A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



medallist, and enameller ; he was one of the 

 founders of the Royal Academy, and its first 

 keeper. John Bacon, the famous sculptor, 

 who was in his youth a pupil of Crisp, a 

 modeller of porcelain, is also said to have 

 designed figures and groups for the Bow 

 works. Some of the finest specimens of Bow 

 china have a small ' B ' impressed in the paste 

 below, this being the mark of John Bacon. 

 The best known of these are the male and 

 female cooks. 9 



To obtain a supply of good artists the pro- 

 prietors advertised in newspapers which had a 

 circulation in the Potteries district. The fol- 

 lowing advertisement appeared in November 

 J 753 ' n -^ r;J ' f Birmingham Gazette: 'This 

 is to give notice to all painters in the blue and 

 white potting way and enamellers on china 

 ware, that by applying at the counting-house 

 at the china-house near Bow, they may meet 

 with employment and proper encouragement 

 according to their merit ; likewise painters 

 brought up in the snuff-box way, japanning, 

 fan-painting, &c., may have an opportunity of 

 trial, wherein if they succeed, they shall have 

 due encouragement. N.B. At the same 

 house a person is wanted who can model 

 small figures in clay neatly.' 



The production of the factory was not 

 limited to objects of a highly decorative cha- 

 racter only, but included also vessels for 

 domestic use. The first sale by auction of 

 articles in stock advertised in the Public 

 Advertiser of 17 April 1757 included not 

 only ' services for deserts &c. exquisitely 

 painted in enamel,' but also 'a large assort- 

 ment of the most useful china in lots, for the 

 use of gentlemen's kitchens, private families, 

 taverns, &c.' In the same year (1757) a 

 West-end warehouse was opened, announced 

 thus by the firm : ' For the convenience of 

 the nobility and gentry, their warehouse on 

 the Terrace in St. James's Street is constantly 

 supplied with everything new, where it is sold 

 as at Cornhill, with the real price marked on 

 each piece without abatement.' The new 

 branch did not succeed, and was closed the 

 next year (1758), the entire stock being sold 

 by auction. 



The partnership continued till the death of 

 Weatherby, at his house on Tower Hill, on 

 15 October 1762, and Crowther became bank- 

 rupt in the following year, and is described as 

 'John Crowther, of Cornhill, chinaman.' 

 Three sales of his effects by order of the 

 assignees took place, viz., on 12 March 1764 

 and following days, at the Bow warehouse in 

 Cornhill; on 19 May 1764; and at the great 



W. Burton, op. cit. 72. 



exhibition-room in Spring Gardens on 30 May 

 1764. The last sale consisted 'of a large 

 quantity of the finest porcelain, chosen out of 

 the stock in curious figures, girandoles, and 

 branches for chimney-pieces, finely decorated 

 with figures and flowers, &c., dishes, com- 

 potiers, &c. ; beautiful desserts of the fine old 

 partridge and wheatsheaf patterns, a quantity of 

 knife and fork handles, some neatly mounted, 

 and a variety of other porcelain.' 



Crowther seems to have carried on the 

 business again after his bankruptcy, but it 

 never regained its former prosperity. There 

 are plates of Bow ware marked ' Robert 

 Crowther 1770,' probably made for some 

 relative, and in the London Directory from 

 1770 to 1775 it is stated that John Crowther 

 of the Bow China Works had a warehouse 

 at 28 St. Paul's Churchyard. The business 

 must have dwindled down into insignificance, 

 for in 1776 it was sold for a small sum to 

 William Duesbury, and all the moulds and 

 implements were transferred to Derby. 

 Duesbury had between 1751 and 1753 

 worked in London as an enameller to 

 various firms of potters, including the Bow 

 factory. 10 From a memorandum left by 

 Thomas Craft, 11 an artist at the Bow factory, 

 it appears that Crowther was elected an in- 

 mate of Morden College, Blackheath, where 

 he was still alive in 1790. 



Great difficulties exist in distinguishing 

 specimens of Bow china from the productions 

 of Chelsea and other factories, but towards 

 the end of 1867 a discovery made on the site 

 of the old works brought to light some very 

 useful information as to the characteristics of 

 the ware. During some drainage operations 

 at the match factory of Messrs. Bell & Black 

 at Bell Road, St. Leonard's Street, Bromley- 

 by-Bow, the foundations of one of the kilns 

 were discovered, with a large quantity of 

 ' wasters ' and fragments of broken pottery. 

 The houses close by are still called China 

 Row. Some of these specimens, which came 

 into the possession of Lady Charlotte Schreiber, 

 were chemically tested by Professor A. H. 

 Church, who found that bone-ash was an 

 almost constant ingredient in their composi- 

 tion. 18 This refuted the opinion, until then 

 generally held, that Josiah Spode the younger 

 first introduced the use of bone-ash into the 

 composition of English porcelain about the 



w Marks and Monograms. See extracts from his 

 'work-book' in W. Bemrose, Bow, Chelsea, and 

 Derby Porcelain (1898), 9 et seq. 



11 Printed in W. Chaffers, Marks and Monograms 

 (1908), 892-3. 



" A. H. Church, Engl. Porcelain (1904), 36. 



148 



