212 Sir Henry Doulton [Feb. 17, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, February 17, 1888. 



William Huggins, Esq. D.C.L. LL.D. F.E.S. Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



Sir Henby Doulton, M.B.I. 



Some Developments of English Pottery during the last fifty years. 



The opportunity for the efforts of the potters of each succeeding age 

 lies in the fact that the manufacture is based on conditions which arc 

 constantly varying, and sometimes even startling in their unexpected 

 results. The material with which the potter deals is as varied as are 

 the localities from whence it is taken, and as infinitely diversified as 

 are the workers' tastes and ingenuity. And further, the final and 

 essential process, the subjection to fire, " which tries every man's 

 work of what sort it is," and especially tries the potter's work, is 

 hidden from view, and under this condition the last stages of the 

 work may be heightened in effect or hopelessly marred. 



The progress of the art of pottery affords many striking instances 

 of the laws of growth, perfection, and decay. As schools of philosophy, 

 poetry, and painting are subject to rise, culmination, decline and fall, 

 so is the potter's art. It is, however, a striking fact, that, with 

 hardly any exception, only those potters have been able to maintain a 

 long-lived career who have relied for their staple manufacture on 

 utilitarian rather than decorative wares. A proportion of the useful 

 seems to be an essential condition of any degree of permanence. 



A school of artistic pottery is short-lived, firstly, because it is 

 dependent upon individual taste and culture, and, secondly, because 

 it is not remunerative. Wedgwood, Worcester, and Minton have 

 undoubtedly maintained their continuous production through so long 

 a period by careful attention to the requirements of domestic as well 

 as ornamental pottery. 



I propose, in the limited time at my disposal this evening, to 

 indicate the progress of the last fifty years in both useful and 

 artistic pottery, and the happy blending of both qualities in some 

 directions. 



Professor Church, in his masterly work on English pottery, says, 

 " About the year 1790, the careful, elegant, and rich wares which had 

 held their own for nearly half a century, were gradually displaced by 

 more gorgeous productions, covered with gilding, and possessing even 

 less freedom and spontaneity than the works of Chelsea and Etruria, 



