One of the finest productions of the Plymouth Works, and evidently of the latest, is a pair of splendid vases and covers, sixteen inches high, in the possession of Mr. Francis Fry, of Bristol. One of these is here engraved (Fig. 714). It is hexagonal, and is enriched with festoons of beautifully-modelled raised flowers, and with painted butterflies, leaves, borders, &c. These vases are of precisely the same general form as some unique examples of Bristol make, which I shall have to describe when writing on those works, from which, however, they differ in ornament and detail, and they are evidently the production of the same artists. They are marked with the usual sign in red. [Illustration: Fig. 714.] In Lord Mount Edgcumbe’s possession, too, is a pair of vases of very similar character (but more nearly resembling Mr. Fry’s specimens of Bristol), on which the Plymouth mark has, at a later period, been added. Many good examples of Plymouth still remain in the hands of families resident in Plymouth and its neighbourhood, and in the cabinets of most collectors. In the Museum of Practical Geology some characteristic examples of Plymouth ware may be seen. Among these are a pair of shell-salts (Fig. 708); a pair of figures, “Europe” and “Asia,” and some other figures; some remarkably good mugs, jugs, and sauce boats; one or two cups and saucers; and other pieces. There are also two plates (one of which is shown on Fig. 715), described as “in earthenware, with thick white enamel, painted,” the one with flowers, and the other “in green, with flowers on the border and crest of the Parker family in the centre. Unmarked.” [Illustration: Fig. 715.] The mark of the Plymouth china is usually painted in red or blue on the bottom of the pieces. No mark has yet, however, come under my notice on the white examples. On the early blue and white the mark appears invariably to be in blue, and somewhat thick and clumsy in its drawing. On the later and more advanced goods it is more neatly drawn in red or blue. It varies a little in form, according to the different “hand” by which it was affixed. The mark is the chemical sign for tin or mercury, ꝝ, and was doubtless chosen by Cookworthy, the chemist, to denote that the materials from which it was made, and which he had discovered, were procured from the stanniferous district of Cornwall. The following are varieties of the mark selected from different specimens:-- [Illustration: Figs. 716 to 724.] On some other examples the sign with the addition of the Bristol mark of the cross beneath it occurs; and on others a number, as if to denote the number of the pattern (or possibly of the workman), occurs. These two marks, the simple sign and the sign with the number, occur on pieces belonging to the same set. [Illustration: M^r W^m Cookworthy’s Factory Plym^o 1770]