Worcester--Royal Porcelain Works--Dr. Wall--Warmstrey House and its Owners--The Porcelain Company--Early Marks--Transfer Printing--King of Prussia Mug--Josiah Holdship--Poem--Robert Hancock--Richard Holdship--Derby China Works--Caughley--Flight and Barr--Chamberlain--Kerr and Binns--R. W. Binns--Productions of the Works--Royal Services--Tokens--Royal China Works--Grainger and Lee--Productions--St. John’s Encaustic Tiles--Rainbow Hill Tileries--St. George’s Pottery Works--Rustic Terra-Cotta--Stourbridge--The Lye Works--Stourbridge Clay. WORCESTER--THE ROYAL PORCELAIN WORKS. There are three things for which the “faithful city” of Worcester, so celebrated in history for its loyalty, is at the present day especially famous. These are its porcelain, its gloves, and its sauce. For who has not drunk out of or seen “Worcester china,” worn “Dent’s gloves,” or tasted “Lea and Perrin’s Worcestershire sauce”? These three are things which are identified with its name wherever Worcester is heard of, and, in the minds of some people, take precedence of its glorious cathedral, its tomb of King John, or its exquisitely beautiful shrine of Prince Arthur. With the first of these only I have now to do, and its history is one of great interest, as connected with that of the general porcelain manufacture of the kingdom. At a time when foreign china was much sought after, when Fulham, Chelsea, Bow, and Derby were gradually working their way into favour, and gaining ground on their foreign rivals in the estimation of people of taste, Worcester was quietly experimentalising in the same direction, and gradually paving the way for the establishment of those works which have since become so great a benefit to it, and so great an honour to the country. Exactly in the middle of the last century these experiments were carried on, and the works were soon afterwards established, and rapidly grew into note. So rapidly, indeed, did the ware made at this manufactory come into repute, that in the year following the opening of the works it was noticed in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, and in 1763 was alluded to in the “Annual Register.” [Illustration: Fig. 451.--Portrait of Dr. Wall.]