A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



porcelain painted at Bow. The use of colours 

 in enamelling sometimes serves to distinguish 

 Bow ware from that of Chelsea ; the enamel- 

 ling of the latter was artistically superior, and 

 introduced the rich blue, pea-green, and tur- 

 quoise, which were not employed at Bow 

 with equal effect. Three distinctive colours 

 were in use at Bow, but not with satisfactory 

 result. These were an enamel sealing-wax 

 red, badly compounded and wanting in gloss ; 

 a cold opaque enamel blue, often used for 

 touching up parts of dresses ; and a gold 

 purple, which in thin washes becomes of a 

 pale mauve-pink hue, and is far from pleasant. 

 Other points of difference between the pro- 

 ducts of the two factories are given by 

 Burton. 16 



The use of printing for decorative purposes 

 was largely practised at Bow. There seems 

 no foundation for the statement that pieces 

 were sent to Liverpool to be printed by Sadler 

 and Green. The great majority of specimens 

 consist of table ware with houses and groups 

 of figures printed in outline and washed in 

 with strong enamel colours purple, blue, 

 yellow, and green. The large figure of 

 Britannia in the British Museum has a robe 

 and stand decorated in printed outline care- 

 fully touched in with colour. 



Many marks have been attributed to Bow, 

 of which a list, figured and described, is given 

 by Chaffers. 17 The commonest is the anchor 

 and dagger in red enamel ; the italic capital B 

 is rarely found. The shell sweetmeat stands 

 are rarely marked. The monogram of Thomas 

 Frye, in capitals, sometimes in italic and some- 

 times reversed, occurs on some pieces. These 

 must be attributed to an early period of the 

 Bow works, and were probably painted by 

 Thomas Frye himself. 



CHELSEA PORCELAIN 



The founder of the Chelsea pottery and the 

 date of its origin cannot be traced. The 

 earliest information is derived from a white 

 cream jug supported by two goats and having 

 a bee in its natural size placed on the front. 

 Several specimens exist which bear the maker's 

 mark, a triangle, scratched in the clay, and 

 one of them is inscribed in incised cursive 

 characters 'Chelsea 1745.' The workman- 

 ship of these pieces is of high merit, and leads 

 to the conclusion that the factory had been 

 established for some time, or that (as has been 

 said ] ) the pieces were the production of some 

 French workmen brought over from the 



" Hut. of Engl. Porcelain, 73. 



" Marks and Monograms (1900), 903-7. 



1 Burton, Hut. of Engl. Porcelain (1902), 9. 



factories of St. Cloud or Chantilly. Some 

 curious information as to the early history of 

 the enterprise is furnished by Simeon Shaw : * 



Carlos Simpson, sixty-three years of age, 1817, 

 was born at Chelsea ; to which place his father, 

 Aaron Simpson, went in 1747, along with Thomas 

 Lawton, slip maker, Samuel Parr, turner, Richard 

 Meir, fireman, and John Astbury, painter, all of 

 Hot Lane ; Carlos Wedgwood, of the Stocks, a 

 good thrower ; Thomas Ward and several others, 

 of Burslem, to work at the Chelsea china manu- 

 factory. They soon ascertained that they were 

 the principal workmen, on whose exertions all the 

 excellence of the porcelain must depend, they then 

 resolved to commence business on their own 

 account at Chelsea, and were in some degree 

 successful ; but at length, owing to disagreement 

 among themselves, they abandoned it and returned 

 to Burslem. 



No other information exists in support of 

 this statement or concerning the factory said to 

 have been set up by the Burslem workmen. 

 R. Campbell, 3 writing in 1 747, says : ' Of late 

 we have made some attempts to make porce- 

 lain or china-ware after the manner it is 

 done in China and Dresden ; there is a house 

 at Greenwich and another at Chelsea where 

 the undertakers have been for some time 

 trying to imitate that beautiful manufacture.' 

 The probability that the Chelsea industry was 

 at the first in the hands of French workmen 

 is confirmed by information gathered by 

 Mr. J. E. Nightingale * from newspapers of the 

 period. It also appears, from the mention of a 

 French chapel in an advertisement of property, 

 that a French colony existed at Chelsea. In 

 the London Evening Post of 19 December 



1 749 a freehold messuage is advertised to be 

 sold in ' Great China Row, Chelsea,' inquiries 

 to be made of Mr. Brown ' over against the 

 French Chapel in Chelsea.' 



From advertisements which appeared in 



1 750 it appears that the works had then existed 

 for some time. The General Advertiser of 

 4 December 1750 announces a sale by auction 

 of a ' Closet of fine Old Japan China ' in 

 which is included ' curious Dresden and 

 Chelsea figures.' This is the first allusion 

 which Mr. Nightingale has found to any 

 English porcelain in an auction sale. In the 

 same year rival advertisements appeared of the 

 old and new proprietors of the Chelsea factory. 

 The Daily Advertiser of 15 May 1750 con- 

 tains the following : 



Chelsea Porcelaine. The Publick is hereby in- 

 formed that the Sale- Warehouse at the Manufactory 



' Hiit. of Staffs. Potteries (1829), 167. 

 ' The London Tradesman (ed. 3), 186. 

 4 Contributions towards the Hist, of Early Engt 

 Porcelain (1881), 5 et seq. 



150 



