Porcelain and Earthenware. 241 



Berlin ; and that which belongs to the king of France at Sevres. 

 The second Frederick of Prussia conceived so high an opinion of 

 the works at Dresden, that when he conquered Saxony, he took all 

 the best workmen, and conveyed them to his own pottery at Berlin.* 

 Five hundred men have constant employment at those works, which 

 are carried on " for his Majesty's private account, with success and 

 good taste. "f The Elector of Saxony " valued himself" on the per- 

 fection, to which the manufacture had been carried in his dominions. 

 "There are porcelain figures, in his cabinet at Dresden," says Mr. 

 Hanway, "of wolves, leopards, bears, he. as large as life, with a 

 prodigious collection of birds, and a curious variety of flowers." When 

 he became king of Poland, he bartered a whole regiment of dragoons 

 with the king of Prussia, for forty eight large vases of Chinese por- 

 celain.J 



It is probable, that Holland received the art of making glazed 

 earthenware from Italy. The Venetians, Genoese, and Florentines, 

 had commercial dealings with the cities of Antwerp and the low- 

 countries. The potters of Holland, who made the best tobacco pipes, 

 in due time, acquired the knowledge of glazed ware, and in the town 

 of Delft, were fabricated the tiles, known as Dutch tiles, and the ta- 

 ble service called' Delft ware. The Dutch fell short of the Italian 

 potters, in the style of ornamenting their products, which was partly 

 owing to their imitation of oriental patterns of blue and white, which 

 they imported in large quantities from China and Japan. It is not 

 more than 200 years, since some Dutch potters went over to Eng- 

 land, and established themselves in Lambeth ; and by degrees assem- 

 bled a colony in that village, consisting of twenty manufactories, from 

 which they supplied London, and other parts of the country with 

 tiles, and glazed Delft ware, for table use. They continued in a 

 flourishing state for more than a century and a half, when the Staf- 

 fordshire potters, by their improved wares, took possession of the 

 market, and the Delft ware went almost out of use. 



The Staffordshire potteries comprehend a district of ten miles in 

 extent, where it is believed that earthenware has been made, although 

 of inferior quality, ever since the time of the Romans.^ The great 

 variety of clays upon this tract, rendering it unfit for the purposes of 

 husbandry, together with an inexhaustible supply of coal, are evident- 

 ly the reasons why this district was selected for this manufacture. 





* Wraxall's Mem. t Parke's Essay. X Hanway's Travels. 



§ Plott's History of Staffordshire. 



