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 — John Shaqi
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
_Drinkwater._--Another Delft ware pottery was situated at the bottom
of Duke Street, in a small street which, from that establishment, took
the name which it still retains, of “Pot-House Lane.” These works were
conducted by Mr. George Drinkwater (who was born in the neighbourhood
of Preston), brother to Mr. James Drinkwater, who, in the navy,
acquired considerable riches and honour, and was ancestor of Sir John
Drinkwater. The works were not, however, of very long continuance,
and except they can be authenticated by evidence of descent, &c., the
productions cannot be distinguished from those of the other potteries
of the time. In the Mayer museum are some authenticated specimens of
Drinkwater’s make, among which a large plate, twenty-three inches in
diameter, is the most interesting.
* * * * *
_Spencer._--Another potwork of a similar kind was established by a
Mr. Thomas Spencer, at the bottom of Richmond Row. These works were,
however, carried on only for a few years, when Mr. Spencer removed to
the “Moss Pottery,” near Prescot, where he continued to make coarse red
ware for common use.
[Illustration: Fig. 20.]
* * * * *
_Chaffers._--One of the most noted men connected with the ceramic art
in Liverpool was Richard Chaffers, who made great advances in that art,
and to whom his native town owed the introduction of the manufacture
of china. He was the son of a shipwright of considerable eminence and
means; was born in Mersey Street, Liverpool, in the year 1731, one year
only after the birth of Josiah Wedgwood; and was apprenticed to Mr.
Alderman Shaw, the Delft ware potter, of whom I have already spoken.
About 1752 he commenced business on his own account, for which purpose
he took, or erected, some small works on the north side, and nearly at
the bottom of Shaw’s Brow, where he began making the ordinary kind of
Delft ware of the period, the same as he had learned to manufacture
during his apprenticeship. These productions he, as well as the other
makers in Liverpool, in great measure exported to what were then our
American colonies, now the United States of America. In the manufacture
of this ordinary blue and white ware--the staple of the trade as it
then existed--Chaffers continued for some years actively employed. From
the Delft ware Chaffers passed on to the manufacture of fine white
earthenware, and produced an excellent body, and an almost faultless
glaze. The rapid strides which Wedgwood was making in the art served
as a strong incentive to Richard Chaffers, and he determined to go on
improving until his productions should equal those of his great rival.
In this, of course, he did not succeed, but he _did_ succeed in making
the pottery of Liverpool better than that of most localities. A dated,
though not very early, example of Chaffers’s make is fortunately in the
Mayer museum and is here engraved (Fig. 20). It is, Mr. Mayer says, “a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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