242 Porcelain and Earthenware. 



In 1690 when the ware was of the coarsest kind, two brothers from 

 Holland by the name of Ellers, settled in Burslem, in the heart of 

 the potteries, and improved and extended the works, which were 

 then in operation. They prosecuted their enterprise with great suc- 

 cess ; but it was enveloped in such total mystery, that the jealousy 

 and enmity of the inhabitants, compelled them to leave the country* 

 With them the art would have been lost, had not a man by the name 

 of Astbury, discovered it by a singular stratagem. He feigned him- 

 self to be of weak intellect, and obtained employment in the works, 

 where he submitted to the drudgery, and contumely heaped upon him 

 for his supposed imbecility. He thus acquired a knowledge of all 

 that was done in the manufactory, and made models of all the tools, 

 unsuspected by his employers. It was the same man, who discov- 

 ered the use of calcined flint, as an ingredient for porcelain. In trav- 

 elling to London, he saw a hostler, reducing some burnt flint to an 

 impalpable powder, as a remedy for the eye of a horse. It immedi- 

 ately occurred to him, that this brilliant white powder, might form an 

 excellent ingredient with the clay used by his craft, to improve the 

 body and color of his ware. It succeeded beyond his hope, and 

 originated the white Staffordshire ware. Thus in science and art, 

 the acute observer turns the merest accident into a resource for dis- 

 coveries, and improvements. Thus the fall of an apple, suggested 

 the law of gravitation. 



But it was not until 1763 that the most important improvements 

 were made in English pottery, by Mr. Josiah Wedgewood. The 

 singular merits of the Burslem artist, and his beginning improve- 

 ments, were almost lost sight of in the blaze of Mr. Wedgewood's 

 fame. Such were the advances made by his invention, skill, taste, 

 liberality and enterprise, that he soon assembled around him the 

 most celebrated artists and modellers. He engaged the early tal- 

 ents of Flaxman, and the pencil of Webber, and his wares obtained 

 the patronage of the royal family and the nobility, throughout the 

 kingdom. His works became so extensive, and emulation and in- 

 dustry were kindled to such a degree, that the district called the 

 Potteries, consisting of some scattered villages, over an area six miles 

 by ten, has become a dense population, resembling a single town, 

 forming in the sterile clay vallies of Staffordshire, a new Etruria. 

 Mr. Wedgewood was a scholar and philosopher, and his success 

 shews the value of science to the arts. By chemical analyses and 

 experiments, he ascertained the due proportions of his material 



