The ceramic art of Great Britain from pre-historic times down to the present day, Volume 2 (of 2) : $b being a history of the ancient and modern pottery and porcelain works of the kingdom and of their productions of every classJewitt, Llewellynn Frederick William
History
The ceramic art of Great Britain from pre-historic times down to the present day, Volume 2 (of 2) : $b being a history of the ancient and modern pottery and porcelain works of the kingdom and of their productions of every class
Jewitt, Llewellynn Frederick William
Pottery, British -- History
“About this time Josiah Wedgwood was making a complete
revolution in the art of pottery; and four years after Messrs.
Sadler and Green’s invention was announced to the world,
Wedgwood brought out his celebrated Queen’s ware. Dr. Gagerly
seizing upon the new style of ornamentation invented in
Liverpool, he immediately made arrangements with the proprietors
for decorating his hitherto cream-coloured Queen’s ware by their
process; and accordingly I find him making the plain body at
Burslem, and sending it in that state to Liverpool by waggon,
where it was printed, and again returned to him by the same
conveyance, except in the case of those orders that must go by
sea, fit for the market. This he continued to do until near the
time of his death, when we find by invoices in my possession
that ware was sent to Liverpool and printed by Mr. Guy Green
as late as 1794. A little before this time, his manufactory
at Etruria having been made complete in all other branches of
the art, and the manufacture at Liverpool being much decayed,
he engaged many of the hands formerly employed there: amongst
the indentures is the name of John Pennington, son of James
Pennington, manufacturer of china, dated 1784, to be taught the
art of engraving in aquatint, and thus he was enabled to execute
the printing on his own premises in Staffordshire, thereby
saving the expense of transport to and fro. In proof that Mr.
Wedgwood did this, I may quote a few passages from letters to
his partner, Mr. Bentley, in London. He says:--
“‘1776.--We wrote to Mr. Green in consequence of your letter,
acquainting that a foreign gentleman wanted a series of ware
printed with different landskips, but that he would not confirm
the order without knowing how many different designs of
landskips we could put upon them.’
“Mr. Green’s answer is:--
“‘The patterns for landskips are for every dish a different
landskip view, &c.; about 30 different designs for table, soup,
and dessert plates, and a great variety for various purposes of
tureens, sauce boats, &c.’
“‘1768.--The cards (address) I intend to have engraved in
Liverpool, &c.’
“‘1769.--One crate of printed tea-ware.’
“On the other hand I find letters from Mr. Green to Mr.
Wedgwood:--
“‘1776.--Your Mr. Haywood desires the invoice of a box of
pattern tiles sent some time ago. As I did not intend to make
any charge for them, I have no account of the contents. The
prices I sell them for to the shops are as follows:--For black
printed tile, 5_s._ per dozen; green vase tile, 4_s._ ditto;
green ground, 4_s._ ditto; half tiles for borders, 2_s._ 9_d._
ditto; rose or spotted tiles, 3_s._ 6_d._ ditto, &c.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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