It was not until the good Père d'Entrecolles introduced into this country the learning of that ancient Empire of China, in the mysteries of the ceramic art, that our own ideas became enlarged and elevated above the improvements made in our potteries. The Père, being a resident in a district distinguished for its porcelain manufactories, sent samples to his own country (A.D. 1727, 1729,) with information as to the substances employed at King-te-Chin, for which kilns affording greater heat and suitable for firing the differently-coloured enamels were employed. Hard paste was made at Plymouth, Bristol and Lowestoft, and the soft paste at Chelsea, Bow, Derby, Nantgarw, Liverpool, Pinxton, Swansea, Rockingham, Worcester, Shropshire and Staffordshire; felspar being superadded in the latter two manufactories. The soft paste is produced from an alkaline flux, combining chalk, bone-ash, sand or gypsum. STRATFORD-LE-BOW. At Stratford-le-Bow (called "New Canton") soft-paste china was produced in the old pottery works, believed to have been established in 1730, though little is known of them till 1744, when Edward Heylin and Thomas Frye, a painter, took out the first patent, and a second in 1749. The marks attributed to these works are as here illustrated. [Illustration] The glaze on the Bow ware was very brilliant, but sometimes erred in point of thickness. The blue china was generally decorated with birds, flowers, figures and Chinese landscapes. A pattern of hawthorn was a favourite, consisting of two sprigs united. The bow and arrow mark is usually found on small objects, and the dagger and anchor, with a crescent at times, appears on figures. A small blue crescent, with the horns turned up, have also been used. The monogram of Thomas Frye, sometimes reversed, identified some figures from the Bow works at a date previous to 1760. Many variations of Frye's signature have been used by the workmen of this factory; too many for the space at disposal in these columns. It was carried on for many years by Messrs. Crowther and Weatherby, who employed some ninety painters, of whom one was Thomas Craft. The Bow paste is very hard and compact, and therefore heavy. But the most delicate ware was also produced; as in cups and saucers, which were like egg-shells in thinness, and of a milky whiteness. Under Thomas Frye the china was brought to great perfection. It was after him we find that the works passed into the hands of Weatherby and Crowther, and were closed by the bankruptcy of the latter in 1763, Weatherby having died the previous year. I may observe that sprigged tea-sets, Dresden sprigs and white bud sprigs--all very popular patterns--were largely produced at Bow, in addition to landscapes and dragon services; also statuettes and groups of figures, vases, etc. CHELSEA PORCELAIN WORKS.