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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



body of great hardness, density, and toughness, capable of with- 

 standing extreme changes of temperature, he first seriously began 

 the manufacture of the ware for the market in the year 1S25. The 

 old water-works, at the northwest corner of Schuylkill-Second 

 (Twenty-first) and Chestnut Streets, were obtained from the city, 

 where the necessary glazing and enameling kilns, mills, etc., were 

 erected. His first attempts were fraught with many difliculties. 

 While the body and glaze of the earlier productions were good^ 

 the workmanship and decoration were inferior. The decoration 

 consisted generally of landscapes painted roughly in sepia or 

 brown. 



In 1828 Thomas Hulme was admitted to the business, but re- 

 tired in about one year. During this period great improvement 

 was made in decoration, the best productions being painted with 

 floral designs in natural colors. A number of pitchers made dur- 

 ing that period are marked " Tucker & Hulme, China Manufact- 

 urers, Philadelphia, 1838," the only pieces from this factory known 

 to have been signed. 



Fig. 6. 



-Tucker Creamer. 



ration. 



Sepia deco- 



FiG. 7.— Hemphill Vase. (Collection of Hon. 

 James T. Mitchell.) 



William Ellis Tucker died in August, 1832, but previous to this 

 Judge Joseph Hemphill had put some money in the enterprise, 

 and continued to carry on the business after his partner's death. 



Messrs. Tucker & Hemphill purchased the property at the 

 southwest corner of Schuylkill - Sixth (now Seventeenth) and 

 Chestnut Streets, where they erected store-houses and three 

 kilns, and greatly increased the producing capacity of the fac- 

 tory. In 1832 they appealed to Congress for the passage of a 

 tariff law which would afford them protection from foreign com- 

 petition. 



Mr. Thomas Tucker superintended the business after the de- 

 cease of his brother, which was carried on in the name of Judge 

 Hemphill for about three years, but in 1835 the latter entered 



