THE EARLY POTTERIES OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 3 



bteing formed. It is, indeed, an occupation of intense interest 

 to examine these links as they appear, and, by following their 

 ramifications back to the most remote time, take up the 

 thread of history, and connect the early efforts of primeval 

 man, with his rude and clumsy vessels of coarse clay, with 

 those of his successors at the present day, with their 

 wondrous and marvellously fine productions in earthenware 

 and porcelain. It is always interesting to trace out the 

 gradual progress of an art, whatever that art may be ; but 

 in the case of pottery that interest is increased an hundred- 

 fold. The art of pot making is essentially a homely one ; its 

 vessels are for the " people," and for every occupation of 

 the people, and therefore tell more of their manners and 

 customs, their occupations and their inner or home life, 

 than anything else does or can. But few things indeed so 

 well and effectively illustrate the progress of a nation or a 

 race as its pottery; and certainly there is nothing that 

 better shows the gradual development of its civilisation, and 

 of its " mind," than does a chronologically arranged series 

 of its fictile productions ; and the following slight sketch of 

 the history of early fictile art in Staffordshire at different 

 periods will be useful in assisting the collector to understand 

 ,the progress and development of that particular manufacture 

 for which it is so " world-famous." 



That pottery has been made in the district from a very 

 early period there can be no doubt, and that in course of time 

 a continuous chain of examples, from the most remote ages 

 down to the present time, might with care and attention be 

 still got together, is equally certain. This collection would 

 be of great advantage to the district, and not only to it but 

 to the country at large : and it is much to be hoped that in 

 the new Wedgwood Institute and Museum, at Burslem, this 

 suggestion may be fully carried out. 



The four great divisions into which the history of the 

 Ceramic Art of this country is to be divided (leaving out the 

 modern manufactures) are, of course, those of the Celtic or 

 ancient British, the Romano-British, the Anglo-Saxon, and 



B 2 



