The first pottery ware made at Bradwell was the same as Dwight’s “red porcelaine.” On the land at Bradwell Farm was the seam of red clay which formed the foundation of the ware, giving when fired a dense hard red stoneware of fine texture.[21] There are in the South Kensington Museum two pieces of “red porcelain” credited by Burton to Elers and illustrated in his book. They are in marked contrast to the slip decorated and marbled Staffordshire ware of the same time. They have been turned in the lathe after throwing, and thus made thin and light. The clay body is homogeneous and smooth, showing greater care in the preparation of the body. The ornamentation is delicate and artistic, and has been made by sealing a soft piece of the clay on to the ware with a metal seal pressed over the soft clay. There is no glaze, but a high fire has produced a ware so hard as to be almost forged solid. These things show the hand of the ex-silversmith in size and shape and finish. The Burslem imitators—Garner and the Wedgwoods—never made things like these. Elers, though he may have stolen Dwight’s secrets, went ahead and showed the possibilities of potting. He is said also to have produced black ware of a similar character by mixing oxide of manganese—the “magnus” of Dr Plot—with the clay body, and, though no known pieces of black Elers ware can now be certainly identified, it is this black ware that his copyists chiefly developed.[22] [Illustration: 1. Red china teapot, probably by Elers. _c._ 1700. 2. Sample of later date, with moulded spout. Stoke-on-Trent Museums.] [Illustration: Samples of solid agate ware made by Wedgwood or Whieldon. _c._ 1760. From the Stoke-on-Trent Museums (see p. 74).] For Nemesis overtook John Philip Elers, and in spite of all his secrecy, perhaps because of it, he was copied. Two potters, Twyford and Astbury,[23] one of whom at least had already made pots after local methods in Shelton, set themselves independently to acquire the arts of the Dutchman. To lull the suspicions of Elers, Twyford shammed stupidity, and Astbury, who was younger, passed himself off as an idiot. Recommended by these strange qualifications, they asked and obtained employment and, in time, the knowledge they desired. They went back to Shelton with their acquired arts, and, in a few years, the most intelligent potters of North Staffordshire knew how to make civilized pottery. But by 1710 John Philip Elers was tired of his exile and of the treatment he had received. The true porcelain which should detect poison was still unattained, and his “red porcelain” and his black ware were become by somewhat sharp practice a staple product of the district. So he shook off the clay of Staffordshire from his feet and rejoined his brother in London.