INDUSTRIES 



years 1797-1800. The fragments 13 also 

 gave information as to methods of ornamen- 

 tation employed at Bow. Some are decorated 

 in blue with Chinese landscapes, flowers, 

 figures, birds, and branches of willow leaves ; 

 others are portions of services with the 

 favourite decoration of the prunus or may- 

 flower, and there are several perfect moulds 

 for stamping these flowers. The extensive 

 collection includes milkpots, cups, cans, saucers, 

 open-work baskets, octagon plates, knife- 

 handles, cup-handles, lion's-paw feet, and 

 small pots for colour or rouge ; but none of 

 the fragments has any mark, except the name 

 ' Norman,' which is marked in pencil on one 

 of the cups. Some are broken pieces of deco- 

 rated ware, such as sweetmeat dishes, figures 

 of dogs, large bowls, and a man kneeling and 

 supporting a shell with both hands ; of the 

 last-named design a pair of figures is known 

 to exist. Although transfer printing is not 

 found in any of the above pieces, it was 

 adopted both under and over the glaze at an 

 early period in the Bow works. 14 



An undoubted specimen of this ware is an 

 inkstand, now in private possession, painted 

 with the well-known Bow pattern of the 

 prunus, and inscribed on the upper surface 

 'Made at New Canton 1750.' Another 

 similar specimen, of a year later and not so 

 fine, came into the Jermyn Street collection. 

 Of undoubted genuineness is the interesting 

 ' Craft ' bowl in the British Museum already 

 mentioned, with its accompanying memo- 

 randum, dated 1790 : 



This bowl was made at the Bow China Manu- 

 factory at Stratford-le-Bow, Essex, about the year 

 1760, and painted there by me Thomas Craft, my 

 cipher is in the bottom ; it is painted in what we 

 used to call the old Japan taste, a taste at that time 

 much esteemed by the then Duke of Argyle ; there 

 is nearly two pennyweight of gold, about i 5/. I 

 had it in hand, at different times, about three 

 months ; about two weeks' time was bestowed 

 upon it. It could not have been manufactured 

 for less than 4. There is not its similitude. . . . 



Other pieces which may safely be assigned 

 to Bow are a white tureen in the Victoria 

 and Albert Museum, decorated with the 

 prunus pattern in high relief. The ware is 

 mostly of great thickness, but extremely 

 translucent in its thinner parts, through 

 which the transmitted light appears somewhat 

 yellowish. A dessert dish in the same museum 

 is in the form of a scallop shell. The centre 



" These are illustrated by Chaffers, op. cit. 

 909-1 i . 



14 This interesting ' find ' is now in the Victoria 

 and Albert Museum. 



is decorated with a quail and wheatsheaf pat- 

 tern, often mentioned as the ' partridge pattern ' 

 in the note-books of John Bowcock of Bow. 

 Among other examples in this museum are 

 vases, sauce-boats, knife-handles, an inkstand, 

 and several figures. Many undoubted speci- 

 mens of Bow ware, comprising statuettes, 

 plates, vases, and other pieces richly orna- 

 mented, are contained in the Schreiber collec- 

 tion, some of which are figured by Solon, 16 

 and by Burton and Bemrose in their works al- 

 ready quoted. The figures of H. Woodward 

 as 'a fine gentleman,' and Kitty Clive as Mrs. 

 Riot, though often attributed to Bow, were 

 certainly made at Chelsea ; but the fine figure 

 of Britannia with a medallion of George II is 

 considered to have been made at Bow. 



Many of the Bow figures and groups were 

 made for use, and have at their back near the 

 base a square hole for holding a metal stem to 

 support branches for candlesticks ; sometimes 

 there is a round hole beneath the base for 

 riveting the metal stem. This feature is 

 peculiar to the Bow pottery, and serves to 

 distinguish it from that of Chelsea. The 

 earliest productions at Bow were decorated 

 (like Thomas Craft's bowl) in the Japanese 

 style, which suited the fashionable taste of 

 the day; but since both the Bow and Chelsea 

 factories borrowed from Oriental and Conti- 

 nental sources, they no doubt also copied 

 favourite subjects and patterns from each 

 other. This makes it the more difficult to 

 determine with certainty the products of each 

 factory. The prunus decoration has already 

 been referred to ; the blue and white 

 porcelain is also typical, and was largely 

 employed for the more useful articles. A 

 little teapot in the British Museum, with its 

 embossed vine ornament in white, and the 

 angler's rod in a delicate greyish blue, is 

 marked T F, and appears to have been the 

 work of Thomas Frye. The ' sprigged ' 

 pieces so frequently mentioned in Bowcock's 

 memoranda are generally white, decorated 

 with modelled ornaments separately made in 

 a mould and applied to the surface of the 

 ware whilst it was in a clay state. The 

 earlier figures are seldom more than 4 or 5 in. 

 high, and are placed on simple flat stands ; but 

 these were soon replaced by more elaborate 

 stands designed in the favourite rococo style 

 of the period. The largest figure supposed 

 to have been made at Bow is the 'Farnese 

 Flora,' 1 8^ in. high, in the Schreiber collec- 

 tion at South Kensington, which is said to 

 have been modelled by John Bacon. In the 

 British Museum are some examples of Chinese 



15 Old Engl. Porcelain (1903), 32, 34, 40. 



149 



