THE EARLY POTTERIES OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 41 



which, by some means, they had discovered existed at this spot. 

 Here they produced remarkably fine and good red ware, of 

 compact and hard texture, good colour, and of very charac- 

 teristic and excellent designs. They were men of much skill 

 and taste, and their productions so closely resemble those of 

 Japan as to be occasionally mistaken for them. An example, 



from the Museum of Practical Geology, is here shown. The 

 Elers, besides the red ware, also produced an exceedingly good 

 Egyptian black, by a mixture of manganese with the clay ; 

 and this was the precursor and origin of the fine black bodies 

 of Josiah Wedgwood and others. " Their extreme precau- 

 tion," says Shaw, " to keep secret their processes, and 

 jealousy lest they might be accidentally witnessed by any 

 purchaser of their wares making them at Bradwell, and 

 conveying them over the fields to Dimsdale, there to be sold, 

 being only two fields distant from the turnpike road, and 

 having some means of communication (believed to be earthen- 

 ware pipes, like those for water) laid in the ground between 

 the two contiguous -farmhouses, to intimate the approach of 

 persons supposed to be intruders caused them to experience 

 considerable and constant annoyance, In vain did they 

 adopt measures for self-protection in regard to their mani- 

 pulations, by employing an idiot to turn the thrower's wheel, 

 and the most ignorant and stupid workmen to perform the 

 laborious operations, and by locking up these persons while 

 at work, and strictly examining each prior to quitting the 



