This Richard Holdship was one of the partners in the porcelain company, and it was, it appears, for the purposes of this company that he became lessee of the premises. The company at this time, on its first formation, appears to have consisted of Dr. John Wall, Mr. Richard Holdship, the Rev. Benjamin Blayney, and Mr. Samuel Bradley, a goldsmith, who kept the house in High Street for retailing the ware. To these were subsequently added the others named above. In 1772–4 the partners were Dr. Wall, the two William Davises, father and son, Rev. T. Vernon, Robert Hancock the engraver, and Richard Cook of London. In 1774 Hancock left the concern, and from 1776 to 1783 the two Davises and Vernon were the only proprietors. The company at first turned its attention principally to the production of imitations of the Chinese porcelain, both in form and colour. Thus the blue and white patterns--then so general in Chinese porcelain, and the characteristic of the Nankin ware--were for a time, it appears, exclusively followed at Worcester. Some of the brilliant colours of the Japanese ceramists were, however, soon attempted, and with complete success; and by the conventional arrangement of these colours in new patterns the Worcester potters were gradually led on to more elaborate productions. [Illustration: Fig. 452.] The works must have been commenced on a tolerably large scale, and have rapidly risen in importance, for in 1752--only a year after the formation of the company--the premises were very business-like in their arrangement and extensive in their proportions, and were sufficiently important to be engraved in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ of that year. Of that view the accompanying engraving is a reduced fac-simile, and it will show at once how soon the works had risen to a state of importance. The following explanatory references from the Magazine will make it better understood:--“Explanation. 1. St. Andrew’s. 2. Warmstrey Slip. 3. Biscuit kilns. 4. Glazing kilns. 5. Great kiln for segurs. 6. Pressing and modelling gallery. 7. Rooms for throwing, turning, and stove-drying the ware on the first floor, _a_, of the chamber floors. 8. The garden. 9. The yard for coals. 10. Mr. Evett’s house and garden, landlord of the premises. _b_. The eight windows in two large chambers, in which the ware is placed on stallions, on the east and north, where are the painters’ rooms. All the beginning of the process is carried on under the quadrangular building, ground floor, marked A; in its N.W. angle is the great rowl and ring; in the N.E. the horses turn the same, and the levigators near to the rowl. The next (on the ground floor) is the slip and treading-rooms; behind No. 4 is the glazing-room; behind 5 is the secret-room on the ground-floor.”