early ware, and Horace Walpole in his catalogue already speaks of ‘old Chelsea.’ We know absolutely nothing about the origin of the works. The Duke of Buckingham, in the time of Charles II., is said to have been interested in some glass-works in this neighbourhood, and to have brought over workmen from Venice. The duke’s glass-houses were, however, more probably at Lambeth. At any rate, at that time, the ‘cones,’ as the glass-houses were called, appear to have been regarded as places suitable equally for the making of glass or the firing of pottery--so at least I glean from the terms of an advertisement in which some of these ‘cones’ are offered for sale. The origin of the well-known anchor-mark of Chelsea has been sought in Venice, but, as far as porcelain is concerned, it was probably in use at Chelsea at an earlier date than in the latter town.